new blog site

I have decided to restructure the broken hill cornerstone blog and in doing so have changed the blog site to http://blog.cornerstone.edu.au/brokenhill

All the old posts can be found there too.

May

May. Already. Things have gone really quickly. We have started to settle into a routine. Work does take up a fair bit of time for all of us, but thankfully we have good jobs with the flexibility that we need. We do seem to be working well together, but we are very different. I see this as a strength though as we come at things from different angles and meet different people.

I think we are beginning to connect with people and are seeing little opportunities present themselves in the lives of people around us. This takes time, but we are out there in the community rubbing shoulders with people. Pray for us to be ready to respond to the things that God draws our attention to.

I will be heading down to near Bendigo for our directors retreat at the end of the week. Then I will be dropping in to our team in Strathalbyn and seeing how Dave Rosali is going with being the shift boss while Sonja is away overseas. I will also be dropping in on some schools in and around Adelaide to talk to them about the leadership camp that we will be running for selected students in August. Pray that this goes well.

Broncos has begun. Numbers were a bit low for the first one, but it is good to begin.

Scripture is going well at North and Central schools. It is great to be able to present the message clearly and to do it the context of warm and positive relationships with the students.

Gatherings Update

We've been continuing these 'gatherings' in the park for a while now. As Mark said, we do so every second Sunday. 

They've been a really good time. Generally, you'll see the people in the photo in Mark's post (below) there, though we have had a few others join us on occasion.

We've had a little trouble getting it going, but we've decided to meet at the local tennis courts for a match on the alternate Sundays. 

The weather is starting to get cool, but no one has suggested moving indoors (yet). 

Gatherings

This year we have been gathering in the park every second Sunday. The Gatherings are a time to join together with the community and our extended community of friends and alumni. We meet at 10 am and usually listen to a short talk prepared by one of us and then we have a discussion about the passage and a time to share about what God has been saying to us. There may also be a story for the kids and some games. We will sometimes sing a song or two. No set format as yet, but quite enjoyable as it is pretty laid back and we get to share life together.

There is usually some food and coffee or tea, although we haven't gone over the top here to keep the organisation to a minimum.

I imagine that we will keep meeting like this while it is warm. When winter comes we will probably retreat inside away from the cold. The beauty about this is that we can change it according to whether or not it is working rather than being stuck in a set format. At the moment the weather is really good, not too hot and a bit fresh at times as it can be in Autumn. So we will enjoy the park as long as we can.

We find that a lot of our friends don't really enjoy church. While we are not trying to run a church service we are trying to provide a time of fellowship for our friends and a time where we fell comfortable to invite people along. Hopefully some seekers who wouldn't feel comfortable in a church. Some of us are still planning on attending some local churches when we can. I have become more of a part of the minister's fraternal this year as well and am building a stronger connection there.

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Dominos

Thought I would give an update on how the business is going. We started off very, very busy with all the anticipation around town with our opening. Our first week was crazy as we tried to adjust to a new way of doing things. While it has slowed down a bit since then we are still doing double what we were doing at pizza runners.

The actual running of the shop is actually easier as they have good systems in place and have thought through many things. The management is slowly getting there, but there are a lot of things to establish that have been difficult to do because of the busyness of the shop. We are getting there though, and hopefully by the end of January we should be on top of things.

We have taken on a lot of new staff. It is not uncommon for me to walk into the shop and meet employees for the first time.

Can't imagine doing $9000 on a Friday night at Pizza Runners and still have 90% of deliveries under 30 minutes.

The feedback from people has been mixed. Obviously we had some loyal customers who loved what we did. However I have been surprised that there has been much more positive feedback than negative. We have had 8 out of 8 positive mystery shoppers so far, which is an excellent result.

Continue to pray for us that we can set up a very good business that still values people and is able to make a positive impact for the kingdom of God.

Committed Company 2009

Hi everyone,

Well some more big changes for us. Next year we will become a committed company, so we will not be taking any students. This is a one year plan at the moment, although could be 2. Then we will begin taking students again.

Personally I am really looking forward to it as it will allow us to build a base of mission and give us the time to do a lot of the more missional things that we haven't had time to do running a first year centre. It will also allow me to build on some of the connections that we have, especially in South Australia. Perhaps you may have some ideas of things we may be able to do to build contact with you and others next year.

IN terms of what it is going to look like, well that is a bit up in the air. All of us will need to find a bit more work (although some of us already have). In terms of mission we want to take some time to think through this, so please keep us in your prayers.

Love to hear some feedback. Feel free to come and stay for a week as well, or even longer if you have handyman skills. We do plan to do some renovations next year and could do with some skilled help.

Its the end of PRBH!

This week is a significant week for Broken Hill and also for our centre. It is the final week of Pizza Runners, a business which has been responsible for financing the centre here, and providing great pizza to the town. Many lessons in discipleship, life and what can really go on a pizza have been learned by staff and students for close to 20 years in this shop.

Next Thursday we open our new venture, Dominos Pizza , Broken Hill. This new business will take the place of Pizza Runners. We have a very busy time coming up as we open!!

Please join with us in praying for courage, energy and enthusiasm as we take this step.