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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