The weather treated us kindly and there was a great time had by all ages at Upton Country Park on Sunday 28th June. There was food, games and great company as the church family enjoyed a day out.
More photos to follow!
The next day out? Same place, same time Sunday 26th July
Croquet the South African way!
They don't play this in Crete...
Dreaming of a career as an American baseball star...
The Amano Revolving Door
There isn’t a revolving door anywhere on the site of Amano School, it just feels that way some times! Take this Sunday, 28th June. The Amano Family Service, held approximately monthly, was held in the Dormitory and we had a special guest speaker, David Foster. David and his wife Pauline arrived at Amano just a couple of days before for a visit but they were already well known to many people. They served in Zambia for twenty-nine years and David was the headmaster at Sakeji School. The links between Amano and Sakeji are very strong, with such luminaries as Philip Grove among the ex-Sakeji pupils and our Head Teacher Hilary Millard having taught there as well.
In the congregation on Sunday was another ex-Sakeji pupil, Jean-luc Hinaut, now serving the Lord in establishing a mission station up near the Congo border in the Luapula area. Jean-luc and his wife Rita have previously served in the Congo ministering to refugees and were made refugees themselves.
Our group photograph shows (from right to left) David Foster, Jean-luc, Pauline Foster and Matt MacDiarmid. How did Matt get in there, and a single shot of him with his trademark guitar as well? It’s the revolving door again! Matt has been at Amano for almost a year and sadly his time is almost up. David is an elder at Matt’s home church and during the Family Service he announced that part of the mission he and his wife had undertaken in coming to Zambia is to make sure Matt gets back home! The Fosters are booked on the same flight as Matt out of Lusaka on 16th July and David told us all that Matt is greatly missed by family and friends back home. We will be updating this blog in the near future with a feature on Matt; for now suffice it to say that while we cannot for a moment begrudge Matt’s family the joy of his return, we too will greatly miss him.
Perhaps Matt’s church and family could get a revolving door of their own so he could soon come back? Just the man to fit it would be Roger Berry. Roger returns to his home on Guernsey on Wednesday 1st July. Roger is apparently known as a very hard worker who deals with difficult situations and gets results. His few weeks at Amano this time have more than justified the reputation. The new dining room/hall floor has been laid under his expert supervision. Practically every day Roger was first on site at around 0630 and often last to leave. His ‘hands-on’ approach coupled with his gentle but firm control of the project encouraged the Zambian workforce to turn out a really high quality job.
Amano’s ‘revolving door’ brings the joy of old and new friends and the sadness of parting. It reminds us of the Lord’s goodness in sending people who enhance the life of Amano in many ways and makes us long for the day when the Lord Jesus Christ returns and the people of God will be together forever, never again to experience the sorrow of separation of any kind
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Listen to this sermon (or download – right click here and ‘Save as’):
Notes on sermon preached 28 June 2009: “The Church – a Mission Community”
A couple of weeks ago we considered what church is all about. We considered four aspects of church: a building (the people of God), a family, a body and a mission community. Today we explore further the idea of church as a mission community by asking three questions:
Our mission is defined in John 20 v 21 “As the Father sent me , I am sending you”. It is re-stated in different words in the gospels and Acts: Make disciples (Matthew 28 v 19,20),Preach the gospel (Mark 16v.15),Be Jesus’ witnesses (Acts 1 v 8). This is enlarged upon in 2 Corinthians 5:
“God…reconciled us to himself to Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation….we are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God was making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf. Be reconciled to God”.
Our mission therefore is to be the means by which God spreads his message of reconciliation throughout the world
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only son, so that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3 v 16)
This famous verse from John’s gospel describes the Father sending the Son, the deliverance he has gained for us and the prospect of eternal life that we have. We therefore need to understand that:
Both heaven and hell are realities and without them our Christianity is in danger of becoming simply a way to have a better life. There is a reality of eternal torment from which believers are delivered (hell), and eternal and boundless joy which believers look forward to(heaven). We “sell short” the gospel if we understate either of these
It is one thing to understand our mission and to embrace our message, but we need to have a plan to communicate it to a dying world. The following may help
Contact – we have to be in contact with unbelievers in order to share our lives with them. Where do you touch the world?
Connection – we have to find a connection with unbelievers if we are to communicate with them
Community – we have a ready made community to introduce people into, the local church, the family of God.
Christ – a goal must always be to present Christ. Friendship, food and coffee all have their place – but if someone is to be saved they have to respond to Christ.
Confrontation – there is a point at which confrontation is inevitable. The gospel challenges and confronts people – are we prepared to be the instruments for that?
Conversion – only an encounter with God and a new birth will ultimately change people
Church – all believers become a part of the church. There is no place for the lone ranger believer
Commission – the new Christian then becomes a part of the solution for the rest of the world.
Notes on sermon preached 14 June 2009: “What’s all this about the church?”
All over the world, millions of Christians are “doing” church, in many different ways. How should we best understand what church is all about? Church is…
Not bricks and mortar, but a spiritual building which is built by God. Jesus said “I will build my church”. (Matthew 16 v 18) Paul said: “you are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit”. (Eph 2 v 19-21) Peter said: “you also like living stones are being built into a spiritual house” (1 Peter 2 v 5) Are we allowing God to build us into a building?
Just as we were born into a natural family, so we have been born again into a spiritual family, with God as our Father and other believers as our brothers and sisters. Jesus view on natural and spiritual family is very revealing (Mark 3 v 31-34).
Families that run well have order, discipline, love and acceptance. They have a home, family members and honoured guests. Are you living as a part of a family?
One of the most famous pictures in the word of God is Paul’s view of the church as a body (I Cor 12 v 12ff). In the church
- the head is Jesus
- every part needs to function for it to work
- every part is connected to every other part
- no one can operate independently
Are you a functioning part of the body?
“From Him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love as each part does its work” Ephesians 4 v 16
• John 20 v 21 “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you”
• Sent to…
Make disciples (Matthew 28 v 19,20)
Peach the gospel (Mark 16v.15)
Be Jesus’ witnesses (Acts 1 v 8 )
Do what Jesus did…and greater things! (John 14 v.12).
Jesus has said that we may rightly expect that God will intervene in every area of our lives., but that the greatest work we can be involved in is to preach the gospel, see people born again and delivered from darkness into light for eternity. Are we living as a mission community for Jesus?
1. Consider the three pictures used for the church here – a building, a family and a body. What does each picture tell us about how we should live as a part of the church?
2. Are there any other pictures in the Bible used to describe the church?
3. What is our mission as a church?
4. What did Jesus mean when he said that anyone who believed in him would do what he did? (John 14 v 12)
5. What did Jesus mean when he said that we would do greater things than he did? (John 14 v 12)
