Your Local Independent - The Hastings and The Macleay
Thursday 24 March, 2016
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All the Good stuff in our Community
Special guest at Salvos services YOU are more than welcome to join us at The Salvation Army over the Easter Weekend to contemplate Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross on Good Friday and celebrate that He rose victorious on Easter Sunday. Our special guest for the weekend is Major Ray Proud, a Salvation Officer of many years’ experience. Ray is a gifted preacher and communicator who communicates the message of the cross and resurrection with clarity. Worship will be both contemplative on Good Friday and lively on Easter Sunday and feature both contemporary and traditional worship music. Opportunity will also be given for prayer
and reflection. If you would prefer, we are also holding our regular Easter Sunday concert where the band, songsters (choir) and timbrels will all participate. Time will also be used to once again reflect on why we pause over Eater to remember events that occurred 2000 years ago and the ongoing reasons why we celebrate. You are welcome to join us at any of these gatherings across the Easter weekend at 110 Lord St, Port Macquarie. May Easter 2016 be a holy and blessed time for you and your family. - Majors Alison & Brett Gallagher
But we’ve just had Christmas SO, who ordered Easter so close to the beginning of the year? I still had my Christmas tree up when I purchased our first packet of Easter buns! Ok, I admit, I was extremely slow at taking down my tree because it was so pretty. No, that’s not really it. It stayed up for most of January because it required too much effort to pack away! But besides that, Easter has sprung on us quite early and it’s been a bit manic at Coastside Church trying to get our planning done for Easter 2016 while getting back into the swing of things at the beginning of the year! But we are excited to announce, that once again, we have thought hard, planned hard and worked hard to make Easter a special weekend. It’s a favourite date on the Coastside calendar and again we will be doing two services – one on Good Friday
evening March 25 at 7pm and Easter Sunday morning March 27 at 10am. Our theme for Easter this year is ‘The Moment’ and we don’t want to give too much away, but as usual they will be epic services full of inspiration, truth, fun, multimedia, music, Easter eggs, hot cross buns and an awesome celebration of the incredible gift that Jesus gave us and the real meaning of Easter. And like every weekend, Coastside Church is a church for people who don’t usually go to church and is open to everyone of any age. So we look forward to seeing you at ‘The Moment’ and celebrating Easter with us all! Write it in your diaries! - Sheree Minturn (Lead Pastor Coastside Church)
God a part of everyday life I NEVER believed in God growing up and a lot of my family weren’t church-goers or outspoken in their faith in God. I lived out of home and supported myself for most of my adolescence, so the thought of relying on God was completely foreign to me. After I finished school, I began to wonder what to do with my life, and even though I was officially a free ‘adult’, I felt completely clueless and overwhelmed with decisions regarding my future. I moved to Port Macquarie from the Gold Coast at the start of 2015 and it was in this year that I started to become curious and knew in my heart there was something more out there, something bigger than all of us. I was invited to come along to bible study and with great reluctance I agreed to start going. I remember thinking that the stories they were telling were completely bizarre, but for some reason I kept going each week, eager to learn more. I met some of the previous Youth for Christ (YFC) interns through church, and their stories and passions really inspired me to learn more about YFC and inspired me to take on the internship for this year.
Church history of great leaders ON Sunday, February 28, 2016, Archdeacon John West was farewelled at St Thomas’ Anglican Church, completing seven years as leader of Port Macquarie’s Anglican Church. John was farewelled by a packed church and there were some great tributes given at a lunch following the service. On Sunday, February 24, 1828, the Reverend John Cross preached his first sermon in the newly constructed St Thomas’ Church of England Church. The building had been constructed with the laying of 365,100 convict-made bricks. John Cross came from Bristol in England, which was the hub of the new Whitfield/Wesleyan revival that was about to sweep England and the eastern states of America. Reverend John Cross and his Welsh-born wife, Ann, arrived in Port Macquarie on the barque ‘Lucy Anne’ on February 18, 1828. Within six days the Reverend Cross preached his first sermon in the church. He chose as his bible text, a verse from Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians: “Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distress for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:10) Thus began a remarkable ministry in Port Macquarie and the Hastings, Wilson, Macleay and Manning River districts until other Church of England Churches were established in Kempsey and Taree. Cross became known as ‘Parson Cross’ as a
Way back when With Pastor, Kerry Medway
term of endearment and God used him to bring many locals to faith in Jesus Christ. John Cross struggled in his 30 years of ministry in the penal colony of Port Macquarie. He had an evangelical passion to see souls saved, but found it hard to juggle ministering to the convicts and locals and following the rigid rules of the military. His heart broke seeing convicts flogged before being shuffled into Church. One of the highlights of his ministry was in 1836 when the settlement was visited by two Quakers, James Backhouse and George Washington Walker, from England. They preached the Gospel of Jesus to the convicts. As well as speaking about Jesus Christ in the local gaol. They also spoke with convict road parties in the Wilson River area. The Reverend Cross was thrilled to see many of these wounded and broken people turn to Christ. (Sources for this article include the parish records of St Thomas’ and the book ‘Port Macquarie – A History to 1850’; edited by Frank Rogers and published by the Hastings District Historical Society in 1982.)
150th Anniversary
of the hanging of teenage bushranger John Dunn, who rode with the Ben Hall bushranging gang. Dunn was hanged at Darlinghurst Gaol on 19th March 1866. He was only 19.
Kerry is available to share John Dunn’s story at clubs, community groups, churches, schools, etc. I learn more about God each and every day and although it’s only been a year, I couldn’t picture my life without Jesus. - Jylan Jurica (YFC Intern)
AND read this tragic true story—books available at KOORONG Bookshop, 141 Gordon St, Port Macquarie
or from www.KerryMedway.org
Via PayPal or from P.O. Box 954, Port Macquarie..2444. Phone 0423663301
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Friday Night Youth
Youth IDMinistry 6.30 - 8.30pm
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BORN FOR MORE. 1 1 M u m f o r d S t , P o r t M a c q u a r i e *Air-conditioned premises p h o n e : 6 5 8 3 8 9 1 1
25TH + 27TH MARCH 2016