Tuesday-Wednesday, July 8-9, Condell Park Bible Church/Bible Baptist Church (Condell Park/Prestons)
Jaina and Mattie tag team this update as the first two days of our Holiday Kid’s Club and Youth Rally are in the books!
Tuesday (Jaina): We woke up bright and early and headed over to Condell Park Baptist Church for Holiday Kids Club (which is the equivalent of VBS in the U.S.). The church runs a very organized and exciting kids club, so our job was to simply jump in and help lead the various teams of kids alongside their church members. We guided the kids through games, crafts, morning tea, and the message time. There were about 80 kids that were able to come and enjoy a fun time and hear about God’s instructions for man, the Bible.
After the kids club, we had a quick lunch and then a much needed nap.
In the evening, we drove to Bible Baptist Church, where Mrs. Medina (the pastor’s wife) had made a delicious supper for us. As soon as we finished eating, we prepared for the first youth rally we’ll be holding at their church this week. We began the youth rally by splitting the teens up into teams. As they entered, Christina and Kelina asked them Bible trivia. Then, we taught the teams cheers and had them play a game. We had singing, including a couple of congregationals and a special from our team. Kerri shared her testimony, and Josh preached a message contrasting the wickedness of Rehoboam and the righteousness of Daniel. The message ended with a joint salvation invitation from both Josh and Pastor Medina. Praise the Lord, three teens accepted Jesus as Savior!
It was a good day of ministry and rest, and Lord willing, He will use our investment in the lives of these kids and teens to point them to Christ.
Wednesday (Mattie): Today is 2 weeks-ish (the time difference is throwing me off) since we left LA to head to Australia. These past two weeks have been packed full of opportunities and ministries.
Today, we had our 2nd day of the Condell Park Holiday Kids Club. It was encouraging to see the improvement in terms of enthusiasm, participation, and attention for both us and the kiddos. I personally had the opportunity to have some good conversation with 3 kids that were very averse to the club yesterday, and I’m excited to say that they too, are now excited.
After the club, we took the train into the heart of Sydney to do some walking around and sightseeing during our break between the Holiday Kids Club and the Youth Rally.
Finally, we ended the day with the second day of our Youth Rally at Bible Baptist Church. I’m pleased to say we had at least 5 new teens come tonight. It was an amazing night filled with fun, food, but most importantly, the Holy Spirit. Jaina and Christina ran some… unique… games (I’m lookin at you “pass the banana”), Ben led some really nice and applicable songs, I gave my testimony, and Andrew preached a genuinely applicable and personal message on wisdom.
Overall, praise the Lord for a successful day and praying for a good genuine rest tonight!!
