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News

August 21, 2011 [MEGA ALIVE with Pr Price & Avondale's 'The Promise']

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What a wonderful time we shared together on the 20th of August!  We had a wonderful Sabbath with powerful messages from Pr Price and a baptism of 2 very special young people - followed by an uplifting afternoon of music and testimony!  The Promise from Avondale joined us which was especially exciting seeing as they have been promising to come since 2009 and Pr Price also featured in the program - telling the story of how God worked through a Try Jesus lead card to lead whole families into the 3 angels messages!  It was all truly such a blessing.  The program was opened in prayer by Darren and Irene, and our memory verse was taught to us by Ellie from Lismore!  We love having inter state guests at ALIVE!  Visitors joined us from Wollongong and we had a great time.  Also Seth played a touching melody on his violin as well. We praise God for the blessings of this high Sabbath - and we look forward to the next MEGA ALIVE program too.  (This one was the first one we have had since 2009!)  Till then, may God bless you and keep you and make His face to shine upon you and give you peace. :)

August 7, 2011 [Special ALIVE with Sandra Entermann & Jared French]

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Special ALIVE's have been a new development this year - and have been great blessings to us all!  Featuring Jared French, who has been serving the Lord in the line of literature evangelism for 11 + years and Sandra Entermann, who serves the Lord in music ministry around the world - we were blessed with a special treat indeed.  Sandra sang some beautiful melodies - a favourite was "The Warrior is a Child" and Jared inspired us with his stories of how the Lord is working through literature in spreading the gospel to those who might otherwise never take the time to come to a church.  As Jared put it, books like The Great Controversy are like 'time bombs' just waiting to be picked up and read...and if it's in someones hands, the Holy Spirit will lead them to open it when the time is right.  All in all we were totally inspired by what both these guests had to share and were particularly touched by the closing song sung by Marleta, Sanja and Sandra, "It Is Well."  Till next time, may God bless you always in all ways!  :)

June 19, 2011

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June 18 was another alive ALIVE program!  And if you missed it you really did miss out :)  Although not as packed as some programs, this one had all the trappings of a wholesome, enjoyable afternoon together.  We had a rousing song service led by Wayne and his team, followed by a welcome from the unforgettable but totally enjoyable Sandy and James!  Jeanelle and Maria Albert then dedicated our program in prayer.  Demo and Clayton blessed us with musical items during the afternoon - thankyou gentlemen!  And Miriam ran our memory verse activity game (an idea we picked up from the ALIVE on the Road Sabbath :).  Irene preached a powerful message on the need for us to 'Stand' and then the delegates who attended the AYC Far North delivered a report on all that the Lord did during AYC.  All in all we had a great time.  Vivienne closed our meeting in prayer and then of course the day did not end there.  We had dinner at the SAN before heading to the Fong's place to watch a movie, "Flywheel."  It's a great film if you haven't seen it - promoting the values of honesty and faithfulness to God.  We praise God for all His blessings and look forward to the next ALIVE in August!

June 5, 2011 [ALIVE On The Road]

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It took us a bit longer to get there - but the moment we got there, it was an ALIVE feeling that refreshed us!  We had a fantastic time fellowshipping with our brothers and sisters in Cabramatta on Sabbath afternoon!  An impressive number of Waitaraian's made the trek out (praise the Lord there were 30+ of us!) and we managed to sing an impromptu special item for them too: "Soon and Very Soon, we are going to see the King!"  We enjoyed hearing the testimonies of various outreach activities and were given opportunity to give towards the "Meet Me in Heaven" program in Cambodia which seeks to fund students to go to our SDA schools there.  Students who are unable to go to the SDA school, often cannot pass their grades in the public system which holds their exams on Sabbath.  So it was a very worthwhile outing and one where I'm sure they can come and visit us in the not too distant future too :)  We praise God for His family around the world, who love Him and obey HIm and long to see Him come again.  Till our next program, remember that He is ALIVE and ALIVE forevermore.  Amen :)

May 22, 2011 [ALIVE Goes Bush]

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May 21st was a beautiful Sabbath!  The sun was shining and the breeze though cool was not cold!  It was the perfect afternoon for a Sabbath afternoon stroll in God's great outdoors.  We left Waitara a bit later than initially intended, but we managed to reach our destination at Crosslands by 3pm just the same.  Altogether, there were 16 of us who make the journey out to find a spot where we could reflect on God's goodness to us.  The walk was easy, and it wasn't too long before we came to the perfect spot for our ALIVE goes bush program - a natural cathedral.  We had a brief song service followed by a special prayer time led by Miriam who got us all to break up into pairs to pray together.  Heaven seemed to pour its benediction over the scene as the warm sunlight shone upon us.  William then shared a powerful message on the glory of God and how that glory was seen in Jesus.  Thankyou William for ministering to us!  Following this, we then set off to go a bit further, under Demo's direction, to reach a bridge that lay just ahead.  When we got there - it was well worth it and the glassy water was so relaxing.  Well, we headed back to the cars and closed with prayer.  We praise God for His goodness to us - and especially rejoiced to have been able to have no helicopter lifts this time!  Only to have a last minute health crisis when one of our walkers fell il.  Thankfully, we had 2 nurses on hand. :)  We had such a wonderful time together, we are hoping to have more walks in the future.  God is good - all the time!  

May 8, 2011 [Men's ALIVE: Living for the King!]

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The men ran a fantastic program for us on what turned out to be a very wonderful Sabbath.  It was mother's day weekend of course, the youth had the lunch, we had a great Sabbath school program, a great sermon and then an ALIVE program run by an all male group.  This was the first time ever that we have had a men's ALIVE...and it was also the shortest ALIVE we've ever had as well.  (There is something in this! :))  The song service was great!  The welcome - how could we forget!  The opening prayer by Tham and Seth  invited God's presence in a very special way.  Following this, Mitch and Wayne sang a psalm to us and Andrew shared how God has allowed him to become involved in literature evangelist work.  This was inspiring - thankyou Andrew for sharing!  Danny and Kevin then ran a very manly activity :P  Well done guys - got us jogging our Bible knowledge!  And to top the whole program off, Werner shared a powerful message on what it means to be a godly man.  Godly man are born, they're made by the choices men make in life.  Werner used the lives of several Bible characters to help illustrate his point.  Thankyou Werner - for be so honest and candid with us.  

Following this, we closed with our theme song and Bill closed the meeting in prayer.  We then had a brief break before we hit the streets letter boxing for the up-coming campaign in September!  But as usual, the good times continued :)  We closed Sabbath in the church and then had a fantastic games night in the hall with badminton and a whole lot of other games too.  We had a great time!  Celebrated Jo's birthday with a delicious cake and had pizza!  God is good - all the time!  We look forward to seeing you next time :) 

April 8-10 [ALIVE Summit '11 "We Believe"]

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8:30am Session on Sabbath Morning!
Well, where do we start!  What a tremendous blessing was had by all at the ALIVE Summit '11!!!  God blessed us in so many ways!  If you missed it - you really did miss out!  We've NEVER had anything like this before!  But thankfully, you will be able to view the messages on DVD when they come out shortly.  MEGA ALIVE seems so small in comparison now!  The church looked fantastic - special thanks to Corilda and Greg for the copious hours spent in making it look so attractive and to Peter and James for all their technical assistance.  From the moment we began on Friday evening, it was clear that there was something very special about this weekend.  With a church filled to 90% capacity on friday night, the singing was truly amazing!  The first song we sang was "The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power" and as the congregation sang that hymn, the words seemed to swell and lift the roof!  I wouldn't be surprised the angels joined us!  It was revival singing!  Special thanks to our song service teams and musicians for leading us in such uplifting praise services!  Praise God!  Following this, on Friday night, our MC's Amy & Gilmour welcomed us to the Summit and we sang our theme song for the Summit, "Revive Us Again."  This was powerful.  Following this, Jeanelle shared a personal poem with us and Irene led us in prayer.  Marleta then sang a beautiful solo, "When I Survey The Wondrous Cross" and this was followed by a scripture reading by Daniel.  Charissa Fong preached a message that challenged us to obey God in all things.   Obedience is the highest form of sacrifice, because it means we offer ourselves and our own wills before God.  And nothing is a substitute for yourself.  Then our friends, the Black-n-Bleach Singers, sang a touching acapella rendition of "How Deep the Father's Love For Us" which then brought our first session to an end.  Following this, Johnny and his fantastic hospitality team had a brilliant table of refreshments for everyone to enjoy too. 

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ALIVE Summit '11 Speakers

 

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Singing 'Lift Up The Trumpet'
Sabbath began for us at 7:45am in the morning with a time of special prayer.  How powerful were those moments we spent together in prayer.  A wonderful effort to be there at 7:45am was made by all.  Praise God!  Following this we had a rousing song service followed by a welcome from our MC's and a dedicatory prayer from Jeanelle (who also led our early morning prayer).  We were then blessed with a powerful violin duet of "The Lord's Prayer" and this really set the tone for the morning.  Jeremy did our scripture reading and then Pr Greg Evans preached a powerful sermon, identifying the defining characteristics of God's remnant down through time to our generation.  We believe that this message is one of the most important messages we can hear in these last days of earth's history.  Following his message, Amy sang a wonderful song, "Holy Ground" and then we ended this session with an offering and a rendition of our theme song again too.  By the way, we should mention, the church was full for this 8:30am session too!!

This was followed by Sabbath school and that was truly a mega affair!  Special thanks to Mick and his team for organising this aspect of the program!  As we had such a full day, we were pressed for time, all the time!  So the lesson panel did well to try and stick to the time frame.  Miriam, Paul and Andrew also blessed us with a musical item too.

Our 3rd Session kicked off with another packed church, excellent singing, our theme song and welcome from our next set of MC's, Andrew & Irene.  This was followed by a dedicatory prayer from Tabitha and then an amazing item from our very own Yvette, Ruth & Wayne!  Pr Geoff Youlden then preached a wonderful messaged on why we can believe that Jesus is coming very soon, challenging us all to be ready for His return!  Pr Youlden's message ended with an appeal, and then we sang "Lift Up the Trumpet" with trumpets!  Wow!  The heavens could have opened right then and there the singing was so good!  Again, mention should be made here concerning the overflow to the hall!  There were so many people in the church, they started filling the hall!  It was great!  

Our church hospitality team then put on what was one of the most amazing church lunches Waitara has ever seen!  They fed the 5000 it seemed - and would you believe it - they still had heaps of food leftover praise the Lord!  This was followed by our 4th session which included an opening prayer from Jared, a beautiful item from the Filippino Adventist Bible Study Group "Think About His Love" and a scripture reading from Vani.  What a wonderful message Neale Schofield then blessed us with.  Neale shared a personal message, about why he chooses to believe even through hardship.  Thankyou Neale for encouraging us to hang on to Jesus even when it's tough.  This was followed by another musical treat from the Mt Druit Samoan Youth who changed their song at the last minute, and as Providence would have it, it matched perfectly with the message Neale had just preached.  The sound from this group was amazing and decisive!  Following this, we had a short break before we reconvened for our final session at 4pm.

At 4pm, we sang through our last song service session.  Nora opened the meeting in prayer and then the Bankstown Youth sang "Wonderful Merciful Saviour."  How blessed we were to be joined by them!  Bob & Ivy Williams then led us in the only special activity of the weekend; an infamous reverse quiz!  We had lots of fun!  The rules seemed to change all the time!  But it was a truly priceless time together.  Special thanks to Ivy & Bob for taking the time to bless us all!  Following this, the Filipino men's group sang "I Am Determined," a powerful call to live for Jesus!  Chris then did our scripture reading, we had a video played (a short one from the NNSW Conference on Evangelism & Revival) and then William Moala preached a powerful messaged entitled "It Wasn't Me."  William challenged us to share what we believe with others.  Thankyou William, for being so candid and honest with us.  He finished his message with an appeal for prayer and a call to prayer, the Holy Spirit moved and we saw a revival take off right before our eyes.  Special thanks to Susan & Simon James for their musical item during this appeal too.  At first, a technical hitch meant Simon couldn't play the keyboard, but as the song progressed - it started working.  It was such a wonderful message in song: "I Will Follow Thee My Saviour."  Following the completion of all 5 messages, we were all truly well fed, revived, blessed, enriched and ready to go.  We sang our theme song for the last time, were dismissed by our MC's and went off into the night - blessed and with rejoicing hearts, because we had been revived by HIs Spirit.  What an amazing experience! 

But as always, this wasn't the end!  On Sunday morning at 9am, we had a special training workshop with Pr Mark Roberts on how to be an effective soul winner.  And praise God, 47 people gathered to be trained!  This was wonderful!  All weekend we had such a wonderful, spiritually rich time together.  We had people joining us from all over the place just for this special weekend!  We had guests from Bowral, Newcastle, Albury (and by default Canada), Wetheril Park Spanish, Fox Valley, Wahroonga, Parramatta, Bankstown, Melbourne, Fountain, Granville, a Uniting Church in Pennant HIlls, Mt Druitt, Gosford, College Church, Memorial, 3AM, Mile End, Cabramatta and probably more!  It was just like we had our own AYC and everything! :)

 

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Mt Druitt Samoan Youth
Ultimately, we believe that all that happened came in direct answer to the faithful prayers of our church family.  Many thanks for your prayerful support!  No revival ever comes because of the efforts of any one person or group.  Revival always comes in answer to prayer!  So praise God for pouring out His Spirit so richly upon us!  Praise God for the blessing of fellowship, for the challenge of the Word and the beauty of Jesus.  We pray that the decisions you made and messages you heard at the ALIVE Summit '11 will continue to be of strength and blessing to you as we go forward to reach out, up and across for Jesus!  God-willing, we'll have another ALIVE Summit in 2012, but till then, may God keep us faithful.  Amen!

April 3, 2011 [Love Your Enemies - Ladies ALIVE]

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ALIVE is always full of surprises, and to everyone's surprise, we had a ladies ALIVE :)  That is, an ALIVE all run by the ladies, for everyone.  It was a wonderful program!  We had a rousing song service led by Zodwa and Irene, Angela and Anastasia.  This was followed by a welcome from Melinda and Porshia.  Following this, Charlotte taught us our memory verse and then we were led to the throne of grace in prayer by Trish.  Bethany (Avondale) blessed us with a musical item and then Jeanelle shared with us about her trips overseas and what she learned, the people she had met.  This was really challenging.  Thanks Jeanelle for opening our eyes to the injustice around us!  This was then followed by a special item from Zodwa and Sithelo and then a special prayer time led by Sandy in keeping with the day of Global Prayer and Fasting as part of the world wide Revival and Reformation initiative.  Kelly Deed then shared with us a touching, heartfelt poem, personally written.  Thankyou Kelly!  And this was followed by the message from Michelle.  Thankyou Michelle, for challenging us all to love our enemies!  It was a timely message indeed!  We then closed with our theme song, Mildred closed in prayer for us and the practice for the ALIVE Summit the following week began.  Truly, the Lord blessed our time together and it was a wonderful program by the ladies!  Ruined only by one person - James who played the piano for us!  (Just goes to show we all need each other ;)  We look forward to seeing you at the ALIVE Summit next week!  God bless!

March 20, 2011 [Special ALIVE with Ben & Bethany]

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What an amazing ALIVE program we had on the Sabbath afternoon of March 19!  With weather that made that Sabbath the wettest Sabbath most of us can remember with heavy, pouring, constant rain, God blessed our program and filled!  We had people from churches across Sydney (including Fox Valley, Wahroonga, 3AM, Wetherill Park Spanish and Bowral!)  Our program began with a rousing song service led by Sandy and her great team followed by a warm welcome from the wonderful Andrew & Angela!  Melinda then taught us our memorable memory verse: 1 Timothy 3:16.  Following this, Abigail & Mitch dedicated the afternoon in prayer to God and asked for HIs Spirit to be present among us.  God answered those prayers!  Following this, Maria blessed us with a good old classic, "My Jesus, I Love Thee" and then the floor was turned over the the Turners who shared their story and how God turned their lives around (pardon the pun!).  It was so interesting to hear where God brought them from, and how He has led them to come into a knowledge of the Triune Godhead of the Bible.  Ben and Bethany were particularly engaging together and it was such a treat for us to be the first to hear their story publicly.  No doubt, God has a special work for this couple to do!  Following this powerful testimony (if you missed it - order the DVD) which was rich with pioneering history, quotations, textual evidence, personal stories etc, we were blessed with a beautiful item from the Lopez family: "Amazing Grace."  The words to this hymn truly captured the whole message of the afternoon beautifully, twas blind but now I see (and our theme was "Who is God?  Seeing with new eyes").  Bethany then shared a short devotion with us that was rich with meaning on 2 Timothy 2:5.  Special thanks to both Ben and Bethany Turner for being so willing to come and share of yourselves with us.  You were a blessing and we were blessed!  To finish our program, in true ALIVE style, we then sang our theme song, closed in prayer and went our separate ways or stayed on for the evening church concert which was also a wonderful blessing and a delightful evening of good music.  We praise God for the way He blessed and look forward to seeing you at our next ALIVE program on the 2nd of April!  *Please also remember the ALIVE Summit in your prayers as we near it too.  May God bless you!

March 6, 2011

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ALIVE was truly well and ALIVE with a wholesome program that gave honour and glory to God! The boys led started us off with a great round of well-sung songs, Chris taught us our memory verse (which was actually the same memory verse we had in Sabbath School this week) and Johnny and Portia then dedicated the afternoon to God in prayer.  We praise God that He not only hears and answers our prayers, but that He also wants to hear us pray.  Miriam then sang a beautiful song entitled, "The Love of God."  What a marvellous thing the love of God is!  Thankyou Miriam for blessing us in this way!  Gilmour then preached a powerful message to us that was potently complete with powerpoint!  Thankyou for challenging us Gilmour, to finish the stories that God has started in our lives - because the ending is up to us.  So true!  Maria then ran our activity and proved to us that we didn't know everything after all!  Thankyou Maria for an enjoyable activity...though the scoring of some teams was particularly peculiar.  (example:  the scoring was meant to be out of 10 and one team managed to tally a score out of 18...)  :)  Following this, Amy directed our thought heavenward again with the lovely Sanja accompanying her on the piano, reminding us to listen to God's voice in our lives.  Thankyou Amy for your message in song!  James then delivered a report on AYC in Melbourne which was greatly informative for the rest of us who were unable to make it down there!  Thankyou James for sharing with us what God is doing in our country!  May we continue to keep AYC in our prayers and we continue to approach the end of time.  This movement of young people is one of the most important things happening in our country right now - God's army is moving into line!  Let's pray that we too will be ready to move as He directs.  To complete what was a blessed afternoon, we closed with our theme song "We will Serve the Lord," closed in prayer (thankyou Peter) and then hit the streets letter-boxing!  A full day - but a good day :)  Praise God for His blessings!

We look forward to seeing you at our next ALIVE which is a special one on the 19th of March!  Till then may God richly bless you all!

February 20, 2011 [ALIVE Begins!]

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ALIVE for 2011 has well and truly begun!  We had a lovely program on Sabbath afternoon that had been looked forward to with much anticipation.  Yes, would you believe it, but people missed it during the holiday season!  We had a beautiful song service led by an all ladies team. Ryan led us in a memory verse that is right in keeping with our theme of "Revival & Reformation" for 2011.  Thankyou Ryan for doing such an awesome job!  Following this, Svetlana and Irene opened and dedicated our program for 2011 to the Lord in prayer.  Thankyou ladies for doing this.  Prayer is such a powerful gift that the Lord has given to us.  The Jamora family then played a beautiful special item, "In Moments Like These" and this was followed by a straight, earnest message from James.  Thankyou James for speaking directly and reminding us of the times in which we live!  Jo then ran a great activity which got us really jogging our Bible knowledge to answer her difficult questions - well done!  And then Clayton got up and sang a song from his heart, "Because of Your Love."  How much do we owe to the love of God?  Thankyou Clayton for blessing us with your message in song!  Melinda then shared of her exciting adventures in the Philippines complete with pictures and stories.  It was great to hear from Mel how God's work is going forward overseas.  Thankyou too for challenging us to go and be missionaries too.  For as Mel brought out, we can be missionaries at home too.  We then concluded the whole program with our theme song for 2011, "We Will Serve the Lord" (if you would like to get to know it better, it has been posted to the blog page on this website...).  Pr Roberts then closed the meeting in prayer and we had a short break...but the program was by no means over!

Actually, the best was yet to come!  We went and door knocked our community asking for prayer requests.  You would be amazed at the responses...some admittedly weren't all that exciting :P  But there were people who were genuinely touched by this.  They assumed we wanted money, but when they discovered that we just wanted to pray for them and their families, they thought that was very good.

We met some great people and have some really exciting stories to tell too.  Please pray for our community!  And then as always, to top the whole day off, we had a board games social in the church...and we had fun!  Hotdogs and games and people.  That's the ingredients for a happy group on a Sabbath evening :)  We look forward to an exciting year ahead and trust that God will bless us as we continue to give Him honour in our lives both individually and corporately as a church.  
p.s.  Don't forget to reserve April 8-10 in your diaries for the ALIVE Summit and commit this weekend of revival in to prayer too!

December 5, 2010 [Finale]

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What a wonderful program we had on the 4th of December!  It was the most wonderful finish to a blessed year! We began with a rousing song service led by soon-to-be-married Gilmour and team!  Ryan then taught us our memory verse from John 3:5 - thanks Ryan!  Dane and Yvonne then led us in prayer as we opened a Spirit-filled afternoon.  Marleta, Amy and Charissa then sang a song entitled, "In His Presence" and truly, we sensed the presence of the Lord that Sabbath!  Pr Youlden then got up and preached a short message on baptism and it was wonderful to see how clear the Bible is on this subject.  Jesus has set us an example and was baptised.  Not because He needed to be, but because He has left for us an example and desires that we should follow in His steps.  Amen!  Pr Youlden then interviewed the Roselin, Diogo, the Moores family, Gayl and the man who knocked on their door.  We all sat riveted to our seated as we heard the testimony of God's power in reaching Roselin and Diogo, and how they found Jesus, came to love and honour Him, keep His Sabbath, apply the principles of health to their lives and understand Bible prophecy.  Pr Luke then baptised them, following which Miriam sang a beautiful song, "Precious Lord," the Rochas were welcomed into fellowship, we sang our theme song and Pr Stanley closed the ALIVE program for 2010 for the last time as our pastor (we miss you Pr Stanley :).

We didn't have a social that night - because we had our special end of year event the following day.  But we praise God for His blessings and trust that as we look to 2011, God will continue to bless us as we give Him all the honour and praise for the good work that He is doing through, in and for us.  We look forward to seeing you soon! God bless and take care this holiday season.  

November 21, 2010 [ALIVE GOES BUSH]

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ALIVE goes bush almost became ALIVE goes wrong on the 20th of November!  We were all rather excited about taking ALIVE into God's beautiful nature when without warning, in a dramatic twist of events our Sabbath afternoon bush walk turned into an emergency rescue effort!  One of our walkers, Mildred, fell and broke her leg.  But thankfully God had his hand over her.  People were very supportive and we offered a prayer on Mildred's behalf as we waited for the ambulance team to arrive.  When they did, they quickly discovered that they would need to air lift Mildred to hospital.  Again, we can thank God for having His hand over Mildred, and allowing enough hours of daylight for the helicopter to come and pick her up.  For the rest of us that had to walk out of that valley, when we arrived at our destination, there were several ambulance cars, fire trucks, police, all waiting for our arrival.  Plus, a few of our company who had decided to drive instead of walk that day.  The program we had planned - didn't go to plan.   But something that we learnt that Sabbath was the value of a human being.  All of those people came to try and help Mildred.  Think of how much more God  must value you!  Praise God for His goodness and God-willing our next ALIVE Goes Bush will go right too! :) 

November 7, 2010 [Farewell]

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We had a fantastic program on the 6th of November!  Featuring a themed event centered on "Accomplishing the Mission of Jesus," we were blessed with a rousing song service, a fantastic memory verse taught to us by the one and only John Dickson and then the program was opened with a dedicatory prayer offered by Justin and Clayton.  Following this Chris Healy got up and shared his testimony how God has saved His life and worked in His life to bring him to where he is today - and also to the point where he leaves us to pursue further mission opportunities to which the Lord is leading him.  Tim Turner (who now has his very own debut album!!!) then blessed us with a beautiful melody of his own creation and the CARE groups gave a report to us on how they operate and we got to see how they are serving the Lord and each other every friday evening.  Sam Chit then blessed us with a beautiful medley of well known hymns and this was followed by a mission report from James Willison who shared of his recent adventures in India.  We were challenged and blessed as we listened to what he shared.  After this we then sang our new theme song since our 105th anniversary - "In a Little While We're Going Home" and we departed for 'surpriseful farewell activity that took place in the Mt Colah SDA church hall.  There, we enjoyed a delightful evening of food - special thanks to Sandy, Gayl and Ryan and James for looking after this department so well, games - special thanks to James and Melinda for their fantastic effort here, and speeches for Chris.  Needless to say it was a thoroughly enjoyable evening for a sad purpose - to farewell a much loved and appreciated member of our youth.  We wish Chris the very best as he heads overseas - and pray that God protects him too.  The evening was closed by Ben with a word of prayer, we had a group photo and then began the task of cleaning up the remnants of the night.  God is good - all the time! :)

October 17, 2010

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What a beautiful day the Lord blessed us with yesterday!  The whole church was buzzing with excitement all day long!  Felt like the good old days all over again with Pr Price's visit too.  We had a very uplifting Sabbath School program led by Mick and his team - including a very special (and amazing) visitor.  Pr Pereira then returned to the pulpit to take a great combined Sabbath school lesson on the story of Hannah.  I think there was something for everyone in that story.  And then after this, it was time for the divine service hour which included an interactive children's story with Uncle Graham, a youth choir performance AND a powerful sermon from Pr Price who took his message straight from the Word.  He encouraged us to remain faithful to the advent message as it appears in the Bible, and he pointed us to the soon return of Jesus, encouraging us to be ready to meet Jesus.  No message could be more relevant to us than that.  

The church dispersed for lunch and then reconvened for the afternoon program which was ALIVE and Still ALIVE in every sense of those words!  Yvette led a rousing song service featuring church family favourites that caused us to lift our hearts up in praise to our Creator.  There was then an ALIVE and Still ALIVE welcome followed by the memory verse taught to us by Shelley.  The verse Shelley taught us was a potent one - a reminder for us to go forward!  It's time!  Thankyou Shelley for teaching us that beautiful verse!  This was then followed by a dedicatory prayer by Dr Pennington, a long time member of our church family and Jackie who is one of the newest members of Waitara this year!  Thankyou for inviting God's presence in our program and for leading us to the throne of grace as you did.  Pr Price then began what was to be an afternoon of testimony after testimony of God's miraculous grace in changing lives.  We heard from Marian, Jeanie and Lesley - a story which encapsulated a love story as well!  Following this, the youth choir sang that beautiful old classic, "Little Is Much," conducted by Marleta!  Thankyou all for lifting our hearts to heaven with this beautiful music!  Pr Price then interviewed the Carey's and the Chapman's in his good old fashioned family style way, and then Pr Stanley got us standing and sitting in a brief 'roll call' quiz.  We discovered that we had some a lot of history sitting together in the church!  :)  The One Voice then got up and sang a wonderful quartet item that was just beautiful.  Thankyou for sharing with us!  Ivy, who wore many hats on the day, then got up and interviewed Pr Pereira and Norbeta on their experience at Waitara.  It was wonderful to hear how God blessed, challenged and used them in ministry to us.  We were so blessed by their contribution to our church family.  And then (you can see it was a HUGE program) Pr Price interviewed the Heunis family which we discovered was yet another epic testimony to God's power to change lives and reach hearts.  We then paraded the t-shirts of all the past youth mission initiatives of the Waitara Seventh-day Adventist church and reflected on how God had led us there and blessed us!  It was quite amazing to see so many campaigns had been run over the last 10 years too.  Praise God!  Chloe then played a beautiful violin item, "Ancient Words" and then we had a moment of thanks for all involved AND a moment of thanks for our pastors whom we appreciate.  Our head elder, Peter, then prayed a special prayer for God to bless our pastors and we then concluded singing our closing song, "In a Little While We're Going Home."  Oh how cheering these words are to us today!  May we indeed go home soon - very soon.  Pr Luke then brought the whole day to a close in a final prayer and as people were leaving, we had opportunity to reflect on the past through a collection of video moments that rolled on the screen.  

We praise God for the amazing blessing and gift that yesterday was.  It was a special moment in time.  105 years is a special anniversary - because it only comes around once every 105 years :)  But as much as we could enjoy continuing to live and bask in the blessing of yesterday, we live in today and must move forward preparing to make the most of tomorrow.  Let us pull together and press together and so much more as we see the day approaching!  Jesus is coming soon!  Even so, come Lord Jesus!  Amen.

p.s.   A reminder that Pr Ted Wilson's powerful message referred to by Pr Price can be viewed in full on this website on the 'Blog' page.      

October 3, 2010

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Song Service
ALIVE was truly ALIVE on the 2nd of October!  Even though it was the long weekend - we were blessed with a great number, good singing and a beautiful memory verse.  Danny taught us what has to be one of the longest memory verses we have EVER had to learn - so well done to Danny.  The memory verse itself was an important one however.  Taken from Revelation 15, it will one day be the song of the redeemed and by God's grace - we all hope to be there to sing it too.  (At least we will know the words now :).  Following our memory text, Chris and James then dedicated the program to the Lord in prayer and Marleta then blessed us with a touching musical item.  Thankyou for being willing to share of yourself with us - we were blessed.  Following this, Cliff then preached to us a straight message from the book of Ecclesiastes.  Thankyou Cliff, for challenging us.  The Pathfinders then shared an exciting report on their recent adventures on the pathfinder expedition.  They painted vivid pictures of vertical mountain slopes they had to climb, unexpected swims in rivers they were walking by and the various wildlife they managed to identify too.  Thanks for sharing with us - we enjoyed it and hope that God will continue to bless you as you live for him.  Edric and Sprella sang a really beautiful song that is close to their heart.  Thankyou!  And then Vince got up and shared with us how God has blessed him, protected him, healed him, changed him and guided him.  What a powerful testimony!  We closed the program with our theme song, a closing prayer from our Pr Stanley and although we had all good intentions of hitting the streets door knocking, we decided we would stay at the church (our excuse being the rain) and practice our youth choir item for the 16th of October and the 105th anniversary.  After this all were invited to the Fong's place were we played board games and enjoyed our fair share of vegetarian pizza! Yum!  

Till next time, may the Lord bless you and make his face to shine upon you and give you peace.  See you on the 16th!

September 19, 2010 [The Truth Shall Set You Free]

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Kelly's poem
No one really knew what to expect on the 4th of September.  We had a beautiful ordinances service in the morning which meant there was no pot luck lunch on in the hall in the afternoon.  Then to add to that, the Greater Sydney Conference was holding its special session on that Sabbath afternoon too.  What could we possibly expect on such a Sabbath?  Well, we should have known!  God is good - all the time!!  We had a terrific, quality program that was an absolute blessing to all who came.  Ryan and Rebeca led us in a season of praise and then Alex who joined us all the way from Perth taught us our memory verse (Ephesians 5:1) in a very unforgettable fashion!  Jo and Rebeca led us in prayer and then Kelly Deed shared how God has inspired her to let go of grudges, giving her a beautiful poem - a blessing to us all.  Angela read it for us - and Kelly, thankyou for blessing us with what the Lord placed on your heart.  After this, it was over to the gentlemen.  Daniel aided by the very capable Ryan, ran a good activity with ever changing rules!  Thanks for the enjoyable activity boys.  Well done!  Following this, Jeanelle preached a message for everyone.  It's amazing how God's Word can be tailored by the Holy Spirit to meet and fit our every need.  Thankyou Jeanelle for encouraging us through your testimony of how God's Word has helped you.  Amy and Marleta then sang an amazing song composed by Kelly that was truly touching.  Thankyou for sharing with us!  And just when you thought the day couldn't get better, Mick got up and told us of how God led him into the 3 angels messages.  We praise God for the good work He has done in you!  We sang our theme song and then Myrna closed in prayer.  We travelled over the SAN, closed Sabbath in the chapel and then had a great meal together in the cafe (our number one favourite dinner spot!)  After this we kinda split up all over the place :P  But it was fun!  We played a little bit of basketball...but our basketball had a hole in it so that didn't last very long.  So we decided it best to occupy ourselves with other things.  It's a long story - so if you want to know what it is you're going to have to ask someone who went!  Anyways, we praise God for His blessings and trust He will continue to bless us as we seek Him with all our hearts.  God's best to you this week and we look forward to seeing you at the next ALIVE program! :)  

September 5, 2010 [STILL ALIVE]

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STILL ALIVE Ad
The long awaited, highly anticipated STILL ALIVE program for 2010 was a tremendous blessing on the 4th of September!  Featuring wisdom, age and experience, the STILL ALIVE event is program second to none.  Special thanks to all who participated and contributed to the great blessing the program was.  We value our church family and praise God for your testimony of faithfulness to Jesus.  A huge thankyou too, to Ivy and Bob Williams who worked to pull the event together.  All who came were blessed and deeply moved by the testimonies that were shared.  When the Lord returns, soon, He's going to take us to His glorious Kingdom and there ALIVE will continue...but the name will be different.  We won't be having ALIVE in heaven or STILL ALIVE programs either.  No, we're going to have something eternally better!  And we'll feature Moses and Joshua, Caleb and Esther, Paul and Barnabas and more in that program.  We'll call it: ALIVE FOREVERMORE! :)  Till that day - may God keep us faithful.  Amen!

Following the STILL ALIVE program, for those who were still alive - pardon the pun - we went iceskating which was great fun too :)

August 22, 2010 [LOUIS TORRES, USA]

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Pr Louis Torres
What a special program we had on the 21st of August!  We had a terrific song service followed by a Mr Ryan Aitken and a team of enthusiastic singers!  And to make the song service extra special, not only did we have an ensemble of brilliant musicians to accompany our praise - but Pr Torres also joined us on guitar as well.  Gilmour taught us our memory for the day - Colossians 2:10 - thanks Gil and then Florian and Rosebud opened our program with a dedicatory prayer.  Chris, James and Demo then led out in a great Bible activity and get to know Pr Torres quiz and this was followed by a beautiful musical item from the Jamora family.  Thankyou so much for blessing us with your music.  Following this, Pr Torres delivered a powerful message challenging us to live in the light and follow the light.  We praise God for allowing Pr Louis Torres be with us and share God's Word with us as well.  Yvette then closed with a touching item in song, "Consider the Lillies."  Praise God that He cares for us!  We closed the meeting with our theme song and then to top the whole Sabbath off - we had a massive social event held in the hall with 3AM, Foutain, Fountain Marrickville youth as well.  We praise God for the high Sabbath we shared and look forward to the day when we will spend our Sabbaths in a land that is fairer than day.  Till that day may God bless and keep you!

August 8, 2010

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Paul K. preaching the Word!
God is good - all the time!  ALIVE continued with another uplifting instalment that was a blessing to all!  Marleta and Miriam led a great song service accompanied by our fabulous muso's and then Ryan taught us our memory verse and Demo and Jeanelle opened our program with prayer.  Following this, we had a great special item brought to us by Amy, Gil, Zodwa and Ryan!  What a blessing it was!  Special thanks to you all for blessing us.  Paul then got up and delivered an inspiring presentation on running for God...running the Christian walk :)  He taught us that: Rejoicing | Unto Jesus | eNdurance to finish the race.  Thankyou Paul for blessing us with your words of encouragement!  Following this, Aunty Mildred then led out in a challenging Bible quiz activity that really got our minds working!  It was terrific.  Maria then shared how God has led her in her personal life it that was really refreshing.  Thankyou Maria and may God continue the good work He has started in you.  Bob then closed our meeting in prayer and we headed off for a great social evening which featured fun, fellowship and an avalanche of chips!!!  Gave one small business a boost that night for sure :P  Anyways, may God bless you as you RUN for Him!  Praise God He is ALIVE and ALIVE forevermore!


July 23-25, 2010  [YOUTH CAMP: YOU ARE HIS PURPOSE]

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Waitara Youth Camp 2010
None us knew just what toe expect on the youth camp this year.  What would the weather be like?  What would the speaker be like?  What would the food be like?  What would the accommodation be like?  What would the company be like?  Well, the Lord answered all of those questions with a simple answer: good.  It was as though God Himself had personally orchestrated the whole event!  Why?  Because just like on creation week - everything was very good.  

Friday evening, we showed up and there was a little rain - but Kelly turned our thoughts to Jesus with a beautiful devotion and introduced us to a great song: Remind Me Dear Lord.  Anders Svensson blessed us all weekend with stirring messages- a huge thankyou to Anders for coming and sharing with us.  You were a blessing and we were blessed.  On Sabbath morning, Pr Stanley took a great morning devotion and reminded us that God loves us with everything He's got.  Jeanelle took a great Sabbath School lesson where we all discovered our spiritual gifts and how we can use them to bring glory to God and then to close the Sabbath school time - Nora shared her amazing life story about how God has worked in her life to bring her to a knowledge of Him.  We were all in tears it was so moving.  Following a great lunch - haystacks - how could you go wrong with that - Kelly then took us on a 'bush walk' which was on a path that no one had ever discovered before in the history of this planet.  James, we suspect, was also partially responsible for this unique experience.  Needless to say, we have discovered there is much wisdom in following the path that many a great person has tread before us.  (Makes sense following Jesus too I think!)  We came back to the camp grounds, closed Sabbath with some great singing and then had an evening of games run by Jeanelle and Dan the man from the SAN!  So much fun!  Sunday was a mix of everything again only with an additional game of volley ball as well.

All in all - we had a terrific time, bonding, sharing, laughing and yes, even crying together.  The dramas were few and far between - praise God!  And a huge thanks to our capable chef's - Andrew, Angela, James, Mick and Nora for putting together such fantastic meals for us all too.  We were spoilt :)

Till next time - be faithful and remember - YOU ARE HIS PURPOSE!  Amen!    

July 3, 2010

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Farewell to Carol & John! God bless!
God is good - all the time!  We had another great program that was just another downright blessing!  Demo and Portia opened our meeting in prayer, and then Maria sang a beautiful song to set the tone of the afternoon.  Gil got up and preached a powerful message which the whole world deserved to hear - thanks Gil for allowing God to speak through you!  And then Jo played, "Hang the Washing" as opposed to "Hang Man" with us too which was fun!  Werner shared a personal item in song which he had personally composed and then Andrew shared how God has led him in his life and what a wonderful testimony it was.

Following the program we went to the SAN for dinner - yes, we really do love the SAN :)  And then we trekked back to the church for the Linda GIlbert violin concert as well!  What an amazing evening we had!  She is truly a gifted musician.

We look forward to seeing you at our youth camp on the 23-25th of July at the Chaldercot Conference centre.  It will be great.  God bless and keep the faith!

June 19, 2010 [iChoose: God & Relationships]

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Lakemba Tongan Youth Choir
What a terrific program we had on the 19th of June!  We were graced  with the company of young people representative of churches all over Sydney for an afternoon that promised to be both informative, inspirational and yes, even slightly entertaining.  We had a great song service, and then Tham taught us a great memory verse too.  thanks Tham!  Following this, Hala and Berenice led us in prayer and then we were blessed by some special music brought to us by our Tongan friends from Lakemba.  Tim from Fountain in the City, preached to us a message born straight from his heart and we enjoyed hearing how God led him to find his lovely wife too.  Thanks Tim for sharing with us!  Following this, Amy sang a beautiful item that lifted us up to the courts of heaven and then Charlotte ran a great activity which got our Bible trivia minds jogging.  Thanks Charlotte!  Lakemba Tongan youth sang another item before we finally had our long awaited panel feature take centre stage - and from there is was all very amusing too!  A huge thankyou to our panel for coming and being a part of our program!  WE were blessed by your wisdom, insight, advice and encouragement.  Thankyou!  Following this we sang our theme song and then headed off to the SAN for dinner and then the indoor sports centre for some physical activity which was great!  A special thankyou to Chris for organising a great evening.  

All in all the Lord was very good to us and we praise Him for blessing us with the church family we have in each other.  May He continue the good work He is doing in you till He comes is our prayer!  Amen!

June 6, 2010

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The men leading the song service!
Well - what an amazing program we had yesterday!  Yesterday was most definitely a very fresh ALIVE program - and such a wonderful blessing too!  Ryan and an all guys ensemble, led us in a great song service.  It was really lovely to hear their voices over the loud speaker.  Sam played a vibrant accompaniment on the piano and Matej taught us our memory verse which is a valuable one indeed.  James 1:19, 20.  Good stuff - thanks Matej!  Following this, Johnny and Sthelo led us to the throne of grace in prayer, and what powerful prayers they were.  Special thanks to both of your for doing this for us.  Chris then shared a personal poem, written by himself, with all of us.  It was a very touching poem - one that pointed us straight back to Jesus.  Thankyou Chris for being willing to share of yourself with the rest of us.  Rebecca Braga, a 16 year old young lady then took our message and what an amazing message it was!!  She preached her heart out with conviction and the Holy Spirit most certainly blessed as she reminded us of our need to die to self through the story of the rich young ruler who came to Jesus.  Following this, Robert led us in an activity which got the minds jogging and then the Wahroonga Youth sang a beautiful song which was both a blessing and touching.  Angela then got up and shared straight from her heart of how God has been leading her in her life to where she is today.  It was wonderful to hear of the different Jesus makes in our lives.  Thankyou Angie, for sharing of yourself yesterday to God's glory.  You were a blessing - and we were blessed.  Pr Luke then closed the meeting in prayer.  

And right when you thought that was it!  We closed Sabbath in the church - and Charles led out in this. Thankyou Charles!  And then we all hopped in our cars to head for the Milivoyevic's place where about 30 of us gathered to eat hay stacks, play some games and just enjoy one another's good company.  A huge thankyou to the Milivoyevic's for opening their home to us and also for being so hospitable to us as well.  We really enjoyed our time at your place. 

Our next program will continue with an extra special event on the 19th of June which you won't want to miss!  As the second instalment in our ichoose series (on making the right choices for Jesus Christ, we continue with a special themed event on "God & Relationships."  To participate in this event complete the iChoose ALIVE survey found on this website and pray for a blessing.  Spread the word to all of your friends!  We look forward to seeing you there!  (NOTE: We will also be joined by the Lakemba Tongan Youth Group and the program will be followed by a special evening social at the Indoor Sports centre.  See the up-coming events page for more details...

May 16, 2010

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Social @ Max & Nat's place!
ALIVE was truly ALIVE on the 15th of May 2010!  We had a rousing song service, a wonderful memory verse taught to us by Amy and then Chris and Portia led us in a special time of prayer, asking the Lord to bless our program.  Following this, Sam played for us an wonderful medley on the piano - we always love your music Sam!  Thankyou for sharing with us!  And then Luke Stuart, Bible worker from Penrith church got up and delivered a powerful sermon!  It was amazing to hear some of his life's story and how God has led him to be where he is today.  Thankyou Luke for coming to share with us.  You were a blessing and we were blessed.  Following this, Marie and Fonini ran a great activity on Proverbs!  Thanks for getting us into the Word girls!  And then Marleta and Charissa played a beautiful song entitled, "We Shall Behold Him!"  And indeed - this is our burning desire - to see Jesus!  Amen!  After this, we then featured a special report on the Taree evangelistic campaign and the recent Cairns AYC.  It was inspiring to hear of how God is moving around the country.  We then closed the meeting with our theme song and Bill Gates ended it with a final prayer, before we all took off for college where we had a special bon fire night at Max & Nat's place which was lots of good fun and games.

We look forward to seeing you alive and at ALIVE on the 5th of June!  Till then, may God bless you!  

May 2, 2010

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Song service
We had another alive ALIVE program on the 1st of May!  Max gave a good message on spending time with God and taking responsibility for "feeding" ourselves spiritually, there was a lot of good thoughts in there.  Tony Donald was a nice surprise in our testimony time too. Tony came to us from IIWEC and he had a very interesting story, delivering a very down to earth and heartfelt testimony.  Jeanelle's activity was fun, all in all an enjoyable program. Concert/auction was some good church family time too. 

A special thanks to all our participants!  God bless you for being a blessing to us all! :)

April 18, 2010

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Testimony
ALIVE continued with another wonderful program on the 17th of April!  Miriam led the song service, Jeanelle and Dan welcomed us to the program and Jarvis led us in our memory verse which was great!  Following this Clayton and Miriam shared a beautiful item in song with us and then Sharon preached a message on "who do you say that I am..."  Thanks to Sharon for sharing with us from the word!  Following this, Jeanelle led out in the activity and then Nat sang a special item as well.  And to top the whole program off, Chris' friends shared with us of their incredible missionary adventures!  And right when you thought that was all - there was an ice skating social to top it off that evening too!  A special thanks to all involved - you were a blessing.  Praise God! :)

April 4, 2010 [God & Music]

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Song service!
What a terrific program we had on Sabbath!  Complete with a full house as well!  God blessed us and the Holy Spirit spoke to our hearts!  We had stirring song services which allowed us time to reflect on the cross and Calvary on the Easter weekend.  And after this, the iChoose triad was officially launched for 2010!  Chris taught us a fitting theme text for the day, 1 Peter 2:9 which reminded us that we are a chosen generation, and as members of that generation, God is calling us to make the right choices for Jesus Christ.  Nat and Ella, the sister duo, then led us in prayer and then Amy blessed us with a beautiful item in song.  A medley of timeless hymns that speak straight to the soul.  Zeb then shared some incredible insights into the music industry and how Satan uses the gift of music to his benefit and often to the detriment of many souls.  It was a sobering, challenging but blatant truth we were directed to in the Word and Spirit of Prophecy.  A special thankyou to Zeb for being so willing to be so faithful to Lord an share with us.  Tim then blessed us with a personal composition encouraging us to turn our eyes to the cross and then Gayl conducted a special music quiz to get our minds jogging for the rest of the program.  She was aided by our faithful Williams' :)  Following this Ariel played a touching song, "I can see" and then we had a surprise!  Sandra Entermann joined us via a recorded audio recording from Ipswich!  A special thankyou to Sandra for being a 'virtual' part of our program!


After this we had the feature panel of our program come and take centre stage were we had a candid, family discussion on music.  A huge thankyou to Graham Fletcher, Rosemary, Ariel and Zeb for being so willing to share of themselves on what is one of the most sensitive, volatile subjects within contemporary Christendom today.  You were a blessing and we were blessed.  Many good points were raised by the panel which served to bring awareness to us all of the importance of making informed music choices.  Some of these points included the need for the musician to be right with God.  Essentially, truly good music choices are made when individuals have their hearts in tune with the Master Musician - the One who created music in the very beginning.  It was also highlighted that Satan, being the leader of the music for the heavenly hosts in heaven, prior to his rebellion, knows all too well the potent power of music.  For this reason, the panel made it clear to us, mixing their many years of experience, that we cannot truly trust our feelings in making good music choices.  Music should be selected according to one criteria... WWJD - is this music giving glory to God or to another?  

The results of the ALIVE survey were also shown and discussed - a special thankyou to all those who participated in that!  And then a series of questions that were emailed into us via this website were also addressed.  All in all, we could have gone on for hours - but after a long, wonderful program, we eventually had to wrap it up with our theme song and closing prayer led by Aunty Ivy.  Following this, there was a social at the Fong's place too!

We hope you found the program to be a blessing in helping you to become aware of the underlying issues surrounding music and its impact on your life!  I pray that you feel encouraged to make choices for Jesus!  We look forward to our next instalment of the iChoose series on "God & Relationships" which will be a great one!  To all our friends who joined us from all over Sydney (Mt View, Mt Druitt, Cairns even, Chatswood, Wahroonga etc) thankyou for your company!  We look forward to sharing more fellowship together with you.

Till next time (which incidentally is April 17 ;) may you continue to be faithful and keep the faith!  He is coming very soon.

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March 18, 2010

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What a wonderful testimony we heard!
ALIVE continued with a special program on the 6th of March!  We had a lovely song service, great memory verse from Miriam, and Angela and Michael then led us in prayer!  Chris delivered a powerful message theme "Unashamed," a message inspired from his trip the GYC in the USA at the end of last year.  Chris challenged us to make a commitment to at least 1 non-Christian friend before our next ALIVE.  It was a good challenge - may we all be faithful to it.  Michelle then led a fantastic activity!  We all were given a part of a Bible text and then had to find the person who shared our other half.  It was a great activity to get us into the word and sharing with one another. Thanks Michelle!  Following this the guys, Tim, Paul and Mitch sang a beautiful item entitled "3 Wooden Crosses."  Clayton had made an accompanying powerpoint to go with the words of the song and the story it told was truly touching.  Thankyou for blessing us!  And following this we had a great testimony from Joy and Denis.  Two people who we usually see running the church were this time before the church.  We had a good laugh as we heard how the Holy Spirit was able to work on their hearts and bring them into the message and make them heirs of God'd kingdom.  A big thankyou to you both for being so willing to share of yourselves with all of us.


Following this, we rushed off to Crosslands where we witnessed Melinda's baptism and then for the die hards (all 22 of us) we came back to the Fong's place for closing Sabbath, dinner and fellowship.  


All in all it was a great Sabbath we shared together!  ALIVE is going bush on the 20th of MArch due to the Ben Carson program at Wahroonga in the morning and will commence proper with a special themed event on April 3rd, "God & Music"!  Plan now to be here for this exciting event!!!!!  To do the ALIVE Survey for our "God & Music" program click here.


God bless you, be faithful and keep the faith! 

February 21, 2010

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Yvonne preaching
ALIVE 2010 commenced yesterday with a vibrant program!  After what seems like an eternity of no ALIVE - it was good to be back together again!  We had a rousing song service singing some of our favourites followed by a terrific memory verse (Luke 12:12) taught to us by Daniel and Ryan.  It was a very memorable pedagogical technique which they employed!  Pr Dwight Nelson had encouraged us to commit this verse to memory at AYC and so on Sabbath we did.  Jeanelle and Clayton led us in prayer and then Jackie blessed us with a beautiful item that she wrote herself.  It was hard not to feel uplifted by the richness of the words!  Yvonne then preached her heart out on a very important topic "From Religion to Relationship" and this message was concluded with an appeal and a singing of that good old hymn, "Will Your Anchor Hold."  We thank God for using Yvonne to speak to our hearts yesterday.  WE were blessed!  Following this, Ryan led us in a great activity called the "Who Said It?" game.  We all broke up into groups and had a good laugh when the group scribes came together to share their respective answers.  It was a great exercise to jog our Bible knowledge.  Again, the moral of the game was simply to get into the word and really know it.  Sam then blessed us with an amazing piano rendition of that timeless classic, "It is Well" and following this Sharon kicked off our testimony time where those of us who went to AYC were able to share with the church family just how blessed we had been.  It was great to hear the stories of door knocking experiences of lives changed at AYC.  Following this we sang our closing song (still yet too decide on a theme song for 2010 - so we reverted to our 2008 theme song...) and then Pr Luke closed our afternoon in prayer.  Needless to say - ALIVE was a blessing!

However, the fun didn't stop there!  Following this, approximately 24 of us youth and church at large combined, hit the streets of Hornsby door knocking and putting into practice what we learnt at AYC.  After 1 hour on the doors, we returned to the church to share our experiences and hear of our combined results.  As a consequence of our efforts, 5 people requested self-study lessons, 1 person requested DVDs and 1 other requested a bible because they didn't have one!  The stories were many and varied.  Some of our groups upon knocking on the doors, were welcomed into homes, offered drinks etc!  One group met a Catholic family who enjoyed having a long chat with them.  And at the conclusion, the group were able to pray with the family as well.  We believe that God ordained divine appointments for us on the doors yesterday.

And then, when you thought the day couldn't get any better, Marleta did a great closing Sabbath on Jonah and then we all headed off to the REC room at the SAN.  Bought some take away and played table tennis, soccer and tennis.  Thanks to Chris for organising the social for us! 

November 22, 2009

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'Reverse Quiz' with Aunty Ivy & Uncle Bob
What a wonderful time we shared together yesterday afternoon!  Despite the heat, God blessed our program immensely!  It was the last MEGA ALIVE program for 2009 and hasn't the year gone so quickly!  We had a rousing song service that resurrected some good old classics "The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power" and "Will There Be Any Stars in My Crown" and more.  Though perhaps one of the most memorable moments of yesterday afternoon was that a'capella rendition of "In A Little While We're Going Home."  The house of the Lord was literally filled with heavenly music.  So uplifting!  Tim taught us a beautiful memory verse from Revelation 4:11 - what a wonderful text to commit to heart!  Rosanna and Kula opened our program in prayer and then our special guests, Enmore Fijian blessed us with two amazing songs of rich harmony!  Can they sing!  We were so blessed by having them come and share with us!  Jackie then shared a testimony in song; one of her very own composition and then we had our special activity with Aunty Ivy, Uncle Bob and cousin Max!  We all very much enjoyed the 'reverse quiz' and found ourselves in stitches over the biased scoring system!  Thus, even though the over 50's thrashed us youth - what a wonderful thing it is to be part of the family of God.  Sharon, Natalie and Rebeca then blessed us with a beautiful item in song, the "Via Dolorosa."  Matthew, our guest speaker all the way from Brisbane, then preached a stirring message on sowing - his driving point, "what are we sowing?"  Thankyou Matthew for allowing the Lord to use you yesterday!  This was then followed by a final item from our Enmore Fijian Youth singers, the theme song and then Pr Youlden closed the afternoon in prayer too.  What a MEGA day!

But wait, that was only half of it!  We then trekked off to the REC room at the SAN for a special ENCOUNTER thanksgiving.  And what a blessing it was to reflect on what the Lord has done for us.  We then had dinner, closed Sabbath, played baskestball, volleyball and soccer and some of us made cards as well.  All in all - we were blessed and reminded yet again that God is good, all the time.

Till next time, may God bless you and may you be faithful and keep the faith!

November 1, 2009

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ENCOUNTER 09 Mission
Our "ENCOUNTER: Closer Than You Think" series is now officially over - and what an incredible 5 weeks it has been!  We have been working so hard, but God has been so good to us and He has brought us through!  To all those who were a part of the program and supported it through your attendance - may God bless you for your faithfulness!  It was absolutely thrilling to see everyone working together doing their part so conscientiously and efficiently - it was a testimony to the moving of the Holy Spirit in our midst.

As a result of our collective efforts and prayers, God has blessed us with incredible results!  27 people made decisions for baptism / rebaptism and over 30 people requested Bible studies!  We praise the Lord for what He has done and we now ask that He would help us to follow up these precious requests as well.  Times of even great harvest lie ahead!

A lady from a baptist church commented on the spirit of those involved in the program one Friday evening, noting that there was an enthusiasm and excitement amongst those involved in the program that greatly impressed her.  She said she never saw such enthusiasm at her own church.  For this reason, she skipped her Friday night Bible study with her church to come to our program! Isn't that just the most encouraging testimony!  And she's absolutely right.  With a message like ours - it's so easy to be excited!

The series will be available for order on DVD soon and for those who would like to share the series with their friends, the first 6 programs are on the web and can be watched through our website at www.encounterjesus.net. 

We are planning on having a special thanksgiving/social soon - details will be out shortly.  But once again thankyou to everyone for a truly fantastic effort!  Our greeters, ushers, AV team, hospitality team, floor manager, singers, musicians, interest-coordinators, camera operators, web master, marketing, mc's, set design, creche and the project managers.  May God bless you for being a blessing to others and His cause! 

NOTE:  ALIVE continues November 21 @ 2:30pm in Waitara SDA Church with a MEGA EVENT!  Don't miss it and plan to be there for this exciting event!

Also, AYC 10' registration is now open on their website at www.adventistyouthconference.org.  We would encourage all of our youth to attend this event iin February of 2010!  It will truly bless you richly! 

September 6, 2009

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Jaime Jorge
What a special program we were blessed with at ALIVE yesterday!  We were filled to capacity and the Holy Spirit moved powerully as Jaime shared of himself and his talent with us all.  Incase you missed it, Natalie led us through a beautiful song service followed by Gil and Jess who welcomed us and introduced our special guest all the way from the USA, Jaime Jorge!  Jeanelle taught us a beautiful memory verse and Chris and Daniel led us in prayer as we dedicated the program to God.  Jaime then performed several touching melodies on his violin and all were truly moved as he shared of how Jesus has made such a difference in his life.  A special invitation was made to those present to join us for the ENCOUNTER Series commencing on the 26th of Septmeber too.  We took up a special offering to support Jaime's ministry, "Bibles for cuba" and thanked him for coming to be with us by giving him an extra special, exclusive gift - an ALIVE hat!  (And yes, for those who have been asking - we shall consider ordering some more! ;)  To conclue this inspiring program we sang a rousing rendition of our theme song and then Pr Stanley closed the meeting in prayer.

We then trekked off to the SAN Chapel for closing Sabbath, the SAN cafeteria for dinner and then over to Wahroonga SDA church for an evening concert with Jaime as well which was truly something special!  Oh and on a sad note, yesterday also marked the LAST ALIVE program for Daniel Watts and Rachel Wegener too!  We're going miss you guys but pray for the Lord's continued blessings in your lives.

We praise God for the many blessings He showered upon us yesterday!  And we look forward to the Kingdom when we will be able to see and praise the Lord, face to face.

Till next time - may God bless you and keep the faith.  (REMINDER:  Keep praying for the mission - nothing happens without prayer!)

August 16, 2009

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Still ALIVE
All the way He leads me and all the way we will follow!  Praise the Lord we're STILL ALIVE!  We had a wonderful program yesterday afternoon with the very first STILL ALIVE program ever run by the young at heart - especially for us.  We were blessed by a rich program filled with singing and testimonies from people of experience; people who have walked with God throughout their lives despite hardship, illness, tragedy and other disappointments.  Their testimonies of learning to trust in our Heavenly Father were truly heart warming.  Special thanks to Ivy for all her effort in pulling together what truly was a historic afternoon for Waitara!  God is so good - all the time. 

Special thanks to Ruth and Dan for leading the song service which was complete with good singing and hymnals.  Mildred, Athel, Ralph, Esther, Carol, thankyou for selecting such lovely hymns!  We also paused for a moment in our program to remember our dear friend, Margaret who passed away on Tuesday - still alive in Jesus.  Thankyou also to Ruth, Graeme, Alfred, Marina, Hellen and David for sharing your testimonies, to the Quintet Singers for their special music and to the Blacktown "Silver Threads" instrumental group for their music as well.

What a treat!  After the program, we had drinks and then those who were able trekked off to Bjorn's house to celebrate his birthday in evening as well. 

We look forward to the next installment of "STILL ALIVE," but until then may we all continue to follow Jesus!  Our next ALIVE program continues September 5 at 2:30pm with an extra special event with Jaime Jorge!  So don't miss it!  The church is going to be absolutely packed too - so invite your friends and be prepared to be there on time for a special blessing!

God bless, be faithful and keep the faith!

August 2, 2009

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Geoff Lomas Mission Video
Praise Him!  Everyday!  What an incredible program we shared together yesterday!  We had a powerful song service followed by a welcome packed with exciting announcements, Ryan taught us the memory verse so well and then Mick opened the program in prayer.  We were then blessed with some special music brought to us by the 'Black & Bleach Singer's'  who sang 2 items throughout our program, "How Deep the Father's Love for Us" and "I'm at Your Mercy."  Thankyou so much for joining us - we were blessed!  Our message was a little unconventional in that it consisted of two interviews conducted by Marleta with Charissa and Geoff who had both returned from evangelistic campaigns in various places.  Charissa shared of her experiences in Perth and Cairns and told of how God blessed the Cairns revival with 31 decisions for baptism!  Geoff then shared of his experiences in the Philippines and how he preached a whole 18 sermons in 2 weeks which praise the Lord, resulted in 38 decisions for baptism!  Geoff also told how as a result of several other evangelistic campaigns running in the Philippines at the same time, they had a total of over 1,200 decisions for baptism!  Isn't God so good!  We were very inspired by these reports and the message component was fittingly concluded with a video Geoff made of his trip.  Share Him - and see how He blesses!  Miriam ran a great activity and got us all jogging our Bible knowlegde, thanks Miriam!  Some of our Vanuatu Mission Team then came together and delivered a beautiful item in song in English and then in the native tongue of the peoples in Vanuatu which was special.  Sharon then led some of the Vanuatu mission team in time of testimonies where several shared of how God had blessed them as a result.  Thanks to Maria, Anna, Benjamin, Bethany, Chris and Ross for sharing of yourselves!  We all enjoyed seeing the pictures, watching the footage and hearing how you were all blessed and how you were all a blessing.  We pray that the good seed sown in Vanuatu will indeed grow and flourish into a wonderful harvest for God's Kingdom.

In closing, there was no better way than to sing the theme song, close Sabbath and conclude our evening with a special dinner together at the...SAN!  We enjoyed that - though we decided to save our after dinner activities for a later time...perhaps on camp. 

We look forward to seeing you at our next ALIVE program - the very first STILL ALIVE ever!  (We've certainly had a lot of firsts this year).  So till we next meet be faithful and keep the faith!

p.s.  Jaime Jorge will be coming as a special guest to ALIVE on the 5th of September - don't miss this exciting event!  PLUS the ADRA appeal will be on this month - and we (the youth) will be going.  So be prepared to come out with us each Sabbath and pray for generous donations.  And lastly, the youth camp is only weeks away - more details coming soon. 

July 5, 2009

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Mega ALIVE song service
Praise Him!  Everyday!  Because He is good, all the time!  What a wonderful time we shared together yesterday afternoon at the very first themed MEGA ALIVE program ever!  We had a full church with visitors from churches all over Sydney present for our program which was suitably themed "PENTECOST: HE WILL DO IT AGAIN."  (The inspiration for this being the GYC of 2002 in the USA and the fact that this Sabbath marked the culmination of 10 days of prayer as part of Operation Global Rain.)  The song service kicked off with a rousing rendition of "There Shall Be Showers of Blessing!" led by Gilmour and his terrific team of singers, mixing youth from Brisbane and Casino!  We sang several uplifting songs and even had a special hymn led by Brad on his banjo as well, "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms" and that was a real treat!  Marie taught us a powerful memory verse from Acts 4:13 and this was followed by the readings which Seventh-day Adventists around the world were reading as part of Operation Global Rain.  Jess and Claire read beautifully for us!  Tim (all the way from Casino) and Bjorn then led us to the throne of grace in prayer after a moment of silent prayer, and this set the tone for the rest of the program.  The Brisbane singers, Praise n' Harmony then sang "Glorify Thy Name" and this was followed by a testimonial report by Daniel to the power of God and the way the Holy Spirit is moving on people's hearts as a result of the ministry of It Is Written Oceania.  Praise the Lord for the way He is moving in these last days of earth's history.  Following this we had a second musical item by the boys entitled, "Sweet, sweet Spirit" and it proved to be a fitting melody for the time of prayer that followed.  For instead of our usual activity, this Sabbath we had an extra special prayer time, and then a corporate dedication of our church and the churches represented to the Lord's service.  This was truly moving and indeed the presence of the Holy Spirit was felt as we all united our petitions to God, led by Ivy Williams and our senior pastor, Pr Pereira.  We should mention that prior to breaking up into groups for prayer, we had a second section of readings from the Operation Global Rain themesheets read by Chris, Charissa and Chris, where one of the Chris' shared a little of his personal testimony which was inspiring as well!  Following our prayer time, the Kurtovic family singers blessed us with a beautiful item "Open Our Eyes" and this was then followed by our message!  Pr Stanley didn't know that he would end up preaching on Sabbath, but neither did Peter on the day of Penecost!  And we were all blessed as Pr Stanley spoke God's word to us.  And after a program like this, a program packed with prayer, what better way to finish it than with the Lord's Prayer which was shared with us by Lizca and Samuel.  We topped the whole program off with a passionate rendition of our theme song which fitted our them perfectly, "God Light Your World" and Pr Pereira then closed the meeting in prayer.  So as you can see, it was one mega Sabbath!

And then just when you thought that was it, we then had a terrific Vanuatu Fundraising Concert in the evening too which was very colourful and a lot of fun ;)

ALIVE is now in recess until the 1st of August due to the Vanuatu Mission Trip in July.  We wish the Vanuatu Mission Team the very best and will uphold them in our prayers as they journey to peoples who have not yet heard of Jesus.  And we pray that the same power of the Holy Spirit that enpowered Peter to preach with such conviction on the day of Pentecost, will indeed enable them to be a mega blessing wherever they go.

A special thankyou to all of our participants who made our program yesterday so special!  Your contribution was a blessing to us all.  And a reminder too that STILL ALIVE commences on the 15th of August as well and it promises to be something extra special as we heard on Sabbath! 

Till then, be faithful and keep the faith!  And may Pentecost II, which God has promised that He will do again, begin with you.  Amen.

June 21, 2009

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Singing 'The Power of Your Love'
Praise Him everyday!  God is good all the time!  We had a very special ALIVE program on Sabbath!  Jackie led an uplifting song service, Marleta and Vinnie gave a great run down of up coming events, Tristan taught us a powerful memory verse (Joshua 1:9) and Michael and Daniel led us to throne of grace in prayer.  Werner blessed us with a song the Lord inspired in his heart and this was followed by a truly inspired message from Gilmour, reminding us that when trouble comes our way, as we can expect it will, that we can trust in the never failing promises of God who is faithful!  Amen!  Gayl and Arabella then ran a game of 'Bible Baulderdash' which got our creative minds ticking!  We then had another amazing special item from a trio who happened to form during the program which sang "The Power of Your Love" acapella and it was such a blessing.  Tim then shared how God has been ever near and always faithful to him in his life, and it was so encouraging to hear his story for God's glory.  We then concluded as we always do, with a passionate rendition of our theme song and a closing prayer - but the activities were far from over!

Following the ALIVE program we closed Sabbath in the church, trekked over to the SAN for dinner and then had a surprise party for a special birthday girl in the REC room (the birthday girl was Marleta!  Happy birthday! :)  We played games and ate cake and had a terrific time - together!

All in all, we continue to praise God for the blessings He is showering upon us at each program.  To God be all the glory!  Praise Him everyday!  We look forward to seeing you at MEGA ALIVE on the 4th of July for what is shaping up to be a powerful time together - but until then, be faithful and keep the faith.  He is coming soon!

NOTE: Operation Global Rain commences June 25th - July 4th at Waitara Seventh-day Adventist church from 7-8pm.  Alll welcome to come and join in a special hour of prayer with your church family.  See you at prayer meeting! ;)

NOTE: SPECIAL SPEAKER coming to Waitara THIS SABBATH!  Pr Ken Vogel!  Be sure to be there to receive the blessing the Lord has prepared for you! ;)

June 7, 2009

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Miriam's first sermon!
Praise Him!  Everyday!  We had another truly blessed ALIVE program on Sabbath!  The song service was truly uplifting (thanks to Rebeca and her lovely team) and the whole program was pervaded by the presence of the Holy Spirit Himself - and we praise God for that.  We reflected upon the wonderful blessings we received from the last themed ALIVE program and gave each of our panel guests a little momento from the afternoon as a thankyou gift for sharing of themselves with all of us.  Ryan then lead us through the memory verse - which he did very well!  Darren our friend from Taree was with us this Sabbath also and he and Bek led us to the throne of grace in prayer.  Thankyou for asking God's blessings to be upon us all!  We then all participated in a group special item which was a first!  And together we sang the words to that African-American spirital, "Kum Ba Yah" which interpreted means, "Come by here."  And truly the Lord did come close to us in our program.  Miriam delivered an amazing message on the story of Samuel which was both inspiring and a blessing!  Thankyou for letting God use you to speak to us Miriam!  Rosanna ran a great activity called "The Capsicum Game" - yes that's right, just when you'd thought you'd seen them all, out comes a new activity!  Thanks Rosanna.  Amy sang a beautiful song which was truly something extra special and then Matthew shared his testimony of how he grew up in the church and how God has kept him in the church.  Thankyou Matt for sharing of yourself with us - we were blessed!

Following the program, we then cut a cake in the hall for some of the special birthday people and had a social at Maria's place!  So the blessings continued on and on!  We pray that you will remember to stay close to Jesus in the days that lie ahead remembering that while the future looks daunting at times, all God ever asks us to do is to take one day at a time with Him.  We look forward to seeing you at our next program on the 20th of June!  (NOTE:  There will be a MEGA ALIVE event on the 4th of July so plan now to be there!)

p.s.  Pr Ken Vogel is a special speaker from the Australian Union Conference in Victoria, is coming to speak at Waitara on the 27th of June!  So plan now to be there if you're not already planning on being there for that and bring your friends.  Also, Pr David Blanch, the Greater Sydney conference president will be at Waitara on the 11th of July as well so don't miss them! ;)   

May 17, 2009

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The Panel!
Praise Him!  Everyday!  What a wonderful time we had yesterday afternoon!  The very first themed ALIVE program ever went so wonderfully yesterday!  This highly anticipated event was one that was truly blessed by God Himself.  We had a rousing song service led by Sandy and accompanied by our great musicians!  We were also able to honor the 27th wedding anniversary of two very special people which was fitting too given our theme of "God & Relationships." 

Jo led out in the memory verse recital - well done to Marleta and Miriam who managed to memorize the whole quota!  And good on you others for getting up and having a go too.  Maria then read to us some beautiful quotes from the Spiritual of Prophecy to set the tone for the rest of the program, Gladys and Ryan led us in prayer which was followed by a truly uplifting violin and piano item by Esther and Deanne.  It was just beautiful!  Andrew took a fantastic message in keeping with our theme, drawing our attention to some interesting details in the story of Isaac and Rebekah.  Luke and Ashley then sang a beautiful duo and Charlotte ran our activity!  Had us all jogging our Biblical memories too - thanks Charlotte!  Miriam sang a beautiful solo entitled, "People need the Lord" and this was followed, not by a testimony but by a 'Special Feature.'  For this segment we had some special couples from our church family including our senior pastor, come up and be interviewed on their take on "God & Relationships."  Altogether they represented a 'heavy weight' panel of experience boasting a total of 152 years of marriage experience.  Their contribution was appreciated by all of us and they had us in stitches too as they shared about the time they first met etc!  Thankyou so much for being a part of our program - your advice and humor was a blessing!  During this segment also, the results from our recent ALIVE experiment were revealed too!  And incase you missed it or would like to see them again here they are for you to see:

We had 11 Females & 13 Males participate anonymously in this experiment, giving a total of 24 responses to "THE TOP 10 THINGS I LOOK FOR IN A PROSPECTIVE MATE."

TOP 5 MALE RESPONSES
Spirituality - 100%
Attractive - 85%
Patient & Understanding - 54%
Sense of Humor - 46%
Really loves me/Expression of love - 38%

TOP 5 FEMALE RESPONSES
Spirituality 100%
Sense of Humor - 73%
Looks - 64%
Hard Working - 45%
** NOTE: No. 5 was a tie between the following all at 36%
Honesty
Family
Health
Responsible
Life goals/direction
Communication

Special thanks to all those who participated - we really enjoyed hearing your responses - and it brought out a very important point: relationships aren't just about finding the right person - they're about being the right people too.

We ended the program with a passionate rendition of our theme song, closed Sabbath on the steps of the church and had dinner at the SAN cafeteria which was great too!  Following this - for those who still had a lot of energy to burn - we went down to the REC room and played a lot of great games as well!  The laughs continued through from the afternoon strong into the evening and praise God we had a great time!

Till next time, be faithful and keep the faith!  And remember to make God the first thing your life - for as we learnt yesterday, His plans for our lives and our relationships are much grander than any of us could imagine!  God is good - all the time!

May 3, 2009

Praise Him!  Everyday!  We had a truly alive ALIVE program yesterday afternoon blessed by God Himself.  The singing was fantastic, and our song service was accompanied by a vast array of different instruments (Deanne - piano, Esther - violin, Anna - flute, David - trumpet, Stephen, Guitar).  We were introduced to some new ALIVE welcome calls (hope you all remember them!) and the program was opened in prayer by Geoff and Andy.  Stephen blessed us with a musical item in song reminding us of the precious words of Psalms 91.  Jackie then gave a touching message of how God has blessed and taught her in her life just recently and then the Christian voice trio delivered 2 outstanding songs which took us straight back to Africa!  Thankyou for your music!  Jo ran a great activity which had us all on our Bible trivia toes, causing quite a stir of happy competition between groups (the December group would have liked to have a recount of the scores - next times people!).  And then to top the program off Daniel opened up and shared with us how God has brought him through his life with it's ups and downs, and we praise God for the miracle He has worked in him.  We concluded a powerful hour together by the singing of our theme song which we seem have got the hang of well and truly now!  And then Pr Youlden closed the program with prayer.  A special thankyou to all our participants - you were a blessing and we were blessed - praise God!

Following the program, we went door knocking.  The Lord blessed this initiative incredibly!  Within the space of just 45min (as we were racing the sunset, we managed to conduct a total of 22 surveys and of those survey's we obtained 5 bible study contacts as well as a handful to go back and visit!   Talk about a plentiful harvest!  And worthy of note too is the number of people who actually went on the doors yesterday - we had a record number of door knockers go out this Sabbath - in all over 25 people went out!  Praise the Lord!  How about that for a team effort!  (And by the way, it wasn't just the youth who went we had everyone from 8 years of age to much more than that!) 

One lady who we door knocked had been beaten just recently by a homeless man, her face was bruised and pained.  She claimed to be a Christian though she was an alcoholic and was living with a man she wasn't married too.  She didn't feel compelled to respond to the invitation to study Bible prophecy, but she said she would be interested in coming and visiting our church one Sabbath.  We were delighted and so we wrote the address down for her and God willing we will see her turn up in the future.  We share this story with you for 2 reasons:  1.  So that we remember within the rush of religious activity on Sabbath morning that there are souls that are going to turn up to our churches seeking truth and seeking Jesus.  We need to look out for them!  2.  This lady is a picture of the majority of people in our community and what we have to offer them is what they most desperately need.  Because in world of social decay and violence, pandemics and crisis', the real issue is a moral one.  The human race is moving further and further from God's ideal for His people as outlined in the 10 Commandments.  These people need the Holy Spirit to change their hearts and in turn to change their lives.  These people need Jesus - the only one who can save us from our sin!  We pray that these stories, and results will encourage you to carry your candle and go light your world!

The whole day was topped off with a fantastic social in the church hall!  Actually, it was probably one of best socials we've ever had in the church hall!  We had pizza, played games, and discovered a member of the church who is not on the church roll yet - a mouse in the hall!  That was quite exciting!  The evening was concluded with prayer and then we went our separate ways!

We look forward to seeing you at our next program on the 16th of May with a MEMORY VERSE RECITAL!  Also this next ALIVE will be the very first 'themed' ALIVE program we've ever had with a special program on "God & Relationships!"  So don't miss it and invite your friends!  More details coming soon to this website!
 


April 19th, 2009

We had another great ALIVE program yesterday afternoon!  Miriam led a rousing song service, Esther taught us a beautiful memory verse, Matt and Gilmour led us in a season of powerful prayer, Irene blessed us with a wonderful message reminding us to give glory to God and Anna blessed us with a very very very special activity!  Following this, Ken sang a moving melody which was followed up by a season of thanksgiving led by Bethany where many of us shared with the rest of us how God had blessed in our lives which was truly uplifting.  A special thankyou to all who contributed to the blessing we recieved yesterday!  Praise the Lord!

Following the program we closed Sabbath in the SAN Chapel, had dinner in the cafeteria which was really nice and then had a brief discussion over our plans for the year in the REC room followed by tennis, table tennis, handball and some of us even watched a good old movie, "The Fiddler on the Roof"!  All in all, we thank the Lord for the fellowship we were able to share together.  We look forward to seeing you at our next program on the 2nd of May which will also include a MEMORY VERSE RECITAL!  Memory verses can be downloaded from our memory verses page.  God bless and remember to be faithful and keep the faith!

p.s.  Please keep the Vanuatu mission trip in your prayers.  We are currently still needing about $2000+ dollars.  Pleas pray that God will do that which we cannot - for His glory.  (Psalms 24:1)


April 5th, 2009

Well if there was ever a reason to praise the Lord, it was for the way He blessed our MEGA ALIVE program on Sabbath!  It was truly something amazing and special!  Incase you missed it, we had a full church with people from all over Sydney in attendance - we praise God for the opportunity to come together to worship the Lord!  We had a fantastic song service led by Charlotte and her great singers.  The prayers were special, the memory verse was very creative - thanks Claire!  And we were so blessed to have so many special items brought to us by our special guests and some of our very own.  Special thanks to the "Jewels for Christ Group," Concord Youth and the Polish youth as well as others as well.  Scott ran a very clever activity labelled "Immersion Quotient" and Concord youth gave us a very inspiring report of their most recent evangelistic trip to Tonga!  How inspiring it was to hear of how the Holy Spirit is moving on peoples hearts here in the South Pacific!  William Moala preached a powerful sermon on Nicodemus and then to top the whole program off, we were able to witness Jeanelle's rebaptism!  That was extra special.  Jeanelle gave her testimony too and it was such a blessing to witness her stand for Jesus.  Following the baptism, an appeal was made and the results received were truly heart warming.  Praise the Lord, 11 people made their decision to follow Jesus and be baptised as He was!  Praise the Lord!

We continue to believe that the successes of yesterday were a complete and utter answer to prayer.  Some of you may not be aware of this, but on Thursday the 2nd of April we had a special day of prayer and fasting praying that God would bless our program on Sabbath - and Heaven delivered a mega answer to those prayers.  So for those who did pray for us - thankyou so much for your prayerful support.  It is the backbone of our program. 

And just when you thought that was it, we all trekked off to the SAN chapel for closing Sabbath which consisted of some rousing singing and a special devotion from Pr Stanley!  And then after this we went and played some tennis and basketball on the courts there at the SAN and yes, we had pizza too.  Following this, due to the fact that daylight saving is no longer with us, we decided we also had time to watch the movie FIREPROOF in the recreation room there at the SAN and it was terrific too.  So as you can see - last Sabbath was truly one mega day! 

We pray that YOU will continue to experience God's presence in your life as you continue to be ALIVE in Him!  Jesus is coming soon!  Let's not give up - in a little while we're going home.  And if you haven't yet seen any pictures from the program be sure to check our gallery page too!


March 22nd, 2009

God is so good - all the time!  We had a fantastic Sabbath yesterday!  The blessings were truly endless - praise God!  We had a powerful sermon from Pr Stanley which was then followed by a very special baptism of two lovely ladies and then there was a great pot luck and then there was ALIVE!  And if you missed the program yesterday - it was MEGA quality!  We sang, as always, several heart warming songs, and we were then taught a great memory verse(John 10:14-16) thanks to Cherith!  The program then continued with prayer (thanks to Brittany and Zodwa) followed by a beautiful musical item by Florian and Sharon.  Brad then preached a powerful message reminding us of the power in the blood, amen!  A special thanks to God who enabled Brad to get to the program on time too! Aunty Joy ran a great activity - apparently something that she grew up with in AY programs in Philippines which was a lot of fun, thankyou Aunty Joy!  Natalie and Rachel blessed us with a very touching melody and then Werner got up and opened his heart to us and shared how God has led, blessed and guided him, a lost sheep, back into the fold of Jesus.  What a wonderful God we serve!  Our theme song singing improved this week - though the problem has now been recognised - the slides were wrong!  Hence next time - we should be spot on! :)  And then to top the whole program off, Aunty Ivy closed our meeting with a beautiful prayer.  How we value the support of our church!

And just when you thought that was it - we went out in the afternoon and did some outreach!  We sent out 2 teams which covered/infiltrated 3 territories.  4 people went letter boxing and roughly 15 people went out door knocking.  We spent a good 45 minutes on the doors and how excited we were when we returned back to the church to close Sabbath!  We had so many exciting stories to tell - too many to tell here, but for those of you who missed it - here's a teaser.  One trio went to knock on the door of an apartment here in Hornsby.  When the man opened the door, one of our door knockers recognised him!  Weeks earlier, she had been shopping in Coles when she felt impressed to approach a man in the isle and tell him that God loves him.  She told him and he was naturally surprised.  And wouldn't you believe it - but yesterday, she the the other two with her, ended up knocking on this mans door!  They stayed and chatted with him for 40 minutes!  His was the only door they knocked on - but the long and the short of it is that they have invited him to church next Sabbath and he's coming!  Praise the Lord!  How amazing is that!  Two of our other groups scored Bible studies which was so exciting AND another group met a man who claims to not be a Christian, and yet he is actively studying the Bible, with 8 in his home!  Just incredible.  Another group met a man who had previously attended several Geoff Youlden programs and liked them!  It was obvious he had listened to what Pr Youlden had said because when asked what the mark of the beast was, he was the first person who got the answer right!  (It's one of the questions on the survey that we do.)  They were able to tell him, "We go to his church!"  Another group met a Jehovah's Witness who had been visited by Pr Price several years ago.  He told them that they were the first Seventh-day Adventist's to ever knock on his door.  They then invited him to church next Sabbath to hear guess who - Pr Price!  Isn't that so exciting!  There were plenty more stories about how God helped one of our groups to reach people in security buildings too.  All in all, we delivered several Father's Love Letter DVD's to people who did our survey (note: these contained the Father's Love Letter to music on them as well as the first program of Pr Doug Batchelor's net 99 program as well!) and we also delivered many prophetic code cards as well. 

We then followed up our outreach with a special social in the hall!  Table tennis and pizza all round! ;)

We look forward to seeing you again at our next program on the 4th of April, 2009 which is going to be a MEGA one!  This program will be a great one including a baptism as well!  So don't miss it!  Jesus is alive and alive forevermore!  Jesus is coming soon!  Pray the Father to send us forth as laborers into His harvest for it truly is plentiful!

p.s.  Check out our blog to see some great videos (The Father's Love Letter, the theme song and a special extra to touch your heart ;)


March 8th, 2009

We had another great ALIVE program yesterday afternoon!  Isn't God so good?  In case you missed it, the program was kicked off with some passionate, heartfelt singing in our song service, special thanks to our musicians and song service team!  Sharon gave us a great announcement on the FAST small group program that we'll be starting this year and Daniel gave a very thorough teaching of one the longest memory verses we've ever had at ALIVE!  Thanks Daniel for all of your creativity!  Rebeca and Yuri took us to the throne of grace in prayer, Jackie blessed us with a item she personally wrote and Melinda gave us a powerful message reminding us of our need to make time to spend time with Jesus.   We then had a challenging Bible quiz and rendition of Bible Baulderdash which brought out some of the imaginative skills among us!  Tim sang a touching melody reminding us of the people in our world who we should be looking out for and to top the whole program off, Tristan came and shared his powerful testimony of how God delivered him from a life of crime and drugs to one that is ALIVE in Jesus!  Amen!  God is so good!  Tristan then challenged us to go and plant a seed for Jesus this week.  What a great challenge!  One that was enforced further through the singing of our theme song, "Go Light Your World."

Following the program then prayed over the 4800 cards to letter box to our community.  We then split up and covered 7 territories, some of which was new territory before reconvening in the SAN chapel for a time of prayer and praise which was truly uplifting.  And then we concluded a full day of Sabbath blessings with some basketball, tennis and Thai food too!  We had a great time - and have determined to do it all again soon!

May you be blessed this week as you seek to plant a seed for Jesus! 

[[BREAKING NEWS]] ALIVE will continue with a MEGA ALIVE program on the 4th of April, 2009!  Plan now to BE there!  More details coming soon!


February 22nd, 2009

Praise the Lord, ALIVE began with a bang yesterday!  We had a full house with over 120 people from all over Sydney in attendance.  The atmosphere was uplifting and so exciting - it's great to know that God is still ever so good to us in 2009!  Amen!  We were blessed by the contributions of all of our participants - thankyou for giving to the Lord!  And as promised, we featured the testimonies from the recent AYC!  What a sweet time of fellowship we shared together. 

Unfortunately due to a heavy down pour in the late afternoon - we weren't able to go for our bush walk - but that just means we'll have to go again next time!  Till we next meet - may your hearts be ignited always for His glory.  Carry your candle - go light your world.

God bless!  We look forward to sharing the journey with you!


December 7th, 2008

What a wonderful program we had yesterday!  The year started with a bang, ended with a bang and we've been banging all year!  God is good - all the time!  Amen!  There was truly a sweet sweet Spirit in our midst yesterday afternoon as we shared in the last ALIVE experience together, and we know that it was the presence of the Lord.  The singing was passionate, the memory verse was very well taught thanks to our Taree friend, Darren and the special items were very special!  (Thanks to Maria, Arabella, Florian & Sharon...)  We were blessed to have a powerful message from Geoff Lomas who reminded us of the importance of knowing the true character of God in these last days, Sandy invited us all to recall the goodness of God and all were truly moved as we were able to share with each other the blessings which God has blessed us with.  It's wonderful to know that not only is God good - but He's good to each one of us personally.  We truly had much to be thankful for!  And what a powerful testimony Natalie shared with us of how God led her to Himself and how He is contining to answer her prayers and care for her!  Friends, the bottom line of the program yesterday was if you missed it - you really did miss out because it was truly something very special. 

Our program, which had become a very emotional one was concluded with a call to accept Jesus and follow Him in baptism.  And praise the Lord - several decisions were made to do just that.  And after a moment like that - we sung that closing theme song, "I Have Decided to Follow Jesus" with more meaning than perhaps we have ever sung it before. 

A special thankyou to all who have been apart of our program and who have supported it with your presence both yesterday and throughout the year, including our fantastic AV team!  It has been so rewarding to see the Holy Spirit move in your hearts and we pray that you will continue to experience His presence in your lives also.  And having said that, really all our thanks must go to God Himself.  We praise the Lord for allowing us to run the ALIVE program this year, for guiding it, for sustaining it, for blessing it, for using it, for inspiring it.  It has been a program dedicated to Him from the very beginning and we praise Him for what He has done and is continuing to do.

Next year, by God's grace, we will be back!  And we are looking forward to some really exciting events which will unfold in the coming year.  So till we next meet - we trust that you will have a safe holiday, a merry Christmas and a happy new year.  May this season which we are now entering into, be one in which you grow closer to Jesus, your Saviour and forever friend.

p.s.  This website will be updated with the relevent ALIVE 2009 details as they eventuate...


November 15th, 2008

God is good - ALL the time!  Amen!  We had an incredible MEGA ALIVE program yesterday!  It almost felt like we were experiencing Pentecost II!  We were blessed to have people with us from churches literally all over Sydney and even some from Melbourne!  It was just amazing.  All in all about 15 different churches were represented and the church was literally packed!  We were bursting at the seams with a congregation of somewhere between 250-300 people!  It was just amazing.

Our program featured an uplifting song service, an assortment of powerful musical items "No More Night" (Toongabbie) / "But for Your Grace" (Auburn) / "I am Willing Lord" (Waitara) / "The Promised Land" (Toongabbie), a great memory verse, inspiring testimonies from the IIWEC Bible workers and a strong message from Luis Ortiz who reminded us of the nearness of the soon return of Jesus and who challenged us also to share the Everlasting gospel with our friends.  Finally, the whole program was topped off with a heartfelt rendition of our theme song, "I have decided to follow Jesus."  And after a program like that - why would you not want to do exactly that?

Unfortunately, the weather prevented our planned beach closing Sabbath - but we had a great time in the hall socializing, eating and playing a few games too!  (Yes, we're still young at heart ;)

Anyhow, in closing off this report one thing is absolutely imperative to mention.  God has done amazing things for us, in us and through us this year in 2008.  But we cannot go forward into 2009 save God goes with us.  And so I would urge you to continue to pray earnestly for God to pour out the Holy Spirit upon you like He has promised He would do, so that you can be equipped to do His work and to spread the gospel to this world in this generation.  The words of Scripture echo down through time to us right now of what happened 2000 years ago when a group of praying people came together.  The Bible tells us in Acts 2, that "Suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled all the house where they were sitting..." and as a result 3000 were added to the church in 1 day!  May this encourage you to pray and pray so much more as we see the day approaching. 

God bless, be faithful and keep the faith! 



October 19th, 2008

Well another ALIVE program is officially 'over'!  And we're on the count down to MEGA!!  God is so good!  We had a very wholesome time together, followed by the Discoveries Series in the afternoon as well.  We sang some good old country-n-western songs together, enjoyed a powerful time of prayer together, praying for God's blessing on our church, as well as a sharing time as well.  Rebeca blessed us with a song that has really touched her heart and of course we also had our memory verse recital as well!  (And hats off to Miriam who not only remembered there was a recital - but she also recited the MOST memory verses!)

All in all we had a special time together and we're now looking forward to some MEGA action on the 15th of November!  So please, be faithful and keep the faith!  We look forward to seeing you and friends and family on the 15th of November @ 2:30pm!  Watch this website for more breaking details! 

God bless!

p.s.  If you haven't yet registered for the AYC (Australia Youth Conference) please do so ASAP!  Places will go FAST!  www.australiayouthconference.org
p.s.s.  There is NO ALIVE on the 1st of November because its the church camp AND ALIVE will be going 'on wheels' on the 8th to the Russian church for a special baptism starting at 5pm...see the calendar page for more information.


October 5th, 2008

We were blessed by another ALIVE program yesterday, oozing with flavor and in hindsight - nationality!  And it was such a blessing!  From the song service, through to the special items and then the special activity, everything and everyone made yesterday something really enjoyable.  Max had us all searching our Bibles for his mystery texts and he also did a good job of coaching us to 'walk' in the church too!  (If you were there...you'll know exactly what is meant by that!)  Bek Sibande preached to us a message straight from his heart on the absolute certainty of the soon return of Jesus Christ and who could forget the wonderful testimony by Aunty Imogen from Jamaica!  That was powerful!  We praise God for the way He reaches us! 

The program was followed by letter boxing for the Revelation of Hope series which kicks off this coming Sabbath and then by an evening social too - and that was special as well!

Unfortunately, we forgot to bring our cameras along yesterday - so the memories will have to live on in our hearts...the old fashioned way ;)  In the meantime, we look forward to seeing you at our special ALIVE program on the 18th of October starting at 2pm sharp.  Keep in mind that this will also include a memory verse recital too. 

God bless and remember to stay close to Jesus each day this week.

p.s.  Our special youth service will be held this Sabbath (October 11th) @ 11:15am!  Don't miss it!

September 21, 2008

Spring is in the air - and God is still so good!  What a stunning ALIVE program we were blessed with yesterday!  The church was filled flowers in celebration of the wonderful creator God that we serve (it was the Spring Service) and we had a full church to add to the atmosphere.  The tone was set by a vibrant praise service of touching melodies, and some heartfelt prayers of thanks to the Lord.  Matty B ran a great activity, getting us into the word and then along with some beautiful testimonies in song by Miriam and Natalie, we were blessed to hear Pr David Klinedinst's (USA) powerful testimony of the way God has lead in his life.  He had us all enthralled in his life long journey which he aptly titled, "God, don't give up on me."  The Holy Spirit truly moved in our midst as we heard his story.  Indeed God is so good to each one of us!  And then of course, who can forget Pr David's parting melody with us - a special item by he himself, "Zacchaeus Was a Wee Little Man!"  We pray for God's continued blessing on Pr Klinedinst and his family as he continues to serve God.  A HUGE thanks to all who contributed to the program yesterday ... thankyou for giving to the Lord!

Following the program, we hit the streets letter boxing for the mission in October and then we concluded an awesome Sabbath with a special evening social to celebrate some special birthdays ;)

We look forward to seeing you again on the 4th of October!  And always remember: "We don't believe in once saved always saved...but we don't believe in once lost always lost either."  May God bless you.


September 7, 2008

We had a fantastic ALIVE program yesterday!  Praise the Lord!  Incase you weren't able to be there, we had an uplifting song service, an "alive" introduction, a very very very memorable memory verse (thanks to Bjorn =), powerful prayers, special music, a great message on the love of God (thanks to Ben), an incredible activity run by our very own kiwi (thanks to Dan the man from the SAN) and a fantastic testimony to the miraculous power of God (thanks to Maria and her grandma!)  And then to top the whole program off, we had a powerful closing prayer too!  What a program!  There wasn't a single heart was not stirred by the moving of the Holy Spirit in our midst yesterday! So if you missed the program yesterday - you really did miss out!  But not to worry - there'll be more opportunities to come and experience the ALIVE experience ;)

Following the program, we shared together in an hour long prayer intensive in conjunction with the final day of prayer for OPERATION GLOBAL RAIN.  And folks if you think ALIVE is great - hearing the sound of a praying church, and young people praying for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on our church is another thing altogther.  It was very moving. 

And then CAMP THIRSTY REUNION social in the evening too - and that was terrific!  Talk about having a great time together!  (So we had one FULL day considering we also had the Father's Day lunch for church as well!)

We look forward to seeing you soon at our NEXT ALIVE program on the 20th of September!  So till next time - be faithful and keep the faith.


August 26, 2008

On the 22nd of August, we - the youth - trekked out to Katoomba for what turned out to be one of the most wonderful weekends of our lives!  God truly is good - all the time!  All in all we had just over 40 young people turn up and you will be pleased to know that we all returned back home in one piece too.  The theme for our camp this year was "thirsty" based on Psalms 42:2.  And if we were all thirsty when we got there, we have all left even more thirsty for God!  The camp was characterised by uplifting singing, powerful worship hours, lots of activities, games, bush walks and our guest speaker, Brad Moodie from the Cannot Be Hidden Institute of Evangelism, also blessed us in a special way with the messages he shared from the Word.   

A big thankyou to Matthew Butler and his faithful team for their organising and also to Sandy Brown and her impressive team of capable cooks for coordinating the mammoth task of feeding the troops so well!  Thankyou too to our church family for their prayers!  We built memories to last a lifetime, friendships for eternity and strengthened our faith for the journey!  Praise God!   NOTE:  You can see a few pictures of our experiences on our gallery page at  www.aliveyouth.weebly.com


August 17, 2008

Praise God for the fellowship we shared yesterday at ALIVE!  It was truly a wonderful blessing to be able to come together to worship and praise the Lord.  In particular we were blessed by the ministry of our Blacktown brothers and sisters who came and ministered to us through song, prayer, testimony and the message.  A special thanks goes to them for their willingness to share of themselves and for coming such a long way to do it!  Our song service team provided a powerful introduction to the program (thanks Elisabeth!) and accompanied by our fabulous team of musicians - we almost could have sung the afternoon away!  And of course who could forget the special activity either, thanks Tim for the reminder to search the word and really search it!  All in all - you were all a blessing and we were blessed! 

Then to top the whole day off we had a real treat and went ice skating!  Whatsmore, the Lord blessed us abundantly in that we were able to get into the rink for free!  And no that wasn't a typo - we got in for free!  Praise the Lord! (Now you can all put that towards the camp and the ADRA appeal of course ;) 

We pray that God would be very close to each and every one of you in this coming week!  And may the extravagant love of the Father, the amazing grace of Jesus Christ and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all.  Amen!

p.s.  We look forward to seeing you at the CAMP!  Next weekend (dubbed "ALIVE on wheels" =) 
p.p.s.  September 6 will mark the beginning of our revamped launch into the ALIVE 20/20 vision!  More details soon!


August 3, 2008

We had a fantastic program yesterday afternoon!  Incase you missed it we had a full program packed with variety!  Great singing, heartfelt prayers, touching special music, a provoking message and a moving testimony to God's power in our lives and the way He actively pursues our hearts were just the beginning of some of the blessings that we shared together.  And with the turn up we had as well - the fellowship was great!  A special thankyou to all our program participants for sharing of yourselves for God's glory!  You were a blessing and we were blessed!  Praise God!

As always, the program was followed up by an outreach initiative and yes we went door knocking!  We had a wonderful time on the doors yesterday afternoon.  All up 13 of us hit the streets of Sydney, knocking on doors.  And as a result of a solid 45 min "knock out" (sorry I would say this differently except I'm not quite sure how!) we returned to the church with 12+ surveys done and some exciting stories.  We met a lot of people!  And as a consequence of yesterday's evangelistic effort 5 prospective opportunities to make return visits were made!  God is indeed very good!  Praise Him for the way He went before us yesterday!

Please continue to pray for our door knocking and for the ALIVE program!  Time is running out, and souls are waiting all around us for someone to introduce them to the greatest man who ever lived and who made the greatest sacrifice ever...for them!  Truly, as we go, God is with us as we seek to be tools by which He can reach people.  We are constantly seeking to refine our door knocking approach in order to maximize the potential for a successful encounter at the doors - and again some more GOOD NEWS!  We have received some helpful advice which already I can see has the potential to revolutionize our afternoon experiences!  Exciting times are just ahead!  More details on this when we next go out door knocking!  See you there!

So till next time, take care and trust Jesus!

p.s.  Our next meeting is August 16, with the ADRA appeal kicking off August 9.  Also our YOUTH CAMP is August 22-24, see the Calendar page for more details.

p.p.s.  Please keep David Asscherick's and Jeffrey Rosario's city campaigns underway RIGHT NOW in your prayers!  The opportunities are endless - lets pray that the Holy Spirit will move mightily through these campaigns.


July 20, 2008

Wow!  God is good!  And He's been so good to us!  Praise God for the incredible time we had at our 2nd MEGA ALIVE program for 2008 yesterday!  Words cannot really even begin to describe the atmosphere of true revival that was shared by all who came to our program yesterday.  What an amazing answer to prayer!  We had a full house with around 250+ people joining us from Seventh-day Adventist churches from ALL over Australia!  (Yes we even had people there from Brisbane!)  The singing was powerful, the testimonies incredible, and the prayers uplifted our hearts to our Father in heaven.  The special items were rich with musical talent and were indeed touching.  And who could forget our memorable memory verse (don't forget to check our memory verses page if you need a refresher!) as well as our very special interesting activity too!  (Thanks for pointing out your relatives too Scott! =)  Our preacher, Zeb, delivered a stirring message that reminded us that we are living so very close to the soon return of Jesus!  Amen!

A special thankyou goes to all of our program participants and especially our special guests for helping to make our program so special and so MEGA!  But of course, our greatest thanks goes to God for His faithfulness.  Some may not be aware of this but we have had a team of prayer warriors who spent much time pleading for God's blessing on what happened yesterday.  Infact, on Thursday the 17th of July, the prayer warriors and youth united in a special day of prayer and fasting and thus we can say with complete confidence that the MEGA blessing we shared yesterday was nothing more than a complete answer to prayer!  Of that we are strongly convinced!

The whole program was followed up with a family style closing Sabbath in the church before we all headed off to have some good healthy fun at the indoor sports centre!  Talk about a FULL day!

We would ask that you would continue to uphold this program in your prayers.  Your prayers are indeed the backbone of our program and the secret to our door to door success in our community.  No doubt, you will be fully aware of the historic events taking place in our city associated with WYD 08.  Indeed, things are changing in our world.  Times are changing right here in Australia.  But you can be excited because while the events of Bible prophecy are playing out before our eyes as though they were jumping off the pages of Holy Scripture, know this, that God is moving amongst His people.  Let's press together and so much more as we see the day approaching!  God bless and till we next meet - be faithful and keep the faith!

P.S.  Our next ALIVE program will be on the 2nd of August!  We look forward to seeing you there!


July 6, 2008

Praise God for another truly powerful ALIVE program yesterday!  We had good turn up from our church, and thoroughly enjoyed the family atmosphere that we all shared together.  Truly, the presence of the Lord was with us and His Spirit moved to bring us not only closer to each other but also closer to the One who loves us so very much.  In case you were unable to be at the program yesterday – we had a brilliant song service to open the afternoon!  The words and melody of that much loved hymn, “Because He Lives” almost lifted the roof!  Our opening prayer time too was truly heart felt and of course, we praise God too for the messages in song that were delivered to us as well.  Marleta had us all riveted to our seats as she began the message, which was concluded by a viewing of the DVD “[Re:] ally” by David Asscherick who powerfully answered the age old question of “Does God exist?”  Paul ran a great “ASA” (i.e. Alive Special Activity) and Ken’s testimony was truly a testimony to the transforming power of God in the heart and life!  And so all in all – we had a fantastic day yesterday!

Following the program, we had 10 people go out door knocking for about 30 minutes.  And as a result of the short amount of time we were able to go out before the sun set, we were able to complete 7 surveys!  The territory we covered yesterday is perhaps the hardest territory we have had to cover thus far.  It seemed that the moment we mentioned “religion” or “spiritual” the once very happy residents turned and weren’t a bit interested in what we had to say.  None requested Bible studies as such – however, some the stories that came back during our closing Sabbath time confirmed that our efforts had not been in vain!  As it turns out, some of our group were mistaken for undercover police!  Two groups were invited inside homes to talk with people and the rest of the stories we will have to share with you at a later date!

And of course we had a great social at a private address!  A HUGE thankyou to our host for her hospitality ;)  We thoroughly enjoyed the evening!

Anyhow, we praise God for His abundant blessings yesterday.  And having returned from our outreach yesterday, our hearts today are deeply burdened for the souls within our community who seem so closed to the reality of God’s existence.  What will become of their lives in the light of eternity?  We can only pray that the Spirit of God would strive with them and that He too would send us to share wherever and whenever we can.  Friends, we don’t know how much longer time will last.  The signs of the times are already indicating that time and spare time is fast evaporating.  Let’s make the most of the time we have today!  Jesus is coming soon!


June 22, 2008

God really is good, isn’t He?  A special thankyou to all our faithful church family for their prayers and continued support!  It means so much to us to have your support, so thankyou!  And thankyou too to the 3AM Seventh-day Adventist Church for joining us for what truly was a blessed afternoon.  We had a great turn out – and we were also really proud of our own church members who despite not having a church luncheon on at the church, made the effort just the same to come out – and come out and support in good numbers the way you did.  The message was stirring!  Thanks Andy for that!  We were reminded that a lot of people will be lost not so much because they rejected Jesus, but simply because they neglected Him.  And who can forget our beautiful musical items, the 3AM groups and Amy combined to present the goodness of our Lord and Saviour in such a touching way.  So thankyou for sharing with us!  Sharon ran a great activity which kept everyone on their toes (thanks Shaz)!  The prayers were uplifting, the memory verse memorable (thanks Bethany for a great job!) and last but not least, who can forget the words of encouragement and wisdom shared with us by our very own Aunty Ivy - a valued member of our church family.  We would also like to say a HUGE thankyou to our AV team too!  They have been such a tremendous blessing to us and their contribution is so much appreciated.  To God be all the glory - great things He has done and is doing.

And of course, the whole program was followed up with the International Night in the church hall which was most definitely packed with international flavor!

We pray that God would continue to bless you all in your lives!  We look forward to seeing you again at our NEXT meeting on the 5th of July and at our MEGA program on the 19th of July which is now just a few weeks away!  Keep praying!  Keep seeking to love and know the Saviour more and more each day.  And as Pr Torres reminded us yesterday from the word of God – pray that God would make us to be “new bottles!”  Till next time - be faithful and keep the faith!  

NOTE:  Pr Torres will continue his meetings tonight (Sunday 22nd @ 7:30pm and Monday 23rd at 7:30pm also) So make sure you can be there – because if you miss it well sorry but then you’ve just missed out!  Looking forward to seeing you there!  


June 8, 2008

God is good!  (You know how to finish that ;)  We had a fantastic time yesterday afternoon!   Praise God for the blessings He gave to us!  Truly the Holy Spirit was present in our midst yesterday.  And to God be all the glory - great things He has done, is doing and will continue to do!  Amen!  We - as ALWAYS - had a wonderful turn up from our church family and from people visiting from all over the place which was really exciting!  A special thanks to all those who participated in our very first ALIVE Memory Verse Recital too!  (And for those who forgot - don't worry because we'll be having another one soon...)  The singing was uplifting, the items touching and we even had a very 'special' and 'interesting' activity to top the whole thing off as well (Thanks Scott!).  Jeanelle delivered a potent reminder of just how much God loves us and how much that means we are really worth.  And wasn't the testimony truly a testimony to the powerful workings of our Father in Heaven.  God is good - all the time!

Well as you have probably already guessed - when the program ended - the afternoon was not yet complete.  We then ventured out into Hornsby and within the space of just 15 minutes, we (there were about 15 of us who went out) were able to deliver 100 signs magazines!  Praise the Lord!  So would you please add to your prayers this week those who received a magazine yesterday?  They need our prayers.  For all we know - that 1 magazine could be the means of someone finding Jesus.  So pray pray pray for these souls that they would be open to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. 

And of course, to finish off what truly was a beautiful Sabbath - "A Sabbath to Remember" - we returned back to the church for the Burma Cyclone Fundraiser night which was really enjoyable too. 

In closing, the words of the prophet Zechariah come to mind when he said, "Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit says the LORD of hosts."  (Zechariah 4:6)   This program, right from its birth, has been something which as some would say, was a "God thing."  It is a program that is committed not just in theory - but in practice to mission and message of Jesus Christ.  We do not take this commitment lightly.  Rather we recognize the tremendous responsibility that we have to share this hope with others!  We were blind, but now we can see!  We were lost, but now have been found!   Jesus died that we might live and have life and have it more abundantly!  He is ALIVE and ALIVE forevermore!  Will you entrust Him with your life?  Have you given your heart to Jesus today?  If not, why not do that right now - Jesus is waiting for you.  1 John 5:12 says, "He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son does not have life.  These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God."

God bless and we look forward to seeing you at our NEXT ALIVE program on the 21st of June!


May 18, 2008

What a wonderful time we had yesterday!  A special thankyou to 'all' the Newcastle youth for making the big hike down to be part of our ALIVE program yesterday!  It was such a treat - so thankyou.  The singing was great, the activity full of interactivity AND all of these and more combined to inspire  us to a condensed afternoon of outreach!  And folks - we recognize this gets repeated over and over and over again on this news page but truly the outreach is one of the BEST parts of the program!

Basically we had 2 groups, 1 went out letter boxing and the other group went out door knocking!  And praise God but within the space of about 20 min-30min we all returned back to the church to close Sabbath by sharing our testimonies of how God had blessed our efforts and just listen to this!

- Our letter boxing team did a fantastic job and covered good territory!  At one point it started to rain - and as you can imagine - we all (both door knockers and letter boxers alike stopped to pray) and would you believe it but the rain stopped virtually as soon as the word "Amen" had left our lips!  Isn't God good!  Amen!

- Our door knocking team came back with some incredible experiences!  God obviously had planned some divine appointments for us yesterday afternoon! 
       >  All up 9 surveys were done (in the space of 20 min because we were racing the sun!)
       >  And of those surveys, 2 requested Bible studies! 
And that's only half of the great things God did for us yesterday.  Truly when Jesus said to "Go" into all the world - He keeps His promise when He says "I will be with you always..."  Amen!

We would urge you to please uphold this program in your prayers.  We believe that now the time is ripe for a harvest of souls.  And the devil knows that better than we ourselves!  So we can be guaranteed that he will do everything he possibly can to intensify his attack on our time, our priorities, on our families...on our relationship with Jesus!  Why?  Because he knows that if he can sever the tie between Jesus and ourselves there is no power, no stopping to the destruction he will cause in our lives as a result.  Oh friends, we would urge you to stay close to Jesus.  Make time for Jesus.  Talk with Jesus.  He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords and He will come again.

NOTE:  Our next meeting is on the 7th of June and don't forget to learn your memory verses for our recital!


May 4, 2008

Our 5th ALIVE program for 2008 is officially over and what a beautiful time we had yesterday!  We had a great turn up, the Otto Family came and shared several special items and Billy delivered a powerful reminder for us to know God and to love Him because He first loved us.  And of course who could forget our memorable memory verse!  In keeping with the theme of worldwide prayer (OPERATION GLOBAL RAIN which continues EVERY NIGHT @ the church this week...), we spent our activity time in heart-felt petitioning of the throne of grace asking for God to move on our hearts, for the Holy Spirit to be present in our lives with power and for a series of other requests and that was really special.  We would like to say a special 'thankyou' to all our participants for contributing to the blessing we received yesterday!

But our day as always - did not end there!  Following the program we had about 20 people who stayed around to go out door knocking - and folks, it was seriously one of the best parts of the day!  Because listen to this...we all went out to 3 separate territories, and within the space of 35 minutes (our time was cut short by the setting of the sun...) but we came back with the following results:

- 21 surveys were done
- Of those surveys 5 are visitations!
- And get this 3 requested Bible Studies!

ALL IN 35 MINUTES!  And folks, it might sound hard - but with the angels beside us, the Holy Spirit going before us and the whole of Heaven behind us, it's not hard at all.  We just have to make the decision and act upon it to go!  There is nothing like it in this world!  The harvest around our community of faith is truly plentiful!  There are souls seeking answers everywhere!  They're just waiting for someone to come and point them to Jesus!  Oh friends, we would URGE you to join us next for our door knocking initiative!  Because while not every door we knock on is a success - there is gold out there - we've just got to go out looking for it!  There is a blessing we believe that awaits everyone single one who goes out!  We can guarantee that you will be thrilled with the results!  Infact, it becomes both contagious and addictive!

Anyhow, we look forward to seeing you at our NEXT ALIVE program on the 17th of May and may God bless you all this week.

P.S.  Please remember our door knocking contacts in your prayers and please continue to pray for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in our church.  Jesus is coming soon!


April 20, 2008

Wow!  If our very first MEGA ALIVE program for 2008 had to be described in one word – ‘wow’ would just about do it but even then fall short!  God blessed us in a powerful way yesterday!  The Holy Spirit was present in our midst with power and yes, one could even go so far as to say the atmosphere was electric.  So folks if you missed it - you really really really did miss out!

All up, we had close to about 300 people (of all ages) join us for the afternoon from churches all across
Sydney.  The Toongabbie Youth Choir delivered an unforgettable collection of inspiring songs and the contributions made by all of our participants combined to create an atmosphere of true revival.  And of course who could forget our 'special activity'!  To God be all the glory - great things He has done! 

Following the program, some of us went out letter-boxing before we all returned to the church for a simple, old-fashioned, family style closing Sabbath!  And that was great too!

But no - our day didn't end there!  To top the whole day off, we trekked out to the Castle Hill Indoor Sports center for some good healthy fun - yes we had heaps of fun!  And with an attendance of about 70+, it's no wonder the pizza's didn't hang around too long either!

As always, the secret to the tremendous blessings of yesterday we continue to strongly believe is in answer the faithful prayers of a praying church!  We believe that God answers prayer!  And we want you to know that we have a team of prayer warriors who are continually pleading for God’s blessing on our young people and on our church.  And God is answering those faithful prayers – as we witnessed yesterday.  It was just amazing!  Thankyou for your prayers!  And we would ask that you would continue to uphold our church and its youth in your prayers.  They really do make all the difference.

In closing, because of course we could go on and on and on about what happened yesterday!  But in closing we would like to say a huge thankyou to our guests for joining us in our worship and for making our ‘MEGA’ program so special and so 'MEGA'! =)  Although, our biggest thanks goes to our Heavenly Father for His faithfulness.

We look forward to seeing you again on the 3rd of May as our ALIVE program continues!  And as always if you need a 'Memory Verse' refresher - you can check the memory verses page on our website!

May God bless and keep you till next time!  And remember to live each and every day, Always Living In View of Eternity!  Jesus is coming soon!

p.s.  The question we are continually being asked is, "When will the next 'MEGA' ALIVE be?"  And if you too are asking the same question - then keep checking this website because it will happen again ;)
p.s.s.  Our special guests for the ALIVE program on May 3 will be the "Otto Family" - c u there!


April 6, 2008

Our third ALIVE program is over!  And again it was a blessing!  We had a fantastic turn up from our church family (thankyou for your support) and God really blessed us as we went out door knocking in the afternoon!  (And this might sound hard to be believe - but the door knocking was probably one of the best parts of the day...so next time - make sure you come out with us and have a go!)

Basically, as an outreach initiative, we had 21 people (of all ages) who got together and prayed and then split up and went to go door knocking in our respective territories!  And here are the results of the labor:
       - All up 38 surveys were done
       - Of those surveys, 5 require another visit (i.e. the person invited us to come back/interviewers offered to          come back!  Praise God!
       - And another 5 bible study interests were gained!

AND ALL FROM 1.5 HOURS OF DOOR KNOCKING!  THINK OF THE POSSIBILITIES IF THE WHOLE CHURCH WENT OUT!!

Following our outreach - we all gathered in the church to close Sabbath and share our experiences - and that was a real blessing!  I think the bottom line of what we learned is that there are THOUSANDS of people but a stones throw away who have absolutely no idea about the Bible, and surprisingly most of them had never even heard of the mark of the beast!!!  There is a great mission field in our own backyard!  The harvest truly is plentiful...the laborers are few.  Come join the reapers!!!  We had no experience whatsoever - but that doesn't mean God couldn't use us yesterday!  Why?  Because God doesn't necessarily call the equipped for the simple fact that He equips the called!  Amen!

And to finish the night off we went socializing! 

All in all, we again ask for you to remember this program in your prayers.  There are so many possibilities both externally and internally within our own community of faith that your prayers are not just appreciated...they are coveted.  And we believe only by prayer - can we progress.  So thankyou for your prayers!  We look forward to seeing you on the 19th of April AND if you need a memory verse refresher, don't forget to check the memory verses page!


March 16, 2008

Our second ALIVE program was truly a blessed event yesterday.  The singing was powerful, the prayers truly heart felt, the activities - unforgettable!  Not to mention how blessed we were to be joined by the Pendal Hill Polish Seventh-day Adventist church along with several others from other Seventh-day Adventist churches in Sydney.  So once again - praise God from whom ALL blessings flow!  It truly is an incredible thing to know that we serve a living God who is ALIVE and ALIVE forevermore. 

As planned - we went out letter boxing in the community and covered good territory, following which we returned to the church for a good old-fashioned, family style, closing Sabbath.  A beautiful experience!  And not only that but to top the whole night off - WE HAD TABLE TENNIS AND PIZZA!

Truly God has blessed us - and that blessing we continue to believe is in answer to the prayers of a praying church.  So thankyou so much for your prayers!  We believe that God is not only a living God, but a God who answers prayer.  Please, please continue to pray for our church and its youth.  Please pray earnestly that we would join hands together and be of one accord as we move forward in faith - on our knees.  Jesus is indeed coming soon, and so it would be foolish for us to do anything but exactly that.

May God bless you all and please continue to keep this program as a matter of urgent prayer priority.

p.s.  Don't forget to learn those Memory Verses!  We will have a recital soon - so keep going over them! 
p.s.s.  Be sure to mark your diaries for our NEXT PROGRAM on April 5.


March 2, 2008

Praise God!  God really blessed our 1st ALIVE program on the 1st of March!  We had a wonderful turn up (quite unexpected actually) and the presence of the Holy Spirit was truly felt in our presence.  This we can attribute to one crucial aspect of this program which many were actually unaware of - and that is there was a lot of prayer that went into this event.  On Thursday the 28th of February we had a day of prayer and fasting and we have our church family to thank for their prayers and our Heavenly Father to thank for His faithfulness.  Amen! 

Also, the afternoon was followed up by an outreach effort conducted in various areas around Waitara SDA church from which we have come away ALREADY with some exciting experiences!  Perhaps we will share these at our next meeting - or else we will post those stories here.

As we move forward - we want to encourage you to do two things.

1) To continue to seek the Lord with ALL of your heart (As we learnt in our memory verse which in case you need a refresher can be found on this website at the 'Memory Verses' page)

2) To continue to pray ernestly for the ALIVE program.  To pray earnestly for our church and its youth, that God would pour out His Spirit upon us and equip us for His service and so that we might reflect His glory in this world!

God bless and we look forward to seeing you at our NEXT meeting!


Links

www.sabbathtruth.com
www.truthaboutdeath.com
www.waitarachurch.org.au
www.australiayouthconference.org
www.AmazingFacts.tv
www.whiteestate.org


For special program related downloads/material, click here.

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