News
August 21, 2011 [MEGA ALIVE with Pr Price & Avondale's 'The Promise']
August 7, 2011 [Special ALIVE with Sandra Entermann & Jared French]
June 19, 2011
June 5, 2011 [ALIVE On The Road]
May 22, 2011 [ALIVE Goes Bush]
May 8, 2011 [Men's ALIVE: Living for the King!]
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"]
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! :)
April 3, 2011 [Love Your Enemies - Ladies ALIVE]
March 20, 2011 [Special ALIVE with Ben & Bethany]
March 6, 2011
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!]
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]
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]
November 7, 2010 [Farewell]
October 17, 2010
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
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]
September 5, 2010 [STILL ALIVE]
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]
August 8, 2010
July 23-25, 2010 [YOUTH CAMP: YOU ARE HIS PURPOSE]
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
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]
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
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
We look forward to seeing you alive and at ALIVE on the 5th of June! Till then, may God bless you!
May 2, 2010
A special thanks to all our participants! God bless you for being a blessing to us all! :)
April 18, 2010
April 4, 2010 [God & Music]
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.
March 18, 2010
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
November 22, 2009
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
