Due to circumstances beyond our control, our daughter church plant, Reforming (see link above) will need to change venues for Sunday June 16th. They will now meet at the Bendigo (St John’s) Presbyterian Church Hall in Forest Street. (Still @ 5pm.) Joel Thomas is preaching on Deuteronomy 4 and 5. Come join us!

To make welcome some of the local international students, we’re going to celebrate all things Australian by hosting an ‘Aussie night’ complete with bush dancing, kangaroo (to eat!), pies and damper… and much more…!

When? Saturday night June 15th at our Hall in Forest Street, from 6-9pm. All are welcome!

As part of our regular commitment to prayer as a congregation, we’ll gather together on Saturday June 1st from 2pm (’til about 4:30 or 5pm) to spend time in prayer. You’re welcome to join us in the church foyer as we meet to pray for revival, national and world needs, missions and missionaries as well as local needs (our own church family and ministries).

‘The greatest thing anyone can do for God and man is pray. It is not the only thing; but it is the chief thing. The great people of earth today are the people who pray. I do not mean those who talk about prayer, nor those who say they believe in prayer; nor yet those who can explain about prayer; but I mean those people who take time to pray.’  (S.D. Gordon)

Update: Sermon available here.

We are pleased to let you know that Conrad Mbewe will be preaching at a public meeting in St John’s Bendigo on Thursday night May 16th at 7:30pm. There’s lots of information about Conrad on the internet (some links follow below), but just in brief, Conrad is the pastor of Kabwata Reformed Baptist Church in Lusaka, Zambia, and is also known as the ‘African Spurgeon’.  All are welcome!! Supper to follow! There will also be an offering.

http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/conrad-mbewe-the-african-spurgeon

http://www.conradmbewe.com

http://thecripplegate.com/made-in-zambia-conrad-mbewe/

During these first few weeks of April, we have been and are participating in the Bible League’s ‘Bibles for the Persecuted’ program called ‘Passport with no boundaries’.

Our members are being asked to pray daily for believers in parts of the world where they are either persecuted or tortured or discriminated against or jailed because they belong to Christ, and also put aside $2 per day for the purchase of Bibles for them. It’s a refreshing challenge – particularly when we often think we’ve got it tough in this land!

You can check out the Bible League’s program here and we would encourage you to get your church involved if you haven’t already!

April 10, 2013 was the date that some final touches on our hall renovations were completed – at last! These included the construction of a new concrete landing complete with hand rails and the installation of two new aluminium doors (with half windows and tinted glass), which have finally replaced our very aging and falling apart wooden doors! We are grateful for the work of local businesses, Robert Phillips Builders and Tucks Windows for a job well done!

The ministry of the Bendigo Christian Union has got off to a busy start in 2013, led by AFES staff workers Steve Blyth and Aimee Grinter and the CU Servant Team. You can read of all their news, coming events and all the latest at the link below (down near the bottom of the page). Please pray with us for lasting fruit from the proclamation of the gospel among Bendigo’s university students and staff.

Join us as we meet on Good Friday (March 29th) at 9:30am as we take up John 12:20-36 and consider how ‘the time had come’ for Jesus to die. Morning tea will follow. There will be a retiring offering for PresAID projects in Vanuatu and Zimbabwe.

On Easter Sunday, we ‘ll meet at the usual time of 10:30am.

Alan and Faye have been with Wycliffe Bible Translators since 1986. They worked on translation and literacy in Papua New Guinea for 20 years and are now based in Townsville. Alan now serves as a linguistic consultant for SIL Pacific area and Faye is involved in Member Care. They will speak at a special evening gathering on Saturday night March 16th at our Church Hall in Forest Street from 7pm. There will be supper. Then on Sunday March 17th, Alan and Faye will both share in our morning service and Alan will preach on Acts 8:26-40. All are welcome. There will be opportunities to contribute to a retiring offering over the weekend.

It’s not often that we get to host international musicians who are stopping over here as part of a world tour, but that’s all about to change when Eduard Klassen brings his music and testimony to St John’s on  Sunday March 17th at 3pm.

Eduard will be in Australia courtesy of HCJB.  Also check out his own website and then join us as we welcome him!