A Weekend in Dubbo
A few weeks ago I mentioned that this was the year for Mission Partner madness. And last weekend added to the picture. Nicky and I, together with Tash and four others headed out to Western NSW to partner with Dubbo Anglican Church and the Diocese of Bathurst. It was an outrageously wonderful weekend.
After a classic country buffet breakfast, we all headed off to Macquarie Anglican Grammar School for the Bathurst Anglican Diocesan conference. More than 200 adults and 40 kids registered for the day from all over NSW, several travelling more than 3 hours to be there. The team spent almost 4 hours teaching the kids from Colossians culminating in painting pots and planting seeds in them to remind them of Colossians 2:6-7. I did a couple of talks in the morning and spent a session after lunch chatting with the teenagers, helping them to reflect on what they heard and apply it to their Monday at school and work.
One of the things I found overwhelming on the day was that for many of the kids at the conference, this is the only time in a year when they get to hang out with other Christian kids. In their churches, they are the Kids Church and when that’s the case, one of their parents is usually the minister. Some of the churches have 15-20 kids (there are about this many at Dubbo) but for the kids in most other places, this is the most Christian kids they are going to see all year.
And they relished the opportunity. I have never seen a more engaged bunch of kids lapping up all they were taught. I reckon Tash’s program and the excellent leaders probably had something to do with that! I want to shout out with great thankfulness to Ashley, Eloise, Billy, Isaac and Nicky who with Tash did such an awesome job.
I spoke on the topic of The church I want to join grows disciples, and encouraged everyone to teach the Bible and walk with Jesus. It was a delight to have lots of chats with people across the day who were challenged by what they heard. One gentleman said to me, “You must have talked to our minister. He’s always telling us to join a bible study group. After your encouragement, I’m going to do that this week.” Praise God.
We packed up and left the school at about 4pm and headed back into town, gathering at 6pm for church at Dubbo Anglican. We shared a succulent Chinese dinner and after a good night’s sleep headed back to church for 8am and 10am. They dress up a bit for the formal services at 6pm and 8am as you can see from the photo there with me and Bishop Mark Calder. Honoring Anglican tradition is important in a place like Dubbo where growing in love for Jesus rather than the church is of ongoing importance.
We were sad to miss both Andrew and Kath Thornhill who were unfortunately out of Dubbo for the weekend. Kath graduated from her theological studies on Saturday night and Andrew was visiting his very unwell mother in Perth. Kath actually turned up here at 9.15 on Sunday to the delight of many.
So after two lovely morning teas at church, we jumped in our cars and headed home. It was an awesome weekend.
Now, in some ways this has been a rambly diary entry but I have written it deliberately like this to show you what mission partnership actually looks like. It’s about serving each other. It’s about being together when you can. It’s about encouraging each other. It’s about strengthening each other. It’s about praying for each other. It’s about rejoicing together. It’s about trusting Jesus and praying and working for his glory wherever we are.
The lovely thing about Dubbo is that you can actually go there and I urge you to do so (much harder to do in Jordan or Ethiopia!). The saints in Dubbo just are so encouraged when people from our church turn up there. They are encouraged when they turn up here. I guarantee you will be encouraged if you spend a Sunday with them. Mission partnership is not rocket science. It’s just Christian people supporting each other in God’s work in the world. And that’s what makes it awesome.
