July 18, 2008
Steve writes
Special prayer for the building project was held at the church from 9:30 am on Sunday June 29 and again on Sunday July 6. Attendance was not great, so I am promoting here some of the things that were prayed for, asking for your ongoing prayerful support.
Pray for architect: clarity of design, able to integrate old with new, deal cheaply with obstacles.
Pray for Council: right contacts and good relationships, approval.
Pray for Noelene as she administers the project: energy and enthusiasm, good relationships with the many players, wise decisions.
Pray for finance: giving thanks for money raised so that we can commence, praying for ongoing fundraising, for creativity and enthusiasm and God’s provision.
Pray for tendering process: for accurate quotes, for a just price and that God’s builder will be found.
Pray for building process: sense of God’s presence on sight, completion in time and budget.
Pray for staff: patience and unity amid inevitable disruptions, stay focused on their tasks and not get distracted.
Pray for church: gifts of encouragement, of enthusiasm and faithfulness in prayer and support.
Pray for community: that the project would reflect Christ’s love into the neighbourhood and that because of the project - the foyer changes and cafe kitchen facilities - that people will indeed walk and grow in their relationship with Jesus.
Don’t forget fundraising tickets for Saturday night!
July 07, 2008
Steve writes:
Currently, three evenings a week, smaller gatherings occur at Opawa Baptist.
Tuesday is Espresso, a conversational congregation. Over the last two years, it has provided a place for those inside and outside Christian faith to talk, argue, learn and laugh together.
How to Read the Bible is an eight-week block course on a Wednesday, that includes people at a variety of places on their faith journey wanting to learn more about the Bible.
Sense making faith is on a Thursday and has a different set of participants, who bring with them existing spiritual experiences, often from outside of organised religion.
Each of these groups has a different interest, funds a different type of conversation, engages with a different way of spiritually searching - a questioning place, a thinking place, an experiencing place.
We are offering a variety of ways for people to find, and grow in, faith in Jesus. A variety of ways for people to learn more about God, the Bible, themselves. (And as such, a variety of ways for people to find us at Opawa Baptist Church.)
We provide multiple spaces, multiple options, so that people are not offered a "one size fits all" spiritual-growth path, but a variety of ways to continue their search, to grow in their relationship with God.