Sunday 9:00am
30 Ney Road Capalaba, QLD 4157
Note: one combined service is held for the Capalaba and Wellington Point communities on the 3rd Sunday, alternative venues on a monthly basis. Please check the Events page for serivce location on the 3rd Sunday of the month.
Sunday 8:30am (Traditional) / 6:30pm (Layed back ;-)
Please Note: for the 29th September there will be one service only at Cleveland at 8:30am)
4th Sunday Agora Night starts with a dinner at 6pm (run every second month this year - check the events page for details)
36 Passage Street Cleveland, Queensland 4163
Sunday 10:00am
228-234 Gordon Road Redland Bay, QLD 4165
Note: No service at Redland Bay on the 3rd Sunday of the month as we join with the Victoria Point community for a combined service 8:30am at Victoria Point (13 Point O'Halloran Road Victoria Point, QLD 4165)
Sunday 8:30am
13 Point O'Halloran Road Victoria Point, QLD 4165
Note: No service at Victoria Point on the 4th Sunday of the month as we join with the Redland Bay community for a combined service 10:00am at Redland Bay (228-234 Gordon Road Redland Bay, QLD 4165)
Sunday 9:00am
47 Marlborough Road Wellington Point, QLD 4160
Note: one combined service is held for the Capalaba and Wellington Point communities on the 3rd Sunday, alternative venues on a monthly basis. Please check the Events page for serivce location on the 3rd Sunday of the month.
Something to think about...what would you take with you, if you only had 10 minutes before you had to leave your home for good, with no planned destination to go to?
Refugees (35 million) - People forced to flee their homes to another country due to persecution, violence or war.
Internally Displaced Person (IDP) (62.5 million) - People who are forced to leave their home but who remain within their country's borders (e.g. victims of natural disasters). Often forgotten citizens facing challenges like lack of access to food, shelter, education and other basic needs.
Asylum Seeker (2.9 million) - people who have left their country and are seeking protection from persecution and serious human rights violations in another country. They haven’t yet been legally recognised as a refugee and are waiting to receive a decision on their asylum claim.
Listen to 'Who is a Refugee?' Video link button at end (see below).
God has a special place in his heart for refugees. God’s people were refugees in Egypt. God’s son was a refugee and a wanderer, moving from village to village and in God’s Church's today we are like refugees and strangers. Living in a world full of pain, violence and sorrow. Living by a different set of values which makes us stand out in a crowd and not ’fit in’....’like’ strangers. Do you feel what it’s like to be a stranger?
Have Listen to the Ross Langmead song ‘Finding a home’
Click on the Link: rosslangmead.50webs.com/rl/Downloads/SongsMP3/WeArePilgrims.mp3
Glenys Love’s passion for helping refugees shone through tonight. In 2013 under the leadership of Rev David Busch, Glenys was one of a small group of people forming Redlands 4 Refugees (R4R). Glenys shared the journey of helping to settle Fariba and her family into the Redlands and after 13 long years as refugees, residency was granted to this family. Such an emotional journey on both side, leading to strong friendships, sharing and encouraging faith (including a baptism...very special time!). But we were also reminded that the journey doesn’t always result in a happy ending with families being deported to be settled in yet another country.
Kylie Colville, convenor of Redlands ReSet (Refugee Settlement)...and Glenys and David’s daughter, shared where her motivation for helping refugees has come from and it has a strong link to faith! Please have a read of Luke 4:16-21. Caring for refugees is reflected in these versus from Luke. As followers of Jesus we need to be active in helping....sharing the good news, helping release those in captivity, helping to heal the sick, freedom to the oppressed, caring for and feeding those in need.
Redlands ReSet is a local ‘Community Supporter Group’, set up to support one refugee family as part of the Community Refugee Integration and Settlement Program (Australian Government initiative to help settle 1,500 refugees). The group is made up of a convenor (Kylie) plus a minimum of five individual households that have committed to help settle a family in the Redlands over the next 12 months (from day of arrival in Australia). In the last two Newsletters you would have read about the need for an initial $7,500 plus a home for this family before ‘matching’ with a family even occurred. Well, this family is on the way...the initial funds have been raised and a house found (much praise to God and to you for your support!!
ReSet’s role doesn’t stop there though...over the next 12 months, this group (***with your support nudge nudge***) will be helping with a range of activities... meeting the family at the airport and taking them to their new home, helping to register the family for government support, such as Medicare and Centrelink, providing initial food supplies and the first few weeks of money, opening bank accounts, linking with employment services, accessing education (schools/TAFE) and medical support (finding a doctor, dentist), attending appointments and helping with cultural and faith connections. This is not only LIFE CHANGING for the family but also for the Community! Imagine if every 2nd church was involved!!
Thought about what you’d take...listen to ‘What They Took With Them’. Video link button at end (see below).
Thank you to Lyn & Darryl Jackson and Glenys & David Love for the absolute passion you have for our Church and for helping Refugees!
What can you do?? See below for an update from ReSet & how you can help♥.
Update
ReSet is expecting its first refugee family in early September. The family, from Syria, consists of parents and four children; a young adult son, a teenaged son, and two younger daughters.
We have found a rental property at Wellington Point. It is now furnished and equipped with kitchen items, linen, and appliances.
We are very grateful for the financial and material support we have received, from individuals and groups. Several service clubs have offered to fund aspects of the children’s education; the Salvation Army (in addition to providing supplementary rental assistance) and St Vinnies have offered access to their charity shops for clothes and other necessities. R4R have provided volunteer time and some furniture.
A Moment for Grace
God of our Wandering Ancestors,
We have always known
That your heart is with the refugee:
That you were born on earth
Into a family of refugees
Fleeing violence in their homeland,
Gathering up their precious child
And taking shelter in an alien land.
Their cry, your cry, resounds through the ages:
“Will you let me in?”
Give us hearts that break open
When our brothers and sisters turn to us with that same cry.
Then surely all these things will follow:
Ears will no longer turn deaf to their voices.
Eyes will see a moment for grace instead of threat.
Tongues will not be silent but will cry out on their behalf;
And hands will reach out—
Working for peace in their homeland;
Working for justice in the lands where they seek safety.
Lord, protect all refugees in their travels:
May they find a friend in me
And so make me worthy
Of the refuge I have found in you.
AMEN
A Prayer by the Catholic Relief Services for Refugees (adapted)
Did you think...just another craft group sewing blankets and beanies? Mission Possible is so much more! I have no doubt that you or someone you know would have used or needed the type of item/s that Mission Possible make. Yes, Mission Possible Volunteers do make blankets, scarves and beanies for babies, patients and homeless people, for warmth and comfort and love but they also make many, many items that provide DIGNITY!
Our speaker Gail Harrower, founder of Mission Possible, worked her way through a pile of show and tell items and it was so much more than expected.
Let me list the items shown, that provide comfort, warmth, activity and most importantly dignity to people in need. Some of these items are ‘life changing’.
Baby packs / Quilts & pillows / Rugs (every palliative patient in the Logan, PA and Redlands Hospitals receive one) / Beanie & scarves / Wet packs / Superhero capes / Pjs / Teddies and tactile teddies / Medical babies (given to children to show procedures) / Morphine pump bags / Catheter & mastectomy drain bags / Mittens / Leg & arm sleeves for fragile skin / Balls - big (wheelchair soccer) and small (throw to each other, tactile) / Tactile mats and aprons (doing up zip reminder brought some giggles) / Wheelchair table tactile mats / Track mats (hand therapy) / Rectangle sleeves (kids play) / Soothing satin pillow cases / Clothing protectors / Butterfly bags (for the clothes of someone that has passed) / Wheelchair foot plate covers / Shortie jarmies (allowing pads to be changed with dignity) / Moodies - providing comfort after a mastectomy / Palliative nighties / Slings for drop neck / Gowns for stillborn babies (from experience...before these became available I walked the shops after having our stillborn daughter looking for a christening gown to bury Lacey in...so so needed♥) / Stages of pregnancy—uterus—baby—placenta—breasts to explain the birth process & breast feeding for non-english speaking ladies.
One of our members described Gail as ‘God’s Angel’ after she turned up with a much needed cushion for her friend who had spent a considerable time in hospital.
All made by volunteers and all given away completely free! Hospitals / Palliative Units / Nursing Homes / Shelters / Camp Quality
Twenty two years ago, Gail started mission Possible, with a handful of ladies. Today, their are over 300 volunteers in Brisbane alone and all together over 500 volunteers in QLD.
If you would like to volunteer contact Gail on 0405 084 808.
We are CREATIVE...God made us that way...Celebrate and use our God given GIFTS!
Displayed on the night were a range of items made by our members. Have a browse below!
Thank you to our Agora organisers and volunteers for the amazing evening and yummy soup! Your efforts are ever so much appreciated ♥!
Don't miss next month's AGORA - Sunday 27 August, food @ 6:00 and program from 6:30.
Sunday night, 28th May, over 30 gathered at Cleveland, to enjoy a night of food, fun, fellowship & faith, as we celebrated Pentecost, the Church’s Birthday.
Thank you to those who provided and prepared the lovely party food (and the yummy birthday cake) that was enjoyed by all.
We shared in some fun activities, one involving “welcome’ in different languages and a pass the parcel bearing the Fruits of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control).
We listened to a ukulele performance (thanks Jane and David...David’s first public performance for us since taking up ukulele lessons!) accompanied by Antia - lovely! Want to watch?...click on the link below.
The highlight of the evening was hearing from three of our members Noel Woodford, Stan Goleby and Betty McKay - sharing on ‘What the Church Means To Me’.
Important words that were heard ’blessed’, ’faith’, ’freedom’, ‘important friendships’, ‘made my life worthwhile’, ‘serve’, ‘build’, ‘kindness’, ‘love’s all’, ‘God’s embrace’, gift of the holy spirit to us’, ‘grace’, ‘love’, ‘mercy’, ‘comfort’, ‘respect’ and ‘alive in me’! Thank you to our speaker!
Two were via video so if you would like to listen to these Click on the links below.
June Agora Night - 25th June @ RUC Cleveland - Speaker: Paul Larcombe, Lay Director of Emmaus. Winter warmer soup for dinner!