DAY FIFTEEN: SUNDAY APRIL 2ND TOWNSVILLE

Matthew and Kathy’s church meet at 9:00 am in a Seventh Day Adventist conference centre auditorium. It is by the river and has air conditioning, which is always a bonus up here. It is called Hope Community Church and is built strongly around cell groups and community involvement. There is probably a little less than a hundred people who belong and they embrace a wide range of ages which is always a good sign. It has a very strong family feel about it which Matthew and Kathy have worked to produce. Matthew is a strong leader. There is no doubt about that, but he is secure enough to invest that leadership strength in empowering others. The meeting evidenced this as various people took leadership roles.

I met a young guy from Papua (formerly West Iryan) and a mate of his from southern Sudan. Both of these guys are here to study but live with all kinds of anomalies due to the horrible things that are going on in their nations. The Papua guy has been sort of abandoned by his government because of the turmoil in that country. His family are being persecuted for being Christians. He told me that the church in his region has to be united simply because of the strength of the opposition and he is saddened by the division he sees in the church here. We agreed that the church here is under similar attack, but via a very different means. But there is so little awareness and so little understanding of the need to stand together. This town has its own version of Baptists who won’t get involved because Catholics might show up, and AOG churches who won’t talk to other AOG pastors because of past experiences. We’ve all got examples of this and it makes my heart grieve every time.

I preached a message about staying on track, from Revelation 2,3 and it seemed to hit the mark okay. As per normal for me, we didn’t get home till about 1:00 pm and had time for a great family lunch. Just time for a nap before Rob Holmes’s plane was arriving, so Matthew and I went to pick him up. We had a cup of coffee and went off to Chris Ireland’s church meeting by 4:30. Chris is part of a church set up called “Good News Association” There are four churches linked by this collective. One meets in the morning with a guy called Wayne Benn. It is mainly families with young kids (masses of them). The second is Chris’s group which is the older group. Then David and Robyn have their service at 6:30 with mainly young people. There is another church in Mackay run by a guy called John Elias. He was there for Chris’s service and did a great job presenting stuff leading to the communion time. Rob also preached in this meeting from First Corinthians about unity in the body. He finished up by speaking a prophetic word about more cyclones and Lake Eyre filling up and the Darling system being flushed out. He challenged us to pray that this rain would come as a blessing and not as a destructive force. One of the guys from the church talked with me in a very affirming way and said that he felt the Lord had said the same things to him.

David Frew had picked up Graeme from the airport and it was good to see him. The last service followed on from Chris’s meeting and we were swamped by young people and the energy level lifted significantly for worship. It was a great service with a balance between being relaxed and yet wholeheartedly worshipping the Lord. Robyn welcomed everyone including the southerners. She said that I was a “father” to the network and that then precipitated comments from a few places abut whether I could be hit for some money. I responded by saying they were welcome to any of my debts they liked to choose. There were a few exchanges based on the fact that the Cowboys were on top of the table. I was glad to be able to report that the Raiders has won by a point last night.

Graeme preached a great message from Mark 2 and John 8. He sang this great a capela song as part of a prayer at the beginning. He also led a time for worship at the end to give people a chance to respond. It was a great meeting and a pretty full house.

When church was finished we all went back to David and Robyn’s for tea. Everyone was pumped with gags and lines that made the time really enjoyable. I started to shut down somewhere around ten o’clock and was glad when everyone headed in the direction of home.