Are we weak and heavy laden, cumbered with a load of care? Precious Saviour, still our refuge—take it to the Lord in prayer!

These words come from the famous hymn, ‘What a friend we have in Jesus,’ and they bring us great hope as we feel the burden of life.

The words come from Jesus’ famous ‘comfortable’ words from Matthew chapter 11, verse 28 where he says:

Matt. 11:28    Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”

These words bring hope to the hopeless and help us in our helplessness, for they speak to all of us who find it impossibly hard to deal with our sins and failures.

But originally, Jesus was speaking to the lost sheep of Israel, who were overcome with the burdens of keeping hundreds of rules, regulations and traditions.

They carried the burden of keeping the law… but today we carry the burden of performance anxiety.

By nature, we all feel we need to perform well to impress God, so that we will survive judgement day.

It’s a burden that will crush us, and so Jesus offers ‘rest’.

He offers rest that is about peace with God, and we get this ‘rest’ as a gift from Jesus.

As we follow Jesus, we find rest for our souls that brings us relief from the burden of our sins.

And this is the greatest relief we could ask for from the heavy burden of guilt and sin.

JODIE McNEILL

One night a little girl was woken by a storm. “Mummy, Mummy” she cried out. The rain beating against the window frightened her, the lightning and thunder terrified her. “Mummy, where are you?”
Her mother hurried into the room. She sat in the side of the bed and held her daughter tightly to comfort her, “Honey, when you are frightened like this you know that God is with you and loves you.”
“Yes Mummy, I know that” she sobbed. “But I need love with skin on.”

Jesus said, ‘A new commandment I give to you: that you love one another as I have loved you’.
We all need ‘love with skin on’ from time to time and so we need to be ‘love with skin on’ for one another.

Sometimes, pastoral care is seen as an optional extra, however, caring for one another is fundamental to our lives as Christians.
We all have different personalities, abilities and gifts, and therefore, we show our love in diverse ways.
However, at its foundation pastoral care involves caring for God’s people and walking alongside them in their Christian formation.

Pastoral care is gospel shaped, Bible nourished and prayer dependent. It is God’s love in action.

At Jamberoo Anglican, we work toward providing a ministry of support, hope and caring for one another’s – Spiritual, Emotional, Relational and Physical Wellbeing.

Our growth groups are a natural place to provide care for one another. They are the place where we develop relationships and support one another.

If you are not part of a growth group, then I would encourage you to join one of our existing groups.

Given that not everyone can be a part of a growth group, let’s each consider how we can show God’s love and care to someone different this week.

Every four years the people of our planet gather together to celebrate God’s remarkable creation, as the Olympics showcase how people are able to go faster, higher, and stronger than before.

However, as they do so, they usually celebrate humanity, rather than God.

In what could easily be an opportunity to praise the remarkable creation of God, instead his creatures worship themselves as they pursue an atheistic celebration of the breaking of the records that once confined and defined humankind.

It’s a fine line between idolatry and doxology—between worshipping humanity and giving glory to the God who made us—and at each Olympics the gap seems to grow wider.

This year the opening ceremony created controversy with the appropriation of Da Vinci’s ‘The Last Supper’ by a drag queen DJ in the place of Christ.

Yet, the most offensive aspect of the Games must be the lack of worship of the one who fearfully and wonderfully made the men and women who perform and compete at the myriad of events.

As we witness the extraordinary feats of the athletes, our appropriate response should  be to glorify the God who made us and who has given the remarkable gifts that enable the athletic feats splashed across screens throughout the world.

When we glorify humanity we show a contempt for the creator who made every human in his image, and who created us to glorify him as our loving Lord and Saviour.

The distortion of ‘The Last Supper’ seemed to target those who revere Jesus, and yet it is the natural ignorance of God’s hand in creating everything we see that is the most offensive act that happens almost every medal ceremony.

As we marvel at creation, let us glorify the creator, who is worthy of all our praise.

JODIE McNEILL

On the 20th of January this year, I let the world of Instagram know that I was moving on to a new adventure. 

I felt that this song from Rend Collective captured my feelings perfectly:

“You are the adventure of a lifetime, Jesus.
you take my heart and make it wild
you are the thrill my soul is seeking, Jesus
your grace has no horizon line
I’ll go anywhere, anywhere at all
As long as I’m with you, Jesus”

Church family, can you believe that I’ve been on this new adventure with you all for six months?

As I look back, I remember that I had goals I was keen to set. I was so excited (and a little nervous) to meet and know you all!

Yet, my start with you all was one of real hardship with the passing of my Dad. Looking back I can see how in such a dark time I already had you around me as my new family, even though we didn’t know each other well. 

Your care, kindness, prayers, and messages meant the absolute world to me, given that many times I couldn’t return to Sydney.

Looking back I’m so thankful to God that this is where he has placed me with you all as I get to live out my dream job alongside you every day!

I’m so excited for what the next six months and beyond will bring!

I look forward to seeing God’s will be done in the kids’ programs and in the households of our churches as we partner in making disciples of the next generation.

I’m looking forward to finding a way to keep bridging the gap to Sunday church from our Friday afternoon Spark kids’ club, where we have a few non-church kids attending.

I’m looking forward to praying a big prayer that we might have five, non-Christian families attend our kids programs! Will you join me in this prayer?

RACH BEMMER

As our teachers take a break after a big Term Two, we’ve asked two of our kids’ church leaders to reflect on their ministry and share with us about how we can encourage and support them as they serve our children and our families.

One leader is Elise Baker, who serves as a leader in our morning kids’ program, as well as leading youth and also teaching Scripture at Jamberoo Public School.

She loves doing ministry because she believes that helping build a biblical and Christ-centred foundation for children is important: “Whether it’s through song, a Bible story, prayer, craft or activities, I find it super rewarding to see the children’s growth and curiosity as they continue learning from the Bible.”

For this term, a personal highlight has been going through the Old Testament in the Jesus Storybook Bible, “for I love how each story connects so clearly to Jesus.”

Liz Vidilini is another morning church leader, and she says that she loves leading in this way, “because it brings me joy to see little children understand how much Jesus loves them, and it reminds me that following Jesus is a childlike faith and he welcomes us with open arms.”

As she reflects on the ministry, she wants us to know that leading in this way, “is not scary or hard,” and that even if teaching kids isn’t a person’s normal skill set, that “it’s just about sharing Jesus with the children.”

She’d love more people to volunteer to spend time intentionally sharing Jesus with the great kids at our church, because she believes that, “intergenerational ministry is so valuable.”

Elise would love us to pray that God will continue to give the leaders, “wisdom, joy, and creativity as we prepare and lead,” and she ask that for the kids, they might, “remain curious and open-hearted, and that they grow in their understanding and relationship with Jesus.”

Finally, they’d love us to pray for all the families, that each parent or carer would disciple their children’s growth at home.

Praise God for our kids’ ministry!

RACHEL BEMMER