Settling In
As you probably know, after nearly six years of working to bring the Gospel to the people of 3214 we are now settling into a very effective and sustainable ministry at Corio Christian Centre called Bus Stop Cafe. This means we will be experimenting less outside of this context and experimenting within the afterschool and Saturday morning ministry times. This means the future blog posts might not be as exciting as in the past – a season of building in the one spot.
Attendance Through the Roof
Term 1 is off to a flying start. This week we had two days of 75 guests each day. On a good day we have 5 adults working to get the children through the tasks, give them a stamp and a chocolate milk. On these busy days we use 12 litres of milk and deliver over 65 drinks!
Special Story
This week we were very blessed to have so many new people and one woman in particular I want to tell you about. Her children led her into the church so they could do the Jesus challenge and get a chocolate milk. She was dressed like a refugee from Afghanistan and in her eyes I think I could still see the trauma of war. I walked over and handed her a chocolate milk. She smiled and came back on Thursday. We are honoured to provide a safe, welcoming place where she, and her family, can belong, make friends and grow in the years to come.
Saturday Morning Church Time
We started meeting on Saturday morning in Term 1 to funnel those who want more into a time when we can go deeper and create a church community for families. Numbers have fluctuated wildly so far this term from 25 to 12 to 4. We will stick with the vision for this term and re-evaluate at the end of the term. The program for Saturday mornings is: arrive and get a coffee or hot chocolate, sit around and chat. Do some sewing or play with lego etc. Then we have a short gathered time playing communication games to build relationship. Then we’ll make pizzas or sew for a while and then come back together for a Bible study and prayer. Then play another game and finish and then pack up together. We take an offering too for this. The first time we’ve done this in 6 years.
Storytelling Event – Tickets here
We are gearing up to host guests from Melbourne and even Queensland next Tuesday who are coming to experience Bus Stop Cafe and hear some of the stories of the impact it’s having in Coiro. Special thanks to Jane and Richard from Project Nexus who have enabled this event to happen. It’s key to our vision to share the story of innovating the way we do church and the way we do community and mission. This event will help this happen. We believe God is at work in and around this ministry and this event should yield important kingdom outcomes. I’ll send you the video when it’s done.
Website Upgrade
I responded to a Facebook ad by The Web Ministry Team based in Ballarat, Victoria and now I’m working the Lauren to create a new, improved website. Part of the change will be to intentionally make it easier for philanthropists to support Little Miracles Community Inc. The change represents the end of our years experimenting in the community and our season of developing Corio Christian Centre into a community centre with a heart of Christian hospitality. I’m looking forward to working with Lauren in the years ahead.
Please donate now to help us grow!
Here are the details:
Account Name: Little Miracles Community Inc.
BSB: 633 000
ACC: 205 402 357
Thank you!