Posts Tagged ‘Maida Vale Baptist Church’

Where’s Chin State?

Posted: August 16, 2015 in Uncategorized
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chin_stateA year ago I wouldn’t have known there was a place called Chin State. I am now aware that Chin State is a mountainous state that is home to the Chin ethnic group in Western Myanmar (Burma). It is the poorest of 14 regions in Myanmar and the most remote. Since the end of July, much of western Myanmar has been hit by monsoon rains that have left hundreds of thousand people homeless.

Late last year the Perth Chin Baptist Church commenced a special relationship with Maida Vale Baptist Church, making use of our facilities in High Wycombe. As a result I have become more aware of this amazing group of people, many of whom lived in refugee camps before making a new home in Australia.

The news media has been silent, to a large degree, on the disaster in Chin State, but Chin people around the world have been united to try and get much needed assistance to their families. Take a look at this short video from the Chin community of Indiana in the United States.

How Ridiculous

Posted: June 21, 2015 in Uncategorized
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I just love it when a plan comes together … and you haven’t even planned it.

Last Sunday night, channel 7’s Sunday Night programme featured the world record attempt by Internet sensations, How Ridiculous, in sinking a basketball a distance of 126.5m from the top of the Gordon Dam in Tasmania. I particularly loved it because Brett, who got the record shot, will be a guest at our Fun Factory in a couple of weeks’ time.

Heroes is the theme of Fun Factory which is Maida Vale Baptist Church’s annual school holiday event for kids from four-year-old kindy right through to year 6. We’re going to have a few guests who will help us with our heroes theme. How Ridiculous have used their ridiculous fame to support Compassion Australia, and that’s part of what we are hoping to get across to kids at Fun Factory.  We can all be heroes when we use what God has given us to help others.

Thanks Brett and the How Ridiculous team.

Check out the video of the Guinness World Record shot:

Of Tents, Crocodile Eyes and the Milky Way

Posted: June 14, 2015 in Uncategorized
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milky-way_karijini_western-australia_kellie-netherwoodI’ve done my fair share of camping in my time.

I remember laying on my back somewhere in the north west of Western Australia, gazing up at the night sky. Without the distraction of city lights the Milky Way becomes a living thing. It’s no longer a dark place, but a place where myriad lights fill every corner.

Then there are memories of camping on the banks of the Mary River in the Kimberley, shining a torch along the opposite bank to catch the glint of crocodile eyes. The worst part of camping is arriving at your camping place late after a long drive and having to put up the tent in the near-dark.

Isaiah 54 has nothing to do with camping, but it takes the readers thoughts back to the patriarchs like Abraham who lived in tents permanently – not just on holidays. Abraham was called to leave his home and move to a new country that God had planned for him. Similarly, Isaiah calls on the church to reach beyond the familiar:

“Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes.

This morning in church I shared this as a call to the 21st century church. At a time when many people are expressing fear about the future of the church, I don’t believe it’s time to circle the wagons. Rather, I believe we need to hear the word of the Lord to Abraham and to Isaiah, to enlarge the place of our tent.

As a local church, we are calling on God to show us what that may mean. For me it certainly means we need to stop looking for the glint of crocodile eyes. Instead we need to look at the Milky Way and be reminded again of the majesty of God.

Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory in the heavens. Through the praise of children and infants you have established a stronghold against your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger.  When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?  You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor. You made them rulers over the works of your hands;  you put everything under their feet:  all flocks and herds, and the animals of the wild, the birds in the sky, and the fish in the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas.  Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! Psalm 8

Christmas at the Fair

Posted: December 9, 2014 in Uncategorized
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Another great fair is over – for the sixth year, Maida Vale Baptist Church has run Christmas at the Fair in Range View Park, High Wycombe, and it was a beauty.

Many thousands of people (couldn’t count them) turned up for three hours of fun, participation, food, rides, information, and a reminder that Christmas is a part of our cultural heritage here in Western Australia.

We had an amazing group of boys, both Maori and Noongar, who presented a series of Maori dances as part of their ongoing learning about the importance of family, respect, setting goals and achieving them, cultural identity and reverence for their creator.

A new choir in Perth, the Perth Chin Baptist Church choir presented some brilliant music from their native of Myanmar, and the ever-popular Kalamunda Pipe Band brought some cultural heritage from the northern hemisphere.

Maida Vale Baptist Church likes to think of Christmas at the Fair as our gift to the community – it’s not a fund-raiser or a PR exercise, but an opportunity for us to give something back to the community and encourage people to participate in a range of activities and get to know their neighbours in the process.

I would like to thank the scores of volunteers who helped out in so many ways during the year and during the event to make this another successful event, and to those who came along and enjoyed the evening I thank you as well.

Take a look at the video and enjoy it again.

Christmas at the Fair

Posted: November 30, 2014 in Uncategorized
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Welcome the Perth Chin Baptist Church

Posted: November 2, 2014 in Uncategorized
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chinch

After all the things I have heard and read about refugees in Australia it was a privilege to attend a church service this afternoon with the Perth Chin Baptist Church. From today the church that was started earlier this year, held its first service in High Wycombe, guests of the Maida Vale Baptist Church.

The Chin people are an ethnic people from Myanmar (Burma) and most of the Chin in Australia came here as refugees from Malaysia where they fled because of religious persecution in their own country.

Rev James Tin Kung, Pastor of the Perth Chin Baptist Church

Rev James Tin Kung, Pastor of the Perth Chin Baptist Church

It’s interesting that this congregation of people, who are newcomers to Australia, is bigger than our own church which is acting as host to the Perth Chin congregation. Perhaps that says something about the nature of the church in Australia. At some level it would seem that Australians have had it so good that we fail to appreciate what we have, and we have begun to take our privilege for granted.

We are one of the richest and most privileged nations in the world, but instead of living a life that reflects our appreciation for God’s blessings we squander what we have. We eat too much, drink too much, spend too much money; we waste the resources that are available to us, and we fail to acknowledge the God who has provided for us in the first place.

Spending time with a group of newcomers to Australia and worshipping with them, despite not being able to understand much of what was said, has helped me to appreciate afresh the wonderful land in which we live and the great God who has blessed us in so many ways.

It’s time for us to learn to say thankyou and to live in a way that reflects that sense of appreciation.

News in The Advocate

Posted: July 30, 2014 in Uncategorized
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Some great stories on pages 6 and 7 of this month’s Advocate…

Fun Factory a Great Success

Posted: July 20, 2014 in Uncategorized
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DSC00608It’s taken a while for me to get to this post, but after a very busy week Robyn and I needed to take a break. Fun Factory was a fantastic week of kids activities at Maida Vale Baptist Church. Featuring the theme of Circus, we had a wide range of activities, crafts, music and fun. One of the highlights was about 30 people from the church who volunteered for the week, even being brave enough to dress up in circus gear. Thanks team.

Joe Bolton from Suitcase Circus came along and taught us all a whole range of circus tricks; we were amazed at the magic tricks of a magician, wowed by the creativity of a balloon artist and learnt some moves from the Fit2Cheer team. It was also good to have Old Macdonald’s Farm there one day.

Thanks to all those who came along for the week, helpers and participants alike.

Now, sit back and take a look at the video.

Fun Factory’s here again

Posted: July 6, 2014 in Uncategorized
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Fun Factory is one of the big events of the year for Maida Vale Baptist Church. It’s taken a lot of planning and preparation, especially by Robyn Douglas who is the Children and Families’ Worker at the church (that’s my wife, of course). This is our seventh year of running Fun Factory. For the first time this year we took online registrations which was a really successful way of preparing for the event.

Our theme this year is circus and I’m looking forward to seeing the variety of dress-ups for our brave helpers. To keep up with what’s happening during the week check out our Facebook page.

Got to go and get my clown gear on ….

Life With Joy

Posted: June 29, 2014 in Uncategorized
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Life With Joy

There was a time when I had the opportunity to work in a prison. It’s not a pleasant place. There’s a lot of anger. A lot of distrust. It certainly isn’t a place where you find people speaking positively about life.

So it comes as some surprise when you read the Bible and find a man called Paul, holed up in a prison writing a letter to a Christian church, and he includes these words: Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!  Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.  Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Did you get those words? Rejoice … gentleness … don’t be anxious … thanksgiving … peace. No, they’re not prison words. When your freedom’s been taken away, and you’re surrounded by anger, and disappointment, and fear, most people wouldn’t talk like that.

So how come Paul, stuck in a Roman prison, was able to write words like: Rejoice in the Lord always? I reckon if we could get the heart of what Paul was saying, we would know the secret to living a successful life when things get tough. If Paul can encourage a group of people to rejoice when he’s stuck in prison, then maybe he could give us some clues about how to deal with situations where relationship breakdowns and disappointment with those we trust, have robbed us of any kind of joy in life.

If he can experience joy in prison, maybe he has some clues for helping us to live a more positive life when we are faced with illness or death, or when we’ve let ourselves down, or let our friends down, by indulging in behaviours that have caused disappointment.

How can we experience joy when things are tough? How can we be hopeful when everything around us seems to be hopeless?

Paul’s letter to the church in Philippi was a letter of hope and joy, despite the tough times he was experiencing, because he was absolutely focussed on Jesus and how Jesus could help him through the reality of all he was going through.

He said things like: For me to live is Christ. In other words, Jesus Christ was at the centre of his existence. Have you ever watched water go down a plug hole. All the water in the bath or the sink is attracted to that centre point and it goes around in circles, with the plug hole at the centre.

I think that’s what Paul meant when he said, for me to live is Christ. Everything in his life, including his lonely existence in a dark, cold Roman prison, was centred around Jesus. Everything was attracted and drawn to that central point.

So instead of everything being centred on his troubles, Paul allowed those tough times to be centred on Jesus. And all of a sudden there was a sense of meaning and purpose to what was happening to him.

If things are tough for you, I want to encourage you to centre your life on Jesus. Go on fill up the sink with water, then pull the plug. As you watch the water go down, stop thinking your life’s going down the plug hole — think about what it means for Jesus to be at the centre of everything – the good things, and the bad.

This Sunday morning I start a series on Philippians at Maida Vale Baptist Church entitled “Life with Joy – When Times are Tough”, based on the Letter to Philippians in the Bible. I’d love you to come and join us.

 

 

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