Now, I’m only guessing here, but I believe you have been in this kind of situation before. Not only does it all seem impossible, the pain seem unbearable, with nothing good on the horizon, but you could swear this was deja-vu, and you’d been here before, and not that long ago.

This is the crux of the human condition, we get into troubles all the time, and after the hundredth repetition, we’re still surprised and asking the same question - why me? The really interesting part of course is that - whatever our faith or lack thereof - we still expect an answer from someone outside of ourselves as we cry upward in anguish. That’s right of course, at the depth of our despair we cry out to God - our Maker, our Saviour, the Lord Almighty.

Who’s Who

The Talleys are missionaries in Tanzania and Tim, Rebecca and Abigail will be with us at CampING next month. Tim is our speaker, Rebecca will be leading some devotionals with the ladies and Abigail with be spending time with the teens. So, to help us get to know them better, here’s some photos from one of their 2009 mission report. In the photo at left, Tim is centre, then Rebecca to his left, then Abigail. To Tim’s right is his daughter Elizabeth and her husband Bryan (they are missionaries in the Sudan…….and won’t be with us at camp).

‘But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.’ Galatians 5:22-25 (TNIV).

After morning worship on Sunday 10th January , Ian Campbell and I met with a group of Sudanese at 35A Alma Street, Chadstone. Even though this meeting was pre arranged and some of the group had visited Belmore Road we had no idea of what to expect. We walked into the lounge room and was enthusiastically met by 8 adults and about 13 kids. After some general introduction and discussion we were thrilled to learn this group were part of the Church of Christ brotherhood. They spoke of their baptism into Christ, their journey from a refugee camp in Ethiopia to Australia and their willingness to stay faithful to God. Impressed with their love, dedication and desire to serve our Father we continued to talk.