St John’s Weekly Bulletin – Sunday 25 February 2018

I particularly know of his ministry through one story – the story of an elderly man named Jack in a congregation I served. I knew Jack as a beautiful and warm individual. He was encouraging and always wanting to do what he could to volunteer, despite his age. His wife had passed away a few years before I came to that church, but people there spoke about their incredible love for each other. Jack’s health was deteriorating and he eventually ended up in the local hospital, where he passed away.

A few days later, the family came to see me to arrange Jack’s funeral, and they told me the story of Jack’s life. I found out that Jack had faced powerful griefs from the very beginning. He had a dreadful start to life as a baby. He suffered terribly impoverished circumstances in his youth. As a very young man, he faced the horros of war and came back incrdibly damaged. He found solace in the call of the “amber liquid”, which offers to deaden the pain, but which steals so much in return. Jack ended up a violent man, abusive to his wife and children, taking money from the household to buy grog. He would burn his wife’s Christian books when she went to church. His wife and children learned to hide from him when he came home from the pub to escape him.

But then Jack found a preview of heaven.

In 1959, someone at the pub challenged Jack to go to a ‘Billy Graham Crusade’, the name for the preaching rallies that Billy Graham held around the world, including in Sydney. At that rally, Jack’s life was incredibly changed, and he returned home as someone who had ‘met Jesus’, who had repented of his former life, and grew to become the extraordinarly humble, warm and beautiful person we all knew and loved.

I thank God for Jack. I thank God for the ministry of Billy Graham. I thank God for all who are involved in the ministry and outreach of St John’s.

Blessings, Murray

This bulletin was emailed to members of the parish on Thursday 22 February 2018 – if you would like to join the Weekly Bulletin email list, please call the church office on 02 4927 5399 and we will happily arrange this.

Meeting at Eleebana

We are going to look at Phillip Yancey’s book “The Jesus I Never knew”.

All women welcome – those with small children and those without children

Please contact Fiona 0422 099 264

Please bring your bottles to church and leave them in the plastic bucket labelled for this purpose in the kitchen.

Thanks, Penelope!

We are offering Morning Prayer at 9.30am on Tuesdays, and Holy Communion each Wednesday night at 6.30pm. All welcome.

Two members of our church have started a prayer group that meets at noon on Tuesdays… and would love to have more people praying for St John’s. Feel free to come along!

The Anglican Board of Mission has produced a Lent resource which is available for download from: www.abmission.org/lent. The letter to accompany this is available on our website.