Hi Church,
Thank You abundantly Grace. My heart is full of pride for you as I’m celebrating your generosity, effort, love, passion, work, voices, artistry, teamwork, talents, commitment and community witness and so much more. The Carols were a mammoth effort and a great success. We increased our attendance on last year by 50% with plenty more who wished they could have been there. The Four Churches worked so well together and the peace and blessing of God on the event was obvious. The Lord sparred us from the worst of the weather and gave us a beautiful sunset, a light breeze and mostly dry pitch.
The Hope tent gave good witness to many, gave out bibles and tracks, Rhema FM were able to promote Christian Radio. We cooked and gave away all 1500 sausages, sold nearly 300 steak buns, gave out nearly a 1000 drinks and coffee’s, parked 500 cars, decorated 500 cupcakes, painted 100’s of plaster moulds, painted 100’s of faces, and presented over 2hrs of quality live music, (Thank you Pastor Debbie-Ann and team). This was our biggest and best Carols yet.
I was Interviewed by our partner sponsor Lewis Land for an article on what inspired us to do Carols. This was my response;-
We have a couple of motivating points for the Community Carols.
1. Sovereign Hills is a new location for housing. But houses don’t make a community it’s the people gathered and connected and recognising each other in their locality. Hence, we believe as a church we have an opportunity to help create that sense of community through meaningful cultural events.
2. We believe the true message and meaning of Christmas will be lost unless the Church steps in and draw people’s attention away from temporary shallow material commercialism, back to deeper truths around traditional family values and faith, which are long lasting and create meaning.
So thank you for participating in helping to achieve both. Our unity of heart and purpose makes these big events possible. Well done good and faithful ones. I cant wait to see what we will achieve next.
As we go forward lets take some time to remember our dear Brother Peter Wood who passed 7 Dec 2022. His legacy of love and service lives on through his beloved Suzie and their four boys Brendon, Oscar, Aaron and Riley. We love them and they are in our prayers and hearts.
As Christmas approaches let us remember that the Greatest Gift of all is Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us. So, lets share that gift with as many as possible.
Love to all
Ps Greg and Amanda.