NorthPoint - April, 2009

CELEBRATE EASTER CELEBRATE JESUS

Then God made you alive with Christ. He forgave all our sins. He canceled the record that contained the charges against us. He took it and destroyed it by nailing it to Christ’s cross. Colossians 2:13-14 (NLT)

I love the story of a man who came home from work, picked up the paper and settled into his favorite chair for a few precious and well-deserved moments of solitude after a long day at work. He had just begun to relax when his son burst through the front door. Spotting his dad, the little boy raced across the room, flung himself against his father’s knees and said, “Daddy, I love you!” The father gave him a pat on the head and said rather absentmindedly, “Yes, Son, I love you, too!”

Picking up his paper, the father continued reading, but the boy was not satisfied. He leaned a little further into the newspaper barricade and

said, “But Daddy, I really, really love you.” The man took a deep breath, put the paper down and hugging the boy said, “Yes, Son. I love you just as much!” Again, he picked the paper up and resumed reading.

tiredly asked. In response, the boy threw his arms around his dad and gave him a big squeeze, explaining, “I love you so much, Daddy and I’ve just got to do something about it!”

In this edition of NorthPoint you’ll read about people who are responding to God’s incredible, astounding and ultimate gift by ‘doing’ something to share that love with others. Some are giving blood. Some are giving time and energy to run Pathfinder Clubs. Some are training to preach, teach and give Bible studies. And some are taking teenagers to Thailand to build orphanages.

God’s love is an unconditional love — a love with no strings attached — a love worth celebrating! So celebrate this Easter. Celebrate Jesus. Celebrate a rugged cross and an empty tomb. And remember; a celebration isn’t quite the same unless it’s shared with others.

Finally, the little boy could not stand it any longer! He jumped up on his father’s lap, crushing the newspaper and any thoughts of relaxation the dad might have had. “Son, what is it that you want?” the father

That is exactly what God said to Jesus. “Son, I love them so much that I have to do something about it!” Then He sent His one and only perfect Son to earth where He lived and died for you and for me.

Sharlene Guest, Director of Communications, Marketing & Public Relations

Experiencing and Sharing our Hope in Jesus Christ

OUR CONFERENCE

Empower the People

More than 120 people, including pastors, church members and Theology students from Avondale College met at Yarrahapinni on March 6-8 for a weekend of worship and ministry training called “Empower The People”. The event was a re-formatted version of the Lay Training program, aimed at equipping and ‘empowering’ those not formally trained in ministry to go out and preach, teach, give Bible studies and carry out the Gospel commission of sharing God’s love and salvation message with the world.

Participants at the event were blessed by presentations from Russell Burrill, Dr Alan Lindsay and Johnny Wong, who shared insights on church planting; church history and the positive impact small group ministry can have in growing healthy churches.

UCan2 Campaign

In 2008, Seventh-day Adventists throughout Australia appealed to the nation to donate blood to the Australian Red Cross Blood Service in the lead up to Easter. It was a way of remembering the real meaning of Easter — the fact that Jesus died and gave his blood to save humanity. Many felt that by donating blood to the Blood Service to help save someone’s life, they were responding to Jesus’ actions in a practical way.

The Australian Government has declared 2009 the ‘Year of the Blood Donor’ as blood supplies are reaching critical levels and our nation needs more than 16,000 new blood donors this year.

This year, the Ucan2 blood donor drive will happen again in Australia, New Zealand and Fiji. The NNSW Conference is once again joining with Adventist’s around the South Pacific Division to be a part of this lifesaving campaign, and is encouraging Christians of all denominations to help encourage family, friends and workmates to donate blood too.

Be part of this national ‘call to arms’ and support the Australian Red Cross Blood Service this Easter. For more information about the UCan2 campaign, visit: www.ucan2online.org.

Pathfinder Leaders Training

Did you know we currently have more than 100 people who willingly volunteer their time (and lots of it) to look after the 700 active teenagers involved in Pathfinders throughout our Conference?

Pathfinder Leaders are really special people, who do everything from teach and undertake outdoor adventures, organise fundraising events, plan and perservere through camping trips, and most importantly, teach young people about a God who loves them.

Every year, these leaders give up even more time to attend a weekend of Pathfinder Leadership training and on February 20-22, their enthusiasm for Pathfindering was evident from the moment they arrived at Yarrahapinni.

The NNSW Conference runs this annual training weekend as part of the five-year Pathfinder Leadership Award, providing qualifications in areas such as Human Resources, Managing Small Groups, OH&S, Sabbath Camping, Wilderness Awareness, First Aid and many more. This training helps equip Pathfinder Leaders for the numerous roles they fulfil, skilling them in the variety of areas that Pathfinders covers.

The weekend was also used as an opportunity to launch the 2009 Pathfinder theme of “FaceTheBook” — an idea which uses the increasingly popular FaceBook phenomenon to frame the importance, value and fun of reading the Bible in a way that is inspiring to young people.

The theme “FaceTheBook” draws on the inspiration of Ellen White and her vision regarding the increased reading and studying of the Scriptures.

She says in Testimonies, vol. 6, p. 87 “It has been shown me that our camp-meetings are to increase in interest and success. As we approach nearer the end, I have seen that in these meetings there will be less preaching, and more Bible study. There will be little groups all over the ground with their Bibles in their hands, and different ones leading out in a free, conversational study of the Scriptures.”

It’s exciting to see the passion our Pathfinder Leaders have for brining the Bible to life for our young people and bringing this vision to fruition.

Russell Burrell

Dr Alan Lindsay

Worship Team

OUR CHURCHES

Bronze for Port Macquarie Girl

On 6 December, Alexandra Clark was presented with her Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Award in Port Macquarie Adventist Church. She was given her award by local co-ordinator Russell Shelton, who is a member of the Church. The award was given in recognition of her achievements over a six-month period.

For her skill component she completed her Grade 3 Clarinet studies, and for her physical recreation she did Jazz Ballet.

To complete her service component, Alexandra worked for ADRA in Port

Macquarie, helping out at the local op shop and collecting door-to-door in the Appeal. She also assisted in a fundraising night put on by the church’s Social and Pathfinder clubs, which raised over $3,000 for ADRA.

To top off all this work, Alexandra completed two hikes, one on the Barrington Tops and a qualifying hike of 26 kilometres on the Gibralter Range. This met the expedition component of the award. Congratulations on a job well done. Heather Knobbs, Port Macquarie Adventist Church

Kid’s Club brought holiday fun to Baradine

Health qualifications for Taree Church

Five ladies from Taree Church together with eight others including one male, attended the Eastward College facilitated “Certificate IV in Health Education Presentation”. It was taught by Alison Maticic and Sibilla Johnston at Wauchope Church from August to December 2008. This turned out to be a very interesting course with much ‘food’ for thought and valuable information.

It was challenging to keep up with assignments and daunting to present

talks and cooking demonstrations, not to mention the final examination. However, excellent scores were achieved at the end, new friendships established, and so much current nutrition information given that it made the experience a total blessing. We all thank the Lord for opening this opportunity for us, and we look forward to sharing our knowledge in our community. So far the ladies from Taree have been involved in three cooking demonstrations with more planned throughout the year.

The Coonabarabran Adventist Church held a Vacation Bible School (VBS) Kids Club program from 12-16 January 2009 in the nearby town of Baradine.

The VBS program was called “A Royal Adventure” and the theme was “King’s Kid”. Each day we had around 20 children coming from the local community. The children enjoyed games, Bible stories about Kings and Queens in the Bible, puppets, songs and crafts. At the end of the week we had a fellowship lunch in which all the children’s families came.

The response was amazing and they all wanted us to run another VBS again in the Christmas holidays.

The local newspaper, The Coonabarabran Times, came and took photo’s and wrote an article about the kid’s club, which was published in the paper.

Pr Lorenzo Berry and his wife Jackie, who created

the program we used, came to help Pr Eddie Mackie and the Revelly Family organise and coordinate the Kids Club. Jackie made purple tye-dyed shirts for all the helpers with the motto painted on “I’m a Child of the King.”

A special thankyou to Lorraine Brand, Vicki Nyvelett, Vicki Poyser and the youth Jesse, Naomi, Lydia Revelly and Stephen Bennett who made the castle puppet stand.

We couldn’t have done it without you. We are excited about sharing Jesus’ love in a practical way.

We look forward to the next program that is already under construction.

Lisa Revelly, Coonabarabran Adventist Church

OUR COMMITMENTS

Erina Baptism

On Sabbath, 21 February at 8:00am, friends and many Erina Church members gathered by the ocean shore at a place known as “The Haven” at Terrigal to witness the baptism of Scott Allen.

Prior to the baptism, Scott’s uncle Pastor Malcolm Allen delivered an address to those present for this pleasant occasion and then Pastor Russell Stanley (Erina Church Pastor) baptised Scott.

Later that morning during the church service at Erina, Scott was warmly welcomed into fellowship.

Timms Dedication (times three)

Most parents do it one at a time. However, for Melanie and Peter Timms, one special Sabbath was “treble special” as they dedicated all three of their children; Caleb, Alex and Kobe. May God richly bless the Timms boys, and may the Central Coast Community Church continue to support them in directing their children toward Jesus.

Baptism at Moree

Benjamin Trent Adams was baptised by Pastor Eti Feau on Sabbath, 21 February 2009. Benjamin is the youngest son of Brett and Jannelle Adams, who expressed their heartfelt thanks to God that Benjamin had responded to God’s voice.

Benjamin had many fears and expectations to overcome before he made his decision to be baptised. He had Bible Studies over 12 months with tremendous support from his brother Michael, mum, dad and extended family.

Among the people who witnessed Benjamin’s baptism were his grandparents, aunties, uncles and cousins from around Australia. The Moree Adventist Church celebrated with Ben on his special day.

Memorial Baptisms

On December 27, 2008, the baptism of Steven and Alex Stanculescu took place at Catherine Hill Bay. Steve was baptised by Pastor Adrian Craig after studying with him throughout the year. Alex was baptised by his brother-inlaw, Pastor Daniel Herara.

Father & daughter dedicated to God

When Mark Craig baptised Jac (short for Jacob) McElevey on February 21, it was after a three-year journey of studying the Bible together. Not that Jac hadn’t thought about being baptised before, here’s how he tells his story:

Baptism has just been a word that has been thrown around in my life for the past three years. I’ve been talking about doing it, but never really taking a stand to commit to it. I’ve been helping out with the music at Regen for four years and always been saying, “Yeah, I will get baptised soon.” But it never really felt like I would be doing it for me. I kept feeling like it was what I should be doing, because I’m a leader in the church and all leaders have to be baptised!

I had to make sure that this was my decision, between me and God.

Mark Craig has been a major influence in my life and has always been a huge support in my journey as a Christian. It was an awesome experience to be baptised by the person who has helped build my spiritual journey. My decision to get baptised came from Summer Camp ’09. We were leading the music for the teens and there was a moment there when I was worshiping with all the campers that inspired me to make the decision. The words kept hitting me hard: “The enemy has been defeated. Death can’t hold you down. Gonna lift our voice in victory, gonna make Your praises loud!” It was that moment in worship that made me think, “Yeah, 2009 is my year. This is the year I commit my life over to Christ and make a stand.”

As a family, Janice and I decided to dedicate our little girl’s life to Jesus on the same day. Brooklyn Alexandria was dedicated, also by Mark, down at the lake. It was a day of memories as we made a fresh start as a family, with God at the head. We would love to thank all our family and friends that came to support our special day.

Heaven Celebrates

Heaven celebrated as Skye Teagle commited her life to Jesus on Sabbath afternoon, 21 February 2009, at the pool at the Mardi Turf Farm. Before family and friends, Skye declared her love for Jesus through baptism.

Pr Wayne Krause spoke of the influence many have played in bringing Skye to this point. In particular, Viv and Mick Killick who have been bringing Skye to Central Coast Community Church (CCCC)since she was three years old.

Sylvia Stilinovic also played an integral role at Kids Church in the early days at Chittaway, and more recently Karen Price, Trish Williams, Nomes Coafield and Christina Hawkins at CCCC.

Skye chose Christina to be her mentor. Members of the CCCC family feel they all share the responsibilities of being role models to the kids in their church community.

Baptism in Port

In an idyllic setting on the beautiful Wilson River, Port Macquarie girl Ashlee King gave her life to Jesus and was baptised by church paster Joseph Maticic.

Ashlee began thinking about baptism at summer camp and so started studies. She finally made her decision at Big Camp 2008 when she heard James Black speak in the 18+ tent. He said, “Jesus loves you just as you are, you don’t have to be perfect, just come to Him.”

Ashlee had family travel from Sydney for her special day and was surrounded by her Port Macquarie church family to witness her decision.

The youth band “Restore” of which Ashlee is a member, made a special musical presentation on the day. Congratulations and welcome Ashlee.

Lightning Ridge Dedication

Some years ago now, Nakita came out to Lightning Ridge during her school holidays to visit relatives. We, in the Lightning Ridge Adventist Church, grew to know and love her and to regard her as a member of the church family.

Now Nakita is grown up and has a little boy of her own and on Sabbath, 28 February, she chose to return to Lightning Ridge for the dedication of little Tyler John Samson. It was a very special day for the church family as well as those of her relatives who were able to be present for the occasion. We pray for God’s blessing on this dear family as they train Tyler to know and love Jesus.

Baptisms in Murwillumbah

Exciting news! On 28 February, three students in Year 8 at Tweed Valley College (TVC) were baptised as an expression of their faith and love for Christ. Leighton Hedges, Craig Louwen and Kody Dobson were baptised in a beautiful swimming hole in Crystal Creek by Pastor Brett Townend and Marty Benard, TVC School Chaplain.

The three boys became official members of Murwillumbah Adventist Church, and it was great to see so many friends and family there to support them in their decision. Each of the boys shared their personal testimony and journey with God. The boys were baptised together as they had all been in the same Bible study group with Marty for the past year. All of the boys were individually convicted that they wanted to live for God and tell everyone about it. Good on you boys!

We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. (Romans 6:4)

OUR SCHOOLS

Avondale Schoolies Rockforce Cambodia ’09

On average, students who have just finished the Higher School Certificate (HSC) in NSW spend $800 each during the ‘schoolies’ week.

It is understandable that students look for ways to celebrate the close of such a strenuous year of study and assessment. But what do the youth that participate in the traditional schoolies activities have to take away from the experience?

This year, Avondale School is opening up an opportunity in the last two weeks of November for Year 12 students to culminate their challenging year with an international service project called Rokforce.

a media room, run outreach programs and interact with the kids in a number of fun ways.

The Year 12 students will bring resources and enthusiasm with which to run a kids club program with activities such as games, crafts and face-painting. The kids club will also involve worships where Rokforce will provide the kids with a fun collection of music, dramas and puppets. Avondale Schoolies Rokforce are wasting no time tackling the many

On March 30, ASR have organised a visit by The Sowers, a contemporary R&B/Gospel music group from Tanzania. They are currently on tour in Australia and tickets for this concert are $20.

The support and enthusiasm of the school community has been a tremendous kick-start to the project. Co-ordinator and school chaplain, Leighton Heise is infectiously optimistic and has a waiting list of people wanting to attend the trip. He views ASR as an enriching alternative to the schoolies party period.

“It is a time to let your hair down and relax after the stress of HSC, although it is also a time for hard work in a foreign country building, creating, and investing in the lives of young

Cambodians,” he explained. The experience will be something to hope and look forward to after the stressful climax of the HSC exams. Avondale Schoolies Rokforce ‘09 will cement the students’ relationships through a challenge that will create incredible memories and lifelong impact.

Susan Rogers, Avondale Schools

If you would like further information, or would like to donate money or time to the Wat Preah Yesu orphanage service project or to individual student travel expenses, please phone Avondale Schools on (02) 4977 0200.

It is a team made up of 26 students and six teachers or parents who want to make a difference. They will raise their own airfares and costs in return for the opportunity to serve and gain an awareness of world needs and the bigger picture.

Avondale Schoolies Rokforce (ASR) have taken on a $20, 000 project in the Cambodian Wat Preah Yesu orphanage. The orphanage has major needs and ASR have elected to build

financial and organisational aspects of the trip.

To assist, Avondale School will be reaching out into the community in a number of ways including hosting a lecture visit on March 23 from Mt Everest climber, Tim MacartneySnape. He was the first Australian to go up the north face with no bottled oxygen and tickets for the event are being sold for $10.

Live in Concert

SWANSEA CHURCH 50th ANNIVERSARY

On Sabbath, 2 May 2009, Swansea Adventist Church will be celebrating its 50th Anniversary. Pastor John Lang, President, NNSW Conference will be the guest speaker for the church service, which will be followed by a pot-luck lunch and an afternoon of stories and memories. Join current and past members and friends for this special day of

re:frame

celebration. For more information, contact Pastor Jan Jankiewicz on Tel: (02) 0414 903408 or email jankiewicz@iinet.net.au

CHILDREN’S RESOURCE CENTRE OPENING DAY

(April 17-19)

There is something to say about postmodernism — nobody seems to know much about it, let alone how you go about sharing your faith with postmodern people. That is about to change. You are invited to participate in re:frame, a training event on ministry to postmodern people, at Avondale College Seventh-day Adventist Church, April 17-19. You will discover not only the thinking of postmodern people but also how to communicate with them in positive ways.

Miroslav Pujic — his title is director of the Centre for Secular and Postmodern Studies (a part of the worldwide Adventist Church) — will begin by talking about our changing world and the church, on Friday evening. Then he will be speaking about how to relate to postmodern people in meaningful ways and how to share your faith with them.

However, this is not simply a talkfest. Prepare to participate in active workshops. Learn how to develop a practical discipleship model and create your own ministry strategy.

Pujic has presented re:frame in several places in Australia. This is his only training event in northern NSW. Register now by phoning (02) 4980 2272 or by emailing: collegechurch@avondale.edu.au

Cost: $25 (includes meals on Saturday).

Your invited: Thursday 23 April at 10:00am North NSW Conference Office,112 Lake Rd Wallsend NSW 2287

FIREPROOF DVD

“The No.1 Inspirational Movie of the Year”

At work, inside burning buildings, Capt. Caleb Holt lives by the old firefighter’s adage: Never leave your partner behind. At home, in the cooling embers of his marriage, he lives by his own rules. His job is to rescue others. Now Caleb Holt is ready to face his toughest job ever — rescuing his wife’s heart. This is a must see movie!

GREY NOMADS CAMP

The NNSW Conference is planning a special 10-day camp event for retirees at the Adventist Convention Centre, Stuarts Point, NSW to be held 22-31 May, 2009.

Enjoy a Big Camp spiritual experience geared specifically for Grey Nomads, and be insipired by guest speaker Steve Cassimy, from the Greater New York Conference.

The event is open to people from across Australia and will be an excellent opportunity for retirees to meet and fellowship together.

Accommodation is limited to private caravans and tents. Additional accommodation is available at nearby public campgrounds.

ERINA CHURCH ANNIVESARY

April 18, 2009 is the 90th Anniversary of the establishment of the Erina Adventist Church. It will be a day of special celebration and the Erina Church invite all past members and attendees of the church to join current members in celebrating this momentous event. The Sabbath Program will begin at 10:00am with a combined program of historical flavour. Pr David Mckibben (a

former Church Pastor) will be the guest speaker. Lunch will be provided at 12 noon for all in attendance. This will be followed by a meeting of ‘Memories and Reflections’ at 2:00pm.

For more information or to make an application, please contact Bob Dale, General Secretary NNSW Conference on (02) 4951 8088, email bobdale@adventist.org.au or visit our website at nnsw.adventist.org.au