Pentecost

Poem by Bruce Prewer

Lord, you come

like the wind

and the earth grows

hale [healthy] at your breath.

You brood

over the face of the waters,

and in the Body of the Church,

shaping

the world that is to be.

You arrive --

like the wind filling a thousand sails

on Sydney Harbour --

and fill

our slack churches

with new power

and vision.

Like moist air

carrying refreshing rain

to the Flinders Ranges,

clothing the valleys with red hops,

carpeting the slopes with purple and gold,

so your Spirit

brings the colour of Christ

into drab communities.

You sweep in,

fresh as sea breezes across Port Phillip

bringing relief and restoration

to a hot and tired city,

dispersing the smog,

encouraging us to breathe deeply again

of the Breath of life.

Sometimes you roar

like a hurricane, tearing away

the flimsy structures

of our gaudy materialism,

demolishing us

to the Ground of our Being.

As strong as a summer wind

transporting a myriad of seeds

to impregnate distant plains

with new patterns of life,

so you seed us

with new faith,

fertile from the Teller of parables.

Warm as the breath

of a loved one

whispering forgiveness

and unearned respect,

so your Spirit

breathes renovating grace

into our dispirited souls.

Some days you spin

like a willy-willy [Aboriginal word for 'mini-tornado'],

startling, tearing, hurting,

uprooting us from apathy

and leaving us giddy

with new possibilites

in discipleship.

Like a soft breeze at dusk

soothing tired faces

at the end of a hard day,

so you visit us

in the evening of life

when all our work is done,

giving us Christ's peace at the last.

We believe

in the Holy Spirit,

Lord, and giver of life,

Poured out on all flesh,

Who with the Father

and the Son,

is worshipped and glorified!

Amen!

Taken from Australian Accents, Selections from Australian Psalms, Australian Prayers and Australian Images, by Bruce D. Prewer and Aub Podlich. 1988

What a week!

Busy, busy, busy!

We have friends praying for a special dose of energy at this time and we can testify that God is granting us that energy and the capacity to prioritize.

I had 8 different meetings and rendez-vous this week, but each one was a blessing.

How to blow a new breath into our loving relationships

Our last organisational meeting for our big conference day June 2nd was Tuesday evening. It's all systems go for a special day for around 500 women. We are particularly grateful to be  able to set up on Friday afternoon and evening - it was in doubt for a long time.

On our day off we finished burning the garden rubbish. There's something magic about fires - something primeval!

Pray for Murielle as she discovers more about the Bible. As for many people in the country, she is very busy now preparing her vegie gardens and caring for their sheep. She can't get to our regular meetings.

Pascal celebrates a 'mixed' wedding with the Catholic priest in our church last Saturday. We have very cordial relations with this man, who is a good pastor to his sheep and who speaks in truth. The wedding was the opportunity to meet other locals whom we don't see in church.

We visited Catherine whose long-time neighbour died recently. She was particularly sad because he hadn't wanted to find out more about Jesus. Keep praying for Catherine; she's the only Christian for miles around in her remote corner of Ardèche. Many others in the area are rather New Age in their beliefs.

 Other activities this week included 3 prayer and Bible Study meetings with different women's groups, 2 telephone consultations for counselling, a mammography (!), Youth Group (on Mission), and Teen Bible study (on how to explain one's faith). It's been a good week - full of interesting encounters. The Lord has given us the extra energy to cope with it all and still have some family time.

Monday is a public holiday for Pentecost. Rather ironic given France's secular standing!

Two trips

The pastors of our Union

There were around forty of us at our National Pastor's meeting representing 50 churches.

Our guest speaker reminded us of the history of the Lausanne conferences - the Evangelical Manifestos. He had the privilege of attending the Cape Town Lausanne III conference. He works for the French equivalent of Tear Fund.

His challenge to us was how we Christians within our churches put our faith into practice in our concerns for the needs of so many others in this world.

It was a great time of catching up and we were particularly interested in the mission of 3 of our 4 pastors present who are Army Chaplains.

One of the lovely bridges of Lyon

2 days later we headed off to Lyon. It was the only weekend where I was free to accompany Pascal as he pastors another of our churches. We had the luxury of having a hotel room to ourselves, so when he wasn't in meetings, it was like having a mini-holiday. The church has suffered these last few months with a kind of split. But Pascal is building up the leadership with special training sessions and they are young, energetic and on fire for the Lord.

The new kitchen

Realised I hadn't shown the end result, although we still have the tiling to do.

10 days of prayer with SIM

17th May - SIM-ers all over the world are going to try and find time to pray for the next 10 days about worldwide mission, the different aspects of SIM and its projects, their inspiration for their own ministries. Our first day starts with :

We've just finished the campaign 'Pray for France' and have got through one Presidential election. We have just had our National Pastors' Conference where we discussed the Cape Town Committment from the Lausanne 3 conference and whether our churches really consider their part in social action or social justice issues. In each situation we are confronted by the injustices of this world, the imbalances and power plays. We are reminded how much our country is in need of healing - perhaps not physically, because France has abundant resources, but in our relationships, in the balance of power and how decisions are made. We have to admit that not all people who live in this country are treated with respect.

So this verse is very relevant to France as well.

Please pray for these same subjects. I will apply the different points to our Femmes 2000 conference day on June 2nd (for unity in our organising team and for this action to bless many women); for our 2 local churches to be renewed by the Spirit and to seek God's leading for a more direct vision for future actions; that all we do will be for his glory in our Union of Free Churches as we pastor our churches to feed our generation and to communicate our faith to our contemporaries.