Tuesday 29 September 2009

125 years - what a celebration!

We have just returned from a weekend at Coppercoast [125 years celebration] - here are some thoughts.
We arrived at Kadina Corps on 6th February 1992 to discover that there were in actual fact 2 corps operating - Kadina [we lived next door to the hall] and Moonta - so we looked after both corps - 2 very different corps in culture and personnel. These corps were 18 kms apart.
We left 5 years and 3 weeks later - 27th February 1997.
Whilst we were there - at the request of Port Wakefield families we started SAGALA [girls] in their town [50 kms from Kadina] every Thursday night during school terms - an amazing experience in such a small community - although we travelled there only on Thursdays we became part of that community. The local Uniting Church allowed us to have a church parade in their service - absolutely awesome.
Today Coppercoast is just one corps based at Kadina - the old hall is gone and where it stood is parking spaces - the youth hall is now a work place for men [lathes etc....] - a new hall has been built on the old parking spaces - our quarters has been replaced by a purpose built Thrift shop - the new quarters is further up the road.
Many of the folks we knew have gone to their eternal reward - very few remain from those days - but those who do - it was great to catch up with and walk down memory lane - to hear them share the impact our ministry had on their lives was truly amazing - you just never know how you touch people.
Not long after we arrived at Kadina in 1992 - Campbelltown sections came up to do a weekend [already planned before we arrived] - during this time we met a family - one of the daughters had a baby and brought her along that weekend - she was a real cutie - I had lots of cuddles.
So at 125 celebration I was doubly blessed - the real cutie was there [turns 18 in Feb] wow!!! yeah, I hugged her!!! But once again I held a baby girl in my arms [she went to sleep] - the cutie's little sister and she is just as cute!!! - life is amazing!
We were stationed at Campbelltown Corps from 1999 to 2004 - I'm so glad that Campbelltown corps has folks who are members of "The Red Shield Band, Songsters & Timbrels" [special guests for the weekend] - it was great to catch up with these folks as well - and again to hear how our ministry impacted their lives.
We are truly blessed as officers to move around and be a part of so many people's lives - to share their joys, their sorrows, for that moment in time to walk beside them and be one with them.
They will always be part of us - they are our history - they are part of who we are today!

Monday 7 September 2009

Our God .....

Our God is a deeply communicative God. In fact, this is how deeply God feels the need to communicate – that He would wrap himself in our frame of reference, human images and language, human flesh and experience, in order to be heard by human ears, received into human hearts. For me, this is the magnetic attraction of Christian faith: the truth, the power and the experience of Sacrament. Christ as the God Who enters the ordinary and fills it with deity.

John van de Laar