New Things

Happy New Year! We hope you have had an encouraging season as we've celebrated the coming of our Saviour over the past several weeks. This time of year is important, as it helps us to take a moment and reflect on all that God has done over the past year, as well as think ahead about what He has in store. This past year has had some difficulties, of course, but we hope you can join us in praising God for all that He has done.

One of the biggest areas of praise for our ministry is the new space we have been able to acquire for our church! We stretched the previous space to its capacity (and then some!), so it has been such a blessing to have a larger room to meet in. We are still in the same building as before, but in a space about twice the size.

It is great to have room to fellowship and not have to worry about where to fit people if we have visitors. This move has been a step of faith, as the cost has greatly increased. However, we are trusting God that as He continues to grow the church, the finances will not be a problem. God has surprised us over and over, and if there's anything to learn from all the ways He's provided in the past, it's that He will provide again. So far, God has already been blessing in this area by providing both a generous gift to help with moving costs and monthly giving from the church to cover the cost of rent.

Throughout the month of December, we were able to have several special services and events. As well as a carol service and a Christmas Day service, we also had a kids Christmas party that the kids were able to invite their friends to. It was a lot of fun and provided a good way to interact with quite a few families that had not been to the church before.

We have had several new people start coming along to our Friday morning Bible study. This has been a particularly encouraging ministry, as most of the attenders are not from the church, but are people from the community who are interested in learning more about what the Bible says. There is a huge variety of people from different backgrounds that come along to this study, several of whom are unsaved. We are finishing our study of Hebrews and discussing what we’d like to study next.

Visiting with a church member who got a new puppy!

Despite how busy we’ve been over the last couple of months, we were able to get down to the south coast and visit Tim’s family for a few days over the new year. Tim’s parents have moved back to America for now to help mobilize new missionaries to join BMM. As you pray for us, please also pray for the next set of missionaries that God is preparing for His work right now.
Over the past year, God has taken Forthside Christian Fellowship from a small group of believers just getting to know each other into a solid foundation of a church. We have baptised four individuals and organized as a church with twenty-one members. We’ve moved into a new space, held several outreach events, and seen this small church grow in both size and in their relationships with each other and our Saviour. Please pray with us, as we look to the coming year, that God would take this church and use it to see souls saved and the community of Dalgety Bay reached with the gospel.

Praise God!