BUILDING CLEAN OVERVIEW

Hi everyone,

Thankyou for coming to the cleaning days. Here is an outline of what we are seeking to achieve, and the order to achieve it in. We are concentrating on cleaning this week, and moving next week.

Let me know if you are particularly keen for one of the below tasks so we can pre plan. Text Marty on 0412457287. 

OUTSIDE

Summary: Blow and high pressure hose carpark, portico, rear decks, paths and windows. Clean window and doors tracks, powercoating and glass. 

1. Blower group start at top of carpark and blow dirt and leaves off carpark working down to building and continue around the building covering all outside surfaces of the building
2. Gerni group follow behind cleaning carpark and building surrounds. 
3. Window cleaners follow Gerni group.

INSIDE

Summary: Vacuum building dust throughout building. Clean windows and door tracks, powercoating and glass. Dust and clean cabinetry, toilets and bathrooms, clean, mop and vacuum all floor surfaces. 

1. Industrial Vacuumers start early removing bulk dust from office area, stairwells, kids and youth areas, main floor. 
2. Window cleaners start in upstairs office area, then stairwells, kids areas then main level (kitchen, foyer, reception and auditorium). 
3. Bathrooms on both floors to be cleaned including all tiles, joinery, basin and toilets. 
4. Floor cleaners are last, vacuuming, soft sweeping, mopping. 

EQUIPMENT NEEDED

1. Blowers
2. Gernis/Kartchers etc...
3. Window and bathroom cleaning equipment. 
4. Buckets, mops, rags and step ladders
5. PPE - dust masks, gloves, sunsmart gear for outside workers.

FROM THE PASTOR

Home is the place we live, and the place we belong. But it’s not until our sense of home is impacted, that we realize how connected we are to it. This year ‘home’ has been in focus for a number of reasons. It's been hard for people unable to get home because of closed borders. Some have had to quarantine in hotel rooms before going home. Others have not been able to leave their home in lockdowns. For these and other reasons, our sense of home has been impacted in 2020.

Next year my daughter Christie leaves home to begin her first graduate position in Mt Isa as a Midwife. As her parents, Leanne and I will miss her dearly and our sense of home will change again. This reminded me that our sense of home is also impacted when someone leaves or is missing. As I reflected on the theme of home, I noticed the theme within the Christmas story for the first time. 

Mary and Joseph were required to return to their hometown for a nationwide census. They crossed the border and needed a place to stay. While Bethlehem was their hometown, it wasn’t their actual home. I doubt Mary would be travelling while heavily pregnant, unless her and Joseph had no choice. They would have stayed home to prepare for the birth, and remained in contact with a midwife! But instead they ended up in an animal stable, giving birth in the straw and using a feeding trough for a cot. 

The Christmas story in year 1, teaches us in the year 2020, that while home maybe a place we long to return to, or get away from, or the dynamics have changed, that it’s actually God’s presence that makes us feel at home. Sometimes it takes being unsettled to realize God is with us wherever we go, and how we can depend on his presence more than our surroundings. Our sense of home changes, but Jesus never does. Immanuel was born outside of a home, but his name means that God is with us. He is our home.     

This weekend over twenty of our teenagers are away from home on camp in Maleny. Bek Trevor couldn’t be more expectant about what God will do. Her own life changed when Jesus spoke to her on a youth camp, and she longs and prays the same will happen for our teenagers. Let’s be praying for Bek and the team, and for Pastor Dave Twigg who comes to speak. And let’s pray for all the precious young lives to encounter the presence of God with them, on this very weekend when they are away from home. 

From 2012 - 2019 The Grove were based in the house at 131, and we met in the school hall for Sunday services. It wasn’t God’s long-term plan for us, but it still felt like home. In 2020 we have been meeting in an office at Bridgeman Downs, and gathering for services in Mitchelton or watching online. Our sense of home as a church has been impacted this year, feeling more disconnected from the community we care about and are called to.   

Yet in this unsettled year, God’s presence has been with us regardless of our location. We are always the church, wherever we go. But perhaps it was important to feel more unsettled this year, to also gain a fuller appreciation of how important home is to the people we are called to reach. Our original call as a church was to resettle abandoned cities (Isa 54:3 MSG). It’s has to be God that the fulfillment of this calling and promise comes in 2021, following the year of greatest unsettling we have seen in our nation. 

131 Upper Kedron Road is the place Jesus chose to make his presence known in our community. Not because a building is able to contain God’s presence, but as a permanent home it stands as an invitation for people to come and belong. As they do come, we believe many people will discover that home isn’t a place, it’s a person, and his name is Jesus. Then they will go out knowing, that wherever life takes them, God is with them always. 

So church we have a calling to see people who feel abandoned and unsettled come home to God. In practical terms, we will use the building for that very purpose. There are many ways we can play a part in inviting people home.

• Letterbox drop a bundle or two of postcards to people’s homes, inviting them to come to Christmas Eve and the new building in 2021.  
• Come and plant trees on December 19 and sign up for the watering roster. Be part of making our spiritual home green and welcoming to everyone.
• We only need to buy another 65 chairs to reach our goal of 420! The chairs are for people to sit on and feel they have come home as they encounter God’s presence.
• Invite a family member or friend to watch or attend Christmas Eve, and to come to church next year. 
• Pray about how you can invest your time, gifts and resources for ministry in our new spiritual home in 2021. 

May you know God’s presence with you today.

Marty

MULLY CHILDREN'S FAMILY

This past Sunday, 8 November 2020, was Orphan Sunday.  Over the years different churches and organisations have used Orphan Sunday to raise awareness and stand up for orphans and children in foster care around the world.  There is probably no group of people more vulnerable than children without the protection of adults.  The Grove feels privileged to support the work of Mully Children’s Family (MCF), an organisation caring for orphans in Kenya.  Check out the attached 4-minute video to hear an update on how MCF is faring during COVID-19 and sharing God’s love in their corner of the world:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OVy9VlYrN9zgZjP_LsbfUQjFZiWElSJd/view?usp=drive_web

WYCLIFFE AUSTRALIA

Wycliffe World Day of Prayer meetings are taking place this weekend. You may be able to attend one of the following:

MANSFIELD (Southern & Eastern Brisbane): Sat 14th Nov, 9am until noon.  Christian Reformed Church,
421 Wishart Rd, Wishart. Hosted by François 0419623397. Numbers not limited. BYO eats. Or join us on zoom https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2897549986  or Meeting ID: 289 754 9986

DECEPTION BAY (North Brisbane): Sat 14th Nov, 9:30 to 1pm. Richard and Linda Buchanan, 37 Leonie Street, Deception Bay. BYO lunch if you wish to continue fellowship. Limited to 20 – call Richard to confirm presence: 0402472786

The Gift of Pain 

Last Monday, our dear sister, Vivienne O'Sullivan went home to be with Jesus. Viv was a woman greatly loved by many, and a common thread in people's comments highlighted she was a compassionate and kind lady who uplifted people around her. No one knows that more than her husband Peter. So we mourn and give thanks for a dear member of our church family, and we pray for God's comfort for Peter and all his family. 

This is not the first time we have been through this as a church, and unfortunately it won't be the last. Over the last eight years we have farewelled five people from our church family who have died earlier than we would have liked. We have been through numerous seasons of mourning together as a result. On top of this is the loss many have experienced in their own families and among their friends. We have experienced a lot of pain as a small community.

As I reflected on this during the week, it occurred to me we have also experienced a powerful unity as a church over the years. It came to me in a fresh way that it's not only our vision to build that has formed this, but also our pain. While we don't choose pain and would prefer not to face loss, when we go through it connected into a community of faith, it deepens relationships and bonds. Maybe that's because pain brings the most important things into perspective, and as a result we tend not to sweat the small stuff. 

I have seen people in our church family experience such deep pain in our journey. Yet I have also seen this deeper love that is shared. An example is Peter O'Sullivan's connect group that includes Ros, Scott and Sandy, all who have experienced the loss of a spouse. These are friends who have not isolated in their pain, but walked together through it.

Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1:3-4 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.

It's worth reading the verses that follow to get the full picture, but Paul is writing to the church in Corinth who have suffered. And he is teaching that the suffering is not wasted when we use the comfort we have received from God, to comfort others. Jesus' church is his body, and the body heals itself. Much like a finger that is cut off a hand, if it is sown back on, it heals as the rest of the body's blood flows through it. That is how Jesus designed his church to work, as a comforting and healing body. 

So church family. Thankyou for the unity and love that endures, and the comfort and support that is shared. Thankyou for staying connected when life hurts, and for how God has worked through you to bring comfort and healing to others. We are mourning again, but not without hope and not without comfort. May we soon open the doors of the new building, as a place where many come and experience comfort through Jesus' body, a comfort we learned through painful seasons that has also grown us to love and trust Jesus more. 

In this way pain is a gift. 

Love Marty