Hello Church Family,

Well, it has been a week of constant change and reassessing what’s happening and how we continue to glorify God.

Society may change, and we may not be able to meet, but God does not change or move What a great assurance that is to us!

We continue to pray, and make phone calls to you all to ensure we are somewhat connected. The leadership team are still willing to provide personal visits to you when required.

This week Ps. Stephen will provide an additional sermon covering the Daniel Dilemma see attached link. We have also included a few songs for you to listen/sing to bit.ly/MBC29032020_Songs

Yesterday a team of people dropped off some items to the kids in our church and we will also be including a video for the kids in our weekly emails. See this link http://bit.ly/MBCkids29032020 and attached is a song for them to learn and sing along to.

This weekend we were scheduled to hold our annual church camp at Gloucester, but due to changes around COVID-19, this is postponed until further notice.

In saying all this in the last week we have celebrated with:

· Brent & Amy Cowley for their baby shower to celebrate the upcoming birth of their bub.

· Brian and Jess Barnes for the dedication of Evelyn and 1st Birthday celebration.

· Our first online sermon recorded and distributed.

· We also want to recognise and celebrate Burt Guy’s 80th Birthday on 26th March. Happy Birthday Burt!

· We are receiving lots of emails and encouragement from you all, and thank you for them, they are much appreciated.

Prayer points:

· Adam & Abbey’s wedding day as it approaches.

· Continue to pray for our health, teachers, supermarket staff and other essential services workers who are on the front line.

· For the people in our community who may not be able to work at this time due to the current circumstances.

· Let’s continue to pray that through this situation people will come to know JESUS.

The Australian Government made announcements that have led to NSW Baptist Association and other major church groups advising against meeting in connect groups/small groups etc. We, as a church leadership support this advice and have notified all our connect groups leaders of this change. In turn, we will increase our phone calls, and look to create groups through zoom/messenger, etc.

I would encourage you where possible to reach out to your neighbours where practical. This week Nicole and I dropped letters into our neighbours’ letterboxes with our contact details, just to let them know we were here and offering support if required. As a result of this, conversations have opened and Jesus’ name is being shared……God is Good!!

One of the questions we have been asked “ how can I continue to give financially to the church? If you wish to give we encourage you to do this through online banking . Maitland Baptist Church – Greater Building Society BSB 637 000 Account 717173309.

Please continue to send in prayer requests and information that you may want us to share. Good news stories are an encouragement to us all!

Ps Lindsay