Dear Border Church Family,
Merry Christmas to all who are part of our extended Border Church Family! Please be safe if you are travelling and have a fantastic holiday season.
Please note! We will be in the annex which faces onto Marine Parade (beach side) this week as air conditioning is being installed in the main hall.
This week we will be having Church in our regular venue at the QCWA Hall at 169 Griffith Street, Coolangatta. Parking can be found on Griffith and Boundary Streets as well as on Marine Parade. For shaded parking you can park under Twin Towns. We will be meeting at 9:30am QLD/10:30am NSW and look forward to spending time with you.
Border Church this Week
This month, in the lead up to Christmas we look at "Christmas Again". We will explore the themes, foreshadowing and implications of coming of the Messiah in the garb of humanity and the events that surrounded it. This week our topic is "Slain Again". How was the birth of Jesus also a sacrifice and what are the parallels between the beginning and end of Jesus' incarnate ministry on earth.
We always have a healthy vegetarian fellowship lunch after Church. We will be having a pot luck lunch this week and next for the pre-Christmas and New Year services! We would love you to join us for this time of fellowship. Our lunch schedule can be found here - https://border.church/pages/church-luncheons-roster
News
Note that Epic Youth is over for the year and will resume in February with the new school term. We will share the program as soon as this is available.
This year, Alina and I will be hosting a Christmas day lunch at our place for those in our community who may not have other family with whom to spend Christmas. Please let us know by Sunday for catering purposes if you will be joining us.
We will have hampers for the Christmas season partnering with other Churches and ministries such as Tweed Valley Adventist Op Shop and Convoy of Hope. A big thank you to these ministries and their contributors for their huge generosity. We have already given away almost two dozen hampers and we have more to give over the next week. If you know of anyone who is in need this Christmas season please let us know so we can try and get a hamper allocated to them.
Christmas Programs
Many Churches are putting on Christmas programs on Christmas eve and leading up to Christmas. If you want some family outings for Christmas Eve which this year falls on a Sunday, the following are some recommendations:
Christmas @ The Gathering - 9:30am NSW time (food trucks and jumping castle)
Christmas Eve at Newlife - 5pm NSW time (will take place at The Gathering Church)
Carols on Christmas Eve at Tweed Salvos - 6pm NSW time (supper afterwards)
Christmas Eve Celebration at Hub Baptist Tweed - 6:30pm NSW time (food, games)
The 2023 season of The Punchline is complete and we finished with a Christmas special that can be found at the following link:
Christmas - Myths, History and Traditions
Past shows can be found on the links below:
Church History in the Making - 2000 to Today
Church History 1914-2000: Lessons from the last 100 years for 2023
Church History 1800-1914: Great Awakening to War and lessons for 2023
Church History 1500-1800: Reformation and Revolution and lessons for 2023
Church History 1000-1500AD: Dark Ages and lessons for 2023
Church History up to 1000AD and Lessons for 2023
Early Church History and Lessons for 2023
What does the Bible Say About Food?
Denominational Differences and Sheep Stealing
Give
You can contribute towards our community outreach in our tithes and offerings box or online through various options on our website at https://border.church/give
Weekly meetings
Wednesday Prayer Meeting
*Note - Prayer meetings will be taking a break until the New Year. We will advise with time of resumption*
Prayer meetings are on Wednesdays at 3pm NSW time at 179 Botanical Circuit, Banora Point. Please message me or speak to Lorraine if you have any prayer requests we can add to our list. All are welcome to join as we pray for our community and upcoming projects.
Wednesday Night Bible Study
A few weeks ago we finished season one of Sealed & Revealed and will resume with Season 2 in 2024. However, to fill in the gap before Christmas, we will begin again this Wednesday night at 6:30pm QLD/7:30pm NSW time looking at questions you have suggested. The first few weeks will look at the Creation of this world and look at some answers to the Evolutionary process in the light of the Bible and Science.
The Zoom link for this is below - https://us02web.zoom.us/j/
Sealed & Revealed - Heralds of the Messiah
Our first series on Messianic Prophecies is now finished and in 2024 we will resume a new series looking at the New Testament view of prophecy (minus Revelation which will be dealt with in a future season). If you would like to catch up on studies in this series, recorded sessions can be found on the secret YouTube playlist here:
Other worship opportunities
If you or anyone you know would like to start a Discovery Bible Reading group, we would be happy to equip and support you in this. We will be teaching how to do these from this week. It really is very simple.
We run Alpha small groups on a regular basis and if you would like help hosting one for your friends or loved ones to discover Jesus and the basics of the Bible, please let us know.
We look forward to seeing you on Saturday at 9:30am QLD/10:30am NSW.
Blessings
love
Brendan, Alina, Victor and Erina