RBC Annual Report - 2013 | Page 26

Kay Turner The highlight of my week is the Tuesday Service which God continues to bless in wonderful ways. I love that He comes through His Holy Spirit each week. Rarely does a week go past without someone – and often several people commenting on how blessed they were at the Service – even when we are (as at present) squashed into the Seminar Room! Our leaders and preachers all delight us with their God-given ability to draw us closer to Him and to encourage us, individually and as a group, in our desire to follow Jesus. Many of us have followed Him for many years, others are babes in Christ, but He meets each of us. Increasing physical frailty, with its new challenges of dependency, weakness (surely not!) and inevitable changes to life styles and even residency, find us seeking to trust God more and more. He is always faithful! The Tuesday Lunch is a wonderful ministry to the Tuesday Service as well as other ministries in the church – a time of fellowship for people, time to maintain friendships and contacts with people and welcome others. Great food, too! Thanks so much to our hard working cooks and support people. My time is shared most weeks amongst our senior folk and people coming in for help when their need is great. This gives us significant opportunity to encourage people in their faith (however small it may be) and to pray with them for life changes. We earnestly desire to give them more than a Coles voucher! We know that they do not come by accident! There is often a real sense of Jesus being there in the room with us. Funerals are another large part of my ministry demanding personal emotional giving as well as considerable time adjustment, but, oh! such wonderful opportunity. It is a huge privilege when people invite you to come into their family at one of the times when their emotions are most raw. Grief is a huge part of peoples’ lives and a time when they need God most. It is a very special gift to be invited into peoples’ lives and be able to support them through a time of the loss of a Christian family member who has journeyed for many years with Jesus as their Lord.