Latrobe Regional Church of Christ

Today Alf Thistlethwaite came to give us a message.  It certainly sp0ke to me, I hope it does for you too.

22 March 2009 Sunday Message - Alf Thistlethwaite 12.9mb

Blessings, LRCC blogger

One of our mission partners is Liberty For The Nations. Steve and Helen Blake (Steve being the brother of one of our members) work all over the world, shining God’s light into the darkest of areas.

Please visit their website HERE and see what they do. I have also put their link on our homepage links.

Hopefully from time to time I can also update here.

Blessings, LRCC blogger

Easter - the Journey of Hope in your community.

Supported by the Awakening Movement and the Victoria Council of Churches

Victoria is still coming to terms with the worst peacetime disaster in our history.

This Easter, the Victorian Council of Churches and the Awakening Movement are encouraging churches to take simple action that will lead the Victorian community to engage with the journey of Easter week as part of the process of beginning the journey of healing.

Although there is not a lot of time before Easter, it will take very little effort on your behalf to facilitate your community’s engagement with this moment.

How can you or your church get involved?:

Easter Open Crowd Festivals in fire zones or in your neighbourhood

Open crowd festivals are a simple but effective way of building bridges in communities. The distinctive of the Open Crowd Festival is that it focuses more on the process happening between people than on the activities themselves.

This year there will be Awakening Easter festivals in the fire zones on Palm Sunday and during Easter week, where affected churches will be supported by people from unaffected areas. To explore involvement in festivals in the King Lake, Bendigo or Churchill fire zone festivals, email Matt Garvin matt.garvin@fusion.org.au or phone 0413 598 625

Alternatively, if you have access to a public open area in your community, an Easter festival is an invaluable way to connect with your local community. Training and support will be provided free of cost, and a festival can be organized within a window of two weeks before Easter. For support in hosting a festival email julie.ratcliffe@fusion.org.au or phone 0402 294 482

Palm Sunday Peace March

The Palm Sunday Peace March is a march of solidarity with those who suffer, and also for the future generations who inherit the world we are now creating. This year’s theme is Lets Make Peace Possible - End the Waste of War.

The march is organized by the Victorian Council of Churches, giving the Victorian Christian church the opportunity to stand up for peace on the day that commemorates the Prince of Peace and his entry into Jerusalem.

There will be an Ecumenical Peace Service on the State Library of Victoria steps, Swanston St, Melbourne from 1.45 – 2.15pm, followed by a community rally and March at 2.30pm.

For more information email Rohan Waters rwaters@vcc.org.au or phone 0432 991 836

Stations of the Cross

Stations of the Cross is a centuries old Christian tradition where participants are taken on a spiritual pilgrimage of prayer, through meditating upon the passion of Christ - the chief scenes of Christ’s sufferings and death.

This year churches are encouraged to widely publicise and invite people to local Stations of the Cross events.

In Melbourne the “Way of the Cross” around the CBD, starts at St Francis’ Church, Cnr Lonsdale and Elizabeth St, Melbourne at 10am Good Friday, 10 April.

For help in publicizing local Stations of the Cross events contact John Latten on john.latten@fusion.org.au or phone 0407 004 209

Good Friday Prayer Vigil (with local children’s prayers and prayers from the fire zones).

One of the simplest ways your church can engage with the bushfire tragedy is to pray the prayers of children who have been affected by the fires.

A very simple kit can be made available to churches and communities that want to take up the opportunity to hold a regional prayer vigil on Good Friday evening.

In addition to praying the prayers of children from the fire zones, a very effective way for your church to connect with the local community is to collect the prayers of local children. A sheet for distribution to local children through primary school R.E. programs or Sunday Schools is at it is at http://www.awakening.org.au/ (go to “resources”, go to “download pdfs” then scroll down to Reclaim Easter).

To have these prayers passed on around the country to be prayed or for information about hosting a Good Friday Prayer Vigil contact John Latten on john.latten@fusion.org.au or phone 0407 004 209

Easter Sunday March of Hope

As the final public event of this important Easter week, the Easter Sunday March of Hope is a significant moment for the church to be together bringing the message of Easter to our city and State.

The Awakening Easter Sunday March and Festival gives an opportunity for the Church to present a youthful, united front and to communicate the central message of life and hope, not only on the streets of Melbourne but also on the evening news.

Join us at 1.30pm at the steps of the State Library of Victoria in Swanston St, Melbourne as we prepare to march at 2pm to Birrarung Marr (near Federation Square). We will finish our time with a community celebration and festival.

Bring your friends and family to the March and festival to finish the Easter season.

For brochures for you or your church, or more information about the Easter March contact John Latten on john.latten@fusion.org.au or phone 0407 004 209. Also go to www.awakening.org.au for information or a downloadable movie promotion.

Has anyone noticed anything different about the site (besides that it’s actuallly working!!)???

We have a new page!! A photo gallery! So you can go and see what we look like, and what sort of stuff we get up to at LRCC.

Go and have a look HERE!!

Blessings, LRCC blogger

Mustard Seeds to upload!! Hooray I hear you say!! Here you go!

The Mustard Seed January 09 1.09mb plus the Special Insert 85.2kb

The Mustard Seed February 09 1.51mb

The Mustard Seed March 09 1.07mb plus the Special Insert 46.5kb

Blessings, LRCC blogger

As you may know, one of our youth has just finished her first year at Hillsong College up in Sydney and is starting her second. Here is a short update from her!

Hello Church!
I am currently in my second year at Hillsong college and it is so great!
I am still studying music and getting involved in the music areas of church.
Have such incredible friends up here and leaders to look up to and mentor me through this part of my life.
I love our church and miss my church back in little latrobe valley!
Hope everyone is doing alright back there…
LOVE YOU ALL and miss you.
Be blessed and love God
Jessica Amy xx
——————–

Blessings, LRCC blogger

Sorry for the HUGE delay. Between being away from church a few weeks here and there and this silly website downtime (hopefully it’s fixed now), I haven’t been able to upload any of our Sunday messages for a while.

So here are a few! Remember these files are large so if you have dial up please contact me for an alternative way of listening.

25.1.09 “Who am I?” by Rob Lade 13.6mb At the beginning of this message there is a little overlap of singing, my apologies, we seem to be having some recording issues. The rest is all clear though.

1.2.09 “Grace Unlimited” by Sandy Bryant 16mb There is a little of the service also in this recording, the message starts 20 minutes in.

22.2.09 Robin Harrison 9.97mb

1.3.09 “Beauty For Ashes”, a special Bushfire Recovery Service run by Berwick COC, full service included 30.5mb HUGEST special thanks to Berwick Church of Christ for sharing this service with us. It has been a very difficult few weeks for everyone in Victoria especially including a number of members of our church who have lost personally. This service was a fantastic way to hand our grief to the Lord.

I hope you enjoy them.

Blessings, LRCC blogger