On September 12, Hope Queanbeyan jubilantly celebrated our first year Anniversary. Planning the event for over a month beforehand, we were all so excited about how God had blessed us so tangibly that we put heart and soul into it!
We had 70 people at church on this day, with lots of guests and new faces at our church. We all say a big thank you to all the people who put in the hard work to invite so many visitors to church, especially Pastor Nonoi Condat. Hope Queanbeyan has a large proportion of Filipino members in our congregation, and many of our guests were Filipinos.
Starting out the proceedings, each Life Group brought an item to share. The Thomas Royal Life Group presented a short DVD presentation called “The Bridge Master”, which spoke volumes about the love of God, and how he let His beloved Son die in our place. The group then sang a lively rendition of Lamentations 3:22 and 23: “His love is new every morning; great is your faithfulness”.
The Tharwa Road Life Group presented a wonderfully colourful African rendition of a song that was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone! The kids and the adults from Tharwa group gave us a beautiful demonstration of joyful African praise. It was an absolute delight! The children from Kids Church performed a lovely dance presentation. It was really beautiful. The worship team led us in a wonderful time of praise and worship, and we really had a great time singing our hearts out in thanks to God! Then little Chelle-Pauline sang a beautiful song while the offering was being taken up.
Pastor Lance Wolter was our visiting speaker from Hope Gold Coast, and Pastor Lance blessed us with a message from Nehemiah 4: 6 “So we rebuilt the wall till all of it reached half its height, for the people worked with all their heart.” It was a time of gratitude that so much work had been done, yet also recognising that much remains to be done. And praise the Lord, the people had a mind to work! Thank you, Pastor Lance, for giving us such an encouraging sermon.
After the sermon, came the time for prayer, with many of our visitors coming forward during altar call. It was then time for the Filipino Food Fiesta! What a feast! We thank all those who put in the hard yards of preparing all the culinary delights, especially to Sister Nene, who coordinated all the preparations. It was a great success, and everyone had a great feed!
We are all so grateful to God that we had such a wonderful first year. We thank Pastor Nonoi for his hard work over the last twelve months, and thank you to every member of the church for all their hard work. We hope to see God do even more wonderful things in the year to come. Truly, the people have a mind to work - praise the Lord!
