Weekly News 11 September 2020

Sunday 13 September:

Preacher:  Geoff Ryall       Psalm 91:1-16    “A Psalm for a Pandemic”

Let us be people who dwell (i.e., take up permanent residence) in the shadow of the Almighty and not the shadow of the pandemic!

During the week:

  • Conversational English, Shalom and Mustard Seed are taking 3 weeks off for school holidays. Some other care groups are taking 1 week off, others are continuing on. Contact the leader.
  • If you would like to join a Care Group, contact gracemunro8@gmail.com, 0425 707 386.

Care groups on the web:   http://balwynbaptist.org.au/ministries/care-groups/

Care Groups:

Today we highlight the Bible Study,  Shalom, led by Bill Washington on Friday evenings at 7.45pm, following Conversational English. The group has been going for around 6-7 years.

This group is in English. As well as doing a Bible Study, it can help some of the more experienced Conversational English students in developing their language skills.

Each week they have a Bible Reading, and a discussion about it. They are open to discuss any questions people may have.  At present there are only 4-5 members, so if you would like to join, contact Bill.

TIME FOR REPORTS

Leaders of all groups, don’t forget we need your reports in by 5 October. Thank you Yang for being the first one to report!

FINANCES

It was encouraging to see the offering figures for August, $7,865, which is $315 better than budgeted. JobKeeper and a Covid subsidy totalled $4,405, were a great help. We received 3 month’s rent in advance for the Manse. Expenses were less than budget in August, though this was largely due to delays in finalising some maintenance matters. So there was a surplus of $7,971 in August.

Joyce Lin and Wei Li are preparing a revised budget which will see some significant changes to the budget we accepted in May:

  • because we are not meeting in the church, utilities expenses are lower,
  • various much-needed maintenance work is being done,
  • the reduction of rent to 10% from groups using the church building,
  • JobKeeper continuing.
  • a budget offering figure of $7,500 every month

This revised budget will be presented at the October 18 Annual Church Meeting.