From the home office of Pastor Nick: Hi Everyone. This is definitely my last BCFC email. On Monday I handed over my office to Pastor Margie, with my good wishes and prayer for her and Ps. Tonys and your future and for our continuing partnership. We thank them and our network leader, Brad Otto, and the oversight for the plans to support us in the days that lie ahead. Congrats to Dan and Sarah who have welcomed Jackson James Raffell into the world yesterday. My primary purpose today is to say THANK YOU all who have helped Lynne and I fulfill the call of God on our lives to come to minister in Wynnum West almost 32 years ago. We give glory to God for all the prophetic confirmations that both the Scowns and ourselves have received about this changing of the guard. As I said on Sunday, we are not going to name names, so we do not miss someone important from the list. Jesus said as much as you have done it for one of these, you have done it for me. Matthew 25:40. We feel the same way. So we thank those who have served on our staff, oversight, leadership, ministry teams, rosters and practical serving areas. Special mention goes to those who have been in our church even longer than we have. Such faithfulness is rare indeed these days. Also, our building and grounds volunteers have done so much over the years to give us a beautiful, natural home as well as a spiritual one. Our BayCare team has helped us gain a strong and positive reputation in the community and we have helped many hundreds of individuals and families, some of whom have been in terrible life conditions. Our Missions efforts have born fruit in several places, including two church plants in Murrarie and Birkdale. Myanmar has been the most powerful and effective missions effort with which we have been associated. Finally, our childrens and youth teams and our creative ministry teams have served us week after week. The latter have enabled us to enjoy the Lords Presence and let Him have His way among us in our Sunday meetings. Our gratitude is heartfelt, because we could never have done alone what has been achieved together. Lynne and I are honoured to have served the Lord and His purposes with you. Thank you, each and all, for your praying, serving, giving, encouraging, witnessing, welcoming others and every way by which you have helped make our church what it is today, for the Glory of God, from Whom shall come your reward! Colossians 3:24. We thank our denomination, The Apostolic Church (Australia) for giving us the opportunity to fulfill our calling in God over all these years. To mention just one thing: We willingly gave our house deposit to pay our own salary in the first two years. We said to the Lord - if that means we will never own our own home again, so be it. Over the years that debt has truly been repaid and more (i) by the partnership scheme the movement had some years ago by which they provided a deposit that we could never have put together; and (ii) by the generosity of our elders, who believe in such Scriptures as 1 Timothy 5:17-18. For those who do not know, we came to a church of around 30 people. When our family of 5 went to the night meeting, we effectively doubled it. We met in a small brick church on a house block (with no parking) in West Avenue that the congregation built and paid off, possibly in the 1960s. We sold it for $54,000 in order to buy some of the land on which our current church is built. For your information, we are the only Pentecostal church to have achieved the level of solidity and success that the Lord has granted us. Many have come, tried and gone, even big names and big denominations, but we have continued and ministered to thousands over the years. There have been salvations, rededications, healings, reconciliations, laughter and tears as people have been touched by God, filled with His Spirit and received the prophetic word. So many people have walked into the arms of Jesus in this place. I could not count the number of times that first time visitors and others have said that message was just for me. Prayers have been answered. Angels have visited us and worshipped with us. Jesus has revealed Himself to some people on a few occasions. Miracles of provision have occurred at just the right time for individuals and us as a church family. It has been our honour to have had something to do with the growth of people and the witness of the Lord here in our Bayside and beyond, through the combined ministries of BCFC. We are grateful to God and to all who have served Him with us for the fact that we are handing over a healthy church who have momentum (thanks again to the leadership and energy of Ps. Tony & Ps. Margie in the last nearly 18 months), a church that is debt free, with an asset base of around $2.5 million dollars. Any aspiring Senior Pastor would love to be appointed to this church. Just as the Lord appointed Lynne and me, so he has appointed the Scowns to take the church further, by enriching the lives of our existing family and adding new people to the Kingdom. Lynne and I say AMEN to that. Special Final Thanks to those who have been preparing to make our final Sunday Celebration (of the past)/ Launch (into our & your future)/ Handover (to Ps. T & Ps. Margie) such a significant and happy day. Of course it will be one of the most memorable days of our lives. OUR THANKS to those who have already worked so hard on getting the church and the service contents ready and to those who will help with the working bee on Saturday and the hospitality and other arrangements on Sunday. I am still finding it hard to believe that we have sown literally half of our lives into this church family; and that our lives are going to be significantly different from now on. We will cherish you each and all and desire Gods best for you personally and together as the Lords purposes continue to be outworked for the future of the people known as Bayside Christian Family Church, this Bayside, our city, State & the nation in which we live and for the potential 1.2 billion viewers of Baysides ministry. Hallelujah. As to the future: Lynne and I will be away from church during December and January. We will return sometime in February. We will be local for some of that time, but I will be either ministering somewhere or strengthening connections with other pastors and churches. BCFC will continue to be our church home and ministry covering. I have quite a number of weeks booked for next year already, including a long overseas trip from May through to the end of July. For those who want to keep in touch, link with me on Facebook nickjwatson.ycp I will also be issuing an email from my website youcanprophesy (provided I can figure out how to implement Mail-Chimp (= that is a cry for help ! HAHA). You can email me back if you want to be on that new email list. My prophetic newsletter will contain teaching, prophetic insights, Christian news, fun items and ministry updates. If you cant make it person, the church will be live streaming both the 9:30am and 1:00pm service (Brisbane, Australia time) at baycfc.org.au/baysideliveau
Posted on: Wed, 26 Nov 2014 10:45:42 +0000
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