Making Great Progress
It's hard to believe that in just a few months the church has made such a massive shift forward towards being in a new centre for ministry. It's like we have fast forwarded about 2 years into the future as we now work on the internal fit out of our new centre. I never imagined we would be working with interior designers and colour consultants this year. I hope like me that you can see this as such an awesome gift of grace from God. I'm especially overjoyed for our seniors who used to say to me "I don't think I'll see it in my lifetime".

I believe God has far exceeded our best plans and given us a property that is greater than we could have ever imagined. This whole process continually reminds me that God acts in response to faith and the more we let go and trust God, the more the seemingly impossible becomes possible.

I want to encourage everyone to take part in some way in making 23 Stanley St our new home. This is a brilliant opportunity to work together as a community and really take ownership of what is going on as well as minimizing labour costs.

We will also be launching a new pledge in the next few months. This pledge will have three important purposes:
... to minimize the amount of debt we have on the property when we eventually settle,
... to fund the renovations of the front portion of the site and thirdly,
... to fund the DA costs for the redevelopment of the main portion of the site.

Georges River Staff in '09
You may be wondering what is going to happen when Lara has a baby in February. Well I am happy to announce that Lara intends to go on maternity leave for a year then return on a part time basis to continue as Pastor in Children's Ministry. In the meantime we will call someone to fill her role as pastor in both Children and Youth Ministry. On Lara's return we will review and adjust these roles accordingly.

In preparation for this, the CLT has already begun prayerfully considering who we should approach for such a significant role. We welcome your thoughts on who might fill this role and your prayers as the CLT work towards bringing our recommendation to you at our next Vision Sunday. If you would like more specific information on the role description please don't hesitate to talk to me personally.

Pastor Scott

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October sermon series
Week 1 - October 5
AM: 2 Corinthians 11 (Pastor Glenn)
PM: No service
Week 2 - October 12
AM and PM: 2 Corinthians 12 (Craig Shannon)
Week 3 - October 19
AM: Scott's trip
PM: Nooma night (Pastor Scott)
Week 4 - October 26
AM: Vision Sunday (Pastor Scott)
PM: Café (Dave Round)

Men's Depression Support evening - October 14
7.30pm at 57 Stanley Street. See Ross Stanbury or Glenn Power if you would like to join these nights.

Cafe-Sunday October 26
Guest band is Gethsemane with Dave Round speaking on Real Change. This is a great night to invite friends and family. Flyers on the welcome table.

Transformation Night-Thursday Oct 30
Linda Heald will share insights on practicing the prophetic in our everyday lives to bring encouragement to others.

River Kids Mega Sleepover
A big thank you to all our fabulous River Kids Leaders who were at the MEGA SLEEPOVER. This was a great outreach night with 85 kids (33 of these coming from outside the church). A very BIG THANK YOU to our River Kids parents Matthew & Rachel Markey, Craig Shannon, Dave Round, Rob Dohrn, Byron Egan, Carmel Best, Julie Webster, Bronwyn Thornton and Bill Coe for helping out on this night. An outreach night like this is not possible with the help of our church parents. Your help was invaluable! Thank you. Check out the fun & crazy photos taken on the night.

Riverkids - 1 to 2 more parents needed
Can you help out once a month on Team 1 (first Sunday in the month) to help one of our mums, who is at present providing and serving morning tea on her own to all our River Kids? Please see Lara if you can help. Thank you.

Wanting to Connect with Others?
Home Groups are a great way to grow personally, connect into the life of the church and be cared for. Groups exist for all ages, some during the day and some at night. There are brochures on the welcome table that show our group leaders and where and when the groups meet. Talk to Pastor Rod about a group that’s right for you.

Revive 08 - Transform
18-20 September at Sydney Olympic Park Sports Centre. Transforming lives, transforming churches, transforming communities. Great speakers, kids programs, youth night, worship, seminars and musical artists. Get a booklet from the welcome table or go to www.revive.org.au for more info.

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A Day at the Shack
Georges River Community Baptist Church presents "A Day at the Shack" Saturday November 29th from 2pm to 9pm. This exploration of "The Shack," William P. Young's novel, including its themes of heartbreak and intimacy with God, will feature worship and lectures. Tickets can be purchase from Koorong West Ryde. A map is available with directions to the conference.

Kids at the Shack
"The Shack" conference has child minding facilities available. Your precious children will spend a fun afternoon playing games, craft activities and having fun. Please fill in the registration form and fax back to the church.

River Kids - School holidays
PARENT/ADULT HELPERS NEEDED during the school holidays. Sunday 5th & 12th October. 9-11:30am. PLEASE let Lara know what day you are available to help. This gives our regular River Kids leaders a well earned rest.

Annual Family Day Out - Jamberoo
Note change of original advertised date due to church conference - NOW Saturday 22nd November - 10am to 5pm. Everyone welcome. Tickets to be bought from River Kids front desk. Last day to buy is Sunday 2nd November. Adults/Youth $30, Kids (4-12 yr olds) $29, 3yrs & under FREE. Make your own way down there or mini bus transport available at $15 pp leaving at 8:30am from factory. Bookings essential.

Sold Out Youth
Sold Out will be taking a break during the school holidays. Back on Friday 24th October, 7pm. We have a huge term planned for you guys & girls including Gen X guest speaker Mike McQueen, Relationship workshops, Jamberoo, separate Girls 'Dinner' & Guys 'Fight' night, Panel Question night and of course our End of year Sold Out Christmas Party which you wont want to miss! Term 4 program cards available when school resumes.
Again, we need some adult helpers to help lead at Sold Out. If you are willing to come 1 Friday night during term to help out, please speak to Bowen Douglas or Lara Watson. Thanks.

Prime Time Wednesday November 5
Jane Debrovitirs from the Baptist Community Services will be our speaker and will talk to us about "Care Call". This is our last meeting for the year and probably our last meeting at 57 Stanley St. The Prime Time Christmas luncheon in November 26 at Revesby Heights Ex-Servicemen's Memorial Hall. Cost $27 per head needs to be paid for at our November 5 meeting.

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www.grlifecare.org.au

Grandparents Support
On Tuesday 12th August we hosted a forum in partnership with Carers NSW and the Children's Hospital Randwick titled: "Helping Traumatised Children to Heal". The forum was facilitated by Paul Morgan, Child
Protection Counsellor from The Sydney Children's Hospital. The forum was held at St George Leagues Club and was attended by over 40 participants from grandparent carers, kinship carers and foster carers. Following this seminar we had seven new grandparents attend our support group in September.

Autism Support
We were recently successful in securing another grant of $7,120 for Autism Support. Our total grants for Autism support this year is $10,320. The second grant will fund the continuation of our existing support group and will also enable us to commence a new support group for parents with children that have low functioning autism (LFA). Tonya will be facilitating the group and this will commence in the fourth term this year. In November we will be hosting a discussion forum for parents with Marian Bailey. The title of the discussion is: Family and Parent Wellbeing.

Parenting Courses
In August Vanessa Wheeler survived facilitating her first parenting course. We had great feedback again from the two third term courses. Bronwyn and Vanessa are doing a great job in running the parenting
program. We will be running at least one more course in the 4th term.

In November we will hosting Mel Hayde who has written a book titled 'Terrific Toddlers' and sold over 10,000 copies. Mel will talking about parenting in an evening seminar on the 13th November.

Food Parcels
The bread run and food parcel service continues with great opportunities to meet needs in the local community. All food is stored at the church office and is available anytime for people to collect and deliver. If
you would like to be part of this great opportunity please let me know.

Spring Fair
There were great opportunities to connect with the community at the Spring Fair and there was great interest shown in a number of our programs. These contacts will be followed up over the next few weeks.

God Bless
Glenn Power
Pastor, Community Care

For More information on courses or conference please contact Glenn.
Glenn is can be contacted at the office on Monday and Tuesdays and alternate Wednesdays

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Join us for prayer Sunday at the school 9.15am or 5.15pm. Tuesday 9am at the office.

Praise God for:
Praise God for those who have found healing at our Transformation Nights
Students as they start back at school and our Youth and RiverKids Groups
The impact of our Lifecare programs Depression Support, Parenting, Marriage, Grandparents, Autism
Those helping on our Sunday teams and for extra helpers

Pray for:
Pastor Scott and Allan Williamson in Bangladesh.
Those not well or recovering from surgery.
Others struggling with health
Pray for our new and young mums
The impact of our Lifecare programs
Our pastors for spiritual protection
Additional leaders for our Youth Work and RiverKids groups
Additional helpers on Sundays
The sale of our property, the planning and implementation of our move, and a smooth transition into the new premises.

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