From the Minister Hello everyone, my name is Kyounghee Cho. I am a practicum minister of Bexley Uniting Church. I am a Korean and came to Australia 25 years ago to study Australian Literature. But I married a church minister and studied theology for a long time. I am also a mother of three grown up children. I am terrible with machines, computers and roads. I have no sense of direction and I can't read maps well. So, I believe that GPS (Global Positioning System) is the most important and helpful technology for people like me. Without a GPS, driving to some distant and strange places might be a trouble for me. Thanks to the GPS I drive freely, and it guides me to the next possible way, even if I miss or take a wrong turn. I found the GPS of Bexley Uniting Church at the vision statement at the first page of its monthly Newsletter. Our Vision: Passion for the Gospel; Compassion for the World.
This reminded me of the maxim, "Love your God. Love your neighbours as yourself” Actually, this is the essential part of our faith. Even though we are lost, with hurts and sorrows, if we put our love in God and trust Him, He will guide us in the right way, just as a GPS guides us to a destination. Through the GPS we can also predict the direction and the roads to go beforehand, which helps us to not miss the way intended. Likewise, on the last page of the newsletter, we are guided to the direction of our faithful journey at Bexley: Our mission: To express our vision through Worship; Love in action; The empowering of servant leaders; Making disciples. These are what we need to do together. In order to accomplish this wonderful God's mission at Bexley UC, we need to pray, to read the bible and to share our gifts with others. I would like you to remember that God's kingdom should be here at Bexley now, neither in the future nor in the heaven after we die. For God's kingdom at Bexley, worship should be alive in our services at the church as well as in our lives. We need to love our neighbours, our family, friends, colleagues and even enemies. We might need to sacrifice ourselves for making others Jesus' disciples too. This is God's mission, that is, God's command for us. At crossroads, many choices should be made. Sometimes we need to change the roads we take. The church is the same and in church, we need to go together. When people's preferences are different I strongly recommend you refer to the vision statement and the mission statement of the church, because it contains a common confession of the church. I do hope to listen to church members voices for our journey together. We are in a same boat.
· Let's row vigorously together for the kingdom of God at Bexley, Amen.