Building for Eternity
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2011 Christmas Celebrations in Dapto
Christmas
in Dapto was great! And we celebrated Christ’s birth in many various ways with our community.
Our Annual Community Carols in the Showground had to quickly find another place as the Showground and its surrounds was so wet under foot. A bit of a logistical headache for a few, but their work meant we all enjoyed a wonderful celebration of Christmas.
The week before Christmas saw DAC members providing a gift wrapping service to Dapto Mall’s shopping customers at the Mall’s invitation. Each day saw in
teresting shapes providing new challengers for the wrappers!
It is a privilege to partner with the Dapto Mall in this service.
Dapto Mall invited us to entertain the shoppers on Thursday 15th December. Our dance group ’Rockstars’ were fantastic, we had some Christmas songs, face painting and crafts for any who needed a break from shopping.
One shopper asking lots of questions about our dance group, could his children join, as it was very obvious how much fun the children had. What a great testimony to Karoleena & her team.
Our Young Adults Group were out and about in the streets of Dapto, Carolling in the evenings.
This has become such a popular event. Our community are quick to book in their street for a visit as soon as the announcement is made.
Our Young Adults made a visit to St. Luke’s Village for a Carolling session too.
Then there was the Ch
ristmas Star. I could go on for ages about this spectacular! You were promised one and you got one! A show to beat all shows, with Jesus being revealed as the true star of Christmas, much to the bemusement of other great stars! Then there was a Christmas feast, chicken & ham & baked veges followed by pavlova. I think Jill and her team feed 400 of us! And for the little ones, a petting farm, Christmas crafts and face painting and more. It was fantastic and a great way to celebrate Jesus birth.
Young Adults Carolling adventures!
5 months ago
This week the Young Adults have entertained dozens of people through the streets of Dapto, Horsley and Haywards Bay. Candles and songbooks in hand, we sang at the St Lukes Retirement Village, at a few Christmas parties, in numerous driveways and even surprised a lady on her birthday!
Here are some photos from our adventures:
CHRISTMAS *Real History *Real Effects
In the midst of all the celebrations and decorations; standing over the traditions and nice stories comes the true events of the first Christmas.
The Bible gives no specific date for the birth of Jesus. Our present calendar date celebration was worked out by a monk in Rome called Dionysius. He decided on December 25th to coincide with an existing festival and traced it back and called the year he calculated to be the baby’s birthday: ‘Year Zero’. Unfortunately Dionysius made some mistakes!
The Gospel of Matthew says Jesus was born in Judea during the reign of King Herod. History confirms Herod as King of Judea from 40 BC until he died in 4 BC.
Luke’s Gospel tells us that a Decree was issued by the Emperor Augusta’s for a general Census. He ruled from 10 BC to 14 AD and a Census occurred in 7 BC and 7 AD.
Matthew’s Gospel also talks about Astrologers, wise men, who followed a star to Bethlehem. In 1603 Johannes Kepler the Royal Astronomer in Prague watched the conjunction of 2 planets; Saturn & Jupiter, describing them like a huge single bright star. He calculated backwards and found that there would have been such a conjunction in 7 BC. He was convinced he had found the star of Bethlehem.
In 1925 a German Archaeologist, Sehnabel, deciphered an ancient document from the school of Astrology in Zipar, Babylonia (Iraq). It recorded the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in 7 BC. This timing has been confirmed by modern astrological calculations. The remarkable conjunction by planets blazes like a single star in the night sky. In 7 BC Jupiter and Saturn met 3 times: May 21, October 23 and December 4th.
The bright star was seen all around the Mediterranean and particularly at the latitude near Bethlehem. It would have provided the wise men with the guidance to find Jesus.
Therefore the Christmas accounts are not just stories but real events that occurred in time and space. God so orchestrated the cosmos so that His son, Jesus, was heralded even by the universe. Dionysius was out by 7 years but a real birth of a person who was more than a man occurred on that first Christmas.
Also the same scriptures that record His first coming, speak of Jesus coming back to wind up history and right all wrongs and establish a Kingdom of Peace.
Christmas is a time to take more seriously the Jesus who was born and His message of hope and salvation.
Stephen Semenchuk,
Senior Pastor
To see this week’s bulletin click on this link: 24&25DEC2011
The Essential Next Step
We had an enormous weekend because of Carols. Managing over 1500 people through our buildings was a great challenge and our teams excelled!
We succeeded in providing an opportunity for the community to connect a little more with God. However, it was a bridge building exercise and raising of people’s awareness about Jesus. People who don’t know Jesus respond to the gospel through a number of such encounters.
The Star of Christmas is a more managed version of Carols. There will be a number of activities to attract and interest our community. We will present the essential message of Christmas in terms that relate. Please take up this opportunity to invite your family & friends.
The Christmas Eve service and the Christmas Day services will take people the next step again as we provide Christian celebrations of Jesus birth and a clear explanation of the gospel.
Stephen Semenchuk,
Senior Pastor.
To view the Bulletin for this week click on this link: 18DEC2011