How are you going at Praying for two friends every day who don’t know Jesus yet?
To be honest, sometimes my orange bookmark falls out of my Bible and I forget about it for a few days – but then I find it again and get back in the habit. It’s been helpful for me to pray for these friends, and helpful for me to remember the importance of sharing Jesus with others. This morning in our Bible study group it stood out to me, not just that Jesus is the ‘way, the truth and the life’, but also that ‘no one comes to the Father except through [him]’ (John 14:6). That lends a real urgency to my sharing Jesus with people, because he is the only way and without him no-one can come to the Father and be saved!
This month let me encourage you to reach out to those two friends you’ve been praying for. Invite them out for a cuppa, or over for dinner, or to go for a walk – whatever works. Make it your aim to connect with them and get to know them. We’re designing some opportunities surrounding Easter for you to then invite them along to Church or an event to hear more about Jesus. We’ll let you know about those soon.
Yours in Christ,
Ben
Author: Ben (Page 1 of 41)
For me this time of year is both overwhelming and exciting. It’s overwhelming because as all our ministries start up for the year there are many details to communicate, people to recruit, train and support in their roles, calendars to fill out. Not to mention that suddenly my week fills up with all these appointments and ministry groups.
But its just incredible to think that every single day God’s Word is being shared, his people are meeting together for encouragement, and we’re serving our community with care and hope! From the Bible Study groups that meet on every day except Friday and Saturday, to the Nursing Home Services starting today (Wednesday), to our weekly Kids and Youth ministries, to the soon to begin schools ministries at schools right across our shire!
If you want some encouragement, inspiration and fuel for your prayers – then make sure you join me this Sunday at our Schools Ministry Commissioning Service. It’s always such a joy to gather together with brothers and sisters from the many partner Churches of the Wollondilly to celebrate, support and pray for ministry in our Schools!
Yours in Him,
Ben
The Picton congregation surprised me last Sunday with some lovely words and notes and a cake to celebrate our 10 year anniversary at Picton and Wilton Anglican Churches (the picture above is the lunch we shared afterwards). Things have changed a lot since Kate and I arrived in the Parish in January 2016, both for us and for the Church.
I am so thankful to God for the way he continues to build his Church; to win people to Life in Christ and to equip people to serve one another in love. It’s beautiful to witness God’s faithfulness over time and his work in the lives of his people!
As this new year (2026!) really gets underway, let me encourage you to prioritise gathering with God’s people. For your sake and others: be regular at Church, join a Bible study group, pray daily and open God’s Word regularly. Investment in your relationship with God will bear fruit in this life and in the life to come!
Yours in Him,
Ben
On Monday evening we lit a candle for each of those who died at Bondi, held a minutes silence to grieve their loss and spent time in reading the scriptures and in prayer.
How do we respond to a world of brokenness and sin? How do we protect our children and prevent these kinds of incidents happening again?
Jesus say in Luke 6:27: ‘Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.’ And Jesus himself modelled this message as he himself laid down his own life to bear the sins of his enemies (us) and offer us forgiveness, reconciliation with God and hope of eternal life.
At Christmas time we remember that Jesus is the true light coming into the world – the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it (John 1).
When we feel unsettled and disturbed by the darkness of our world, we should fix our eyes on the light of Christ. We condemn hate and respond with love. I’m praying that you can look to Christ’s example as you relate to your relatives around the Christmas table and as you relate to your neighbours, colleagues and friends. No matter what religion, race or gender, every Australian deserves to feel safe and to receive the true peace of Christmas – the peace of Life in Christ.
Yours in Christ,
Ben
We’re a group of Christian students from the University of Sunshine Coast. We travelled down to Canberra last week for National Training Event (NTE), a training conference organised by AFES (Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students).
AFES aims to proclaim Jesus Christ at university and assist students to mature in their faith in Jesus. We do this by building Christian student groups at university campuses. AFES encourages and trains students to share the gospel with their peers with the hope they will do this in the workplace or in ministry when they graduate.
NTE aims to transform, train and send students by providing biblical teaching and training in teaching the bible and sharing the gospel. NTE emphasises the desperate need for Christians to go into the world and share the good news of the gospel with those who don’t yet know Jesus. NTE partners with existing mission organisations to show students the local, national, and global scale of missions. And how students can be part of this now and in the future.
Our students went to bible talks and heard about the gospel being an eternal message that is always timely and timeless. They also participated in strand groups. Strands provide bible intensive training. The first-time students learnt about exegesis – how to interpret a bible passage and turn it into a bible talk. Other students in our group learnt about biblical theology – the whole bible is one big story so how does where a passage is in this big story affect how we interpret and teach it? They also attended electives about missions in the pacific, missions to unreached or unengaged people groups, and more.
2,200 Christian students attended NTE from all over Australia. It helped us see that God’s church really is all over Australia and overseas. The worship of 2,200 students altogether certainly gave a glimpse into what worship in heaven will be like. A great multitude too many to number, from every tribe, nation and tongue worshipping God.
The Sunshine Coast students have come to Wilton to serve and have opportunities to apply what they have been learning at NTE. Thank you for hosting and welcoming us!
God Bless,
Hannah (MTS Trainee with AFES Sunshine Coast)
Have you noticed the way young people in our Churches are stepping up!?!
I’m so proud to see the Youth band every few months at Wilton 5pm, and young musicians in the band at 10am too! Teenagers are running the A/V desk, helping as junior leaders on Sundays at creche and Sunday school and on Thursdays at Kids Club. They bring such energy and joy in the Lord and they help the kids in these programs to imagine what being a teenage follower of Jesus might look like.
We need to keep discipling and investing in training all of our members to be serving and leading with the gifts God has given them. Young people inspire, while older people bring maturity and wisdom. That’s why our Parish Council has a policy of providing a 50% subsidy to all training camps, like Youthworks Leaders in Training, and offering to pay for any training needs such as Safe Ministry Training for all our members.
As we plan next year, we’ve identified the first Friday night of every school term as a training night for Youth and Children’s ministry, and we’re planning training events for everyone throughout the year.
If you just relied on Scott and I to do the ministry, we couldn’t accomplish even 10% of what happens every week in our Churches because of your ministry. Our focus needs to remain squarely on equipping you (the saints) for works of service (Eph 4:12).
Yours in Christ,
Ben
Photo: Some of our team at the Wilton Public School SRE Christmas Assembly this week.
Remember the 2016 flood in Picton, that had the whole community come together to assist with cleanup? St Mark’s was directly impacted and the response was amazing. Same for all the businesses in town when people assisted. The clean up concluded and things were back to normal relatively quickly.
Now imagine if in the space of 2 months a couple more floods came through of the same size, and an earthquake also occurred on top of that, with both disasters flattening buildings? Imagine if in Picton, livelihoods and lives were lost, and the government did not have adequate funds to provide relief? There’s also no electricity for at least a month or more.
This is what the Philippines has been like the past 2 months, and regularly will bare the brunt of natural disasters that don’t even make the news- typhoons, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, making it hard to recover from one thing, before something else comes along. Many provinces were impacted, here’s news from one province:
From a Compassion worker this week on the ground:
“The past typhoon was terrible for Masbate, the whole province was without electricity for a month, except for a few near Masbate City. But the rest of the towns, I’m not sure if there’s electricity yet. I’m about to be transferred to another province called Quezon, but I’m still coordinating relief and financial help for those who lost their house completely”.
We’re currently in chaos, in the Philippines literally and figuratively. As you have seen in the news, our president is in turmoil after being allegedly involved in corruption scandals.
At the same time, we were being buffeted by storms and earthquakes. Continue praying for us. It will be good also to have some blessings for the project staff since they’ve been working hard, while they themselves were also affected heavily with the storm”.
Please pray for communities impacted by recent typhoons and earthquakes in the Philippines, for protection of and rapid relief for 105,040 sponsored children and their families and also unsponsored children being cared for by 470 Compassion church partners as well as many other churches bringing restoration to fragile communities. Perhaps consider giving to the churches caring for the children we support. If you are already a Compassion sponsor you can go to My Account and click on FCP gift. 100% of the value of the donation will go directly to the church partner to assist with their most urgent needs. Alternatively you can give directly to Compassion here: https://www.compassion.com.au/donate.
From your Compassion Representatives,
Debbie (W10 Member) and Spiro (Compassion)
One of the most beautiful things about being a Christian is that when we’re saved, we’re adopted into God’s family, and suddenly have a whole lot of brothers and sisters in Christ.
But having a large family isn’t always great – it takes time and effort to maintain good relationships. Sometimes Church relationships can be superficial, sometimes people treat you poorly, but its worth the effort. We are literally God’s gift to one another and its beautiful to experience this in prayers offered, listening ears, hospitality shared, encouragement spoken, timely rebuke and gospel reminders spoken (among other things).
One of the ways you can invest in your Church family is by coming along to our Church weekend away. Imagine a fully catered weekend with great Bible teaching, training, kids program, activities and time with your Church family? This is what we have planned for 13-15 Feb 2026. So book in now so you don’t miss out: https://book.venue.life/wedderburn/register/0731-pwac2026.
Yours in Christ,
Ben
Calling all who were baptised at St Mark’s, Picton (or had your children baptised) for an opportunity to celebrate and revisit your baptism promises.
As part of our celebration of 175 years of St Mark’s Picton we want to provide encouragement, support and an opportunity to celebrate with all those who have been baptised at St Mark’s on Sunday 30th November 9am.
Remember and reflect on your baptismal promises.
Receive encouragement and support to live them out.
Have a Photo Opportunity to recreate the moment.
Send in a baptism photo to hello@pwac.org.au for inclusion in our baptism slideshow.
Last weekend 20 kids and 5 leaders went along to Square One Camp – a weekend of fun, singing, games, challenges and learning about Jesus. Hundreds of kids in School Years 3-6 from Churches all across Sydney came together.
Check out these kids reflections from Youthworks Square One Primary School Kids Weekend:
“My favourite activity was the water slide because I found a way to go really fast. I got to learn more about Jesus’ parables.” ~Hudson
“the water slide was the best” ~Colbie
“that was where I fell in love with your dad almost 20 years ago” ~Colbie’s mum
“it was a good place to learn about Jesus and I learnt so much at the camp” ~Anonymous
“I loved learning more about God, the water slides, pet rock making and the cool music. I also loved being with my friends and catching jellyfish 
” ~Eli
“The things I learned at square one 2025 was to build your life on rock-solid foundation by loving your enemies and praying for them. Trusting in Jesus to make a way for you and not getting angry. Some of my personal favourite things at square one were the water slide, the dancing and singing and cabin time! Everyone in my cabin made great memories. I really enjoyed square one and I believe everyone else did as well. Coming to Square one made me think differently and have a better attitude towards my life. The fun-tricky puzzles made me think a lot. Thank you square one” ~Matilda
