As you may know, NZ has a quota of Refugees that are accepted into the country every year. These people are mostly welcomed in conjunction with the Red Cross, and some of you may have been involved with former refugees in this way. 

In about 2017 NZ trialled a pilot of a program that has been run in Canada for more than 30 years, called Global Refugee Sponsorship Initiative. The original trial in NZ ran successfully for 3 years, welcoming 50 people in several locations. It has been decided to extend the trial for another 3 years, and this is where we come in. Any group of people can get together and commit to sponsor a refugee family, who come independent of the NZ quota and Red Cross. Your group is responsible for every aspect of their resettlement process, from finding a house and furnishing it, to enrolments in school, doctors, language learning or job seeking. It's not a difficult task, so don't be overwhelmed and think it's too hard, but it does take someone with commitment and who genuinely cares for people. This is such a great opportunity and we’d love to know if we have some people from East who would like to know more. We could gather a group from across East, or you might decide this is something your life group would be interested in doing together.

We need to decide if this is something we want to commit to being involved in as a location, so we’re going to hold a short meeting on 6 July that is purely an opportunity to find out more - no commitment at this stage! We will only run that meeting if there are people interested so please email east@thestreet.org.nz to let us know.

More copies of the Bible have been sold than any other book - around 3.9 billion copies in the last 50 years alone. So what is it about the Bible that makes it so special? Why do Christians think it’s so important? And how could such an ancient book still have something to say to a 21st century world? Join us on this 4-week focus on the ultimate bestseller.

“Bestseller” is the first installment in our collection of series entitled “Pillars”

You can find the Life Group questions and supporting resources for Bestseller here

“Jesus is the audience of our worship!”

Listen to Dee talk about how we can use our bodies and posture to worship God before our time of worship last Sunday. Let it encourage you as you come to worship God today.

The 3-4's year olds relaxing as they listen to Logan read the Bible story when God made people, based around Genesis 1:31.

We took a week’s break from our James series on 6 June, for Simon and Jenny to share a special message that God had laid on their heart about prayer. It was such a precious time as we took time to pray together over some significant things for us as a church right now. We desperately want to see God move powerfully in and through our church and the key to that is consistent and unified prayer. Check out their message here if you missed it. Video

Over the last two years, we have been aware of a cult that is operating in Wellington called Shincheonji.

We have been made aware that someone has been involved in this cult in some services across The Street recently, so we want you to be alert and caring well for one another.

The approach this cult has taken in the past is to befriend individuals with an invite for coffee and, ultimately, an invite to a “Bible Study”. If someone you don’t know has invited you to anything you’re unsure of, please check with Simon and Jenny whether we know them and what it is.

If there is someone you know that you haven’t seen around recently or is beginning to pull out of Life Group or their usual activities, please reach out to them and ask them how they’re doing. If there is someone that you are concerned has been attending any Shincheonji groups, please let us know. These are moments where the Church is so awesome at caring for one another. Let’s do this together.

Please take 9 minutes to watch these two videos, which will give you some more really helpful information.

The Family Library located in the Family Room is full of books focussed on equipping and refreshing you in your marriage and parenting.
Please borrow these books as often as you would like, just simply sign them out and in using the book provided.
There are shelves located on three different walls - all of these books are able to be borrowed.

Is there more to life than this? Where am I going? What’s my purpose? Does God really exist?

Over June these questions will be dotted all around Wellington - on billboards, bus stops, posters and online - inviting people to engage with these questions and join an Alpha course. Have you seen any of the big red Alpha posters around Miramar, Kilbirnie and Island Bay?

While Alpha is being promoted so widely, we would love you to consider who in your world you could invite to explore life, meaning and the Christian faith. We'll have a course starting at the beginning of August so watch this space for more details.

Email alpha@thestreet.org.nz if you’d like to be involved or if you know someone who would be interested in attending.

On Sunday we took a break from our James series. Simon and Jenny spoke to us about prayer and believing that God wants to do big things in us and through us as a church. We also spent some time praying for some of those big things. If you were not at the service on Sunday, or were serving in Kids Zone (thank you so much!), we’d really encourage you to set some time aside this week to catch up on the message - we want to all journey together as a church on this.

There was a parenting night held at City a couple of weeks ago that was really helpful and encouraging that some of our parents at East attended. Laura has emailed the video recording out to all the parents on the database so that you can still benefit from it even if you weren’t there. If you haven’t received it please let us know, it’s well worth a watch as you navigate the challenge of parenting children in these times. (Please note, the video is only live for another couple of weeks.) east@thestreet.org.nz

Thanks so much for the support you give the Bain family as they continue to walk this road of recovery with Markus. Having a meal provided each weekday has helped to give them one less thing to worry about so if you can support them in this way during the month of June please add your name to the roster here. Thanks so much church family for your amazing love and care.

We have an incredible group of Life Group leaders here at East. They are committed to leading fruitful disciple making communities and part of that commitment means attending training 4 times a year with Simon and Jenny. Tonight (Sunday) is their 2nd training night of the year. Please be praying for them as they set time aside to learn and grow and as they continue to shepherd their life groups.

We are expecting to hear a decision about the future of the old Miramar Uniting Church building in June. Let’s unite our hearts and pray together for God’s provision to us for a place to meet. This building has been such a blessing to us during this time, and we would love to continue to meet here. So let’s pray together for God to make a way for us to stay.

The parents evening last night was so wonderful! We had a great start to an ongoing conversation about some of the big things facing our children today.

Attached are some of the resources that were mentioned during the night.

We also filmed the evening. If you would like to receive a copy of this, please send an email to families@thestreet.org.nz and they will be able to share this with you!

Please make sure you check your children into Kids Zone before the service and get your security stickers. It’s super important for the safety of the kids that we know exactly who is in the programmes in case of an emergency. We also use the stickers to make sure we’re releasing your child to the right person at the end. The check in desk is just by the Devonshire Road entrance to the building. Thanks so much!

What a year 2020 was! Our Annual Report is now available - have a read of our highlights, stats and financials.

We are celebrating with Julia, Vaughan and Caleb on the arrival of their new baby girl Malu Oak Flanagan on 2nd May. Welcome to our church family Malu!

The YWAM hospital ship ‘Koha’ is moored at the end of Queens Wharf from 22 Apr – 15 May. While they are in port, the ship will be open for public viewing at certain times. You can find all the information you need about tours here. Why not go and have a look around and see what they get up to!

Markus has had some setbacks over the last week and ended up needing surgery to have his colon cleared out. Please pray specifically for:

• Markus for his bowel function to return

• Karyn - for strength and peace as she is really struggling through this rollercoaster of a journey with Markus

• Mike as he works full time and looks after the other 2 boys

• Jayden and Zeke as they navigate this whole time

There are still 3 spots on the meal roster if you’d like to support them in that way

Meal roster

Markus is coming up to 1 year of being in hospital and we are so grateful for what the many and varied things the people in our church are doing to support the Bain family - thank you for being the Church and loving one another in this way!

There is a meal roster to support them with meals during the week and dates for May have just been added. Please sign up via the link if this is a way you’d like to support them.

Meal roster