Taking Care of Business

At an age when most people have settled into retirement, Judith Gill talks to Carole Poustie about beginning a new career.

When Judith arrives at my house late in the afternoon, she tells me she’s getting good at finding her way around Melbourne. Her silver Toyota Echo pulls up at exactly 4:30pm, the time we have agreed to meet. Judith and I have known each other for about seven years through our involvement in the Community Church of Saint Mark (Clifton Hill Baptist). I have always been in awe of her unwavering dedication to the care of her family, often in stretching circumstances. Sometimes the sacrifices that people like Judith make are known only to close friends and family. When she agrees to tell me her story I am delighted.

It’s school holidays and it will be quieter at my dining room table than in any of the rooms at Judith’s home in Melbourne’s inner north. Her daughter, son-in-law and four children have moved in with her.

Today Judith has clocked up a few kilometres. She’s travelled to care for a 96 year-old man who has just lost his wife and is struggling with depression. She’s spent an hour in Moonee Ponds with a seventy-year-old blind woman who tells her “the day is so long when you can’t see.” She’s squeezed in an unscheduled visit to Fawkner to shower and dress an Iranian lady with dementia, because the family had particularly asked for her, before popping home for an hour to do a few loads of washing.

Then it’s out to the eastern suburbs to see me.

MasterChef Australia: Reflections, Observations and Parallels with Ministry

by Rev Ron Jessop

In watching the recent series of MasterChef Australia I was interested in the comments made by guest chefs in answer to the question, ‘what would you say to our contestants about food?’ I thought they had a relevance to ministry.

Be seasonal: that is, use food that is in season. In church life there are different seasons. Calendar, pastoral, local. Wise pastoring takes into account the seasons in a church. For example, January tends to be quieter and people need a break, it also can give an opportunity to take extra time for reading. Easter, Advent/Christmas, church anniversaries and AGM’s are significant times requiring more time and thought and recovery time afterwards. Pastorally, for example, events like a tragic death within the church or the departure of dearly loved members, for whatever reason, change the dynamics and emotional levels of members.

Newsglance - ‘Hear the Spirit’: 20th Baptist World Congress

by Rev Dr Darren Cronshaw, BUV Coordinator of Leadership Training

Gathering in Honolulu from 28th July to 1st August, delegates at the Baptist World Congress experienced the welcoming Hawaiian hospitality of ‘Aloha’ and worshipped colourfully with thousands of Baptists from 105 nations. The Congress theme was ‘Hear the Spirit’ to invite Baptist churches and groups from around the world to hear what the Spirit is saying to the church and reclaiming the urgency of sharing the gospel in word and action.