We are the Northern Illawarra Scripture Board (NISB) and on behalf of the combined churches of the Northern Illawarra, we provide Scripture Teachers to Bulli, Woonona and Corrimal High Schools, and we play our part in providing one chaplain to Corrimal High School.
IT’S COFFEE & DESSERT TIME – WEDS 7TH JUNE 2023
Our Teachers and Chaplain are back into the swing for Term 2 AND they are ready to share a story or two at the annual ‘Coffee and Dessert Information Night and Fundraiser’. They will be accompanied by the usual quality of program highlights with some in-house music, great coffee, tea and hot chocolate, and desserts to delight the most discerning palate. PLEASE PLAN TO JOIN US @ Northern Illawarra Uniting Church Centre (Cnr. Princes Hwy – car park entry off Point Street Bulli), from 7pm on June 7th (and we’ve avoided Game ONE of the State of Origin this year).
THE GREAT COMMISSIONING …….. AGAIN!
We praise God for His leadership and provision, assuring that the 2023 Northern Illawarra Scripture Teachers and Chaplain Commissioning was a time together where the region’s local churches expressed themselves as the apostle Paul described in Ephesians 4:4-6 … ‘There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.’ The team representing 12 churches worked hard and together, to provide a sausage sizzle followed by an hour celebrating scripture and chaplaincy in our region’s THREE (3) High Schools and FIFTEEN (15) feeder Primary Schools, worshipping together in Spirit and in Truth. The focus Commissioning Ceremony was a highlight as we heard testimonies of God’s grace and favour from Dal, Leanne, Clara, and Amanda and an opportunity to lay hands on our team and pray for them (pictured above with thanks to Karen Bate & her Sister), with a clear message from heaven as we prayed, that they would walk victoriously in their functions in the school communities as Jesus’ light. WE THANK Principal David and her Staff @ Woonona High School for their hosting of our special annual event. Stay tuned here for details of upcoming prayer, fundraising and story sharing opportunities.
AND WE’RE OFF TO A FLYER IN 2023 …..
Well, March has already rolled around and the mission God has called us to in our THREE regional High Schools is in full flight. We will produce a Prayer (News) Letter in the next couple of weeks but in the meantime, we wanted you to be made aware that on the 26th of THIS MONTH, after most of our churches’ morning gatherings, we will commission our scripture teachers and chaplain @ Woonona High School Auditorium. On that Sunday we will fire up the BBQ for a gold coin donation sausage sizzle out front of the auditorium from 11.45am/Midday and the commissioning service, involving a number of reps from across our member churches, will commence about 12.45pm and will be wonderfully and victoriously done and dusted, by before 2pm (the usual wrap up time we aim for) Here following is Karen Bate’s great work on the ad. We’ll be back soon with more updates.
WRAPPING UP 2022 WITH GRATEFUL HEARTS TOWARDS GOD AND EACH OTHER
Terrific dinner out at ‘Headies’ to wrap up the year of blessings and hard work, and of course, primarily to celebrate the incarnation of our God in Christ. Read on to understand the image below. (with thanks to Jennifer Tibben Photography)
For those who couldn’t be there on Monday, we presented an official certificate to Dal Proudfoot, recognizing his ‘Outstanding Service to Special Religious Education and Student Well-Being in NSW’. We nominated him for an award to be presented at the end of year Parliament House celebration of SRE in NSW, and because it was the first time, and there were so many entries, Murray Norman of ‘Better Balanced Futures’ sent me a certificate in recognition of Dal’s nomination for us to present. He also received a shout out, at the event at Parliament House in Sydney on the 28th November. Congrats Dal!
We also heard some terrific news from our other teachers and chaplain about possibilities for 2023, and so we keep praying for God’s best pathway forward and we praise our Lord Jesus for His continued faithful partnership in these things that He has called us to be involved in and with together.
We are praying that each of you and yours and the church families you represent have a joyous, Christ-Filled, celebratory Christmas as you love and serve Him and each other, and that 2023 is filled with all you have hoped and prayed for.
TERM FOUR NEWS 2022
Well, who can believe the count down is on to the end of Term 4 for 2022. There has been plenty happening across the 3 School Communities and our scripture teachers and chaplain have mostly had an amazing term, with lots of kingdom conversations and opportunities to serve. Our September Trivia and Silent Auction event became one of our best ever individual fundraising events and all thanks go to our hard work Board and of course the good people @ C3 Church Thirroul who hosted us so generously.
We’ve been working hard towards prioritizing prayer support as an intentional strategy and we have been able to produce our first prayer point focused newsletter since 2018. Here is the link or you can check it all out on our newsletter page.
NEWS UPDATE JULY 2022
HERE IS THE LINK TO REGISTER AS INDIVIDUALS OR TABLES OF EIGHT FOR OUR TRIVIA & SILENT AUCTION NIGHT, 6.30 FOR 7PM SATURDAY 10TH SEPTEMBER 2022 C3 THIRROUL CHURCH CENTRE – (just west of the rail overpass on the main road)
TERM TWO COFFEE & DESSERT NIGHT
A triumphant return to awareness and fundraising events!
Term TWO is already in its last few weeks and last Wednesday night, approximately 80 faithful supporters (considering it was 1st State of Origin night and the wind was horizontally fresh) gathered for the first ‘face-to-face’ fundraising event since September 2019. There was a buzz in the air as our hard working board delegates set up the venue for the event. Live music trio ‘KayGee’ kicked off proceedings at 7pm and featured throughout the evening. A well attired and articulate local minister Josh, stepped up to officially welcome everyone and invite guests to start feasting on desserts and coffee at 7.15pm. He performed his function admirably, keeping the run sheet on schedule. The patrons enjoyed AND were well informed by the erudite and heart / spirit / faith driven presentations from our three scripture teachers, Clara (Corrimal HS), Leanne (Bulli HS) and Dal (Woonona HS) and our one (current) chaplain Amanda (Corrimal HS). Our guests were treated to extra and valuable inputs from our Generate rep Nathan (seen pictured) and in particular from one of our High School Principals who dropped by with some encouraging words and sage advice. Things wrapped up wonderfully with some up close and personal Q&A with our workers and we were blessed with surprise gift donations after a clear and challenging financial report and budget projection from our treasurer.
It was a terrific night with so many to thank but I’m sure you’ll forgive me if I highlight just a few. Our Comms Team of Lindsay and Amanda did everything they could to make us believe we could do this after such an energy sapping hiatus. We sadly missed Karen our usual host coordinator who was deservedly on a break O/S, but we are ever so thankful to Heather for stepping in to coordinate the supply and facilitate the distribution of desserts. Finally, I would simply like to thank our minister mate and pop-up cafe establisher Brad and his team support Maddie, for providing the coffee machine and all ingredients for the beverages served so generously and without cost to us. Such a gift – thank you! Please drop by ‘The Cupbearer’ in Helensburgh CBD and support these terrific people. The entry fee on the night will fill some gaps in our fund raising coffers and we’ve sold some pies too so it all helps … thank you to our wonderful supporters.
Term ONE News!
As the sun went down on Term One about 3 weeks after the Commissioning of our Scripture Teachers and Chaplain @ C3 Church Thirroul, Leanne was formally and fondly farewelled as Scripture Teacher and Chaplain at Corrimal HS. Pictured above right with Paul, CHS’s Principal, Leanne was honoured and given gifts by staff as she moves now to start work at Bulli HS in Term Two. The Board prayerfully determined, in consultation with the teachers late last year, that it would be a Godly and timely move to swap Leanne with Clara, who has had a delightful first term introduction to teaching scripture at Corrimal HS.
In other news, we were finally able to get back on the public fund raising horse after a two year hiatus, and our committed team of Jennifer, Will and David (pictured left and centre above) were partnered with a number of young people from Bulli Anglican Church (delegates at the Katoomba Youth Convention with nearly 1500 other High School students) to help us serve hungry attendees at our annual BBQ Fund Raiser at the Convention Centre. So thankful to Andy from the Wollongong Scripture Board and the coordinating team that gives us the green light for this effort each year, and of course our heartfelt gratitude goes to our small team and all who supported them.
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Donate This Financial Year
There is still time to donate this financial year and doing so will allow us to plan for next financial year in supporting the volunteers and teachers at our schools. All donations to BWCB are tax deductible. To financially support us, click on the link below or head to our giving page.
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