“For I am about to do something new.” Isaiah 43:19 (NLT)
Over the past several weeks now the church has been able to operate in absentia. The doors to the church building may have been closed for those Sundays, but the Church is far from being closed. What it has meant is that there have many “home” churches opened for worship instead. God has been doing a New Thing. Thank you to Pastor and the team who have worked so hard at printing, distributing, recording and posting on the website, the Sunday services and sermons for each Sunday. We haven’t as yet been able to organise the video side of the streaming from the church website.
A reminder that your offerings can be made via direct deposit to:
Account name: Elizabeth St Peters Lutheran
BSB# 704 942
Account# 100118763
Hopefully by July we may be able to meet together again in the church with up to 100 attending at a time. This gives us a glimmer of light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel, but let’s wait to see how things pan out in the meantime.
Church Council has not been able to meet together, but I have been staying in touch with council members via e-mail. Here are a couple of matters of interest to everyone.

• We are eligible for the Government’s “Job Keeper Payment” to help us pay Pastor’s stipend. Treasurer Eric Turnwald has been arranging this via the Bishop’s Office.
•  Our AGM, which was scheduled for May 24th will not of course take place on that date. However the District Office has advised us that the Consumer and Business Services have granted an extension time of six months for all incorporated associations such as ours, which means that our AGM must now be conducted before November 30th, 2020.  The one approach to this (which is constitutional) that will best suit our congregation, is to hold a combined AGM and Half Yearly Meeting/Election of Church Officers in November. This will also give Eric more time to have the finances checked and included in The Book of Reports. I will let you know for certain later.
• An application is being made to the Federal Government for a grant of $10,000 to cover the cost of a security camera system. Let’s pray that we are successful in obtaining that grant.
• Please keep on saving those empty drink bottles for Peachy Place. You can save them up and have them ready to hand over to Ian Nitschke or Mick Artis for when we return to worship together again  – OR if they are getting in your way, you could cash them in yourself and put the money aside to hand over to Ian and Mick.

Thank you to everyone of you for your understanding over this time of separation, whilst being together in a very different way.  I hope that God has been “Doing a New Thing” with you in this time. Sometimes He has to take us out of our comfort zones to help us grow.
God’s blessings to you.
 
BC
 
Brenton Chomel
Church Chairman
“Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father; there is no shadow of turning with Thee. Thou changest not; Thy compassions, they fail not. As thou has been Thou forever wilt be. Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness! Morning by morning new mercies I see. All I have needed Thy hand hath provided. Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord unto me!” - Thomas O. Chisholm
(Based on Lamentations 3:22-23)
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John 21:9 “When they got there, they found breakfast waiting for them – fish cooking over a charcoal fire, and some bread.”
 
Jesus had been crucified, he had risen from the dead and appeared to the disciples on a couple of occasions. So now what? Things had gone quiet and some of the disciples were getting restless. Peter was especially so and said “Well I’m going fishing!” Sounds a bit like us sometimes – well me anyway. I’m not going to sit around here and stagnate. I’m going to work. I’m going to the shops. I’m going for a drive, wash the car, or mow the lawns.
From my count there were six other disciples with Peter, seven of them in total. So out in the boat they went. We are not told whose boat they took – maybe Peter had his boat moored by the Sea of Galilee – but they set out on a fishing excursion. Peter was a fisherman by trade and maybe he thought that he might as well get out and earn some money, along with his companions.
The story is very familiar however – a bit of déjà vu if you like. Out fishing all night and guess what? Not one fish. Sounds a lot like Luke 5: 1-11 when Jesus tells the disciples to go out deeper and what happened? In spite of not catching one fish the night before, the boats were so full now, that they nearly sank.
But here they were again, out all night fishing and not one fish. Dawn breaks and Jesus was standing on the beach, but they didn’t recognise him. How was that? Mary didn’t recognise Jesus at the tomb. The friends on the Emmaus Road didn’t recognise him and now once again these magnificent seven fishers don’t recognise him – well not until they follow His instructions and the nets were so full… That’s when the penny dropped for John. He remembered the big catch from before and he recognized Jesus. When he told everyone else that it was Jesus, Peter jumped ship (maybe attempting to walk on water again) and headed for the shore leaving the others to haul in the net full of fish.
So, being only a hundred yards from the shore they arrived finding breakfast waiting for them; fish cooking over charcoal - and where did he get that fish? If he was like me, he did his fishing at the local fish market. Or maybe Peter grabbed one of the fish as he jumped out of the boat? In any case there was more déjà vu here. “…fish cooking over a charcoal fire, and some bread.” (v.9). Remember the feeding of the multitude and the boy with the loaves and fishes (John6)? Remember the denial by Peter in the high priest’s courtyard - warming himself by the charcoal fire (John 18:18)?
Jesus had his subtle little reminders that it was him. Fish cooking over a charcoal fire, and some bread!
Does Jesus do that for us sometimes? He has been with us in the past and helped and provided for us. Then other things happen in our lives. Jesus appears. We may not see him or recognise his presence with us, until… until we see something familiar again and we know the Lord IS with us.
What ever we may face today, look to the shore. Jesus may be there cooking breakfast for you, whatever the fish, the charcoal fire or the bread may be for you.
Thank you, Lord, for always being there for us, whatever we face today in our world, in our homes, at our workplaces, at our schools and in our church. Forgive us when we do not recognise your presence or doubt that you will be there for us. Help us always to remember you and be reminded of your presence with us no matter where we are. May we always call on your name and follow your leading.
 In the wonderful, holy name of Jesus, we pray.
And all of God’s people said… Amen! Praise the Lord!
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