Do you have a specific Prayer need ?

 Please e-mail your request to  mdvcinc@bigpond.com.au

or post a request to:

Mountain District Vineyard Church
Prayer Team. P.O. Box 136
The Basin 3154
Ph: 9738 0065
email:mdvcinc@bigpond.com.au

Prayer Meetings

A Prayer meeting takes place at 3/15 Macquarie Place, Boronia on Thursday Mornings 10.45 to 11.15am. If you would like to prayer feel welcome to come along.

 Prayer Points

•  That we as individuals will find people within our community that are in financial need and be able to offer them a food box as a way of illustrating God’s love and action.
• For an increasing level of God’s Spirit to manifest when ever His people are gathered.
• For people to come to know Christ as their personal Lord within the community of Boronia and that God will use us all in order to achieve this.
• for wisdom, protection, refreshment and comfort for all who worship with MDVC.

Currently we are committed prayer partners and offer occasional financial support to Rick and Fiona Jara who are working with Pioneers in Niger, Africa. Information of their progress can be found on the posts below. They can be contacted on rfjara@gmail.com

In addition to this Evan and Eowyn Robertson head up missional support and prayerfully consider each month whether Mountain District Vineyard Church are in a position to offer financial/prayer support to overseas mission agencies that have a similar vision to ourselves.

Dear Family and Friends,

It is rainy season again, which means that we are enjoying the cool breezes but with it also  brings the mosquitoes and unfortunately malaria. This week we are all recovering from another bout of malaria. Despite taking every precaution (taking preventative medication, coming in before dark, using mosquito nets and having fly-wire on all windows and doors) the mosquitoes still seem to find us. We are told that it is common to get sick frequently when you’re on your first term because our bodies are still adjusting to the environment.  The good news is that we are slowly getting used to it and being sick for us is just another day in the office. We are happy to say that the joys from living and working here in Gindiri far outweigh the frustrations of getting sick. We hope you can see this by the following snippets of our life from the last few months.
How we spent our birthdays
We spent the weekend in Jos. We had a lovely day on our birthday swimming in a pool with friends at a local motel/restaurant for the afternoon and then went into the restaurant for dinner. On the Sunday we joined other Aussie and NZ missionaries for an ANZAC day BBQ. The mandatory game of cricket was played by the men as we the women looked on. Then we were surprised with a birthday cake for desert.
Future Plans
We are more than happy with the way our work has been going and the direction of our ministries for the last 18 months, but we now need to make some decisions that will effect where we will be doing our ministries for the following years. We will be coming home for 6 months at the end of the year to catch up with family and friends and raise support for the following term. By the time we return to the field we are hoping to have some answers regarding where and how we will be working as we have to consider our girls education. Tiana and Emily will be ready to start school but we can not continue trying to balance work and teaching them successfully without help. Ideally, we would like to see one of two things happen. Either a couple (or family) to join us in Gindiri (one person to work in an area of need: ie. teacher, doctor, maintenance, IT etc and the other spouse to teach our girls) or someone to help Fiona with the project to give her more time to home-school the girls. If this is not possible we will need to consider moving to Jos (closer to a mission school). Can you please help us pray that God will make it clear to us the right direction to take and that the necessary doors will open. Also if you know of anyone who may be interested in joining us please let them know about us and the work here.

Fiona’s work
~~~~~~~~~
I have enjoyed teaching the women about pregnancy, labour and childcare issues in the women’s seminars. I have been trying to keep the seminars interesting by incorporating role plays, diagrams, props and practical examples. The response from the women has been great and I have received more invitations to speak at other venues as the news spreads.

The ‘Mother and Child Health Record’ booklets are currently being professionally printed in Jos. We hope to have them ready for distribution in the next few weeks. I have already started training the staff of COCIN health facilities in how to use the booklets.

In May, I (along with 3 national facilitators) led a 5 day CHE (Community Health Evangelism) Training of Trainers 1 seminar. It was a lot of work but was received well, with more people now interested in incorporating the CHE strategy for improving the wellbeing of their communities. There are now 5 people who have said they would like to join the ‘Mother and Child Health Care Initiative’ committee. We are waiting for 3 more people to join before the committee starts.

Rick’s work
~~~~~~~~
I have allocated time each month to provide IT support to two COCIN hospitals, one in Panyam (about 23km away) and the other in Sabon Layi (about 17km away on a very bad road ) to remove ongoing viral infections (of the pc kind) and helping them out with all sorts of IT related issues.

I’ve been busy teaching again on Monday and Wednesday nights. Being the wet season, the teachers are busy farming after school closes to supplement their income (each family is allocated land by the school for this purpose). Due to this the evening class attendance has reduced and the teachers that do come are often tired and falling sleep. I have also trained teachers at BBS (Boys Secondary School) and at CCCG (COCIN Comprehensive College of Gindiri) in using a tool I put together in MS Excel to work out T-Scores. The teachers liked using the tool and were surprised how simple it was. It will reduce the time it took to do T-Scores by hand from about 1 week down to about a day. The schools are now looking at other manually calculated tasks to computerize.

In the next academic year (starting in September 08) I will begin teaching the students at BSS. However, as I’m no closer to having a working curriculum, a lot of the material I have put together in teaching the teachers will be used initially. With my lack of experience in teaching, combined with the cultural differences as well as the little exposure teachers have had with computers, I’m finding the task of putting together a curriculum very hard.  When I started teaching we only had Windows 2000 based systems. We now have upgraded to XP based systems which means we really need Windows XP and Office 2003 computer books to teach and prepare classes from. So, if anyone has any advice (in putting together a curriculum) or have suitable books to donate (we could cover the postal cost if it’s not too much) it would be most appreciated.

Holiday with friends
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A few weeks ago we spent the weekend at Miango guesthouse. It is a nice place for missionaries to get away. We also had a lovely time catching up with the Cunninghams (friends from Melbourne who are working as missionaries in Niger with SIM).  It was a great time to enjoy the time out and to relax. It gave Fiona a break from the chore of cooking too. Tiana and Emily had a great time playing on the swings with the Cunningham’s sons Aaron and Steven.

Joy Saunders, a nurse midwife from Melbourne (who also joined us at Miango) was here in Nigeria for a few months helping at the COCIN hospitals and with our project while she explored the possibility of long term missions in Africa. We have really enjoyed her company. We hope everything goes well for her as she returns home to prepare for the mission field.
Out of the mouth of babes
Emily seems to be forgetting life in Australia. One weekend in Jos we stayed in a house which had a shower. Rick, Tiana and I all enjoyed the privilege of showering but Emily cried with fear and kept asking for a bucket of water to wash in instead, like we do in Gindiri. We also ate lunch in a café that had a flush toilet. Emily stared at the toilet bowl with amazement as the water flushed around the bowl and yelled out “Look Mum!”.

Tiana informed me at dinner one night that she had been praying for God to put a baby boy in my tummy, and with a serious look asked,  “Mum, when is God going to give me a baby brother? I prayed for it!”

Prayer Points
~~~~~~~~~~
“Without the help of the Lord, it is useless to build a home or to guard a city.” Psalm 127:1 (CEV)

*We have to make decisions that will ultimately affect the future direction of our ministries. Please pray for wisdom, for the right opportunities to present themselves, and for us to be able recognize them.
*The ‘Maternal and Child Health Record’ booklet was printed but the job had to be rejected due to printing errors. Please pray, as the work has gone back to the printers, that it will be done well this time.
*Please pray for the distribution of the ‘Maternal and Child Health Record’ booklet and training of staff in the use of it.
*Please pray for the paper work for Fiona’s registration to be able to work as a nurse/midwife in Nigeria, that it will go ahead smoothly and quickly.
*Please continue to pray for good health for our family. Especially in the midst of the rainy season.
*Praise God for Rick’s mom’s good response to chemotherapy. Please continue praying for the family.
*Please pray for Rick’s work, that he will be able to receive the right materials, and know on which areas to focus his attention.

Until next issue, may God bless you and your family.
The Jara Family

Sunday 23rd November 2008.

We invite you to join us in an unstructured time of Spirit led worship, contemplation, prayer, intercession and declaration of our Father’s will.

It will be a time to mourn whatever is on your heart, and to hold compassion for all involved in the shedding of innocent blood in our nation.
The focus is relevant to mourning other deaths, including the massacre of Indigenous Australians.

Mourn with our compassionate Father…

6.30-8.30pm on Sunday 23rd November

in the Auditorium at Hays International College

15 Hays St Box Hill South.

(Melway Map 61F1 identifies the site as St Leo’s.)

Hay St runs south off Canterbury Rd between Station St and Middleborough Rd.

Enter the College driveway from Hays St between Jellico and Halsey St.

The Auditorium is on your left as you enter the driveway. There is free parking on your right and behind the buildings if you continue down the driveway.

There is also free street parking.

November 28th End Of Year Celebration - $15 per head for buffet meal.3/15 McQuarie Place, Boronia 7.00pm. Put on your party clothes for good food, company and if you like you can dance. All welcome, payment essential by Wednesday 26th. email mdvcinc@bigpond.com.au to respond.