Contemplative Nature Walk | 4:00pm-5:30pm Sunday 6th April 2025

NOTE!! CHANGE OF VENUE!!!  

We've changed the location to the Mernda Wetlands to bring the 

walk closer to where the majority of you live! 

Tell anyone who may not be aware that we are not starting from Brinawa Reserve!!

4:00pm-5:30pm Sunday 6th April 2025 

Worship Focus: Join us on a Contemplative Nature Walk. 

A contemplative walk is an invitation to slow down & spend time in the outdoors enjoying God’s amazing creation. 

Set in the beautiful South Morang Wetlands, we meet at the corner of Glenwood avenue and Wilton Vale Rd, Mernda, then we will spend time engaging our senses; connecting with nature, our bodies & God.  

Meet at the corner of Glenwood avenue and Wilton Vale Rd, Mernda (Map below) 

BYO refreshments 

Check here and on our Facebook page if the weather is inclement.

🍁 Autumn 2025 Newsletter | M&E Boutros 🍁

   Autumn 2025

Greetings friends,

Autumn’s just about here and the leaves are beginning to colour and fall from the trees. That means Easter is not far off! 

As we come to Good Friday and then Easter Sunday take a moment to pause and contemplate the God who comes to us in Christ!

.

May God the Father bless us,


May Christ take care of us,


May the Holy Spirit enlighten us all the days of our life.

The Lord be our defender and keeper of body and soul,


both now and for ever, to the ages of ages. 

Amen

We’ve attached a short news-letter to give you bit of an update Click here

We want to say a huge thankyou to the many who encourage, support and pray for us and for Haven — You are so appreciated! 

Sincerely,

Martin and Esmae

NOTE — No Haven programme on Sunday 30th of March!

Hey everyone,

Just a reminder that there is NO Haven programme on the 30 March 2025.
We are keeping the ‘extra’ fifth Sundays of the month as a gift for you to use!

Use that weekend as you need: 

    — Plan in that: “We must catch up one day!” catch up!
    — Chat with the Neighbours!
    — Go out for a leisurely lunch with the family!
    — Have along slow coffee with a friend!
    — Curl up with a book!
    — Maybe just lie on the lawn and watch the clouds and rest up!

We’ll be back on for Sunday 6 April and our worship time will be a contemplative walk down at the Plenty Gorge Parkland  (See the Blog entry for details!)

Questions!

Well, we had a great selection of thoughtful questions thrown into the mix for us to discuss this Sunday (23rd March 2025)

We made a good start on some of our questions:

• How do you discern whether something or some vision is from God, from your own thoughts or from the devil?
• Is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit really an unforgivable sin? Does this mean you won't go to heaven?

We had a quick look at two other important questions (groan):

• Who was the first tennis player in the Bible? (Moses, who SERVED in Pharaoh’s courts)
• First person in Bible to have computer issues? (Adam and Eve had serious issues with their Apple) 

Still to get to at future gatherings:

• What does it mean when God hardened Pharaoh's heart so he didn't let the Israelites out of Egypt? 
• Mental health vs possession, and how do we know?
• Is climate change part of God’s laws of nature?
• Why are mortgages & house prices so burdensomely large?
• How do we reconcile the idea that many  people will not be ’saved’ by becoming Christian with the fact thay God is love?
• Please explain the Trinity? 
• What can we do as Haven to help our community -- This one had ‘pick me!' written on the paper it came on!! We will spend a whole week workshopping this together next term. 

Note: Next 30th of March as a fifth Sunday, is a break from our usual meeting (See next post) 

Haven Zoom Prayer Meetings

Greetings everyone!

The the second Haven Zoom prayer time for the year will be as follows:

        8:00pm-8:30pm Monday 7th of April 2025
        Join Zoom Meeting — https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83038483377  
        Meeting ID — 830 3848 3377

Note: Keep the Zoom Link details for all further prayer meetings.

Zoom prayer times will be on 8pm each FIRST Monday evening of EACH month

The prayer time is an opportunity to pray together for the northern suburbs around Mernda, Doreen, Woollert, South Morang.

We want to pray for the people who live, work and play there

We want to pray for followers of Jesus who serve there as salt and light

We want to seek God’s guidance about growing Haven community in 2025

If you can’t join us, that’s perfectly fine — but could you maybe, pause and pray for a few minutes where you are? 🙂

Grace and Peace,

Martin

I got questions!| 4:30pm-5:30pm Sunday 23 March 2025

 

We all have questions around life, the universe and everything! 

And no, the answer isn't always 42!

We're going to have an afternoon where we pose some of those questions and think about how we respond to them. I'm not guaranteeing 100% right answers! Often questions can raise other questions that send us away thinking some more!

Come and join is! If you want you can send in a question beforehand via here: HERE

What if God was one of us? | 4:30pm-5:30pm Sunday 16 March 2025

Some years ago, Joan Osborne (1995) released a song called "What if God was one of us?" The first verse started:

    If God had a name what would it be?
    And would you call it to his face?
    If you were faced with Him in all His glory
    What would you ask if you had just one question?

Christians believe that the miracle of the incarnation was that God was one of us, and  that the life and death and resurrection has special significance.

C.S. Lewis (author of the Narnia books) put it like this: 

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”  ― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity.

As we go through the season of Lent leading up to Easter, we're going to consider this at our gathering on 4.30pm Sunday 16th of March (Mernda Uniting) What's the significance of Jesus Christ and what do Christians believe happened at that first Easter. Come join us!

Chocolat and Chocolate

We had a fantastic time on this warm Labour Day Sunday afternoon watching Chocolat together and savouring all the wonderful chocolates people b
rought to share. Those Easter eggs, soft-centres, almond chocolate and Ferrero Rocher balls! Mmmmm!

'Enjoyed a lively discussion about the movie's themes, around redemption, legalism, parenting, where transformation comes from, acceptance, inviting in the strangers and much, much more!

See you all 4.30pm next week as we think about the easter theme -- What if God was one of us — What makes Jesus important?

Chocolat + Chocolate | 3:30pm-5:30pm Sunday 09.03

          Note: Activities this term are not all at the same place or time. 

Check blog or FB for more info

SMS  0418 382449 | therevhead@icloud.com | haven-community.blogspot.com | Facebook  

For more info about the film Chocolat: Here

Pre-Shrove Tuesday Pancake Tea | 4:30pm-5:30pm Sunday 02.03

Note - We're at 97 Schotters Road (Not number 7)

Shrove Tuesday is a Christian festival celebrated in many countries across the globe. It falls on the Tuesday before the beginning of Lent – 4th of March in 2025. Lent is a period of around six weeks leading up to Easter. During Lent, many Christians give up luxuries to remember when Jesus went into the desert for 40 days to fast and pray.

The date of Shrove Tuesday changes from year to year. But one thing stays the same — it’s always 47 days before Easter Sunday. And yes, it’s always on a Tuesday!

The name comes from the old word ‘shriving’, which means to listen to someone’s sins and forgive them. In Anglo-Saxon England, Christians would go to church on Shrove Tuesday to confess their sins and clean their soul. In other words, they would be ‘shriven’. For us, we confess our sins directly to God, at any time, to the One who hears and forgives.

In the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and Canada, Shrove Tuesday has another name -- Pancake Day! Traditionally during Lent, Christians used to give up rich, tasty foods such as butter, eggs, sugar and fat. So Shrove Tuesday was the last chance to eat them – and what better way to do so than with a delicious pancake!

Come join us the Sunday before for a pre-Shrove Tuesday Pancake meal. We will provide pancakes (GF), ice-cream and maple syrup. Bring along whatever for you is a fav topping!

Note: Activities this term are not all at the same place or time. 

Check blog or FB for more info

SMS  0418 382449 | therevhead@icloud.com | haven-community.blogspot.com | Facebook  

Haven Timetable for Term:1 2025

Here's an overview of what we are doing at Haven community this term. 

For more detailed  information check website: https://haven-community.blogspot.com/ 

23/02 — 4:30pm-5:30pm: Worship Focus: Gather around the Communion table, draw strength & reflect on Psalm 23, The Lord is my Shepherd. Includes refreshments. Venue: UCA, 97 Schotters Rd, Mernda

02/03 — 5pm-6pm: Pre-Shrove Tuesday pancakes! Bring your fav fillings & join in pancakes for tea & conversation. Venue: UCA, 97 Schotters Rd, Mernda

09/03 — 3:30pm-5:30pm: Join us to watch “CHOCOLAT (PG-13),” a charming Lenten fable. Bring a sample of your favourite chockys to share! Venue: M&E’s place, 13 Kylie Place Montmorency (Long Weekend, some may be away)

16/03 — 4:30pm-5:30pm: What if God was one of us? A discussion about the meaning of Easter for week:2 of Lent. Includes refreshments. Venue: UCA, 7 Schotters Rd, Mernda

23/03 — 4:30pm-5:30pm: “I’ve got so many questions...!” A Q&A discussion on faith stuff. You can send questions in beforehand if you wish. See contact details below). Includes refreshments. Venue: UCA, 97 Schotters Rd, Mernda

30/03 — 4:00pm-5:30pm: Note - No Haven for ‘regulars’ this week. Instead there will be an orientation session for those interested in starting their own local version of Haven. includes light refreshments. Venue: M&E’s place, 13 Kylie Place Montmorency 

6/04 — 4:00pm-5:30pm: Worship Focus: Contemplative Nature Walk. A contemplative walk is an invitation to slow down & spend time in the outdoors enjoying God’s amazing creation. Set in the beautiful Plenty Gorge Parklands we will spend time engaging our senses; connecting with nature, our bodies and God. meet at Brinawa Reserve, Cnr Brinawa Drv & Goolgung Grv, Greensborough. BYO refreshments (Check FB/Blog if rainy)

13/04 — 5:00pm-6:00pm: Palm Sunday. Bring a plate to share for tea, as we remember the last seven days of Jesus life. Venue: UCA, 7 Schotters Rd, Mernda 20/04 — 10:00am-11:30am: Join in with our friends at Diamond Valley Baptist church to celebrate Easter. Venue: 309 Diamond Creek Rd, Plenty

Note: Activities this term are not all at the same place or time. Check blog or FB for more info
SMS 0418 382449 | therevhead@icloud.com | haven-community.blogspot.com | Haven - Mernda on Facebook

You can download a copy of this: HERE