Haven | 5:00pm - 6:30pm | Sunday 3rd August 2025

5:00pm - 6:30pm—Sunday 3rd of August 2025

Sip piping hot soup, rolls, & salad as we enjoy conversation together and discuss some more life questions

Our Location is in a home for this week so we wouldn't put publicly it on here. 

SMS if you want details or if you want to bring a pot of soup, or crusty bread or soft drinks or some dessert (0418 382449)

“God, make it count.”

Tonight at Haven, we referenced this prayer - Here's a version of it for you to use and modify for your situation.

Instead of praying “God, make it better”, maybe we need to pray “God, make it count.”

Lord, my friend is seriously ill [or dying]. Don’t just make it better, make it count. If she can be better, let it be so, but don’t let this suffering have been wasted. Work it for good. Please show up and show your grace. Make it count.

God, I’m so busy and so tired. I so badly want to pray “make it better! Make it stop!”, but I’m going to pray “make it count, please,” instead. Let me learn grace under fire. Let me learn to say no to the bad and even the good so that there is time enough to say yes to the best. Show your strength in my weakness. Make it count.

God, thanks for a lovely, sweet season in my marriage. Rather than saying “thanks, keep it up, make it better”, please Father, make it count. Help us to be thankful and still work hard at our marriage, not leaving prayer for the tough times alone. Let this good season count.

God, money is tight for so many dear ones. Everything in me wants to ask for more, to make it better. But please Lord, make these tight days count. Teach us to be wise stewards, teach us to give generously now while we feel hard pressed, teach us to pray for daily bread, and to learn the secret of contentment whether we have plenty or little. Make these days of economic hardship count.

God, I’m at my wits end with my kids. They won’t eat, sleep, or obey as I’d hoped they would. I want it to be better, please Lord… I know you can make it better, but instead I will pray “make it count”.

Help me to be patient with my slow to learn kids, as you are patient with slow to learn me. Help me to show love to them in their immaturity, as you show love to me in mine.

Lord, make these trials in parenting count: let them teach me and my children what YOU are like as a parent. Make these long days of relentless loving discipline count.

God, now that I think about it, please don’t just make it better — Not if it doesn’t count.

Please make it count, so that these light and momentary afflictions do the work of preparing us for a weight of glory that outweighs them all.

God, this is my life: in all it’s gritty, knotted and messy glory.

These are my loved ones.

These are my tears. Please, please, please… 

Make it count. 

Amen!

“…That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. 17 For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! 18 So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever..” 2 Cor 4:16-18 (NLT)

Haven | 4:30pm-5:30pm | Sunday 27th of July 2025

 

4:30pm-5:30pm — Sunday 27th of July 2025 

The Lord’s Prayer #5 “Your will be done”

We’ll consider the question: “What about unanswered prayers?” 

Video & discussion around the “Prayer Course.” 

If you want to view the video yourself go: HERE

Light refreshments. Social Support Centre, Activity 

We're meeting -- Room:3  70 Mernda Village Drive Mernda

70 Mernda Village Drive Mernda

***   ***   ***   

Summary points 

• The Bible is honest about unanswered prayer
• We are part of a faith that is all about wrestling. 
• God’s world, God’s war, God’s will.
• 
God’s silence is not the same as his absence. 
• WHAT DO YOU FIND HELPFUL OR CHALLENGING?

Note different location for a number of Sundays....

Hi everyone, 

Make a note we are meeting in a new location for a number of our gatherings 

Check the promo for each week to confirm location

Activity Room: 3 Mernda Social Support Centre, 

70 Mernda Village Drive Mernda

(Cnr Galloway & Mernda Village Drive)

Haven | 4:30pm-5:30pm | Sunday 20th of July 2025

4:30pm-5:30pm Sunday 20th of July 2025

The Lord’s Prayer #4 “Your kingdom come” — What is intercession? 

Video & discussion around  the “Prayer Course.”

If you want to view the video yourself go: HERE

Light refreshments. 

Location: Mernda Social Support Centre, Activity Room:3  

70 Mernda Village Drive Mernda

Note - Enter from the carpark at the back of the complex, not directly from Galloway Drive. We'll have a billboard out!

(Not in UCA Hall this week)

❄️ Winter 2025 Newsletter ❄️

Greetings friends,

I’m sitting here writing this on a cold mid-winter’s day. 

As I look out the window, I see the wind blowing through the leafless trees. 

Through my headphones I hear Bob Dylan singing in his prophetic, nasally tone: 

"Come gather 'round people, wherever you roam … For the times they are a-changin’…"

There are new winds blowing over our globe! 

The times they are a-changing;  dramatically from the one in which we grew up or even recall in that long gone pre-Covid era! 

There are cultural, religious, economic and political changes all around us and social anxiety is at an all time high. 

The Spirit of God, however, still guides and reveals to us, fresh ways to live and serve amidst these gales.

We’ve attached a short news-letter to give you bit of an update (Below).

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,

M & E

________________________________ 

Click HERE to see the Winter Newsletter

________________________________  

Click HERE for Haven Blog

________________________________ 

Haven | 4:30pm-5:30pm | Sunday 13th of July 2025

4:30pm-5:30pm Sunday 13th of July

Worship Focus: We gather around the Communion table.

Draw strength & reflect on Psalm 103

Mernda Social Support Centre, Activity Room: 3 

 70 Mernda Village Drive Mernda 

(Not in UCA Hall this week)

Psalm 103 NIV

1 Praise the Lord, my soul;

all my inmost being, praise his holy name.

2 Praise the Lord, my soul,

and forget not all his benefits—

3 who forgives all your sins

and heals all your diseases,

4 who redeems your life from the pit

and crowns you with love and compassion,

5 who satisfies your desires with good things

so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

6 The Lord works righteousness

and justice for all the oppressed.

7 He made known his ways to Moses,

his deeds to the people of Israel:

8 The Lord is compassionate and gracious,

slow to anger, abounding in love.

9 He will not always accuse,

nor will he harbor his anger forever;

10 he does not treat us as our sins deserve

or repay us according to our iniquities.

11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,

so great is his love for those who fear him;

12 as far as the east is from the west,

so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

13 As a father has compassion on his children,

so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him;

14 for he knows how we are formed,

he remembers that we are dust.

15 The life of mortals is like grass,

they flourish like a flower of the field;

16 the wind blows over it and it is gone,

and its place remembers it no more.

17 But from everlasting to everlasting

the Lord’s love is with those who fear him,

and his righteousness with their children’s children—

18 with those who keep his covenant

and remember to obey his precepts.

19 The Lord has established his throne in heaven,

and his kingdom rules over all.

20 Praise the Lord, you his angels,

you mighty ones who do his bidding,

who obey his word.

21 Praise the Lord, all his heavenly hosts,

you his servants who do his will.

22 Praise the Lord, all his works

everywhere in his dominion.

Praise the Lord, my soul.

NOTE CHANGE OF VENUE THIS WEEK!!! Haven | 5:00pm-6:30pm Sunday 6th July

Hi everyone!  

We are going to relocate the venue for our gathering this week.... 

We will be having tea at S & B's place instead.

15 Watts Ln, Cottles Bridge VIC!  

Link:  https://maps.app.goo.gl/wzBsAdpC4VfrsFNQ7  

— See map below — 

Just a reminder we’re having a meal together and starting 5pm not 4.30pm

Grace and peace

Martin

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