MINISTRY AND MISSION TRIP TO STREAKY BAY

A number of our church members have accepted God’s calling to serve in small struggling communities. Here is a brief report of the work of Rob and Elaine Bailey who continue to serve in this way.

                                                                                              From Rob Bailey – April 2012

Serving Him

Elaine and I visited the Streaky Bay area to work particularly in the local Uniting Church.  We were involved with pastoral care (visiting all of the members and adherents as well as potential and lapsed members) and follow up, encouraging and supporting the new Rural Ministry Team (RMT – a team of 6 people who will take leadership of the Streaky Bay church).  We also lead an Ecumenical Lenten Study (in the local Anglican church) and I preached in Streaky Bay on 2 of the 4 Sundays whilst we were there.  We spent a day with the Resourcing Minister from Ceduna (Rev Sue Ellis) visiting Streaky Bay Uniting Church members, including the nursing home and hospital, as well as spending time with her at Ceduna.  Whilst we at Streaky Bay,  Rev Allan Dutton from the SA Synod visited and we met with him regarding the local church and the RMT and as well we were invited to attend the Western Network Mission at Elliston.  We were also able to support some leadership with difficult funeral preparations.

We initially went and met with the people and took time to get to know them so that trust could be built.  We were asked to spend about as month there but we had another commitment so we split the time in two which worked very well as when we returned on the second visit we were known and accepted. This enabled a greater effectiveness in ministry.          Robert.

Left: Robert Bailey with a Lay Minister, Mr Trevlyn Smith.  Trevlyn has been the person responsible for much of the preaching for the last four years.  He has a small business and specialises in radios, etc. and he also spends a lot of his time working with Vision Radio (Australian Christian Radio).  His goal is that travellers can turn onto Vision Radio at Pt Augusta and drive to the border having good coverage.  Of course local people also receive the benefit. Right: The Uniting Church building at Streaky Bay.