Matt Scheffer
28 October 2022
The Bush Church Aid auxiliary group based at St James’ Pakenham celebrated its 65th anniversary on Wednesday 26 October, with a worship service and fellowship lunch.
BCA national director, Reverend Canon Greg Harris gave the address to a congregation made up of friends, supporters and auxiliary members, using Jesus’ words from Matthew 7, about building your life on the rock. He reminded listeners the reason BCA existed was to make Christ known in rural, regional and remote parts of Australia, so that people could build their lives on Jesus as the solid foundation.
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When asked about one of the challenges in his role as national director, Mr Harris said the main challenge was finding ministers and ministry families willing to go to remote and regional towns. In some parts of the country, there may be a three or four hour drive to the nearest town, or the nearest church. So for Christians in rural towns, their connection to other Christians can be very limited and good Bible teaching scarce.
Mr Harris noted that in some parts of Melbourne there might be several Anglican churches within a kilometre or two of each other. But in outback areas, particularly the north west of Australia, some Anglican churches might be separated by many hundreds of kilometres.
Mr Harris encouraged the BCA auxiliary to continue their prayers and financial support, and invited every person to pray that the Lord would send more gospel workers into rural and regional parishes.
The Pakenham auxiliary raised a total of $3000 for BCA this year, and president Gwen Williams presented the cheque to BCA Victorian state director, Reverend Adrian Lane.
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