From Riley Spring, Church Planting Intern in Sovereign Grace Church, Sydney…

I am excited to announce that we have raised up a team of 28 men and women along with 15 kids to be the Launch Team for our upcoming church plant. We will be planting into an area of Sydney called ‘Parramatta’, which is 25 minutes down the road from our home church, Sovereign Grace Church Sydney. It is a strategic area because of its rapid growth, its proximity to the sending church, and there is much need for more gospel preaching, gospel celebrating churches in the area. 

My wife, Maddison and I joined the church in Sydney in 2013 after we moved into the area. We now have three children, Evie (6), Jasper (4), and Judah (9 weeks!). When I first joined the church, I spoke with Dave Taylor and shared with him my sense of calling to pastoral ministry and a desire for church planting. Dave began mentoring me, giving me opportunities to preach, and lead, and eventually brought me onto their Core Team. In all that time, the team was assessing whether I was called to ministry and specifically to serving with Sovereign Grace in Australia as a church planter. By God’s grace, we passed the test and our church raised the finances to send us to the Pastors College in 2017/18. They have now taken me on as an intern to prepare me for the church plant and to complete my ordination. We now feel as though we are an in position where we are ready to transition to leading this new team and begin a new gospel venture in Parramatta.

In the very first service of Sovereign Grace Church Sydney on September 5th 2010, Dave Taylor prayed for their first church plant, asking the Lord to make it happen! Now, God willing, Sovereign Grace Church Parramatta will launch in September 2019, 9 years later! In the next 6 months, the launch team will meet weekly for training, fellowship, and equipping for the task ahead. 

Would you please pray for:

• Myself, my wife, and kids, and the members of the Launch Team, that God would unify us, equip us, and protect us for the journey ahead.

• For many new disciples to be made in Parramatta

• For a location for our church plant to meet in. 

• For the finances to fund our venture. I will be going down from full-time to 3 days a week to ease the financial burden on the budget, so please pray for provision of work for me, and the ability to go full-time as soon as possible.

From Marty Machowski, Author & Pastor in Covenant Fellowship Church, PA:

It’s been a delight getting to know Songhwan and his wife Miran from South Korea at our annual pastor’s and wives conference. They were the ones who first alerted me to the fact that my books were being translated by a member of their church into Korean and published in South Korea. To date, four of my books have been translated into Korean and distributed within South Korea among home school families. So, when I got an invitation from the Homeschool Support Center to speak at their annual home school conference it seemed good to me and the elders of Covenant Fellowship that I should accept the invitation, which would also provide an opportunity for me to visit Songhwan’s congregation, Lord’s Grace Church, in Seoul as well as speak at a half dozen other churches in the two week visit.

Spending time with Songhwan and Miran, who gave me a crash course in Korean cuisine, was the best part of my time! The Spirit of God blessed the conference and seminars in the churches I visited. I got the opportunity to share my parenting failures and share my own weaknesses and mistakes as a dad in parenting my children. God used me sharing my challenges publicly to pour out his grace to folks who often feel the need to hide their struggles. One of my translators shared,

“While translating the sessions today, I found there were countless moments that I felt God spoke to me on the many areas that I struggled as a pretend-to-be-a-good-father, even to the extent that I lost some of your words while you spoke. I find my family already changing as my wife and I applied what we've learned this evening. We almost told to ourselves, ‘Are these kids the same ones we had yesterday?’ As you took the journey up to this point with your six kids under God's Grace, I also find confidence, not on me but on His promise, that I will run the race with great excitement.”

 I’m looking forward to see what future opportunities will come to partner with our brothers and sisters in South Korea as the Homeschool Support Center is planning to translate two more of my books this coming year. 

Psalm 127.1 says, ‘Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labour in vain’, and in headline, that’s why we so need your prayers! Unless the Lord builds the house, we labour in vain and so as we look out on February and what’s ahead, here's some headlines that you can be praying for…

1. Please pray for Riley Spring (Church Planter - Sovereign Grace Church Sydney), as he begins weekly meetings with the Parramatta Church Plant Team ahead of the church plant launch on Sunday 8th September.

2. Please pray for Kyle Huber (Senior Pastor of Greentree Church & Co-Founder of SEE Global, Belarus) and Nathan Smith (Senior Pastor of Grace Church Bristol, UK) as they make a trip to Belarus, 18th-25th February. They’ll be meeting with key church leaders who Kyle’s known for a number of years now, to assist them in the planning of training for their leaders as they seek to raise up more church planters. As well as identify pastors who may be well served by a growing relationship with Sovereign Grace Churches.

3. Please pray for C.B. Eder (Senior Pastor, Christ Community Church, PA) and John Reyes (Pastor, Christ Community Church, PA) as they head over to Croatia, 4-11th February, to visit with and encourage Mario & Jen Vucenovic, as well as Daniel & Kaitlyn Crocker who were sent out to support them as missionaries. Please pray that God would refresh the Vucenovic's and Crocker's, and that our Sovereign Grace Church in Zapresic would be greatly encouraged through our gospel partnership.

4. Please pray for Eric Turbedsky (Senior Pastor, Sovereign Grace Church, Orange, CA), Ben Kreps (Senior Pastor, Living Hope Church, PA) and myself, Dave Taylor, as we head over to Liberia, Africa, 27th Feb - 9th March, to serve our good friend Dyonah Thomas. Whilst there we’ll be teaching over 110 pastors who will be attending their Pastors College for that week, teaching in some of their Grace Network Churches, and continuing to develop and strengthen our partnerships with the brothers there. Please pray that God would give us wisdom in how to best steward our growing partnership with Dyonah and the churches he serves in West Africa.

5. Please pray for ongoing safety for our Pastors around the world, particularly those in unreached nations, or nations hostile to the Gospel.Thankyou so much. May His grace abound to us all!

From Joel Bain, Senior Pastor of Grace Family Church, Caymanas Estate, St Catherine, Jamaica…

Brothers & Sisters,

I just wanted to give you a brief update on our first meeting that took place just a few Sunday’s ago. God was very kind to us and we felt his presence with us! The morning was joy-filled and Christ-exalting. I preached from Luke 24:13-35. The feedback on the whole service was encouraging. People appreciated the simplicity of it and enjoyed experiencing the leadership from Sean Taylor, Sheldon Campbell, and me. Sean and Sheldon did very well.

We had a total of approximately 40 adults and a good number of children. Some of our guests were friends and family who are committed to other churches. It was wonderful to have them with us for our first service to celebrate God's faithfulness to us during these past several years of training and preparation. 

It was especially encouraging to have 3 families who live in the immediate area, 2 of whom we had not met face-to-face before, as well as a few families who live in nearby communities. One wife who lives in the area said to me, "I'm glad that you all are here." Another family from the area has committed to coming again. That was very encouraging to me, especially as I continue to lead our core team, most of whom travel from Kingston to work alongside us. The team worked willingly and diligently to set up and to serve our guests. They are a great blessing to us. Please pray that we'll care for them well during these demanding first few months.

And please pray for us as we continue. This Sunday, I kick us off a preaching series in Colossians, with Sheldon and Sean preaching in consecutive weeks after that. 

Again, we are so grateful for your partnership with us. 

Joel

Sovereign Grace Church Sydney celebrates another year of grace!

‘For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.’ - Romans 12.36

This past November, a team of 11 men and women representing 4 SG churches went to Kathmandu, Nepal. One aspect of the trip was teaching through the first of our 7 shared values, Gospel Centered Doctrine and Preaching, with a Nepalese church planting pastor (whose name is anonymous for security reasons) and several of his pastors and church leaders. While Billy Raies, Allen Dicharry, and Aaron Mayfield taught through the doctrinal aspects of our values, the other team members embodied those values for the leaders as they spent time with them, prayed with them, and encouraged them. Several of their leaders remarked that gospel-centered leadership is such a missing and needed subject in the church in Nepal. As they got to know us and we got to know them, the Lord knit our hearts together. Our time with these pastors and leaders affirmed that moving forward in partnership and understanding what that looks like in Nepal is the right direction. 

Additionally, Pastor Billy Raies and Leroy Kim taught on gospel centered marriage and parenting with another 40 leaders and pastors in the Pokhara region of Nepal. Those pastors were so encouraged that they asked if we could return and gather even more pastors to provide teaching and encouragement as well as to learn more about Sovereign Grace. While in Pokhara, the other 9 team members connected with a group of Nepalese young people for a discipleship trek in the Annapurna Region. The team sang songs together and had times of teaching and prayer. New relationships were formed and a result, folks are going back home with a greater understanding of God’s heart for the nations and the role they can play through learning, fellowship, and care. 

We are happy to report that plans are in place for strengthening our partnership with these churches as we seek to finish the mission. Those plans include continuing to go through our 7 shared values with these pastors. Please be in prayer about what part you might be able to play through praying, giving, or going.

Written by Allen Dicharry, Sovereign Grace Church Midland, Texas.

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In November 2018, Dave Taylor (Lead Pastor of Sovereign Grace Church, Sydney and Director of Emerging Nations for Sovereign Grace ) and Eric Turbedsky (Lead Pastor of Sovereign Grace Church, Orange) headed over to Seoul, South Korea to spend time with Songhwan Kang (Lead Pastor of Lord’s Grace Church) and his church, Lord’s Grace Church.

Trip highlights…

• Spending time with Songhwan, Miran and Lord’s Grace Church. Such a grateful, enthusiastic and mature church.

• Meeting Barnaba, a seasoned Pastor who Songhwan is looking to bring onto his Pastoral Team. A very real answer to many years of prayer.

• Seeing the way the Church is increasingly embracing evangelism, mission and playing their part beyond their walls in humility and passion.

• Training over 18 Church Planters who have begun to gather around Songhwan. Dave & Eric were both involved in a two day training school, covering a wide array of questions on all things Church Planting and Sovereign Grace.

It is so exciting to see what God is doing in Seoul through Songhwan and Lord’s Grace Church.

Please pray for this dear Church, that grace may abound to them and that their passion for planting more Churches may only grow stronger. It is truly an honour to have Lord’s Grace Church as part of the Sovereign Grace family.