If there were no rocks in it's bed, the stream would have no song.
Our church is full of real people who have encountered God when they were in real pain. It is in our times of need, that God often feels the closest, and where we really learn his love. At our church, we celebrate the fact that all of us struggle from time to time, so we don’t need to hide our problems. Here are some of the stories of our leaders and what God has brought them through...
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Simon Beasy – Pastor
Simon grew up in Mildura in a pretty small church. He was big into music, and followed that passion when he moved to Adelaide University to study music, where Simon became desperately lonely. He longed for friendship and someone to love him unconditionally, and he distracted himself from his pain by becoming very busy. He threw himself into in his job in the Navy Band, performing in his Uni Studies, teaching, and church ministry to make the hurt go away.
In his loneliness, when he was not busy, he would spend time by himself at the beach, and it was here that Simon gradually learned that God could be the friend he was looking for. It took several years, but eventually God became the thing that filled his heart and took away the pain.
In the meantime, Simon had followed the call to Bible College, and later met and married Beck. They completed an internship at a church in Texas, then came back to Australia to look for a ministry as a pastor. They were looking for a challenge where everyone else thought things were going to fail and only God could succeed. That was in 2005, and the place was Coburg Baptist Church.
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Steve – Elder
Steven grew up in Hong Kong where his dad was a pilot. When he moved to Australia for Uni, he struggled with the change, and started to become depressed. This was made much worse when his dad died in a cave-diving accident in South Africa.
Steve has learned to rely on God to get him through. Not only that, but as he has taken on more and more leadership in his life and at the church, he has been learning that God can give strength and courage to grow and face things that seemed impossible before.
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Jeremiah – Prayer Ministry
Jeremiah arrived in Australia in 2005, as a refugee with almost nothing to his name and with a really sick youngest child. He has seen the trauma that comes with running for your life from your house twice. He has hidden in graveyards, pretending to be dead while soldiers were kicking him, been forced to fire walk, and been at the chopping block, waiting to have his hands cut off – only to have God answer his prayers when helicopters attacked, allowing him to escape.
It was while spending several years in the refugee camp, that Jeremiah helped organise all-night prayer meetings. This was partly because everybody was too hungry to sleep, but also because Jeremiah believed strongly in his saying… PUSH – Pray Until Something Happens.
Since arriving in Australia, Jeremiah has worked and studied, until now he runs a refugee mentoring program for the Salvation Army in Preston.
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Beck + Mel – Playgroup
Beck and Mel started playgroup in 2006, because they wanted to help the church start to focus out on the community. The first week – no one showed up! And the next week… and the week after that...
But after a while, they rejigged the advertising – and some mums started coming. Now the playgroup is one of the really important community focuses of our church. For a majority of the mums, this is the only contact they have with a church community, and we believe the playgroup is not only a great asset to the community of Coburg, but also a great avenue for the church to help guide people as they ask questions about their spiritual journey.
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