We received a lovely letter from the Sisters' Class in the Punchbowl Ecclesia in Australia along with a beautiful picture, which we are delighted to share with you all with their kind permission.

(L.C.)

 

Front (L-R) Gail Maunder, Adele Ewers, Joshua Schofield, Matthew McClure, Abigail Schofield, Jarrod Schofield, Stephanie Leckey, Evginia Leckey

Middle (L-R) Gaye Wills, Vi McGrath, Danielle Ewers holding Amos, Kit Buchan, Jean Gilmore, Ellen Crews, Jenny McClure

Back (L-R) Sue Stone, Barbara Wilson, Jenny McClure, Lois Kingston, Darleen Schofield.

 

To our dear Sisters at the Houston Ecclesia Sisters' Class,

Loving greetings to you all in the name of Jesus Christ and the hope we all share.

Recently one of our young sisters accessed your web site "Sisters' Class Journal" and ran off a copy for our Sisters' Class. We all passed it around and enjoyed very much reading of all your classes, activities and "lunches".

It was suggested that it might be nice to make contact with you by sending a photo of ourselves and a note to let you know that your fellow sisters here in the Punchbowl Ecclesia, Sydney, Australia are thinking of you and feeling like we know you a little through the words of your journal.

Our ecclesia was established about 25 years ago and has a membership of about 80, and a Sunday School of about 35 children.

We hold our Sisters' Class every second Tuesday commencing at 10:30 a.m. Our class has an average of about 8-10. (On the day we took the photo we had an all time record of 14). We have quite a few older sisters who attend when they can - their health permitting. Until late last year we enjoyed the company of our Sis. Olive Gilmore who was 92 and recently passed away. She was a very spritely, interesting sister, and a great example of consistency throughout her life and we miss her presence at our class. We also have quite a few children who come with their Mums and play "quietly" on the floor while the class is on. We appreciate having them there as they remind us of the heritage that we pass down through our children and how very important it is to include them in the things of God.

We commence with morning tea in our back hall and then move into the main hall where we start with prayer, reading and we then listen to a tape that usually goes for about 45 minutes. Yesterday we listened to Bro. John McConville on his "Vision" which was his vision of what will happen when Christ returns and establishes the kingdom. Our next set of tapes are around the life of Paul "I have kept the faith" by Bro. Brian Luke from Adelaide, Australia.

After the tape and some discussion we take up a collection which is used for various purposes - usually to help someone who is involved with mission work - particularly in India and the Philippines.

After the class has concluded with prayer we have lunch together in the back hall. Each fortnight we take turns to provide a cake which is enjoyed by all. We usually have lots of conversation and we all like this time for getting to know each other on a very personal level. We go home around 2 p.m.

At the end of every year we meet at a restaurant and have a luncheon together.

We hope you have found this little bit of information interesting. We look forward to keeping up with your classes via "The Journal" and thank you again for your efforts in putting this together. It is encouraging to know that all over the world there are sisters in Christ who meet as we do and are working together with their Sisters, families and ecclesias to promote the Word of God.

With much love from your sisters in the Punchbowl Ecclesia, Australia.