Where does Inkie and her family "do church"?

We refer to "going to church" as "doing church" because church isn't about a building. The Church is people, and if those people aren't impacting on the lives of others in some way, then they are just another social club.

There are plenty of churches that "look" like they do good works, but when you examine them more closely you find that the people in the church don't do the work at all. Instead they pay other people (usually social workers) to do it for them.

So my husband Graeme and I, along with my two younger children, choose to "do church" at Frankston Church of Christ where they encourage people to make a personal impact on the lives of others:

• Graeme is a deacon with responsibility for IT and sound.
• Zac helps out on the sound desk.
• Ellie helps out where ever people will allow her to.
• I am a deacon with responsibility for emergency relief.

My two eldest children are happily involved at Lighthouse Christian Centre:

• Both Beth and Josh sing in the worship team and are very involved with the youth.
• Beth also supervises the catering for the Sunday evening Youth Service.

However, with the encouragement and support of our church we also "do church" in other places at other times:

Bible Study

Every Wednesday evening Graeme and I hold a Bible Study at our home in Frankston. This group has been running for some years now, and we have covered a variety of different topics and used various study styles, all with a Biblical basis. For example, last year we completed a course on "Boundaries" by Henry Cloud & John Townsend (available at Koorong or Word) which was very helpful, both spiritually and relationally.

The people who attend our group come from all walks of life, and most of them keep coming back. Why? Because they don't feel judged, no matter where they have come from or where they are going, and they feel that they belong, and everyone needs that.

If you live in the Frankston area, would like to learn more about the things of God, or are just looking for a group that you can belong to, then please don't hesitate to email me at . I'd love to hear from you!

The Church in the Market Place

During the middle of 2007, Graeme and I took a Sunday morning off from church and headed off to the local market.  We came away from there realising that there is a whole section of the population who attend the markets as regularly on a Sunday as we attend church. It is likely that they have no contact with church at all, so may never have heard the Gospel.  As we didn't quite know how we were going to get into the markets at that stage, the idea got shelved for a little while.

Two months later I attended a friend's candle party. I never intended purchasing any, as we had a cupboard full of candles that had been given to us, and were never burned because we didn't like the smell or mess of paraffin wax. However, I was pleasantly surprised. These candles were made from soy wax which burns cleaner, cooler and longer than paraffin and can be washed up with hot soapy water.  The fragrances were delightful and lasted for the life of the candle.  Better still, we could make them ourselves and sell them any way we wanted to, from markets to party plan!  I raced home that day and told Graeme that I had found something that would give us a legitimate presence at the markets so we could share the Gospel.

By the end of October we had bought our supplies, made sufficient candles to sell and booked a market stall at Berwick. Our first market was a disaster - 110 km/hour winds which stressed our gazebo so much it broke!  Our second wasn't much better - more rain than had fallen for months, so no customers.  However we persisted and it has been worth it.  Every week we sell some candles and tracts disappear from the tables. Occasionally people will stop and ask us about the tracts and we have the opportunity to tell them why we are there.

After trying out a few different markets, we now have a permanent stall every Sunday at Akoonah Park Market in Berwick, and occasional Saturday stalls elsewhere. We also have a website at www.lightingtheway.com.au, advertising our candles, and of course the Gospel!

Prayer Walking the Pines

In 2004 God gave a small group of us a mission - to pray for "the Pines", which is the colloquial name for North Frankston. The Pines, originally a housing commission estate, has long had a reputation for poverty, drugs and crime. It didn't take us long to realise that sitting in a church or loungeroom praying for this area was not enough. God was making it clear that we had to go "out there".

We chose one block in the Pines every week and as we circumnavigated it we anointed the fences, gateposts and driveways, and prayed God's blessing on each home and its occupants. Occasionally we were the subject of ridicule, but most people we met along the way were only too pleased to have their home "blessed" by us. In spite of spiritual attack (even from within the church), ill health and other setbacks, we successfully completed the entire area between November 2004 and November 2006.

Not long after we commenced, a Melbourne YWAM group came to do a summer mission in Frankston. They felt very strongly that God wanted them to work not only on the beaches but in the Pines as well. From the moment they planned to include the Pines, they had phone calls from all over Australia asking, "What is 'the Pines'? God has told us we have to pray for this!" When YWAM found out that that we had already been praying over the area they were as encouraged as we were.

Since then other Christian groups have begun to do ministry in the Pines as well. We understand that this has happened before but the groups have usually folded within a short period of time. The fact that these new groups are still there may mean that our prayers have made a difference.

While we have not personally been aware of change there (although we believe the place "feels" different), we have had many positive reports:

• Incoming ministry groups told us they noticed a difference in attitude and atmosphere in the areas over which we'd prayed compared to the areas we had yet to cover.
• One minister reported that for the first time the local churches in North Frankson and Carrum Downs had been successful in planning a joint event for Christmas.
• Some of the houses were significantly overhauled within weeks of us praying over them - they changed from gloomy and overgrown to brightly lit and cleaned up.
• Last year the Victorian Government allocated $9 million over 3 years to be used for the upgrading of facilities in the Pines.