City and Night have been running a 24/7 prayer room at Hania Street for the last week, and it has been incredible—so much so that they have decided to extend it for another week.

We feel the need for more prayer—for more desperation, for more expectation, for more reliance on prayer to accomplish the vision of reaching Wellington, for more time in prayer worshipping God for who he is.

If you want to get involved, be sure to sign up for one of the new slots. It’s a great chance to gather as a life group to spend an intentional time of prayer together. Also, just a warning: lots of people have said they wished they’d signed up for two hours!

For more information and to book a slot in the prayer room, follow the link below.

Bookings here: https://www.thestreet.org.nz/24-7-prayer

Thank you all for your continued support of the Bain family in prayer and also in many practical ways. It’s over a year since Markus was taken ill and we are still praying for complete healing for him. Providing meals has been one way we have been able to support them and currently we have a roster in place to provide 2 meals per week (Tuesdays and Wednesdays). If you are able to support them in this way there were 2 spots left when I wrote this and you can add your name to the roster here.

Imagine being a 15 year old whose country was invaded by a ruthless king who dragged him and his friends to a foreign country where they would learn the language and culture of the country and serve for the rest of their lives. And yet the events and experiences of Daniel and his friends reveal that God and his power are significant. We discover a God who not only knows the future but is sovereign over it and who will ultimately bring about his own kingdom that will last forever. If you’re struggling to trust with the uncertainties of life, if you’re wondering what it looks like to follow Jesus in our culture; if you’re hungry to see God’s incredible power in our world, Daniel will not disappoint.

Across the first week of August, we are launching a 24/7 prayer room in the Life Centre at 21 Hania St. Across these 168 hours of prayer, we expect people to encounter God and encounter His presence in a mighty and refreshing way. 

We feel the need for more prayer. For more desperation in prayer. For more expectation in prayer. For more reliance on prayer to accomplish the vision of reaching Wellington. For more time in prayer worshipping God for who he is. We encourage you to sign up by yourself, as a family, a life group or with a friend.

To book an hour in the prayer room, follow this link: https://www.thestreet.org.nz/24-7-prayer

The guidelines for booking are

• Each slot is a 1-hour slot and you can book for as many as you want, but part of 24-7 prayer is that the room is never empty, so for any slots you sign up for, you have to make sure you turn up!

• From 8pm-6am, you need to book for 2 people minimum. The rest of the day, you can book a slot alone.

• When booking, book under one person’s name and then we will be in touch to ask if there are others in your group coming.

We are excited to embark on this journey the Lord is leading us on. If you have any questions email your Lead Pastor at city@thestreet.org.nz or night@thestreet.org.nz

The next 2 Sundays we have children and adults all in together for a shorter, action-packed "all-in" service. We're going to try things a little differently this time and some of the Kids Zone team will take all the kids out for a super short time towards the end of the service while Simon shares a short message. (We're always trying new things to see what works!) We love these Sundays where we get the chance to worship our God and learn, all ages together. See you there!

Preschool
Over the next two Sundays we are in the mini series: I Can Love Jesus

We look at the story of the Fiery Furnace and talk about loving Jesus through our actions, and the the story of Paul's transformation after meeting Jesus. This story teaches us that our thinking transformed by Jesus, and we can love Jesus through our thoughts.

Mosaic
In term three Mosaic is studying the book of Hebrews. There will be a book available to purchase that we will be using alongside Jen Wilkin's study guide, "Better". These are $20 and can be purchased at Mosaic.

Next Thursday will be the last week of Mosaic before a two week break. Mosaic will commence on the 29th of July.

The Massive

The Massive have been journeying through a series on following Jesus. Perhaps the best word to capture this is ‘apprentice’. As disciples we are called to be apprentices to Jesus. What does it look like to be apprentices to Jesus today? Jesus calls us to follow him:

• To be with Jesus - awareness of and connection to the Spirit (vine + branches)

• To be like Jesus - spiritual formation/transformation: possessing and being permeated by the character traits of Jesus

• To do as Jesus did - ushering in the Kingdom of God

God is calling The Street back to prayer. We are so excited about launching our 24/7 prayer room in August and for all that God will do in it and through it! In the meantime, if you love prayer - or want to grow in it - we are setting up a prayer list for needs that arise throughout our church. If you would like to be added to the prayer list and join the chorus of prayers offered to our loving Father, then email city@thestreet.org.nz

Thank you so much for praying as we waited for a decision on our continued use of 56 Hobart Street on Sundays. We have heard back from the Methodists who own the building and they have offered us another 6 months use of the building. We now know that they don’t want to sell it and that one of the potential uses is to help with another Methodist parish that is overflowing. It’s good to have some certainty, to hear about an overflowing parish, and to have 6 months to find a new solution. God always provides at the right time! Please keep it in your prayers.

Due to Wellington being under COVID level 2 restrictions, we are not gathering in person as locations this week but rather will have an online service for people to join in with in homes. Please watch out on Facebook, Instagram and on our website for further updates as they are given during this week.

Strathmore Community Centre run a school holiday programme on Tuesdays and Thursdays during each school holidays which is a huge blessing to families in Strathmore Park. We have previously been able to contribute by providing packed lunches which have been greatly appreciated! We have committed to do the same for the July school holidays. If you would like to help make sandwiches or deliver the lunches to the community centre during these next school holidays (13, 15, 20, 22 July), please send us a message and we'd love your help! east@thestreet.org.nz

As you may know, NZ has a quota of Refugees that are accepted into the country every year. These people are mostly welcomed in conjunction with the Red Cross, and some of you may have been involved with former refugees in this way. 

In about 2017 NZ trialled a pilot of a program that has been run in Canada for more than 30 years, called Global Refugee Sponsorship Initiative. The original trial in NZ ran successfully for 3 years, welcoming 50 people in several locations. It has been decided to extend the trial for another 3 years, and this is where we come in. Any group of people can get together and commit to sponsor a refugee family, who come independent of the NZ quota and Red Cross. Your group is responsible for every aspect of their resettlement process, from finding a house and furnishing it, to enrolments in school, doctors, language learning or job seeking. It's not a difficult task, so don't be overwhelmed and think it's too hard, but it does take someone with commitment and who genuinely cares for people. This is such a great opportunity and we’d love to know if we have some people from East who would like to know more. We could gather a group from across East, or you might decide this is something your life group would be interested in doing together.

We need to decide if this is something we want to commit to being involved in as a location, so we’re going to hold a short meeting on 6 July that is purely an opportunity to find out more - no commitment at this stage! We will only run that meeting if there are people interested so please email east@thestreet.org.nz to let us know.

More copies of the Bible have been sold than any other book - around 3.9 billion copies in the last 50 years alone. So what is it about the Bible that makes it so special? Why do Christians think it’s so important? And how could such an ancient book still have something to say to a 21st century world? Join us on this 4-week focus on the ultimate bestseller.

“Bestseller” is the first installment in our collection of series entitled “Pillars”

You can find the Life Group questions and supporting resources for Bestseller here

“Jesus is the audience of our worship!”

Listen to Dee talk about how we can use our bodies and posture to worship God before our time of worship last Sunday. Let it encourage you as you come to worship God today.

The 3-4's year olds relaxing as they listen to Logan read the Bible story when God made people, based around Genesis 1:31.

We took a week’s break from our James series on 6 June, for Simon and Jenny to share a special message that God had laid on their heart about prayer. It was such a precious time as we took time to pray together over some significant things for us as a church right now. We desperately want to see God move powerfully in and through our church and the key to that is consistent and unified prayer. Check out their message here if you missed it. Video

Over the last two years, we have been aware of a cult that is operating in Wellington called Shincheonji.

We have been made aware that someone has been involved in this cult in some services across The Street recently, so we want you to be alert and caring well for one another.

The approach this cult has taken in the past is to befriend individuals with an invite for coffee and, ultimately, an invite to a “Bible Study”. If someone you don’t know has invited you to anything you’re unsure of, please check with Simon and Jenny whether we know them and what it is.

If there is someone you know that you haven’t seen around recently or is beginning to pull out of Life Group or their usual activities, please reach out to them and ask them how they’re doing. If there is someone that you are concerned has been attending any Shincheonji groups, please let us know. These are moments where the Church is so awesome at caring for one another. Let’s do this together.

Please take 9 minutes to watch these two videos, which will give you some more really helpful information.

The Family Library located in the Family Room is full of books focussed on equipping and refreshing you in your marriage and parenting.
Please borrow these books as often as you would like, just simply sign them out and in using the book provided.
There are shelves located on three different walls - all of these books are able to be borrowed.

Is there more to life than this? Where am I going? What’s my purpose? Does God really exist?

Over June these questions will be dotted all around Wellington - on billboards, bus stops, posters and online - inviting people to engage with these questions and join an Alpha course. Have you seen any of the big red Alpha posters around Miramar, Kilbirnie and Island Bay?

While Alpha is being promoted so widely, we would love you to consider who in your world you could invite to explore life, meaning and the Christian faith. We'll have a course starting at the beginning of August so watch this space for more details.

Email alpha@thestreet.org.nz if you’d like to be involved or if you know someone who would be interested in attending.

On Sunday we took a break from our James series. Simon and Jenny spoke to us about prayer and believing that God wants to do big things in us and through us as a church. We also spent some time praying for some of those big things. If you were not at the service on Sunday, or were serving in Kids Zone (thank you so much!), we’d really encourage you to set some time aside this week to catch up on the message - we want to all journey together as a church on this.

There was a parenting night held at City a couple of weeks ago that was really helpful and encouraging that some of our parents at East attended. Laura has emailed the video recording out to all the parents on the database so that you can still benefit from it even if you weren’t there. If you haven’t received it please let us know, it’s well worth a watch as you navigate the challenge of parenting children in these times. (Please note, the video is only live for another couple of weeks.) east@thestreet.org.nz