baulkham hills baptist church i and ii

The past two weeks have been pretty good, church-wise. I was very kindly invited to Baulkham Hills Baptist, by a friend of mine who completed the sign language interpreting diploma at the same time as me. She has been doing volunteer interpreting for the handful of deaf people who attend the services.

As it turns out, the Church is only five minutes’ drive from my house. Literally. If I hadn’t been invited, I probably would have come across it anyway, in the “search for a church”. The service starts at 9:30am, and both times has finished about 11am. The first week was a special one, with an emphasis on “beach missions”, which is something the church has been involved in. We heard from a number of people who spoke about their involvement in the mission, and their experiences.

There were about 50 or so people at both services, and all-in-all, I had a pretty good time. There are a fair few older people, but also a lot of new families — couples with toddler babies. It’s been interesting, because twice now people have suggested I should come along to the evening service also, because there are more “young” people there, who are “more my age” … (I don’t know how old they think I am?!) In general, people are friendly, and have made a point of coming up to me an introducing themselves either before or after the service. After last week’s service, the senior minister encouraged me to sign the guest book (which I did). Then a couple of days later, I received a very nicely worded card in the post, thanking me for my involvement in the service, hoping I enjoyed it, and welcoming me if I ever chose to come again. It was a very nice touch, and greatly appreciated.

They have a ministry team of piano, KB, a few vocalists, and some brass/woodwind players too, so the music has been nice. I’ve known just about all the songs, and been able to participate really well here. (When was the last time you sang “Your Love Keeps Following Me”?)

It’s pretty late at the moment, so I’ll keep this entry pretty short. But I will hopefully write a bit more next time … I plan to go back again. They are looking for someone to help with interpreting on a volunteer basis, so this might be somewhere I could fit in and also be useful. So far, so good!

Cheers,
Andy