An Elvis Christmas

What a wonderful Christmas Party!

The Lord's blessing upon all of you as Christmas approaches. Let me again encourage folks to use the Advent Calendar as a source of daily prayer and bible study during Advent.

Rev. Chris Bullock

Rummage Sale

The Youth and their families raised over $500 today for their Summer Mission Trips with a Rummage Sale!

Rev. Chris Bullock

PCUSA Health Unit comes to Gautier

The Presbyterian Church's Health Unit rolled into Gautier this morning to offer free screenings to everyone in our community, including our own members and people who come to our food pantry this morning. It has been a very busy morning!

Rev. Chris Bullock

Clean up Day: The Women of the Church

This monday, the women of the church cleaned up the entire mile of Highway 90 that we have adopted.

Rev. Chris Bullock

Sermons

My friends,



I have been remiss in uploading sermons to the Web. Here are a collection.



October 12th Sent as a vessel of God’s grace
September 28th You are stewards of God’s Grace
September 14th Present yourselves as a living sacrifice to God
September 7th Labor Day
August 24th Letting God speak

Grace and Peace,
Chris



Rev. Chris Bullock

Sharing the Faith

Last Saturday, we visited the Isle of Pines Trailer Park behind the church to invite the residents to come and worship with us.

Rev. Chris Bullock

The Ground Breaking

Sunday, October 5th, we broke ground on our New Sanctuary. Actually the project had already begun, but the church gathered after worship to pray the Lord's blessing upon this new Sanctuary.

Rev. Chris Bullock

The New Sanctuary!

The Congregation met yesterday and voted to proceed with the new Sanctuary! Please keep the church in your prayers as we "break ground" on this project.

Thank you to everyone who has kept us in your prayers and otherwise supported this project.

If you would like to make a contribution to the building fund, you may do so online

or through the mail: Building Fund, Gautier Presbyterian Church, P.O. Box 340, Gautier, MS 39553.

Rev. Chris Bullock

Pictures of Coastal Mississippi Damage by Gustav

Click Here
Rev. Chris Bullock

Monday, Sept. 1st: Labor Day and Gustav, later on...

A house in our Neighborhood.

Chris

Monday, Sept. 1st: Labor Day and Gustav

Hey folks,

A few more pictures from Sunday's Services and from around the house this morning during the heavy winds.

Chris

Sunday, August 31st Hurricane Gustav

Hey folks,

We had a great service this morning! Even as Hurricane Gustav approached, over half our congregation came to worship the Lord and help get the church ready for the storm. Please keep each member of the church in your prayers!

We are bunkering out at the house. Call us if needed!!!

If you are looking for information, I will try to keep the email current.

Rev. Chris Bullock

Wednesday, July 30th

The Newsletter for August and September!

Rev. Chris Bullock

Sunday, July 20th 2008

This Sunday we continued with our Discipleship Worship Series. We are currently focusing on having "arms of love." This last Sunday we looked at the Great Commandment. Here is the sermon.

Rev. Chris Bullock

Our friends in Lebanon

Nuhad Tomeh (A Presbyterian Missionary to Lebanon who visited with us last fall) sent us a gift this week!

At Christmas, we wrote Christmas cards to Iraqi children in Lebanon and Nuhad helped to deliver them. This week, Nuhad sent us a package with photos and letters from the Iraqi children in Lebanon who received our cards.

Take a look!

Rev. Chris Bullock

Sunday, June 29th 2008

On Sunday, we continue our Discipleship Series, focusing on how the Word of God can transform our minds.



The scripture was Psalm 119: 103-105



How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!
I gain understanding from your precepts; therefore I hate every wrong path.
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.



The Sermon



Rev. Chris Bullock

The South African Journal

On May 28th,

We woke up in our apartment and got ready to visit J.L. Zwane Presbyterian Church for the first time. (Karen had been there in 2003) .

Our journey to the church took us from the suburbs of Cape Town, which are much like the suburbs of a European city, out of the city, and into the black townships that are located 3-5 miles outside town.

We arrived at the church (after getting terribly lost) in the morning and were welcomed by the Senior Pastor, Rev. Spiwo Xapile and the Associate Pastor, Edwin Louw. After a brief tour, we were off to Robben Island, with Lumi, Pastor Spiwo's son, to see the famous prison off the coast of Cape Town where, during Apartheid, the government imprisoned political prisoners, and where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for many years.

Our journey to Robben Island proved to be an interesting one. Very few of us on the boat used to get us to the Island had any belief that it would ever make it there. The seas below Cape Town are rough and this boat looked rather small for the conditions.

Our fellow tourists were the truly interesting aspect of the trip though. They were black workers from the farms outside of Stellenbosch (wineries mostly). The owner of the farm had paid for them to go to Robben Island.

We learned that the workers on these farms are incredibly poor and have little access to education. For the most part, they spend their entire lives on these farms/wineries and have little idea what is going on in the rest of the world.

Many of them also suffer from Fetal Alcohol Syndrome because, during Apartheid, the owners of the farms would pay the workers with the bad wine from their farm instead of money and so there alcoholism developed into a very deep problem in those communities.

Once on Robben Island, we learned a great deal about the dynamic of Political Prisoners under Apartheid: How they were treated, how people were deteremined to be political prisoners.

After we returned to Cape Town, we said good bye to Lumi to get home to our apartment, to figure out how to buy groceries for dinner that night. We ended up with Ostrich burgers and green beans: a great meal.

Rev. Chris Bullock

Sunday, June 22nd

Our worship focused on my family's recent trip to Guguletu, South Africa this last Sunday. The Sermon.

Also, I had failed to add my May 18th Sermon to the Website. Here it is as well.


Rev. Chris Bullock

From the Journal: Time in South Africa: A Journey with Bongoni

On Thursday, June 5th, we traveled with Bongoni, a young, black Presbyterian pastor to his church in Khayamandi, right outside of Stellenbosch.

As you approach the area, you are literally awed by the beauty of Stellenbosch. It looks very much like a Swiss resort. People drive porsches and BMWs and there are fancy wineries, restaurants and hotels wherever you look.

Then, Bongoni told me to "turn right." (Unbelievably, I hired a car in South Africa and did all kinds of driving). As we passed over the railroad tracks, we entered an entirely different world. A world just out of view of the affluence of "white" Stellenbosch.

We were now in the drastically poor informal township of Khayamandi. During Apartheid, this is where the blacks in the area were forced to live.

Here is a picture of Bongoni, Noah and I walking between the "shacks" of the township. These shacks, which house the majority of the 100,000 people who live there, do not have plumbing and only have what I would call precarious electricity because so much water gets into the shacks.

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Our goal that day was to spend time with Bongoni to better understand the issues facing his ministry in Khayamandi: Rampant alcoholism (the Africaners used to pay their black workers on occasion with cheap wine instead of money) and poor education (blacks were denied any real education under Apartheid).

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Here we are at his church as the childern in their preschool (the equivalent of our Headstart) briefly interrupt their work to come give us a hug.

My wife, Karen, knew Bongoni from her previous visit to South Africa in 2003. If I understand her correctly, Bongoni has suffered from the incredible challenges facing young Black pastors as they seek to minister to churches in the midst of great poverty and large groups of people infected with HIV/AIDS. Of course, he must also feed and take care of his family on his salary of $500 a month (compared to the average of salary of white Presbyterian pastors in that same Presbytery of $3,300 a month.

Here he he points out to me one of his Outpost churches in the nearby town of Kraaifontein.

Please keep him in your prayers. I am currently working with the J.L. Zwane Church in Gugeletu to develop a program to provide peer support for Bongoni and other pastors nearby with similar challenges.

Chris

sunday, May 11th

What a wonderful day!

Mother's Day
Confirmation Sunday
and Pentecost. (The Sermon)

The Lord's blessing upon you this week.

Rev. Chris Bullock

Confirmation Sunday

This Sunday, May 11th, was Confirmation Sunday. Here are some pictures:

Rev. Chris Bullock