|
Love Hobart is an outreach ministry in the city of Hobart, Tasmania.
Our aim is to become imitators of Jesus and share the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus with those we meet. What is the Gospel? Simply put it is that Christ died for our sins on the cross and on the third day rose again, so that all who will repent and believe will be saved. Let me explain… We have all sinned against God, whether ‘big’ sins like murder, violence etc. or so-called ‘little’ sins like a white lie, drunkenness, unforgiveness etc. No matter how hard we try we cannot be good enough to go to heaven because we have all sinned and fallen short of Gods standard of perfection. That’s the bad news. But… There’s good news. God the Father loved us (all of mankind) so very much that He sent His Only Son, Jesus, to this earth, to die in our place, as a willing substitute for our sins. How amazing that God loves us so much and that Jesus was willing to lay down His life as a willing sacrifice for our sins! We didn’t deserve it, but that’s how much God loves us. So how do we receive the gift of salvation? The Bible says we must be born again and that happens when we repent and believe. We need to believe that Jesus Christ is Gods Son and that He died on the cross for our sin and on the third day rose again. We also need to repent. What does it mean to repent? Literally it means to have a change of mind: this is outworked by a genuine desire to ask God to forgive our sin, with the intention of turning right away from our sin. The Holy Spirit comes and lives in those who are born again and He helps us to walk in obedience to God, and to stay way from sin. As Christians we pray, read the Bible, praise God, and meet with other Christians so we can grow and encourage each other to be like JESUS. And each of us are commissioned to go share with others this Good News. Background to the beginning of Love Hobart ministry. We initially started with the Rock Cafe at the Odeon, in February 2012. In May 2014 we transitioned to street work where we meet many people each week. We share the Gospel, answer questions (if we can), pray, give hugs, listen, buy food when needed and just endeavor to show Jesus through our words and actions. In June 2015 we started a youth night every Friday during term time from 6-8pm with food, table-tennis, pool and informal 'God-talk' for the youth we meet through the street ministry. We have also had a free sausage sizzle in Franklin Square. This opened up many opportunities to share the Gospel as people were generally blown away by what we were doing and were very happy to listen to us share about Jesus and the power of the cross. We have met many people and we are building relationships with those that we meet regularly on the streets. This has become a source of great joy and encouragement as we share the Gospel, impart godly wisdom and just be a friend to the lost, lonely, homeless, hurting, sick, the struggling and the broken. We give out Bibles and we also get to pray with various ones with many different needs as well as offer practical help in the way of food, food vouchers, sleeping bags etc. What a privilege to be the hands and feet of Jesus. In all that we do we seek to be polite and respectful, generally asking permission to share about Christianity or to pray etc. We are impressed with the politeness and openness especially of the younger generation towards us and we are enjoying building many friendships. Love Hobart church meets every Sunday at 4:30pm at Criterion House, Mathers Lane, Hobart. On Monday nights from 6-7pm we have our church prayer meeting outside in the Hobart CBD (as we don't have a building to use during the week) which can make for a very interesting prayer meeting! Sometimes, others want to know what we're doing and we sometimes get others join us. We often get to share the Gospel before, during and after the prayer meeting with those around. For further details contact us here. We also train and equip others in evangelism and from May 2015 we started running our training seminar 'Fearless Evangelism'- how to share the Gospel in every day life. This includes lots of practical tips on how to approach people, what to say and how to navigate through a conversation to share the Gospel. NOTICES Our next church meeting will be on Sunday 15th January 2023 at 4:30pm as we have a short break over Christmas and New Year until then. Our next Youth night will be on Friday 10th February 2023 as we have a break over the summer holidays. FEARLESS EVANGELISM TRAINING SEMINAR- no cost Practical training by Helen Devenish and team. Watch this space for times and dates. Or contact us to book a seminar at your church wherever that is (travel expenses negotiable) or via zoom. So far we have run this seminar in Tasmania, WA and ACT. For further details please contact us here. Our very first Fearless Evangelism training seminar was on May 2nd 2015. Sessions 1 & 2 can be listened to here. Sessions 3 & 4 can be listened to here. And sessions 5 & 6 can be listened to here. |
The above video was recorded in 2017 for the Church Together of Southern Tasmania. It shows footage of Helen sharing the Gospel in Hobart. Her voice-over is a prayer for the city of Hobart, specifically for the youth.
Love Hobart Friday night youth night
Love Hobart free sausage sizzle in Franklin Square
Love Hobart prayer meeting meets outside in the Hobart CBD
|