Jesus’ Love Reflected

Trust that connections can start
small but gain momentum over time.

By Randall Bourchier, Pastor
Mooroolbark, Victoria, Australia

During the past twenty years, our triune God has generously and faithfully opened doors of opportunity for Grace Communion Mooroolbark (GCM) to share the love of Jesus — to be a gift of God to the community where we meet. More recently, we have been intentional in seeking to connect our community involvement back into the life of the congregation.

One example of this is our free community meal, started in 2011. We serve this free meal every two weeks. For the past two years, we’ve been offering a short devotional prior to the meal for those interested. These interactive sessions have each centred around a Gospel story of Jesus, with attendees sharing what they have learned about Jesus in the story.

The devotionals begin and close with prayer, including various prayer requests from the group. At a recent meal, an attending couple requested their new baby be blessed during the mealtime. This past year has seen a handful of regulars attending our Sunday services, either regularly or from time to time.

The second example emerged from some interconnected community-serving activities that GCM had been involved with for many years. What God provided was testament to his long-term faithfulness and was most certainly something we’d never planned or foreseen!

Since 2000, up to 8000 Chin refugees who fled from violence and persecution in Myanmar have settled in our region. Our connections with these lovely people started small but recently gathered a surprising momentum.

Some of the earliest connections arose from our involvement in KidsHope Australia — a World Vision initiative. The program matches church congregations with a local primary school in order to provide trained mentors for children who would benefit from a trusted adult relationship. A number of us have mentored Chin children over the years and become known to the Chin community.

The first Chin pastor in the area, Japheth, reached out to our congregation during 2011 requesting a mentoring relationship with me. For a couple of years, we visited together for coffee, conversation, and prayer. GCM published his inspiring and tenacious story in an edition of our Living Today in Mooroolbark. It’s a quarterly magazine which we publish as a gift to our community. In subsequent years, we’ve stayed connected, and a group of our members continue to serve in local community organisations with some of the leaders of Japheth’s large local congregation.

In 2024, our Chin neighbours were shocked by a succession of tragic deaths. The local council reached out to GCM to help conduct a public memorial service as a way of supporting the Chin through sharing their grief.

Early in 2025, we met one of the first Chin “rough sleepers” in our area who previously had suffered with loneliness, substance use, and debt. (“Rough sleeper” is a term for an unhoused individual.) He has abstained or been “dry” for more than ten years now. Thankful to God and grateful for the love and support of his wife, Van permitted us to publish his story in Living Today, in the hope that his life might encourage and inspire others. Chin leaders expressed their gratitude for the story and an accompanying article about the settlement challenges that refugees face.

Later in 2025, we got to know Uk, a Chin integration aide working at the school where we mentor. Little did we know …

After being asked, and refusing several times, my wife and I accepted a chaplaincy role with the Hornbills, a local Chin sporting group fielding men’s soccer and women’s volleyball teams. Yes, you guessed it — Uk is the president of the club.

Our GCM pastor Matt also mentors at the primary school and a relationship between he and Uk was also developing. Uk, who also pastors a small Chin congregation requested pastoral mentoring.

Recently, GCM enjoyed a visit of a group from Uk’s congregation at one of our services. Prayerful conversations are continuing as we explore what God may have in mind for a closer relationship between our two groups.

As we continue our engagement with our Chin friends, we’d seek your prayers — not only for discernment — but especially gratitude for the way Jesus faithfully, surprisingly, and over the long-term continues to provide GCM opportunities to reflect his love into our neighbourhood.