2015 Reports

2015 Reports
1

FORGING
THE
FUTURE
Rectors Report
This year has seen the growth of our parish numerically and missionally.
We spent a number of months clarifying God’s vision for us.
The Micah Movement provided the opportunity for us to share our
dreams and determine to intensify our efforts to reach our district with
the gospel. We spent the last few months discussing our core values so
that we can unite around our common cause. Our vision is to so affect
our district that 2,000 people are members of Dapto Anglican Church by
2020. Those 2,000’s mission is to affect 20,000 people per year for
Jesus.
As 2016 dawns I need to acknowledge some of the people foundational
to our parish. On the 20 th February Lyndall Bailey went to be with the
Lord. She served three senior ministers in an organizational and
administrative role. She did so much more. She coordinated the major
building project of 2010 and our new auditorium is part of her legacy.
Her service of us always had a pastoral emphasis. Many families were
helped by Lyndall especially in times of bereavement.
On the same day Scott Goode was inducted as Rector at South Wagga
Wagga. For six years he served as an astute and compassionate pastor.
Scott provided great support within the leadership team as a calm and
project oriented thinker. He and his wife Natalie provided great
personal wisdom and support to families. These disciples of Jesus have
laid the foundations of our growth for the years to come.
As promised, Children’s and Youth leadership returned to a full time
basis in 2015. We start 2016 with the biggest base of participants ever.
Ian Morrison has expanded our ministries within the local primary
schools with after-school clubs scheduled to commence at Koonawarra
(weekly), and three others on a termly basis. Eliza Vesey is employed by
the Preschool as our community liaison and her work amongst the preschoolers
has continued to flourish. Pete Gold has led a transition in our
youth ministries as we welcome an influx of new young people through
StreetCrew and our high school ministries.
Stephen Swanepoel, assisted by Christine Lane, coordinated the 7pm
service and young adult ministries through a year of transition. Growth
groups and their leaders are serving at the evening service and “After
Hours” is providing increased opportunities for fellowship afterwards.
Social programs are really starting to take off. John Batten and his team
are reaching regular groups on the street each week. In 2016 Stephen
2

FORGING
THE
FUTURE
Rectors Report continued
Swanepoel, Mark McGuire and Terry Raymond are looking to set up our
own not for profit organization to increase our focus and maximise our
ability to attract community support.
2015 saw a timely return to Dapto of trainees. Stuart Jansen and Gabi
de Vries served as YouthWorks trainees and Linda Thompson started as
a women’s trainee through Mary Andrews College. We aim for 20
trainees to have been trained by the end of 2020.
A number of people stepped up as Lyndall became ill. Hilary added the
bereavement ministry to her coordination of weddings and baptisms.
Stephen and Nikki Sullivan picked up a lot of carols organization. It was
exciting to see Carols back on the showground as 4,500 people showed
their support. Dave Langley has started volunteering in the
management of our organisational systems. I look forward to extending
that position in 2016.
Parish Council laboured hard this year to clarify our core values and
establish priorities for the next year including: The installation of solar
power should occur at the Moombara centre in 2016 following an initial
report by Rob Grimmett. The Op Shop will be moving into temporary
storage and sorting in the lower hall as our whole parish undergoes a
radical reorganisation of our storage requirements. The Café has turned
around its trading results from 2014 and in the process has extended its
training and development functions. It is exciting to see the work of
April Eames as our first full time trainee and Jill Pearce has been
honoured for her training work by Campbell and Page with a grant of
$7,500 for 2016.
Our church services have continued to honour God with great heart,
creativity and accomplishment. Thank you to Dianne Whittaker who
orchestrates our efforts along with our dedicated teams of service
leaders, musicians and welcomers. Carol Stumbles aids in
communication with the rosters and the Dooleys with coordinating
hymns and prayers at 8 and 9.30.
Finally I wish to thank our many members who minister across the great
diversity of Dapto Anglican. The large and growing band of workers in
ministry across all ages and stages is humbling to lead and inspiring to
witness. God has placed us in extraordinary times with extraordinary
resources and talents. Let us look with great expectation to what God
will do in our midst in the future.
- Stephen Semenchuk
3

Wardens Report
It was another year of encouragement and
challenges in ministry at DAC. On the
financial side, we ended 2014 with a deficit
in our General Fund of around $11,200. It
was with some concern that at the end of
2015 we also had a deficit, and it was closer
to $11,800. However from 2014 to 2015
our overall budget increased by 12.5% (or
about $100,000). So in financial terms the
size of what we do grew by 12.5% but the
deficit grew by much less. Of course we
cannot continue to operate under a deficit
and the goal for the 2016 budget is to
recover the deficits of the previous 2 years.
However under God's grace our goal is to
spend as much on ministry as we possibly
can. The Micah Movement demonstrated
that there are ample ideas and
opportunities within our parish and
beyond, and in many cases one key
limitation is funding.
One feature of our finances has been the
need to refinance our building loan. It was
held by the Glebe Administration Board,
and was required to be
renewed this year. The
Glebe Board, an
organisation run by the
Diocese, also informed us
that it was no longer
handling these type of
loans. As a result we
applied and successfully
refinanced the loan
through Westpac.
Through contributions to
our building fund, from
parish members, we have
paid approximately $350,000 off the
balance of the loan in the 3 years since it
was first taken out. The outstanding
balance is approximately $1.5M. Some
more encouraging news is that the
repayments have reduced from $15,500 per
month to $9,735 per month, a reduction of
$5,765 per month. We would love to retain
the existing level of support to the property
fund so that we can get ahead of
repayments, reducing our interest and
building up a buffer for the future. We are
constantly thankful to God for the blessing
of the new building and the opportunities
for ministry that it opens up.
As an ongoing part of our ministry at DAC
we have said hello to some staff and
goodbye to others. In all cases we have seen
God working in the lives of the staff,
teaching them and leading them to new
challenges and opportunities.
In 2015 the following people joined the
team: Stuart Jansen (Ministry Trainee), Gabi
De Vries (Ministry Trainee), Jamie McKenzie
(Student Minister), April Eames (Café
Trainee), Ian Morrison (Childrens' Minister),
Linda Thomson (Women’s Ministry Trainee).
Additions for 2016 include: Kelsie Hall
(Ministry Trainee), Rick Miller (Assistant
Ministry – Part Time), Jason McPhail
(Assistant Minister).
We also said goodbye to Scott Goode, Gabi
De Vries and especially sadly, Lyndall Bailey
who passed away earlier this year.
-Simon Webb, Jim Bailey & Jason Bell
4

Creative Arts & Special Services
Creative Arts Ministry is a chance for us to
explore the truth of who God is through many
different art forms that stir our emotions and
our soul. Dapto Anglican Church has had a rich
history of the Creative Arts through music,
dance, drama, videos, interactive activities and
performances.
In 2015 our music teams continued to serve
God and his people and have recruited more
people to step into serving and leadership
roles. It is a wonderful ministry area that
people can explore the gifts God has given
them to encourage the Church through music.
It is always exciting to see new musicians step
into serving and older, wiser musicians decide
it is time to serve God again.
We are deeply saddened and excited by one of
our key ministry team – Brendan Langley –
moving to Sydney this year. He has been a vital
part of our ministry area drumming at all
services and many major events. He leaves a
legacy of drummers that he trained to take his
place and serve God.
In 2015, we continued with our special events
aimed at sharing the truth of Jesus with our
community in a relevant and interesting way.
Good Friday:
We focused on coming ‘Back to the Cross’
completing our ‘Back to Church’ series where
we encouraged our congregation to invite
people who once had tried and experienced
Church to come back and give it another go. It
was service mixed with prayer, music and
communion to encourage Christian and notyet-Christians
about who Jesus is and why the
Cross is so vital to our faith.
Lake event to
the Moombara
Site as we
focused on
‘Super Saviour’.
It was so
exciting to see
stalls, jumping
castles,
balloons and the Moombara site booming
with activity that people from the Mall came
over and asked what was happening. As
always, wonderful to see the Preschool come
along and perform at our Outreach event.
23 rd Dec event:
‘The Inside Out of Jesus’ – Bouncing off the
children’s movie ‘Inside Out’ which came out
on DVD in Nov 2015, we focused our
Christmas event on how different emotions
(Joy, Sadness, Anger, Disgust & Fear) might
react to Jesus’ life. The big book (Bible)
dictated how the story flowed and showed
not only Jesus’ birth at Christmas but His life,
death and resurrection.
Every Sunday and all of these events could
not run without a committed group of gifted
people in the Church who give of their time,
energy and money to shine Jesus. Thank you
to those who serve and see the value of
Creative Arts Ministry in Church life.
- Di Whittaker
Easter @ the Lake: Due to rain leading
up to Easter day, we moved our Easter at the
5

Marriage
Enrichment
Report
2015 saw us run two 7
week Alpha Marriage
programs. Funding
was obtained through
the Federal
Government’s
Stronger Relationship
trial which covered the
cost of the entire
course and made
marriage enrichment
accessible to anyone
who wanted to come.
8 couples attended a
course mid year, run
from The Café with a
three course romantic
meal. During term 3
another 3 couples
attended the 7 week
course at the Goodes’
home for a more ‘low
key’ setting.
St. Luke’s Cemetery Trust
St. Luke’s Cemetery, continued to operate under the care of Lyndall
Bailey. 18 Services were held, including included burials and ashes
interred.
Parish Council passed a motion to remove Lyndall Bailey from the
Cemetery Trust when her health began to be a serious issue and placed
Hilary Brown on the Trust.
2016 will see the Trust meeting and some
additional help from volunteers, to maintain the
cemetery and assist with placement of
memorial plaques and ashes.
- Hilary Brown
Dapto Schools Scripture Board
The DSSB (Dapto Schools Scripture Board) is a combination of people
from the different churches in Dapto. We exist to help facilitate SRE in
our local high school.
Last year we had a one day a week SRE in teacher (Jaimie Cass) in
Dapto High and by halfway through the year we expanded to 2 days a
week. We also held termly seminars for the whole school.
There is currently no SRE in Kanahooka High and
a number of meetings have been held to ensure
SRE is established for 2016.
- Pete Gold
- Scott Goode
DAC Getaway
For the 6 th year in a row we returned to Lake
Tabourie to run our annual DAC Getaway. The
magic behind this weekend away is found in
the ‘low key’ program that enables folk to
choose their own accommodation needs, relax
with their families and connect to one
another. We held a church service each day
with Jason and Paula McPhail talking to us
about world mission and a
Mission Simulation Game on
Saturday evening was a real
highlight. About 100 people
attended this years event.
- Scott Goode
6

The Café Report
The Café is the place to be! This is evident in
the ongoing attendance with Mothers Groups,
Probus, Preschool Families, ARV Group and
Men’s Morning Tea Group, and the many
other people who come into The Café either
from our community or our own church family.
We truly are blessed with such a wonderful
facility, and The Café has a great reputation for
its location, relaxed feel and food.
In amongst this reputation is the ongoing work
that The Café does with training Work for The
Dole. I can’t stress the importance of this work
that Jill and her team give to those long term
unemployed. To build confidence, to teach and
explain the importance of procedures and to
help them understand how and what full time
work looks and feels like is of such a huge
significance. The downside of this training is
that, many become employable and some
become employable very quickly, so no sooner
are they trained up than they seek
employment and leave us. And the cycle
commences again. What a great celebration
and problem to have!
The Café has also been a training and work
experience for clients from Greenacres,
Essential Employment & TrainingTafe Illawarra
AMEP students, Campbell Page as well as for
our own church family who want to learn
about hospitality.
Staff changes occurred in 2015. April Eames
had been volunteering in The Café from
February through to June and it wasn’t hard to
see her potential! In July April was offered the
position of Trainee. This means April has on
the job training while she completes her
Certificate 3 in Hospitality. Jill has a handful of
casual staff that are employed that continue to
assist Jill in keeping the whole Café Team
ticking over. Although there is minimal paid
staff, The Café would not be able to operate
without the help of our church family. We
urge you all to prayerfully consider how you
can help The Café.
The Café has backed several fund raising
activities including Sydney Children’s Hospital
Randwick, Cancer Councils Biggest Morning
Tea, September Gold Ribbon Childhood
Cancers, Movember and others.
The Café continues to do an outstanding job of
catering for our church family functions as
they arise, they also cater to private functions
held in house and at other venues. So
remember to keep it in mind if family and
friends are having special events where they
need catering.
At this point we would encourage you to keep
this ministry in your prayers before God.
Thank God for:
Opportunities to train up the unemployed
To provide a friendly safe environment for
many community groups to meet together.
The great facilities we have been blessed
with
The opportunities provided to host events
A ministry area in which to serve God and
His people
Jill Pearce and her team
Ask God for:
Refreshment for Jill and her staff team and
volunteers.
Provision of ongoing church members to
step up and assist in this ministry area
Ongoing opportunities to train the
unemployed
- Hilary Brown
7

Dapto Community Carols
Dapto Community Carols returned to Dapto
showground in glorious sunshine in 2015. We
were blessed with a beautiful day, many
selfless volunteers and a great God who made
it all possible.
Praise God that the people came, and let’s
pray that the seeds that were sown will grow
and bear fruit. 2016 will be even better – we
need you to join us!
- Nikki Sullivan
We had around 5,000 members of our local
community come to see Carols and hear about
Jesus at Christmas. Our vision for Carols is for
members of our local community to provide an
event of high quality, which will do the
following for our community audience:
Provide quality entertainment
Provide a safe community atmosphere
where they can gather with friends
Fulfil their desire to sing/listen to
Christmas Carols in a manner that appeals
to them
Remind them that Jesus is the reason for
Christmas
The feedback received was that we achieved
our goals. We had one of the best ever Dapto
Carols, the Dapto community spirit was
celebrated, the show was a success, the
fireworks were brilliant and most importantly,
the name of Jesus was proclaimed.
We had our share of challenges with handover
of key organising roles as well as significant
hurdles both prior to and on the day. But our
spirits remained high and God was good.
8

Dapto Anglican Church Op Shop
Committee Members: Stephen Semenchuk, Lyndall
Bailey, Annaliza Wilkins, Mary Johnston, Carl and
Lyn Cheetham.
On behalf of our wonderful and dedicated team of
volunteers (in excess of seventy), we are pleased
to present the Op Shop Report for 2015.
Although our sales were marginally down from
2014 and well short of our budget target, we have
had a successful year and continue to support the
various ministries and organisations as per our
budget. We are grateful for the quality goods
which we receive from a generous community.
Praise the Lord!
Our Shop again participated in the Patchwork,
Papercraft and Art Show during September. Thank
you Wendy Eagleton, Margaret McCauley, Lynne
Newton, Leigh-anne Semenchuk, Margaret Sharp
and Deborah Southwell for enabling us to raise
additional funds and be involved in an event which
is becoming increasingly popular in the Dapto
community.
A highlight for the year was an afternoon in The
Café for our volunteers. Those who attended were
treated to fine food and drinks and were able to
further relationships with fellow volunteers.
During the afternoon Stephen Semenchuk
announced that Daphne Chapman had resigned
after many years of selfless service to our Shop.
We thank Daphne for her assistance and
friendship in the past, present and future. Ron
Sinfield has capably stepped in to replace Daphne
as Roster Co-Ordinator and has helped some of
the ladies to “man” the Shop. Thank you Ron.
Due to ongoing problems at our sorting facility,
our Church has decided to relocate the Op Shop
sorting and storage to existing areas in our
Ministry Centre. Under our Lord’s guidance, we
seek to accentuate the positives and overcome
the negatives of this move so that the Op Shop
remains a valuable asset to our Church.
We thank all staff, particularly Lyndall Bailey who
has always been available and willing to help with
sound advice. This morning we were informed that
Lyndall is now with her Lord. Jim, Sarah and
Matthew and their families are in our prayers as
they celebrate a life of incredible service. Lyndall’s
loss to the Op Shop and our Church is
immeasurable.
Our thanks to Gwyn and Ruby Davies who remain
our sounding board for shop problems. Thanks to
Jim Braddock, Trevor Walker, Danielle Frazer, Jim
and Julia Legassick, Sharon and Karina Langley who
all perform duties which we greatly appreciate.
We give thanks for our dear friend Edna Furbank
who is now with the Lord. Edna gave many years of
service to the Op Shop when she was physically
able.
A big thank
you to
everyone
who has
prayed for
us and
offered
assistance
and
encouragement this year and we look forward to
working with Stephen Swanepoel in 2016.
Please give thanks:
For the continued supply of quality goods.
For the life of Norma Weeks who succumbed to a
long illness during 2015. Thank God for her
commitment and service to our Op Shop.
Please pray:
For the health and safety of all our volunteers.
That we will continue to reach out to our
community with the love and good news of Jesus.
For a smooth transition of our sorting team from
our current location to the Ministry Centre.
For a greater connection with the young people
of our Church.
- Carl & Lyn Cheetham
9

Youthworks Year 13
DAC supported Amanda Murphy to
attend the Youthworks Year 13 Mission
Trip. This trip has a huge impact on the
students who attend, it is so worthwhile
for building missional relations, sharing
the gospel and learning how others live.
Amanda ran a Fiji Fundraiser to support
her trip.
March Mission Month
March Mission Month was held in-house in 2015.
Every morning the team would go out to local
train stations to hand out donuts, coffee
vouchers as well as a DAC Newspaper which was
produced by members of our Young Adult
congregation and formatted by Christine Lane.
The Young Adults also went on a Cafe crawl
where they had opportunity to invite their
friends to attend as an outreach event. It was
very successful and there were quite a few new
faces.
An Easter Bun drop was also part of the mission
program. Bags were made up with hot cross buns
and pamphlets advertising events at our church
and general information about DAC. These were
handed out to the parents of the preschool as
well as other folk who were new to our church
- Stephen Swanepoel
Gift Wrapping
2015 saw 65 people volunteer to bless our community through gift wrapping Mother’s Day,
Father’s Day and Christmas presents. Many of these volunteers were signed up for more than
1 timeslot.
We were able to reach many people through this ministry. To give you an example, one of our
volunteers was able to share the message of the
Gospel with a community member who was very
interested about church and why we would give
up our time so freely. Wow! What an
opportunity!
Our relationship with Dapto Mall continues to
grow and we look forward to going back this
year armed with wrapping paper, ribbon and a
smile.
- Linda Thomson
10

Catering at Funerals
Once again, a very caring and small group of women came
together to cater for the five funerals that we had during 2015.
The funerals were few this year, having two at the beginning of
the year and the other three towards the end of the year. The
funerals we catered for were all people well known to us and so
we rejoice that we can help our Christian families at this time.
We give thanks to our Lord that when someone is either sick or
not available, someone will always step in to give a helping
hand. We also wish to thank those who have helped out over
the past year and we are always very grateful for the food
donations given to us when we hold a funeral.
All the work and donations for the funerals are voluntary and
the money collected is given annually to Anglicare, the Church
Freezer Bank and also a donation to the Church Building Fund -
we give praise to the Lord that we are able to do this.
- Suzanne Burrows
Growth Groups
Growth Groups at Dapto Anglican continue
to be a vital way to see people learning
together about Christ and connecting with
one another in meaningful ways. Growth
Groups also feature as vital ways in which
pastoral care is expressed for every member.
These groups generally follow the termly
teaching program set by the staff and leaders
are encouraged to attend leaders meetings at
the beginning of each term. There remain
between 45-50 groups that meet throughout
the week with 2016 seeing 2 further groups
started.
Over the years we have prioritised Sunday
afternoon newcomer groups as a point of
entry for newcomers and of covering the basic
of Christianity. 2 of these groups were also run
in 2016.
Furthermore, more specialised programs have
been run in 2015
including a ’12 steps
recovery program’
and a relationships
recovery group for
those processing
separation and
divorce.
- Scott Goode
11

Baptism Ministry
Services of Baptism
and Dedication prove
to be as popular as ever by our local
community as well as our own church
members. We held 30 services in 2015!
We praise God for the wonderful opportunity
to share the gospel with our community in
preparation for these services and thank God
for our Visitation Team, who go out and meet
and greet community families and explain the
gospel to them.
Commitment Sunday
One Baptism Service was held as part of Café
Church for Women, several baptisms and
dedications were held on our Commitment
Sunday, 6 of our church family infants and
children were baptised either at 10am service
or at St. Luke’s Brownsville.
Our beautiful church at St. Luke’s continues to
be a popular choice of venue for baptism as
many of our community have links with the
church building from weddings and previous
baptism services.
- Hilary Brown
An important part of belonging to Christ and
his people is to express that in the biblical
rite of baptism and/or the denominational
opportunity of confirmation/membership.
In addition to the many children who were
baptised throughout 2015, this year we
celebrated Commitment Sunday in
November that saw members of our church
either baptised, dedicated, confirmed or
received into membership
across 3 of our Sunday services.
Two membership courses were
offered prior to give
opportunity for people to
explore the significance of their
faith and their allegiance to an
Anglican expression of that
faith.
- Scott Goode
Confirmation
Last year we saw Brett Wilson, Matt Barker,
Chloe Pearce, Benjamin Goode and Aimee
Lee decide to confirm their faith in Jesus.
Every year I am impressed by the desire of
the confirmation candidates to learn more
about the Christian faith and how they can
put what they learn into practice.
Each year we take the candidates out for
breakfast and help them work through their
testimonies. This time we enjoyed the sun by
the beach at Stuart park.
This group in particular
were eager to share their
testimonies with each other.
Each person had a unique
way of looking at what
Christ had done for them. I
look forward to seeing what
God does with each of their lives.
- Lachlan Davis
12

Wedding Ministry
Last year we had quite a slow year with wedding bookings. Preparing
for marriage five couples and conducting just five wedding services.
One of these weddings was for a couple from our 7pm service with the
rest being community contact couples.
The responsibilities for marriage preparation and services are shared
around between Stephen, Stephen and Scott.
2016 will see a big difference with thirteen weddings already booked
in to our diary.
- Hilary Brown
St Luke’s Village
The partnership with St Luke’s Village has
continued to be strengthened throughout
2015. Philip Brown’s leadership at the Village
has been vital to this. Formally we continue to
run weekly services including a Communion
Service and a hymn-a-long meeting. During
the month of March our mission focus
extended to door knocking independent units/
villas to offer Easter Buns, invitations to events
and offer chaplaincy services.
During Christmas we organised for the young
adult community to sing carols in the village
and give out gifts to the residents (in
partnership with patchwork and cardmaking
groups at DAC).
The real engine room to our village ministry is
the many volunteers who assist in formal
capacities and visit and connect with the many
residents throughout the village. We continue
to build the partnership and synergy between
village and church which has marked our
parish for so long.
With Scott leaving the parish in early 2016, the
Rev. Rick Miller will assume responsibility for
coordinating chaplaincy.
- Scott Goode
13

Pastoral Care
Pastoral care continues to happen across the entire parish in many
forms. Growth Groups remain a vital means of caring and connection.
Many volunteer within St. Luke’s village to visit and care for one
another.
Each community within Dapto has its own unique way of
ensuring members are cared for and growing in Christ
Jesus.
Additionally, there are a number of committees and teams which focus
on specific congregations in order to ensure the sick are visited, help is
offered, newcomers are followed up, and people grow in their sense of
belonging and contribution to Christ’s church here in Dapto.
-Scott Goode
Anglican Aid
This year Anglican Aid was well supported by our church. We
thank you for the continued donations from our congregation
and would particularly like to thank the two members of our
church who donated through Anglican Aid to our StreetCrew
ministry. The two gifts were for the substantial amounts of
$20,000 and $34,000.
David Mansfield and some of his staff attended our Passover
Meal at Easter to promote the Reading Tour. Members from
our congregation participated in reading chapters from the
Bible.
We thank you for your continued support of StreetCrew
through Anglican Aid.
- Stephen Swanepoel
14

Children’s Ministry
God was good to our church in 2015 through
the different changes, challenges and
successes that we experiences in Children’s
ministry.
2015 saw Ian Morrison come and lead the
children’s ministries at Dapto Anglican,
working with a great team of volunteers
aiming at teaching the good news about Jesus
to the children of our church and the children
of our community.
Connect Kids / Juniors
Connect Kids continued to run on Sunday
mornings alongside out 10am Family service.
We made a conscious effort to follow along
with the teaching program which was being
run in the 10am service in the primary
program, with the goal being to create good
links for parents and children to easily discuss
what they learnt. This also made it much
easier to connect our family spots in church
with the teaching program – making them
more engaging for the whole 10am Family.
Eliza Batten once again did a tremendous job
in leading Connect Juniors and the team she
served with in the mornings.
2015 also saw the reintroduction of our termly
Children’s Ministry training. As the year went
on, it was encouraging to see the confidence
and ability of our volunteer leaders grow, to
the benefit of the programs and the children
attending. We will be continuing this into
2016, while also adding the SMBC Children’s
Ministry Training day to our program for those
who can attend.
15

Children’s Ministry continued
Connect Guys / Girls (Thursday)
Connect Guys and Girls continued on with similar
average numbers to the previous year. We saw a
change in the type of teaching that the program
ran after term 1, and in terms 2, 3 and 4 covered
the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus Parables and
Heroes of the Faith. Connect Girls struggled with
numbers of leaders in terms 2 and 3 but term 4
saw great promise with Cassie Gold and some
other teen leaders with her keen to serve in 2016
and beyond. Stuart Jansen took leadership of
Connect Guys from term 3 and has continued to
grow in his skills in leadership.
Connect Fridays
Connect Fridays saw a change in teaching
program in 2015 with the group learning about
Luke’s Gospel in term 1, a bible overview in term
2, Joseph in the Book of Genesis in term 3 and
Jesus’ miracles in the book of John in Term 4.
Numbers remained steady throughout the year,
and with a bunch of new leaders joining the
team in 2015 their confidence and ability grew as
the year progressed. Matthew Bailey has shown
dedication to Fridays and has stepped up to lead
the team in 2016.
SRE – Scripture Teaching 2015
2015 saw Dapto Anglican Church continue to
teach scripture in the 5 Public Schools that we
have in Dapto, Dapto, Hayes Park, Koonawarra,
Mount Brown and Lakelands. We taught
Kindergarten and Year 1 in individual classroom
settings, and years 2-6 were taught in the 5
schools in 2 separate assemblies, years 2-4 and
years 5 and 6. Janice Vesey did an amazing job
coordinating the teaching at Dapto and Mount
Brown Public schools, and Kathy Crossing did a
stellar job coordinating the Scripture at
Koonawarra and Hayes Park. There has been an
incredible team of over 25 people serving in
scripture and much of the success of the
program is due to their efforts.
Scripture is an amazing opportunity in our
schools with over 1200 children each week
getting the opportunity to hear the good
news of Jesus Christ’s death and
resurrection. Much of the connection with
our Thursday and Friday children’s programs
has come through these scripture
connections.
2015 – Holiday Club – “Knights of
the King.”
Our 2015 Holiday Club, “Knights of the
King,” saw 165 children come and be a part
of our 3 day program. We taught the
children about Jesus - the King, and figured
out what it meant to follow Him in our lives.
The week was a great success with many
different people from the preschool to the
Café, to the parents of our children and the
leaders putting in amazing efforts to make
the week happen. The Super Sunday which
followed was a great success with many of
the children returning with their families to
celebrate the week on the Sunday.
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Children’s Ministry continued
run on Tuesday afternoons. This is an amazing
opportunity to reach families for Jesus. Please
pray it succeeds.
We will also be running 2 “Family Fun Days” in
February and August aimed at teaching and
encouraging families to read the bible and pray
together. This is an exciting opportunity to
teach and train our parents how they can be
more proactive in being the primary spiritual
instructors for their children.
2015 – Pupil Free Day Program –
“Lego Day.”
2015 saw us introduce a new program to
Dapto Anglican – the Lego Day. The day was
aimed at providing a service for Families who
were at a loose end on the Staff development
days in NSW public Schools. We ran a program
that was Lego themed, and used Lego to teach
the good news about Jesus’ death and
resurrection. Over 200 children attended the
day and good connections were made into our
schools and community. Due to the success of
the day, we will be repeating the event again
this year, and adding another Pupil free day at
the start of Term 3.
- Ian Morrison
Due to the success of the Lego Day, we will be
running an extra pupil free day program in
Term 3 – Connected to our Holiday Program
aiming to continue to get more and more
children through the doors of Church to teach
them about Jesus.
Also, our good relationship with our Public
Schools has borne fruit with Koonawarra,
Mount Brown, Lakelands and Hayes Park
agreeing to let us run after school programs
aimed at teaching the bible on their school
site. Hayes Park, Mount Brown and Lakelands
have agreed to a once a term program, while
Koonawarra has agreed to a weekly program
17

Playpatch
St. Luke’s Preschool
St Luke’s continued its long tradition of providing
quality, Christ-centred, Early Childhood Education
and Care in 2015. We were blessed with a staff team
and management committee who worked tirelessly
for the children and families within our centre and
the community. Each person was supported in their
own journey of learning throughout the year as they
took on new areas, which in turn enriched the
preschool.
In 2015 Playpatch grew in numbers and
saw many new relationships built! We
have seen a shift in who attends with
the children, we now have many
grandparents bringing along their
grandchildren and we have brought
Heather on team to help us know better
how to serve and connect with these
grandparents. They often stay for lunch
in the cafe and continue to connect!
A huge praise point has been families
from Playpatch coming along to 10am
church regularly! And many playdates
have been had, extending relationships
from just Playpatch time!
Each week we have been able to share
God’s Word with the families and teach
the children songs that praise God! We
have sent home bibles with some
families who were interested in
continuing to read the Word with their
children.
In 2016 Belinda Monkman will be
stepping down from leading and Sarah
Doughton will be stepping up to lead.
We will be looking at new ways to
further relationships by linking with
Women’s ministry!
- Sarah Doughton
The preschool went through assessment and rating
under the national regulatory body for the first time.
We were awarded “Exceeding National Quality
Standard” in the 7 areas assessed and then were
awarded overall “Excellence”; the highest possible
rating! We are the first centre in the Illawarra to
receive this and one of only a handful in NSW. We
are thankful for the support of the DAC family in this
process and the years of partnership that have
helped St Luke’s to be where it is today. We
continued to evaluate and reflect on practices to
ensure we are continually implementing “Best
Practices” for the children, staff and families.
The preschool would like to thank the DAC
community for your ongoing support and
partnership with us; we feel blessed to have this
relationship. The management committee offered
great support and guidance for Julie and the whole
team and their input in the service is invaluable. We
continued to implement and trial new initiatives to
help bridge the connection between the church and
preschool families. We enjoyed offering social events
in The Café space, as well as connection events and
Picnics. Thanks to Jill and The Café team for their
support of these events and for welcoming staff and
families into the space day in and day out. Families
continued to enjoy attending Holiday Clubs, Easter at
the Lake and the Dapto Community Carols; thankyou
to the Children’s ministry team for their inclusion of
us within these opportunities and for joining us for
our combined Christmas Party.
- Eliza Batten
18

Youth Ministry
FRIDAY NIGHT
In 2015 on any given Friday night we saw somewhere
between 80-120 young people come to our program. Our
program each Friday night was filled with fun activities,
great food and time spent in small groups talking about the
bible.
We saw our numbers grow by making great connections
between our lunchtime group programs, StreetCrew and
SRE that is run in all our primary schools as well as in Dapto
High, with hopes and prayers to get into Kanahooka High.
Through these great connection points we saw close to 300
different young people at some point come on a Friday night
and connect with our church and sit in small groups to hear
about JESUS and for many of them it was the very first time.
2015 was a year of firsts for us, including a fireworks night
that is definitely going to be repeated this year.
Throughout the year we received great support from the
café providing great food and a safe and friendly place for
out young people to spend time and hang out.
We look forward to another exciting year in 2016 as more
and more young people are presented with the message of
JESUS.
5pm Service
The 5pm service, is our Youth Service that is run on Sunday afternoons, which is followed by a
meal in The Café, provided by a great bunch of volunteers who cook dinner. (The 5pm Dinner
Team is always looking for new volunteers).
Our service aims to have young people serving and training in almost all areas and components
that make a service happen. It is also an area where
some of our youth leaders get a chance to preach
and develop their speaking skills.
We have seen attendance grow from roughly 60
people to hitting a new record of 106 people
just the other week.
- Pete Gold
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Youth Ministry…. continued
Youth Camp
In July last year we took close to 100 people away on our annual
youth camp. It was a great few days spent in community as we
looked at what God’s heartbeat for the city of Dapto was. There
were paint wars and volleyball competitions, an obstacle course
and of course the camp ‘hoodie’ (jumper) as always. Camp is a
great time as we are removed from many of the distractions of
the world. It was an exciting time as we saw 6 young people give
their lives over to JESUS.
In 2016 we look to expand our camp by a whole extra day as we
head off on the June long weekend from Friday to Monday.
Please pray for the planning and organisation of camp this year.
- Peter Gold
Uplink
Uplink has made a few changes over the
past year to improve our community
connections and to refocus our events on
sharing the gospel and encouraging Christcentred
community. It has been a slow everchanging
process that we hope to see come
to fruition this year.
Uplink had multiple large events last year
where we got to be in community with
people from different age groups, different
services and with people who don’t have
other connections within the church
community. We saw a large number of
people attend our LAN day and built some
solid connections.
We also formed a stronger online presence,
integrating video and social media to better
reach more people from our community and
connect them to each other.
This year we are making a big effort to have
large events with a range of different
activities to accommodate the large variety of
interests within our community, we also seek
to connect with other local groups with
similar interests to expand our reach in the
community. Our online presence will grow
more this year to include video interviews,
small talks and discussions to help share how
the gospel affects our interests in gaming and
our online connections.
- Nathan Benn
20

Youth Musical
“The Last King of Israel” was Dapto
Anglican Church’s 5 th musical.
I don’t think I’ve written an AGM report
for each one of those musicals but I know
I have written one for at least the last
three. The biggest struggle for me has
become finding something new to say.
The bragging rights are there, I suppose.
In many ways we outdid any of our
previous musicals. For most of the cast I
have never seen such a disciplined group
of youth who took such responsibility for
learning lines, showing up to practices and
persisting in improving their
performances. The live band was the best
we’ve had by far, even though we only
had one song with the mouth organ in it.
Our show stopping number “Mr
Cellophane” caused such a stir that some
ladies were escorted from the building.
Our overall production quality is amazing,
which you would hope for now that we
have the gift of experience under our
belts. I was encouraged to have people
unconnected to our church take to
Facebook to wholeheartedly endorse the
event, and, I had more conversations than
ever before with people who don’t love
Jesus about how incredible, and thoughtprovoking,
our story was.
I could go on and on (and believe me, I do)
but the best thing about the musical is the
thing that hasn’t changed in the 10 years I
have done it. It’s something that a spectator
of the final product misses and can never
understand. As the people who are involved
in the musical we know we don’t just walk
away with a final product. This is why we
have young adults who have been in every
single musical, and I’m sure would serve in
the next one too. It’s why we cry at the end
of the final performance, even though we saw
each other every day for the last two weeks
and we’ll see them at church again tomorrow.
It’s why the words “belonging” and “family”
get thrown around so much. We gather
together in God’s name and there He is with
us. The musical is one of the best
experiences of Christian community this side
of heaven. If you could understand the way
our young people serve each other,
encourage each other, pray together and spur
one another on you wouldn’t come to see the
final product either. You’d come to watch the
practices.
- Elise Semenchuk
21

High School Ministry
Our local High Schools ministry has been a huge success over the past 12 months. Our team of
volunteers has grown as well as the number of students attending different programs.
Scripture Seminars
Scripture seminars were a hit this past year.
Unfortunately we have not been able to
participate at Kanahooka High school but
Pete Gold and the Gener8 Ministries group
are in the negotiation process to
recommence our seminars at Kanahooka
High School. Dapto High school seminars
are still active.
We saw students from years 7-12
participate in our scripture seminars
including our Easter and Christmas
seminars. We explored the historicity of the
bible and had an ex-rugby league player
attended as our guest speaker. He spoke
about how is life was changed by Jesus’
amazing compassion and grace in his life.
- John Batten
Breakky Club
Breaky Club at Dapto High School is always
met with great appreciation every
Wednesday morning by staff and students
alike. We provide cereal, toast and fresh fruit
with the odd occasion of a hot breakfast such
as bacon and egg rolls or pancakes. We see
this as a great ministry to Dapto High as we
are making great connections with staff and
students as well as meeting a high need for
our students to help them succeed in their
schooling.
- John Batten
Lunchtime Groups
EPIC, our lunchtime Interschool Christian
Fellowship group has had a few changes over
the past 12 months. Kanahooka’s group has
grown to an average of 15-20 students each
Wednesday lunchtime.
We have been exploring many different areas
of the Christian walk including the Gospels,
what it means to have a Jesus-Centred Life,
“Take Love”-a practical term on showing
Christ’s love, “Know God – Know Life”-
exploring what it means to have life to the full
and answering any questions they may have.
Jamie Cass, our High School Scripture Teacher
Working alongside our High School scripture
teacher, we have seen younger students make
great connections with Scripture in school.
Please pray, as legislation has changed around
ISCF groups with permission and in-school
participation.
- John Batten
22

Young Adults Ministry
This was our second Young Adults retreat. It was an exciting
opportunity to fellowship and build community among the
Young Adults. The weekend was held in November. There were
approximately 80 young adults who attended the weekend
away at Currarong Beachside Tourist Park. Some camped while
others shared cabins together.
It was a fun time with plenty of leisure activities to be involved
in such as swimming, water park, mini golf and canoeing. Some
young adults even had their own inflatable island in the ocean.
On the Saturday morning two sessions were held led by myself
to impart the 20/20 Vision which will take place over 5 years.
This year our focus was on our second part of the vision which
was ‘Believe’.
Some of the main points of the 20/20 Vision are:
Believe in Jesus
Believe in us
On Saturday night an evening of fellowship was held which was
enjoyed by all.
It was a great time of building community.
We are looking forward to another Young Adults Retreat in
2016 where we will be discussing our third part of the vision
which is ‘Grow’.
- Stephen Swanepoel
23

Women’s Ministry
Women’s Ministry in 2015 held a couple of
events as usual, such as the Brunch which
kicked off the year as well as a meal at the
Leagues Club.
We also experimented with a couple of other
ideas where we sought to provide support for
women in difficult circumstances, for example,
a group of women met to support one another
through marital struggles.
We will continue to look for opportunities to
provide support and friendship for women
throughout the parish and reaching out into
our local community.
- Leigh-anne Semenchuk
Women’s Ministry rejoiced with the
opportunity to offer a trainee position with the
help of Anglican Deaconess Ministries and
Mary Andrews College and so Linda Thomson
began in a part-time capacity halfway through
year.
Café Church for Women
Café Church started 2015 with the celebration of 10 years of meeting
together as a fortnightly service. We were joined by many who
returned specifically for the celebration and stayed on for lunch
afterwards. We revisited some memories from our 10 years together
and spent time thinking about the distinctive of the Café Church
ministry which extended across the teaching of first term.
We have seen our numbers grow throughout the year and have started
2016 with many new faces as women have invited their friends to join
us. We have also seen the Women’s Ministry pathways travelled as
some women from the Patchwork group have come along as well as
visits from Playpatch mums.
We have introduced some new faces to our team and tried some new
things with music as our attendance changes and those able
to contribute musically take up other challenges in their lives.
We are excited about the future of Café Church as we see
many women searching spiritually and we look forward to
being able to provide a place to help in this search.
- Leigh-anne Semenchuk
24

Patchwork , Papercraft & Art Groups
Mid Week Quilting Day—with two quilts to choose
from.
A visit from Maru Soto from Material Girls
Christmas in July
10th ANNIVERSARY SHOW
We planned to make this our BIGGEST SHOW EVER—
displaying all the quilts we have ever made. They were
displayed in our ‘quilt bomb’ in the Auditorium. New
quilts were displayed in the Café and Main Hall.
Patchwork, Papercraft & Art Group are
everyday women coming together each
fortnight on Fridays throughout school terms
to create, sharing our crafts and enjoying the
company and friendship at these groups. Our
interests vary but our love of fellowship and
our hobbies join us together in this wonderful
welcoming environment.
We have been running our Patchwork group
at Dapto Anglican Church for 10 years. It
started in someone's home with 6 ladies. It
has now grown into a group of 40 women
who meet fortnightly in our church hall. We
have been developing great friendships and
share joys and sorrows as well as quilting and
sewing wisdom. Although we do have the
occasional man come along and join in with
the Art Group.
Term 1 saw the team busy ‘Brain Storming’ to
come up with a program that will be full of
fun, learning new techniques, food and much
more.
These are just some of the special events held
throughout the year.
Hand Quilting and Candlewicking with Sandy
Bell
Bus Trip to ALL our favourite Quilt Shops
and a lovely lunch together.
Bus trip to The Sydney Craft and Quilt Show
19/6/15
Introducing—Compassion Saturdays
Belly Buddies
UFO Day – for finishing up those projects
sitting in the cupboards
Compassion Quilt Challenge
Our Compassion Quilt Ministry is growing almost
faster than we can make quilts. It’s a wonderful gift for
someone needing some love in their life. One little
quilt can and does make such a huge difference in a
person’s life. We may think nothing of giving this quilt,
but for some it’s their first peaceful night’s sleep. It is
an absolute delight to give these away.
So here is how our Compassion Quilts started:
A friend from church landed in hospital with a mystery
illness and was not getting any better. She had to stay
for many months and so we were looking for a way to
cheer her up and say we loved her. A couple of
women from our Patchwork group went to visit and
took a quilt to give to her. She loved it and was
overwhelmed by the gift. On another visit the other
people in her hospital room saw the quilt and hoped
to buy one for themselves. We took several quilts
back into the hospital and gave them out. They all laid
their quilts on their hospital beds and found great
comfort in the gift.
As a group we've been able to make compassion
quilts for people who are victims of domestic violence,
anyone ill in hospital, people struggling with cancer
and their family members who care for them. It has
been a wonderful
experience for us to know
we can use our skill to make
quilts and give them to
men, women and children
going through hard times
- Wendy Eagleton
25

MU continues to meet at St. Luke’s
Brownsville on the fourth Tuesday of each
month. We have an average of 26 people who
meet together.
During last year we enjoyed the four Bible
Studies which had been prepared by MU and
they were on “Being the disciple Jesus wants
us to be”.
MU Dapto
We devoted one of our meeting to the Street
Crew Ministry in our church. We enjoyed
hearing from Rev. Stephen Swanepoel as he
updated us on this ministry and we were able
to give a donation to them.
We welcomed three new members into our
group.
- Joan Tasker
Men’s Karting
by Picton Kart Track and this informal time
gave guests and also DAC members from
different services a chance to get to know each
other. Jason McPhail was also on hand to be
interviewed and to relate some of his
experiences, as a missionary, to the racing
action of the day.
For the second year 24 enthusiastic thrill
seekers turned out to compete in a team
karting challenge at the Picton Kart Track
hosted by DAC Men. Competitors were
arranged into teams of 4 where experience
and weight was used to balance the team’s
performance so that over the course of the 4
races each team had a similar chance of
accumulating more points and becoming
victorious. This format proved successful with
camaraderie developing between team
members as they watched each other’s races
and offered suggestions for improvement.
At the end of the day, the podium was filled
with many new faces, giving a new batch the
thrill of taking home a trophy.
- Warren Southwell
Of the 24 competitors, 17 were from DAC and
7 were guests and 4 were women.
Refreshments were provided by The Café and
26

The Best Is Yet To Come
Luncheons: Two luncheons were held during the year. In
March, Rev Peter and Elizabeth Smart were our speakers.
They were short term missionaries in Syria. The luncheon in
November was a Christmas luncheon with music from the
Sway Group and lots of Christmas goodies to eat.
Day Coach Trip: We went to Penrith for a river cruise on the
Nepean Belle, with a buffet lunch included.
3 Day Coach Trip: This was a great trip and enjoyed by all.
We went to Cooma and the Snowy Mountain area, and really
enjoyed the snow at Charlotte Pass. We went to some
interesting attractions, and had a great guide for a whole day,
which made the trip very interesting.
Day Train Trips: These included going to Watsons Bay and a
fish and chip lunch; the Vivid Festival in Sydney was a
highlight; we also went to the Great Jewish Synagogue, and
to St. Mary’s Cathedral.
The committee purchased a Defibrillator for the church and
this has been placed on the wall. A training day was held for
a large number of people.
We want to thank Maureen and Ron Litchfield, who have
been a part of this committee since its inception. They have
decided to step back from the committee but will still be
involved as members and organise our day train trips. Also
thanks to Wal Sharp who has stepped down from the
Committee. Rick and Lorraine Miller will be on the
committee and will look after the organisation of our
luncheons.
We are going to have 2 one-day coach trips this year as well
as our usual three-day coach trip. The first outing will be to
Jervis Bay for a Dolphin Watch Cruise, and the second one
will be to Campbelltown area and Warragamba Dam area.
Our three-day coach trip will be to Cowra in October.
There will also be two luncheons during the year.
- Carol & Neville Stumbles and Ron and Maureen Litchfield
27