COMMUNITIES

I joined BIC in mid-2019 when I started my university at Melbourne. Before coming to Melbourne, I looked into the churches available around me and stumbled upon BIC. As soon as I came into BIC’s Sunday Service, I was interested and captivated by the delivery and explanation of solid doctrines from the Scriptures and immediately searched for more.

I was introduced to my current COOL shepherd on my first day and started participating in COOL since then. Through COOL, I learned heaps of new things such as being a part of the body of Christ, developing a godly motivation and spreading God’s characteristics from the inside out. Overall, COOL leads me to become a better individual in the physical, mental and spiritual aspects of life.

I joined COOL Berea at the beginning of 2019 after arriving in Melbourne to continue my study in culinary management. At first, joining COOL was a struggle due to my study and work commitments. However, my COOL members have always been very supportive and along the way, by God’s grace, I am able to join every week.

Being part of Berea has helped me in my spiritual journey with God. I found encouragement through sharing from other member’s lives, how God has shaped them to become who they are now. It inspired me pursuing God more, asking God for wisdom and participating daily forgiveness. Because of this time constraint, reading scripture was very challenging, however, Berea emphasizes reading the scriptures in detail, discusses them in-depth and propels every member to apply it in our daily lives.

Their acceptance enables me to share my burden or life struggles without fear of being judged. Their advice based on Christian values has lightened the stressful adjustment to the new environment in Melbourne. Lastly, their diverse personalities and perspectives have enriched and broaden my way of thinking, have helped me to improve my communication skills, and to appreciate other people’ differences. I can say that this community is not perfect, but worth it.

I am blessed and grateful to be a part of COOL Bethel. Since I joined the community in 2018, I have learned a lot of things especially on how to serve one another. Back then, I was a shy and passive person that was reluctant to join any community. However, one of my friends in university somehow invited me to join a COOL in BIC. At first, I wanted to come along just to fill in my spare time.

But, as time went by, I felt more comfortable with all the other members and decided to stay. Slowly but consistently, they started to encourage me to serve; started with praying and sharing about God’s goodness. To be honest, it was really hard for me to share my experience with God in front of a lot of people, but my shepherds and cool members never stop encouraging me and giving me the motivation to serve one another according to the word of God.

For me, planted in the right community is very important for our spiritual journey because God sent us to spread the Gospel, serve, and love one another.