God has had a wonderful plan for our Karen Community of believers who have met regularly at Werribee Church for some time. Nan Myat Kaw tells us about their journey from chance meetings on the train to a fully recognised church…
God sent my husband Mervin and I to Australia in December 2004, ahead of our future church members.
Mervin has passion to collect church families wherever he met them, be it on the train or anywhere else! And so it was that we started to worship at Spotswood church with seven other families, back in 2005, with the church pastor, Brian Lawty’s kind permission.
We grew spiritually and physically as many newcomers joined with us. Two years later, God led us to our new home at Werribee church, where we have remained since. Three years after commencing worshipping together, we celebrated 54 professions of faith (many of whom had been baptised in refugee camps) and nine baptisms along with our official recognition as a Company, in a wonderful day of praise and worship. We were the first Seventh-day Adventist congregation in Australia.
We continue to count the Lord’s blessings, as in the last twelve years we have seen 98 more people join us through baptism, and a further 73 by profession of faith.
And we celebrate our Lord’s faithfulness to us during 2020 and the pressures of the pandemic. In November 2020, our company was organized as a fully-fledged church to be a part of Sisterhood of Churches, with a total membership of 170.
We thank God as well as our Victorian Church leaders from the bottom of our hearts for their leadership and kindness towards us. We will prayerfully continue to serve Him with one accord together with our loving members.
Pr Nan Myat Kaw
The Werribee Karen church community have been actively serving their local Burmese community. With time more Karen and Chin church groups were established around Victoria, and our Werribee congregation has been assisting these brothers and sisters wherever possible. This church is firmly committed to reaching their non churched Burmese community and supporting church events to strengthen their own community by sponsoring members to attend events such as Summer Camps, Growing Together conferences and specific ministry events.
Welcome to the Sisterhood of Churches.