God has commissioned His Church, by empowering us with His authority and His Spirit, to love and forgive, to help those in need, to work for peace and justice, and so on. Jesus' "Great Commission", His final earthly instructions to His disciples, was worldwide proclamation of the Gospel -- "Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation", He commanded.

Many Christian organisations are on mission for the Lord worldwide. Some are working to provide emergency disaster relief, some aid development to help relieve poverty and make communities self-sufficient, some specialise in healing ministries, e.g. to the blind or those afflicted with leprosy. The main aim of other Christian missions is proclamation of the Gospel by preaching, teaching and discipling, usually in partnership with established churches, and providing practical help where needed.

From those mission agencies, working both in Australia and overseas, whose main aim is the proclamation of the Gospel rather than aid or social welfare, the Diocese of Newcastle has chosen a number to support. These are called "Target Missions" because each parish is required to set an annual monetary "target" to support them. They are mostly Anglican, with a few exceptions, e.g. The Bible Society.

At St Augustine's our parish target is not paid from parish funds but from specific giving by parishioners. When we contribute as individuals to Missions through the parish we help to fulfil the requirements and responsibilities of our community of faith to both the Diocese and to the Missions relying on our support. Mission agencies and missionaries also require our prayers and our genuine interest and understanding of the issues they face.

In 2001 ABM-A introduced its Projects program, encouraging every parish throughout Australia to focus on and support one of its projects either in Australia or overseas for one year. The project we chose for 2001 was the prayer and financial support of Rev Saul Burns in North Queensland, an aboriginal chaplain ministering to our own indigenous people whose lives had met with adversity. In 2002 we are focussing on something very different, The Santos Community Women's Weaving Project, a development project in The Philippines, involving the setting up of a weaving enterprise as a form of income generation and creation of job opportunities, and developing skills among women that will equip them with technical, managerial and marketing capabilities.

Also in 2001 our parish was given the responsibility of being a Link Parish for a CMS missionary family. This involves ongoing prayer and financial support as well as correspondence with them for encouragement, and practical help for them when they return home on leave. Our Link Missionaries are the Horrocks family in Dodoma, Tanzania, Jeremy being a teacher at Canon Andrea Mwaka Secondary School, his wife Jill teaching at the school part-time, and their two daughters, Jasmine and Juliet, attending the sister Primary School. The Horrocks send us a newsletter each month which is distributed to interested parishioners. Prayer is offered for them during our Sunday services, and gifts to CMS are forwarded towards their financial support.

For 17 years St Augustine's had a link with Ross and Lyndal Webb serving with Wycliffe Bible Translators in Papua New Guinea, and was pleased and privileged to support them and their family in various small ways - practical, prayerful and financial. During her early years Lyndal worshipped at St Augustine's. Following her marriage to Ross, the couple joined Wycliffe and moved to the remote village of Zeupak in the PNG highlands. Here they lived and worked for 17 years, learning to understand and speak the local Tuma-Irumu language, devising a method of writing it down, translating the Psalms, New Testament and parts of the Old Testament into the language of these people, teaching them to read, and helping them to understand what the Scriptures were saying to them. The Webbs completed this aspect of their work in 1999 and returned to Australia.

Below is a little information about the Target Missions which St Augustine's supports, including the name of their magazine where applicable. You will notice that some mission agencies have their own webpage for you to browse from here.