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	March 2004				There was high energy singing for all ages at CMS Summer School. Photo courtesy James Fraser
		Another great CMS Summer School by Christine Maddison
			It was very encouraging to have some keen 'first-timers' and quite a few younger folk with toddlers up to teens. The tide is turning in terms of average age of delegates, praise God. Our speakers were, as always, keen to communicate the experiences of the Lord and His Word, and of missionary service and they did it well with use of video presentation. To encourage our young people, we especially invited the Novaks, bursars from Moore College. This gave the conference a special focus, expertly channelled by Faith Blake, who impressed us by her easy personality and her tremendous grasp of CMS fields and missionaries. We also heard from the Newmarches from Murree Christian School: this was especially helpful to us as we look forward to the return of Sue and Russell Morton. Encounter Peter Rodgers gave excellent Bible studies on the topic 'Victims of Grace', using three of Jesus' parables and one conversion encounter: The Scandal of Grace (Matthew 20:1-16); The Great Banquet (Luke 14:14-24); The Divine Seeker (Luke 19:1-10); and the Parable of the Shrewd Manager (Luke 16:1-15). He drew on experience as a theology lecturer in Indonesia and sharpened our spiritual eyes to the essential requirement of mission for believers. His wife, Marcelle also gave very generously with electives and assisted with one of his talks with practical, achievable examples of making the most of opportunities. Our new caretakers at SeaView managed very well, in spite of having arrived in Bicheno only about five weeks prior to the school. (Originally from New Zealand, they have been in Australia for a couple of years.) Cost We had a real sense of the cost of missionary service, especially in each of the older folk. The fact that missionary service can be very dangerous was evident and I hope we all came away resolved to uphold our missionaries more and more in prayer. Our two young chair-persons - Vic Panne from Sandford parish and Jenny Beechey from Holy Trinity, Hobart, were on the ball with good humour, energy and sensitivity. The musicians brought songs from the past three years, a few more really old favourites and some new songs with lovely harmonies. Sound manager, James Fraser from St Thomas' Howrah once again did a superb job.