Alongsiders 3: People of Love [Petra, Silk Road Area & Steve Hales, Australia]

Petra and Steve serve in very different contexts, but they both live out of the conviction that being an alongsider means being someone who shares God's love in relevant, active and genuine ways.

Petra serves with our team in the Silk Road Area and is using her Occupational Therapy skills to invest in the lives and development of children with disabilities. In a community where guilt, shame and judgement often surrounds disability, Petra is demonstrating the value, love and hope God has for all people.

Back in Australia, Steve Hales is a pastor at Lismore Baptist Church in NSW. Over the past years, Lismore has experienced multiple devastating floods that have had a major impact on the community. In this episode, Steve shares about the church's practical and loving response to the community's needs in the face of these natural disasters.

Steve and Petra also explore why it's sometimes hard to receive love, how they love people even when it's difficult and what God has been teaching them recently.

Wherever you are living as an alongsider, this episode will inspire and challenge.

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The fourth and final episode in our Alongsiders podcast series will be out on Friday 26 May and focus on the theme of 'People who Partner'.

Explore the full suite of May Mission Month resources: www.baptistmissionaustralia.org/MMMresources

Chapters

• 0:37 Episode introduction
• 0:57 Meet the guests!
• 3:51 People of love
• 6:45 Disability context in the Silk Road Area
• 10:55 Petra's ministry
• 13:57 Responding to floods
• 17:22 Word and deed
• 20:29 Receiving love
• 23:36 What about when it's hard?
• 25:22 Unhelpful attitudes
• 26:23 What's God teaching you?
• 28:47 Thanks and prayer