Pastor Bob Field, of Kerang Baptist Church, will hold his final service in the town this Sunday.
Mr Field and his family are preparing to relocate to Melbourne.
“It is not an easy change to make after eight years in Kerang, and now with four children to consider,” Mr Field said.
“The hard part is that this is a town where we want to live and this is a church family we want to be part of and a school that we want to send our kids to.”
Interestingly, despite their attachment to Kerang and its people, Mr Field and wife Anthea knew it was time to leave the town before they had an inkling of where they were going.
“We had this very clear continual sense, which was contrary to what we wanted, that the Lord was going to need us to be somewhere else,” Mr Field said.
During his time in Kerang, he has placed great importance on building connections between the church and the local community.
“I think that the church has to be of value to the community,” he said.
“I’ve loved (situations) where we have been able to provide emergency accommodation or emergency food or transport to people.”
The opportunity to make a positive impact for the community in challenging times is something that drives Mr Field and gives him a sense of fulfilment.
“I get tickled pink when we’re at the cutting edge of (identifying) where there is a great need that we can be meeting, that we can be helping people with.”
He also takes pride in the church providing opportunities for community members to feel welcome and accepted, whether that be attending a Sunday service, the kids club, or the church craft group.
This Sunday morning, Kerang Baptist Church holds its annual children and families service, which takes on extra meaning this year.
“As part of the children and families service, the church family’s doing a farewell for us,” Mr Field said of Sunday morning’s service.
Pastor Bob will soon be sharing the word of the Lord with parishioners at One Church, a Church of Christ parish in Blackburn, although he has some long service leave to enjoy with his family first.
“It’s been absolutely wonderful,” he said of his time in Kerang which started out with a six-month trial period shortly after studying his Bachelor of Theology.
Church of Christ is a denomination in its own right.
Sunday’s service at Kerang Baptist Church commences at 10.30am.
