StayKCC – Our Conference Centre
Our Katoomba conference centre — StayKCC — is our home. Situated on 26 acres right next to the World Heritage listed Blue Mountains National Park, our site gives us a permanent home for our convention ministries and allows us to accommodate volunteers and delegates for the lowest prices. It also allows us to put back in to the convention ministry whatever is generated through our conference and accommodation bookings.
There are six accommodation centres on site—Mountain Camp, Kedumba, Hartley, The Lodge, Clairvaux and Wollemi House—ranging in accommodation size from 170+ guests, to a more intimate group of 15. There is also a powered camping ground with amenities. We can accommodate over 700 on site across all our centres, which we hire out throughout the year, to schools and other organisations. The revenue our site generates is invested directly back into the ministry of KCC.
Financials
The interdenominational ministry of KCC is one of stewardship. Numerous servants of Christ have been faithful caretakers of KCC’s resources over many generations, for almost 120 years. We are blessed today because they took care of the ministry. We seek to do the same, for the blessing of many future generations.
Bookings
Throughout 2019 we hosted:
- 31,233 bed-nights of accommodation including:
- 6,874 bed-nights, KCC Conventions (22%)
- 6,385 bed-nights, Para-Church Organisations (20%)
- 5,924 bed-nights, Schools (19%)
- 5,724 bed-nights, Families and Individuals (18%)
- 3,817 bed-nights, Churches (12%)
- 1,411 bed-nights, Commercial clients (5%)
- 1,098 bed-nights, Other Not For Profit Organisations (4%).
In keeping with our commitment to gospel generosity, KCC offered the centre at a discounted rate to:
- Upper Mountains Minister’s Association
- Blue Mountains Tourism
- CPR Kids (for learning baby and child first aid and CPR).
Improvements
- Vegetation was reduced and cleared around the Auditorium, Mountain Camp and The Lodge areas so as to reduce bushfire risk
- The Auditorium back up power system was upgraded, to ensure our Conventions and other events can always continue without interruption
- The Mountain Camp kitchen was extended and upgraded, providing greater capacity for us to feed thousands of people
- The Lodge was significantly upgraded to further increase customer satisfaction, including:
- an overhaul of the bathrooms, with a better layout and new cubicles, toilets, plumbing, tiling and lighting
- an improved kitchen and dining area
- new mattresses and mattress protectors
- exterior and interior painting
- The Wollemi House bathroom was upgraded with a new shower and tiling
- Mushroom heaters, silver bollards and a defibrillator, were purchased to improve our service delivery to Conventions and events.
Challenges
- A significant storm in January meant that considerable energy was spent on repairing storm damage over the following months.
- The extreme bushfire season resulted in some disruption to accommodation in November and December. We worked closely with the RFS over this period and we’re very appreciative of the great work the RFS achieved in protecting our site and the local area.
Volunteer Highlights
- We’re very grateful for the support of our many volunteers.
- In 2019 Mobile Mission Maintenance assisted us with 18 volunteers over 10 days, focussed on the Lodge and other improvements.
- We also had a successful Bush Regeneration Working Bee day with 9 volunteers staying over the weekend.
Governance: 2019 KCC Board
Rod Walker
Chairman
Rod has over thirty years’ experience working in Australia, the US and Canada, in roles including CEO, Director and Chairman, and he currently sits on several boards as Chairman. Prior to forming a consulting company in 2005, he was Managing Director of the Freedom Group. Rod is a committed Christian and currently serves as the Rector’s Warden at Seaforth Anglican Church, as well as the President of Church Cricket NSW; the second non-clergy President in the organisation’s 116 years.
Jonathan Dykes
Executive Director
Jonathan joined the Board in 2012 as Executive Director. He previously served as a faculty member of Sydney Missionary and Bible College, and as a preaching staff member of St Thomas’ Anglican Church North Sydney and City Bible Forum. Before his appointment as Executive Director, Jonathan was extensively involved with KCC as a volunteer, serving since 1996 as Chairman of several convention organising committees.
Gillian Davidson
Director
Gillian loves to see gospel works thriving. Lawyer by day (and sometimes night), she sits on a number of boards and has a passion for encouraging Christian women in their ministries. Over the years she has attended many Easter Conventions with her husband Peter and her (now grown) children, through which she has built life-long friendships on the firm foundation of a shared faith in Christ.
Peter Orr
Director
Peter joined the board in August 2018. Originally from Northern Ireland, Peter has worked in a broad range of ministries including as a missionary in Romania; as a student worker in London and as a theological lecturer in Melbourne at Melbourne School of Theology. Peter currently lectures in New Testament at Moore College and is passionate to see God’s people grow in their love for Christ through the teaching of his Word.
Alan Thompson
Director
Alan has been teaching biblical theology and New Testament at Sydney Missionary and Bible College since 2005. He grew up in New Zealand and spent time working there and in Europe as an electrician and in short term mission and youth work in Ireland and London. Alan completed his M.Div. and Ph.D at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Chicago. He is the author of three books: One Lord, One People: The Unity of the Church in Acts in Its Literary Setting, The Acts of the Risen Lord Jesus: Luke’s Account of God’s Unfolding Plan, and Luke.
Phil Wheeler
Director
Prior to theological training and Christian ministry, Phil worked as a Civil Engineer. He has served in various churches across Sydney including 13 years as Senior Minister at Christ Church Gladesville. Phil is currently the Director of Evangelism and New Churches encouraging ‘start ups’ in evangelism, cross cultural ministries and new churches for the Sydney Anglican Diocese.
Lauren White
Director
Lauren is a communications professional in Sydney working in the banking sector, with a heart for KCC after years spent leading youth groups and attending KYCK and Engage. She is part of the community at Church Hill Anglican, where her husband Paul is an Assistant Minister, along with their two young boys. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from UTS and has been recognised by PR and industry communications awards.
Andrew Wilkinson
Director
Andrew attends St John’s Darlinghurst and St Andrews Cathedral’s healing service. With his family he has attended KCC conventions regularly since 2003. Andrew lives in Sydney and has worked in the investment banking, corporate finance advisory and funds management for the past 40 years. He is currently managing director of a real estate investment trust, ALE Property Management Limited.
Our Operational Team
Executive Director (F/T)
Jonathan Dykes
Events
Mary Jung
Event Co-ordinators (F/T)
Rebecca Hardman
Katherine Fernandez
Anna Dang
Event Support & Admin (P/T)
Narelle Harris
Lucy Lee-Price
Finance Manager (P/T)
Jennifer Tan
Church Partnerships Director (F/T)
L-T Hopper
Communications & Media (P/T)
Heidi Tai
Jeremy Ward
Sandra Hanna
Matthew Goldman
Patrizha Yeomans
StayKCC Conference Centre
Shelley Taylor
Facilities Manager (F/T)
Garry Berger
Facilities Team (F/T)
Cole Morgan
Benjamin St John
Mel Wilkinson
Jennifer Wynd
Office Team (F/T)
Marcelo Escobar
Lachlan McGuire
Liz Morgan
Contract Caterer
James Barnes
2019 KCC Committees
All roles are held on a volunteer basis
Katie Bosler
Mitch Everingham
Phil Gentile
Matt Goldman
Adrian Lee
Luke Murray
Nicole Murray
Ben Staunton
Andy Stevenson
NextGen
Jocelyn Bignill
Karl Bonner
Carol Chiu
Gavin Cooper
Melanie Cunningham
Julian Gonzalez
Matthew Kennedy
Tracy Law
Avril Lonsdale
Simon Nagel
Nicholas O’Neil
Kevin Stepniewski
Onward
Sam Wan
Bethany Abbottsmith
Gavin Boyd
Helen Cheung
Rod Cocking
Meagan Skinner
Steve Williams
Valerie Williams
Dan Wu
OneLove
Merran Aguilera
Sarah Chilton
Judy Douglas
Elizabeth Janssen
Julianne Jones
Gai Pendlebury
Viana Vom
BASECAMP
Christopher Gillan
L-T Hopper
Ronald Mamo
Richard Wong
Ryan Verghese
Financial Report
The 2019 financial year was a welcome one from a number of perspectives.
Firstly, KCC’s individual conventions continued to gain strong support from Christian people and local churches all over NSW and interstate. As you will read from the testimonies in this report, the preaching ministry has continued to be used by God to deeply impact people’s Christian lives. All of us — volunteer and staff alike — who are involved in bringing KCC’s conventions together, are acutely aware of our inability to effect spiritual transformation in anyone’s life. This is God’s work by His word and Spirit, and every year we are thankful to Him for what He has chosen to do through this ministry.
Of particular encouragement is the strong, ongoing engagement of high schoolers with KYCK. For well over a decade now, the Saturday evening evangelistic talk at KYCK has seen around 500 high schoolers make either first time or renewed commitments to Jesus Christ. This gives KCC a great opportunity to see these youth followed up by their local church and discipled. It is also a powerful encouragement to all who witness it.Secondly, God has blessed us with a financial outcome that reflects His Spirit, your generosity and a wonderful team effort from everyone involved. Across the last several years with volunteers, conference centre staff and event staff, KCC has invested significant effort into generating a surplus in 2019. This is the first surplus achieved since 2014. The previous years’ efforts have laid a solid foundation for this 2019 result. These foundations will continue to be built upon in 2020 and beyond, despite the immediate challenges presented by COVID-19.
Highlights of the 2019 results include:
- Increasing conference and donation revenue despite marginally lower delegate numbers than 2018. In particular, conference expenses have been materially reduced due to a range of initiatives.
- Growth in accommodation revenue to provide an accommodation operating surplus, despite challenging conditions and conference centre closure due to bushfires late in the year.
- An overall operating surplus of $167K that will contribute towards both future ministry and financial investments that further the advancement of KCC’s mission.
We would ask you to please remember the KCC ministry and all its needs in prayer. Our financial results are not a sign of ministry ‘success’, but positive results are necessary in order for the ministry to continue. In particular, please pray for:
- God to lead and guide the planning of every convention, and that His preached word would not return to Him void (Isaiah 55:10-11) but accomplish His purposes for it in His world.
- God to provide the KCC Board with wisdom and discernment in considering KCC’s investments in our conventions and their development, and the best use of our property resources.
– Andrew Wilkinson + Jonathan Dykes
Director + Executive Director
Thank you to our
2020 Ministry Partners
We are conscious that this year has been a difficult one, not just for KCC, but also for many ministries and organisations.
We wanted to say a big THANK YOU to our partners this year, who have committed to continuing their support and partnership with us even in this time. Please visit, support and read more about our partner organisations below.
Platinum
Help Anglicare increase vital food and financial assistance through this crisis
The sudden shutdown of businesses across Australia, aimed at slowing the spread of COVID-19, has pushed many families into poverty. “People who may never have experienced financial hardship in the past or never had to introduce themselves to welfare support or charities … have suddenly found themselves out of work and in need,” says Bill Farrand, Anglicare Community Chief Operating Officer.
The health and economic crisis is also impacting heavily on families and individuals who were already vulnerable – those in low-income jobs and people facing mental illness, domestic violence and other stresses in their homes. “Anglicare has always been about supporting people who fall through the cracks,” Bill says. “And there are more of those people at the moment – there are more cracks and there are more people.” With your support, Anglicare will increase vital food and financial assistance to help our communities through this crisis. Because Anglicare is built for times like these.
Please give what you can to help. Thank you.
CRU is a Bible-based, interdenominational Christian organisation whose mission is to help the kids and youth of Australia to know and follow Jesus! Every year, over 100,000 young people hear about Jesus through our ministries - CRU Educational Camps, CRU Holiday Camps, Schools Ministry, and through our CRU Galston Gorge and CRU Lake Mac campsites.
We are getting ready to expand our ministry with our newly-renovated CRU Lake Mac Camp and Conference Centre, ready to open and enjoy from Term 3 2020. Experience brand new purpose-built ensuite accommodation for up to 260 guests, flexible and well-equipped meeting spaces, delicious food in a dining room with panoramic lake views, and a range of fun onsite activities – all for an affordable camp package price.
Get back to camp at the new CRU Lake Mac!
Nestled on the stunning shores of Lake Macquarie, just 60 minutes from Hornsby and Newcastle, we’ll be here, ready and waiting to welcome your church, school or community group!
Book now – dates are filling fast:
Gold
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A Christian community where men and women learn to love the Lord Jesus, teach the Word of God, and carry the gospel of salvation to the ends of the earth
Biblical - the Bible is at the centre of everything we do.
Theological - we think about all things in relation to God and his purpose in Christ.
Reformed-evangelical - our lives and message are characterised by the gospel of God’s sovereign grace.
Missional - the global mission of the Lord Jesus Christ drives everything we do.
Communal - we are shaped as Christian disciples, as we learn and do life together in community.
Convention
Hope and aid for the persecuted church
Barnabas Fund provides practical aid for persecuted Christians, channelling donations “from Christians, through Christians, to Christians” in over 100 countries. We also raise awareness of the plight of Christians living with discrimination, oppression or violence, and encourage prayer for them, as well as speaking out on their behalf.
Equipping women to serve Christ
MAC is committed to equipping women to serve Christ. Join us to go deeper into God’s Word, shaping how we care for and disciple others effectively.
Online classes for Semester 2, 2020 are now open for enrolment.
Help vulnerable Australians find hope this winter
COVID-19 is increasing demand for Mission Australia's services. People like you can provide life-changing support for people facing homelessness and disadvantage. There's never been a more important time to give them hope. Donate a one-off or monthly gift today:
One of Australia’s longest standing Bible college, Morling College has equipped Christian leaders, missionaries and pastors for decades.
Discover transformative courses in Bible, Ministry, Mission, Theology, Education, Counselling and Chaplaincy via flexible study modes that enable you to fit study around your life. Enquire now for July, Semester 2 2020.
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Study Old and New Testament, theology, church history, biblical languages, pastoral care and missions – via full-time or part-time, day or evening, intensive mode or semester length options. (Semester 2 2020 is in off-campus mode!)
