Walkabout

We pray when we are in need, when we are in want, sometimes prayers of thanks, but how often do we pray when things are great? Israel, strong Christian nations, and I have all been guilty of forgetting to pray when our own strength seems sufficient.

The truth is we could never need God more than all the time! So as we are seeing great things happen at Griffith we must not forget to pray without ceasing. One of those great things was our 1st year hangout time. We set up a game of giant Jenga and invited people to play with us. We had gifts for 1st years that we have been following up. We also met many new students. It was amazing to see huge crowds gather around to watch the game and then disperse once the tower fell. We all had deep spiritual conversations. One girl stayed for over an hour asking questions about Christ, Jehovah Witnesses, and our love for God. Emily, Kris and I all had the opportunity to speak with her and I could see God working in her heart, I have never met an Aussie with that much curiosity or passion to seek the truth. I also met a girl named Jessica, who told me about her experience with Christianity. She has met one too many hypocrites and self righteous Christians. I got to interject the gospel and Christ's love through out our whole conversation. At one point she sarcastically exclaimed, "wow, God must really love us a lot if He would let us kill His Son for us!" I simply replied, "EXACTLY!" I explained to her that she was saying it sarcastically but that it was exactly true. She couldn't believe it, so please be praying for Jessica.

Newsletter February 2010

Ahhhhh!!!!! We are all so excited for what God has already proved to be doing this year at Griffith Uni. Last night was the heart skip a beat moment when we arrived at our call back party (where we take all the surveys that had positive responses and follow those people up). Emily and I walked in the room and were handed a stack, a HUGE stack each!!! Mine, mostly internationals, Emily Aussies, AUSSIES!!! Unapathetic Aussies, could it really be true?!! Is God turning this country's apathy? We were all especially surprised by the huge pile from Logan campus. Just last year my teammate Susanna and often Lauren, a Nathan student, would go to Logan and find no one, not any Christians, not anyone who was interesting in hearing, sometimes not anyone at all (its a smaller campus). Not only were there positive responses but God provided strong Christians who will be meeting with us next week so we can share the vision and challenge them to lead on their campus where there are no labourers. The stats for the surveys was this: 1032 surveys done, 313 positive responses, and more women than men (which proves difficult to follow up since we have more men student key labourers). Thats more than we have ever done at Griffith, ever!

But the good news doesn't stop there, no!! Nate started a CE (Christianity Explained course) with a Chinese guy who is so hungry to hear about Jesus. Nate and I along with my new international student leader, Vincy (I have to tell you about her) also started another CE with a Chinese guy named Carl. Carl has so many great questions, deep questions that I do not regularly hear from Asians, he genuinely wants to understand the Gospel. So Vincy, she is a Korean Chinese girl who has been in Brisbane about a month. Her mom is a pastor at a Korean church in China and she is solid in her faith. Her English is not great, but her heart is so passionate and bold for Christ. Just yesterday she helped do surveys and she even spoke with Aussies (yeah!!! my vision coming true: a world united; the Kingdom of God also united to battle it); Carl even helped do surveys!!! God is so good!



It doesn't stop there, even though we have gotten heaps of rain that rained out a few of our events, we still got connected with some great students. Our first Fusion (weekly social with an evangelistic aim) was just "fun get to know each other" night and was a huge success: the wii we were going to have didn't work and nobody opened a single board game but everyone got into great conversations and I met everyone there. I had a great conversation with two Christian guys, Axle and Kris who are excited to get involved with Student Life. We invited many people to come to Connexions, I think we may have a huge turnout.

Praise God for what He has done and what He will do! WOW! and I have another CE starting next Monday with an international girl. I am so excited!!!!

Busyness is one of those evils incognito, when I seem productive I am really just being busy. I've learned from my previous year of STINT that being busy will lead to many things no one likes: burn out, lack of accomplishment, and worst of all sacrificing more important things. Some things that could get sacrificed are communicating with people back home (friends, family, ministry partners), my relationship with God by spending less or no time with Him each day, relationships with students, and even relationships with my team. Right now I look at my to-do list and it seems overwhelming, but like with anything when I trust God my fears are relieved. I have asked Him for wisdom of how to best accomplish my tasks without succumbing to busyness. Please pray for these specific things: I am in charge of set design for our end of March conference, Connexions; I also have to prepare a training for the conference; Nate and I started a CE (oow another post), I have another one starting next week; I have a stack of surveys to follow up (so does my entire team and students, praise God!!!); plan ISM (international student ministry); and please also pray for all our students who must balance ministry with their studies.

Thank you for your prayers, I have to go clean my room..... just another thing that gets sacrificed ;-)