Walkabout: September 2010

Week 9: Making Friends and RED

This week (well I started every other blog entry with "this week," why stop now, haha) was our semesterly (I know that's not a word) prayer week. I love knowing that hundreds of people are praying for us here at Griffith Uni and Australia. There is an overwhelming peace that comes with this knowledge as I step on campus each day. The Spirit was greatly at work, even in the smallest of ways. For example, on Tuesday we went to English help as usual and as has been the trend lately not many people came, but then we went on a Pepsi run (a new tradition for Mary and me) and ran into Sean, who we met in the beginning of the semester. We invited him along and then later Dean and Yuan came, Yuan even brought a friend (get this, her friend is Aussie!) It was a very fun time with them and I am praying that we will continue to see them and share the gospel with them. Another example was on Thursday I was meant to lead the evangelism time, but no one came, so I sat on a bench praying. Grace, my Kenyan friend came up and we started chatting. She opened up to me about the struggle her sister is going through: not wanting much to do with the Christian faith because she see's it as her mom's faith and is angry with her mom. I told Grace to pray for her sister and try to explain the gospel to her, because no matter how many times you hear the gospel its always good news. Please also pray for her (her name is Martha). After talking for awhile she asked how long evangelism lasted, and then I was prompted to ask her if she was free. She was for the first hour, so I jumped up and we joyfully walked toward people. This was the first time Grace had ever experienced initiative evangelism, so as we walked up to a young blonde girl I prayed that it would be a good experience for her. This girl surprised me when she spoke to us with a German accent (haha, you can never pick the Aussies at Griffith). Her name is Nadine and she gladly answered our questions and we had a great conversation. At one point I had the opportunity to share the entire gospel with her and ask her if she would like to start a relationship with God. She was unsure but I hope to talk to her in the future. The conversation was so great and Nadine was so sweet, Grace really enjoyed it. Thank you, God!

Nate and Sean at English help

Lunar Eclipse Wednesday night, was also Korean Thanksgiving and Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival

On Wednesday night we had a prayer vigil where we met with several of our students and prayed for different campuses, our friends and families, for each other, and praises to God. In the middle of our time I went outside and called everyone out of the house, because their was an eclipse (none of knew it was happening that night, haha). It was awesome to see and praise God for. To think of how He has created all things even a system in time when the moon, earth, and sun line up, its just amazing.

Its always fun hanging out with people and making new friends. I am especially glad to have met many of Dani's students. Roland (Yarn's best friend) is such a character, he reminds me of a friend I had in college. I met up with him, Dani, Budd, and MinJun at City Beach (a clothing store) to hear a band perform. Then I went to MinJun's house to do something crazy: dye my hair red! haha. That night we went to Leti's (our French student) and met many of her friends. Saturday night Dani and I made Italian food for three of her students: Sam, Bomi, and Dia. Then on Sunday we brought Raejene (one of our student leaders) and Jonathan (a Chinese friend going through a Christianity Explained Course) to our church. Please pray for Raejene who has an aversion to church lately and for Jonathan who is so close to joining the body of Christ. That night we had Yarn and Roland over for Italian food (yes, more Italian). It was fun to spend time with them and even talk a bit about why we are Christians and why we share our faith with others. Overall, this week was a fun and people filled time and I loved every minute of it.

Roland at City Beach

First haircut, now hair red, what's next? haha

Week 8: Hair Cut and My Bleeding Heart

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This week was great! We had many great conversations and encouraging moments through out the week. But, like always there were some hard things to sort out. This week God decided to impress on me my already breaking heart for the lost. This is a common recurrence in my life, I have days where I will be so burdened for the lost that it becomes severely emotional. This week it lasted from Wed until Fri. It started with my weekly brekky with Lauren Wednesday morning. She shared with me a conversation she had with her unbelieving dad. I started tearing up, which confused her a bit, but I just told her that it was really sad. On one hand, I don't really know Lauren's dad, yet I know and love Lauren and she loves her dad. Then I went to Mt. Gravatt for evangelism time. We had an odd number so I sat and prayed for a bit, where again I began to tear up over people who don't know Jesus and what's more, don't even care! Then I traded with Emily and took one of our newer involved students, Jeremy sharing. We walked up to a blonde hair, blue eye guy expecting him to be Aussie. He greeted us with a Scandinavian accent and I asked him where he was from. To my delight he said he was from Norway (I'm part Norwegian) just visiting some friends who were studying abroad at Griffith. Jeremy and I ended up sharing the gospel with him and I persistently encouraged him not to give up trying to find truth. Being born in a very postmodern nominally protestant nation, Even admitted that he once believed in God but due to a friend's younger brother's fatal disease, felt that he'd rather believe no god existed than be angry with him. After sharing the gospel I looked Even in the eye and with full conviction told him that God has a great desire for Even to know Him. After seeing some wheels turning in his mind, a few lip quivers and wondering eyes, I knew God was working on Even. Please pray for him as he is only in Australia for a month, may he run into other Christians who can answer any new questions he may have.

On Friday I went to uni to meet up with Nate for evangelism time. We had to sit on a bench for awhile as I started crying and explaining to him how I've been feeling the past couple days. It didn't help that on Thursday I saw RyuSho (a Japanese friend, that I am in consistent prayer for) for the first time this semester. Please pray for RyuSho's desire to know God. Then I decided that I would not let my emotions excuse me from sharing so Nate and I went together. We decided to talk to a girl who was studying, but she had to prepare for a class so, after thanking her, we walked up to a guy on a picnic table. From behind he looked young but when we said, "excuse me..." and he turned around we realized that he was an older student, mid 30's maybe. He was more than delighted to talk to us about "religion" and anything. We discovered that he was what I would label a postmodern atheist, not excluding anyone's belief system (because that's what is good and right for that individual) but himself not believing in the existence of any divine power. Nate and I talked to Brendon for almost two hours, it was a great conversation. I discovered that his greatest barrier to accepting Jesus' salvation is not in fact his intellectual desire for evidence not being met but his selfish ambition to be his own god and accountable to no one but his own satisfaction. Its sad really, thankfully I managed to hold in the tears (seriously, what random will believe that I actually care about them and their eternity and that the thought of them being separated from God who is love forever moves me to tears? No, they will just think I am a nut job). Please pray for him as we may have future opportunities to chat with him.

On Saturday was my good friend, Lainey's wedding! It was so awesome to get to attend an Aussie wedding:-) She was so beautiful and I know her and her new husband, Huon, will be a great partner for the gospel together.

So much in love, Lainey and Huon couldn't even pay attention to anything but each other, so cute!

Saturday afternoon I asked Dani to chop off my hair, so I said goodbye to my hair ready for something new. It is really different and I'm still getting used to it but I like it. I think it makes me look younger, as if I needed to look any younger, haha.

Before my haircut

After..... My hair is now so much shorter than Dani's

Sunday afternoon Dani and I met up with her students Yarn and Roland in the city. Yarn brought his Japanese friend named Sho. All three of these guys are so easy to talk to and Christianity came up many times throughout our time. While we were waiting for Roland we hung out at Starbucks and Yarn asked me if I went to church that morning and what I did there. It was fun explaining why we sing to God and what our Pastor talked about. Gateway is doing a series about the questions our non Christian friends are asking. This week was talking about the common belief that "there can't be just one true religion." Later when Roland came he asked me what I learned at church. Gotta love how easy God makes it sometimes. We also found out that Sho has many Christian friends and that he met Yarn at an English help class held by a church. It was fun to spend some time with them, a change from just the people I know from uni.

Me, Sho, Yarn, and Dani at South Bank

Week 7: How He Loves Us

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This week was amazing! As are so many of my days spent here in Australia, God just has to show up and bless us. This week at English help Emily and Elaine came (they are the two Chinese girls that Scott met last week). Lan, one of the Chinese girls who usually only comes for the first hour (the English hour) decided to skip her class and stay for the Christianity Explained (CE) hour, I was surprised. I let Nate and Liz take those three girls to start the CE while I took Yuan (another Chinese girl) through the second lesson.

The second lesson is all about Jesus' death on the cross and what that means for us. Yuan had some great questions and I know that she has learned a lot about the Bible in the past. A couple weeks ago I had gone through the Campus Crusade tract called Knowing God Personally with her and some other girls. She brought it out after we finished the lessons content. She asked me how to accept Jesus. I was so excited as we went through the gospel again. I knew God was working in her heart when she asked, "this is so good, why doesn't everyone want this?" I told her that that was a great question and I often wonder the same thing. I told her that in order to accept Jesus all she needed to do was repent and believe and that through faith she would have salvation. She read through a suggested prayer and said she agreed with it. I was so happy but then she threw me for a loop when just as she was getting up to leave said she wanted to learn more because she felt she was still in the middle. I am unsure of the decision she made but I hope it will be made clear this week as I follow her up with Vincy. This is one of the hurdles with international ministry, but I trust Christ to continue to work in each one of their hearts.

After everyone left I asked Nate how his CE went. Emily is a Christian and it seemed she was a bit argumentative with her Buddhist friend Elaine. Please pray for the friends, that Emily will change her attitude of "no matter what, she won't believe" and be a good witness to Elaine. Please also pray for Lan, who was a bit shy to voice her opinion but seemed interested to learn.

Vincy (Lan was camera shy), Elaine, Emily, Nate and Liz at English Help

Have I told you how much I love my housemates? One morning we walked to campus together and on the way stopped to pose for these photos. It was so funny!

Jeanie and Lynn sad about midterm exams, but still so cute:-)

Friday we played frisbee as usual only this time two of Dani's students came along. (Dani got a job as an English tutor). Roland and Yarn came to play for awhile with us and then followed Dani into the city because she had another lesson. After her lesson she met back up with them and went to dinner. Emily, Lynn and I also went to the city where Em took a book and read and Lynn and I met up with Dani and the guys. Before we went to the restaurant we grabbed Hungry Jack's (Burger King) ice cream. On the way there I ran into a Korean guy I met earlier this semester and invited him to English help this next week (pray he comes and stays for CE). They were just about done with dinner when we got there so we went for a long walk through the botanical gardens. There we heard worship music and discovered a youth conference going on, we talked to the ladies at the gate for awhile and heard some of Hillsong's performance. Then we went to Starbucks and talked for a long time. On the way to the bus we ran into a big group of Koreans from Lynn's church who went to the conference. After saying goodbye, Yarn randomly asked us if we were Christians to which Lynn and I smiled and happily replied yes, all three of us are. Yarn's curiosity was peaked as he asked, "do you love Jesus?" That made me giggle a bit because it was so cute. After I answered he responded by telling me how he only believes in himself. I asked him why when he isn't perfect but Jesus is. He just can't understand believing without seeing, so he asked me if I've ever seen Jesus. I told him that I had not with my eyes but definitely with my heart. He half jokingly said, "next time, you can introduce me to Jesus." He doesn't know what he's getting himself into I guess because Dani and I intend to do just that. The next day was Roland's birthday party and Yarn was there. At one point he asked me why I smile all the time (man, I love that question!). I told him that I am so joyful because I love Jesus. He just shook his head and said that he couldn't understand. Then as we walked through the city he asked if I liked the city and I told him I did because I love people. He said, "that's because of Jesus." Yes, Yarn, you are exactly right; I can see God working in that kid's heart. Please pray for him and Dani as she tries to bring the gospel into their tutor lessons.

Dani and her student Yarn

Week 6: Mid Term Lull and Fun Visitors

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This week was exciting and routine at the same time. Sunday was Thanksgiving at our Church, not the turkey kind but a celebration that Gateway has every year to thank God for what He has done throughout the year. After the service we were all encouraged to share in some fun and have lunch with our church family. Dani and I ran straight for the petting zoo, haha.

Dani and I holding a baby goat at Church on Thanksgiving Sunday

Tuesday was another English Help and CE filled day. This week a friend of Ben and Nate joined us. His name is Scott and he came for a visit and to check out the ministry at Griffith. Because of Mid-terms we didn't have very many people come this week, but it was good to give Scott a taste of international ministry. Later in the week he met two Chinese girls and gave me their contact information. They plan to come next week.

Mary drawing a baby elephant for pictionary

Later in the week another visitor arrived, Liz, Nate's girlfriend. It was fun to have her stay at our house. On Saturday we all went to Lauren's 21st birthday party, which is a big deal in Australia. It's usually a themed party and Lauren invited us to all dress up as something that started with any of her initials: L, C, or H. So I went as Cleopatra (my last minute costume). It was a fun night and many of our students were there to celebrate Lauren. Traditionally there are embarrassing speeches made by the parents and friends. Lauren's party had three speeches: her dad and two high school friends. It was interesting to hear her before Jesus life stories and to see how much God has grown her over these past three years of knowing Him. Please pray for Lauren's family who do not believe.