Walkabout

Among the tasks of the end of the year is to end the different activities we have including our English help and CE (Christianity Explained courses) Tuesdays. I was so happily surprised that 3 newbies came. One girl I've never met named Jessica came along and was excited to learn about Jesus and get a New Testament. My new friends Phoebe and Jeanie also came and were very appreciative about learning English idioms. Because they are both Christians and will be my teammate, Emily's roommates next year, I challenged them to learn the CE so that they can teach it next year. They are really looking forward to helping out the ministry next year.

Tuesday was amazing for another reason: Fusion. It was not our last Fusion because next week we will have our first annual Fusion Talent show, but it was the last one of any content and it was the most awesome Fusion this year. One of our graduating students, Sammie and one of our first years, Beth talked about love and if it is a choice. They told the story of the prodigal son, good Samaritan, and played the song called "I Choose You" by Australian Idol winner, Stan Walker, who is a Christian. Afterward, I was in a group with Jean, Mary and Dani where we talked a lot about love. I can't quite remember now but I started sharing with Jean about the gospel and how people are like the prodigal son and God is like the Father and that God's love is unconditional. After about 30 minutes of explaining I asked her if she could place her faith in Christ. She understood the gospel and that it is by grace through faith that we are saved. It was definitely God working in her heart and mind as it seemed so effortless to explain things and for her to commit her life to Christ. After praying to thank Jesus for her salvation I explained to her about the promises she now has from God and about the Holy Spirit. She started calling everyone her brother and sister. We shared with a few people around us that she was now a Christian and then she turned to me and said, "you are a successful missionary." Emily laughed so hard and I was overwhelmed with thankfulness that God saved my good friend Jean that night. It is a good feeling to be used by God and it is an overbearing joy that comes with seeing someone's eternity changed forever.





On Thursday, I went sharing with Kelly, one of my disciples. We were rejected a couple times but then met Megan, an Aussie studying environmental studies. She was really open and we had a great discussion about her atheism (which would be better defined as agnosticism). She said her roommates are Christian and I hope they continue to have spiritual discussions. It was a great experience for Kelly, who was too timid to say much but thought of a few wonderful things to ask in future conversations like that.

One of the girls I disciple, Megan brought a friend from her Japanese class, named Kate. I was so proud of Megan, because this is our goal within Focus Areas, for our students to invest in their classmates by building an intentional and deeper relationship so that everyone knows someone who truly follows Jesus.



Sunday after a great sermon at Church on homosexuality Emily and I went to a bridal shower. Our teammate Kris proposed to his Aussie girlfriend and University of Queensland missionary, Vanessa. Ness had a tea party theme, which was fun to pretend to be "all lady like" haha. I even met another set of twins, which is always exciting.

Last Sunday was a full day of fun. After church we routinely went to coffee with Lauren and talked about the sermon and life. In the afternoon, Dani and I went to the city to hang out with two of her students: Roland and Yarn as well as Yarn's Japanese friend, Sho. We shot some pool, I won every game of course, haha, and we went to the botanical gardens. There was a herd of huskies and malamutes in the park, which was bad news for Sho who is scared of dogs and was later chased by a Dachshund. It was so funny to see a tiny dog scare him as he hurried away from it. Later that night Dani and I hung outside a venue where the band Paramore was playing. We could hear everything loud and clear just with a view of the Brisbane River.

This week started out like most weeks, Monday was my admin day when I worked on preparing English help, Christianity Explained (CE) lessons, and discipleship. Tuesday Mary and I talked through some of her barriers to believing the Bible as factual and did the fifth of the six CE lesson. That night was Fusion and Emily showed a short film about undoing things in life with relevant questions that we discussed with each other. My group had a great conversation and later in the night I had a spiritual conversation with a new friend named Freda (China). Wednesday, Mt. Gravatt campus held an outreach: two A-frame signs that invited students to write an answer to the two questions of "what is the meaning of life?" and "what happens after death?" There were not many people on campus that day but many of us had very lengthy conversations. Emily talked to a girl from Canada who has lately been asking the very same question about life. She decided to start a CE with Emily next week! I had the opportunity to talk to a British man named Adam. He had some interesting views concerning religion and serving God and mankind. I tried to challenge his beliefs, however, I don't really know what kind of impact I had on his thinking. Please pray for him as well as everyone who saw these questions and began to think of the answers.

Oops I almost forgot to upload my September Newsletter...Thanks for your prayers!!

September Newsletter

Rain, Rain, and more Rain. It has been a dreary week, weather wise, sunny and encouraging ministry wise. I thought the weather was going to be a reflection of my week when only Wilfred showed up to English help on Tuesday. However, that was not the case at all, in fact it was a great time for Wil and I to talk about International Student Ministry (ISM) and what it will look like next year when I am gone. It also gave me a spare few minutes to text heaps of people inviting them to Fusion that same night. Then at Fusion, Jean (China), Rebecca (Vietnam), and Sean (China) came for at least part of it. I just met Rebecca at our Karaoke night and am looking forward to her getting involved. We met Jean and Sean (who I thought was named Shane this whole time!!! oops, haha) in the beginning of this semester, but this was their first time to Fusion. Please pray for both of them as Sean is a Buddhist and Jean is looking into Christianity. Johnathan, who has been doing a Christianity Explained Course (CE) with Nate has been coming along to many Student Life events. The week prior to the holiday his friend Zach came along and heard the gospel. This Fusion, Zach again had a great conversation and heard the gospel with the help of Johnathan translating parts. Johnathan even emailed my teammate, Ben explaining a good way to reach Chinese people with the gospel, even though he himself has yet to accept Christ! Ha, God is awesome!!! Please pray for Johnathan, that he will place his complete trust in Christ.

Then on Thursday, Megan and I went sharing together and ran into one of her classmates. Her name is Laura and she had some sad ideas about life. I'm still quite confused to what she really believes because she despises religion, at one point stated she was an atheist, yet said she thinks there is a higher power. We talked about truth and she felt that there was no absolutes, she even said that if there was an absolute truth that "God" would tell her and that she would know. I asked her how that would happen (loud voice from Heaven?) but she had no answer. She wasn't interested in pursuing learning about the Christian God (at this point in her life). There were many things she said that baffled me, like that justice is a human emotion and we cannot subject God to that emotion, that God would not care what we did. She was not satisfied with any of the explanations I gave her. The one encouraging thing she told us was that her sister is a "born again" Christian (her words). She said that she didn't mind talking about Christianity with her because she can sense a peace and contentment from her sister when she speaks about her faith. Please pray for Laura and her sister, perhaps her sister will lead her to Christ some day. Also pray that Megan will have opportunities to talk to her in the future.


Friday, again, raining..... Frisbee time, not really in the mood to get wet and run around in the mud, but I am sure glad I did! It was a small group of people playing, but I decided to join in because Mary (my beloved Chinese friend doing a CE with me) wanted to play. Not only did my dread turn into complete fun as I even dove for the frisbee in the mud (yeah, slip and slide), but a long-time-no-see face showed up with two friends. Benny, from Vietnam, decided to play with us, I haven't seen him all semester. One of his friends, Cathy played with us while the other girl he brought sat and talked with some of our girls under cover from the rain.

Saturday, Student Life's women ministry had planned a Op Shop Hop. An Op Shop is what Aussies call thrift stores. It was raining (no surprise) but some girls braved the weather and came down town with us. Along with Dani, Emily, Megan, Camilla and myself, Gemma came with two friends, Krista and Katelyn. We all had a great time and bought some fun clothes. Emily and I plan to encourage Gemma to pursue Krista and Katelyn with spiritual conversations. Please pray for them and for Gemma as she is starting to become more involved in Student Life.

The week ended with dinner at our house with our team, minus Kris who is gone this next week and plus Ben's dad, Rick. Rick is here with his mission's organization (the name escapes me at the moment). He will be teaching at Village Ave. Community Church for a few weeks as well as talking at a World Views Training day we have this next Saturday. It was interesting playing Balderdash.... but the homemade churros we made were amazing!

Even though we were not on campus this week, so much happened and it was one extraordinary week. It began with our monthly day with the Lord or as I call it date with Jesus. Emily and I headed into the city for the day as we fasted, prayed, reflected, and read. As I reread some of my journal entries I realized how many things I could praise God for and how different some things turned out. It also reminded me to pray for certain things and for certain people. I also saw how much I agonize over my friend RyuSho (from Japan) who doesn't know Jesus, I pray for him all the time, because God has laid him on my heart to do so. Please pray for RyuSho, I rarely see him and I don't think he has any other Christian friends. I am looking forward to a couple of Japanese STINTers (short term missionaries) coming in just a couple weeks. I am praying that I may be able to introduce them to RyuSho.

On Wednesday we took many of our international students and some other friends to karaoke! It was a blast. Even one girl, Rebecca, was brave and joined us for the first time. There were 18 of us and we hope to do it again in the near future. It was a great way to connect our students together and to us. I am so thankful to God for the way He continues to bless the International ministry. Jonathan especially loved the night and sang a couple songs. I love to see his enthusiasm to learn about God, please keep praying for him as God reveals truth to him. I believe he is really close to accepting Christ as his Saviour. Yarn was a bit nervous to come because he doesn't know anyone except Dani and I, but I was glad he came. I am also so thankful that God specifically picked this job for Dani to tutor English so that people like Yarn, Roland, Kyle, and Dia could learn about who Jesus is.