Walkabout

So because I have left the beautiful land down under does that mean that my walkabout has come to an end?

I hope not, I have a vision for the world and I will continue my spiritual journey no matter where my feet take me. Because I have a God with a perfect plan, I will not be wandering (although wandering is a favourite past time of mine), no, I will be following wherever He leads.

Just because I am no longer in Australia does not mean that this blog with cease either. I plan to get updates from Griffith and then inform you about what God is doing. Please keep praying for Griffith, the students and the team: Ben, Kyle, Emily, and Danae. Also pray for Andrew Baron as he is still working on getting his visa and support to work long term with ISM (international student ministry).

Thanks! Love, Amanda

Schoolies Newsletter

November/December Newsletter

I don't have much time to tell you all about project but I will;-) Just wanted to thank you for your prays and say it was amazing! I will be going to Melbourne this week and then have a couple days to say some final goodbyes before heading back to the States. My heart is hurting already, but I am looking forward to seeing family and friends and trying to share my experience with you all, it will be hard to really express what these past two years were like.

It Thursday already, where have the days gone? I've eaten way too much sugar, haha. I will be without internet for the next two weeks as my team, a few other missionaries and about 40 Aussie and Kiwi (NZ) students hit the beach of Burleigh Heads to reach out to high school grads, tourists and locals. I'm at an awkward stage where I'm not sure if I am nervous, stressed, excited, or what, but no matter how I feel tomorrow morning we'll be heading out and I will have to trust God that things won't fall to pieces. I am in charge of evangelism on this project which is a huge responsibility since evangelism is one of the main focuses of project. I have two Griffith students helping me, Jeremy and Beth and it has been so much fun planning with them. We make a great productive and enjoyable team. They are both first years and this will be there first project, sometimes I forget that so I pray that their inexperience will not cause them to be nervous nor things to be overlooked or not known. Please pray that even among any failure we face we praise God and rejoice in His will and partnership with us. Please pray for me as I will need much patience and endurance for the next two weeks.

This week we had our final roommate date and I had my final discipleship time with Megan where I made her the most delicious chocolate cake (thanks to a recipe from my teammate from last year, Susanna). I said goodbye to her as she flies to her summer project in Japan this Sunday. Tonight I go over to the Park's house, they are a Korean couple who work with ISM (international student ministry). They are so sweet and invited me over for dinner and to talk to me about Korea (they got excited when I told them I would like to work there next year). Well, hopefully I don't stay up too late as I still have to write a talk for Saturday's evangelism training (I still procrastinate, hehe) and Min Jun might come over to dye my hair a random color again (but maybe I will just have to stay a red head for project). Have a great Thanksgiving everyone!!!!

This week has been very busy and so will this next week as I continue to prepare for Summer Project and as I wrap us discipleship. I've had a few meetings this week and spent a whole day with Kelly, one of the girls I disciple, we had a really great chat about the two years I've been here and how much she has grown. She thanked me for not letting her stay the same as when I first met her.

Dani and I went to see a girl I did a Christianity Explained course (CE) with last year at her job. Her name is Dannie and she is from China, I met her through my beloved friend Mel. She was surprised when we walked in and I told her that I was leaving for the States in a month, I thought she was going to cry. We were not able to meet up this year but I still remember when she told me that she hoped to be a Christian one day and that at our last CE lesson she said that she knew the gospel in her mind but not in her heart. Please continue to pray for her with me as I ask for someone to pursue her with the gospel.

There are a quite a few students who need to be followed up and many I hope will be pursued by Christ loving friends. I know that my time with them was impactful and exactly what God wants and that now I can leave them in His faithful hands. It's just so hard to say goodbye and what is a huge fear of mine is that I will not be able to say goodbye to everyone. I know there will be people I will never see again, all those acquaintances I have at uni that I never even told I was leaving, will they wonder where I went? Will I remember them 6 months from now? Memories are important to me, especially the memory of people, these are just some random panicky thoughts that run through my mind as I think about leaving. I especially hope to say goodbye to RyuSho who will be busy with summer classes when I get back from Summer Project.

Tonight a bunch of us went out to dinner for Andy's (one of our graduating students) birthday. It was fun to hang out with a huge group. I said goodbye to everyone who I may potentially not see again, I was glad about that. I spent most of the day with Mary, we chatted, walked around the city and she bought a guitar that we played in the park. Please keep Mary in your prayers as we will be limited to talking through the internet, I hope that we continue to speak about the gospel and that she will turn to Jesus as her Savior.


Thank you for all your prayers... I'm going to sleep now as I will be going to Chinese Church in the morning with some of our students.

Love, Amanda

At the start of the week we had our Beach Reach, where we invited our friends to come to the beach with us. It was a chilly cloudy day but thankfully it didn't rain on us. We all had fun playing ultimate frisbee in the sand and just hanging out with each other. It is really cool that living in Australia we can have beach outreaches like this, I hope our students continue to invite their non Christian friends along to socials like this to form deeper relationships.

Tuesday morning we had our last team meeting where we talked about leaving and about our year together. Afterward, we went down to the Brisbane River and took a couple team photos. It was a beautiful day and made me think about how much I am going to miss Brizzy, it is such a wonderful city.


Study week was packed with fun on campus, including our first annual Fusion talent show, where people set aside their shyness and made us all laugh and applaud. I debuted as an emcee and it was really fun to just be goofy and interact with the audience.

October Newsletter

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.

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!