Highlights
May has seen me settle back into ministries over the first half of Term 2, and a couple of new opportunities as well! This month I’ve gotten stuck into SRE at Parramatta Public School, co-leading a K-2 scripture class with Preeti. It has been a joy to teach these 7 kids from the Bible and to get to know them better, as this term we’ve been doing a series on “Trusting God from the Old Testament”. It’s encouraging to see the kids learn and remember something new and engage with the content. One interesting discussion was had when introducing prophets as God’s special messengers – a child in the class put up his hand to ask “Does that make me a prophet?” as he would always share about what he learned from SRE lessons with his friends. But teaching these kids also presents some new opportunities to grow: I’ve realised how important it is to keep talks concise and clear to keep their attention, and I’m keen to be a little more creative with posters and visuals in storytelling. Pray that the kids in our class will continue to hear the Bible taught faithfully, and grow in their love for God. Pray also that I will continue to refine the way I teach the kids by staying concise yet faithful to God’s word.
This term I also got to give my first talk at Cornhill, kicking off the first years’ series of talks on Ephesians! It was a great experience to prepare a 5-6 minute talk (which again I found challenging to be concise, especially with such a rich passage!) and to gain feedback from my peers, class teacher, and pastors from the St John’s staff team who reviewed my talk script. Pray to thank God for the opportunity I had to prepare a talk on Ephesians 1:1-14 and for the encouragement it was to myself and my hearers to be reminded of all the spiritual blessings we as believers have received in Jesus. Pray that I would continue to grow in my preaching and communicating skills as I give future talks. (Fellow MTS intern Helen surreptitiously recorded my talk, which you can listen to below if interested!)
A great recent joy to me occurred when checking in with my friend I’ve been bringing to church; he told me in a text message: “Btw just letting you know that I do follow Christ. I do believe he is ruler of this world.” Praise God that he has made himself known to my friend, and for his expression of faith after a period of time wrestling with the scriptures! Pray that he would continue to be firmly rooted in a personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and be grown in his walk as a Christian.
Learnings
We’ve been doing a series on 1 Peter at church which is just coming to an end, and as we studied chapter 4 this week Peter reminds us to “be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers” as “the end of all things is at hand”. (1 Peter 4:7, ESV) It was a challenge for me to remember prayer is my greatest asset for living as a Christian and to keep Jesus central as I run the race and carry out my ministries. Pray that I would continue to pray regularly and entrust my efforts to Jesus, knowing that it is only through his strength that I can persevere in living and working for him.
I continue to be challenged in taking initiative in both my work and rest so that I can manage my time and energies effectively, particularly in things that are easy to put off because they take particular effort (e.g. writing my newsletter updates haha oops, or initiating ministry conversations/catchups). At the same time, I am reminded that God provides sufficient grace for each day and the tasks he gives me to do in them, and am thankful for the times in which he encourages and grows me in ways I don’t expect. Pray to thank God for his gracious provision and care, and that he entrusts us to carry out his works he has prepared in advance for us to do. Please ask that I would grow in discipline to be intentional in working and resting well.
Bonus: I’m so thankful for your gospel partnership so far, and have written an additional update letter to give further background on why I chose to do MTS and the polyphony of ministries you’re supporting me to do – see attached! 😊
The Marsden Fund 