Engage Youth
Term 3 is often known in ministry as the most tiring term of the year, and it was certainly the case this year as well. So we are so proud of and thankful for our youth team this term!
At Engage we ran a topical series called ‘Jesus And’ – challenging our youth to put anything after those two words, and seeing the richness of Scripture speak into any aspect of our lives. We covered hairy topics like Jesus and Life (i.e. abortion and euthanasia), practical topics like Jesus and Money, and equiped our youth to defend the gospel in topics like Jesus and Science.
One of the highlights was seeing our leaders teach the bible faithfully from the front, showing how to view anything in our world through the lens of the gospel. All the workshops they ran were engaging, fun, and biblically rich.
In God’s kindness, it was very well received by our youth, and we even had over 10 newcomers join us at Engage this term. Even though it was very tiring at times, it was a joy for Helen and I to walk alongside our leaders, be praying over them, and helping them take a break when needed.
6 Talks in 6 Weeks
Thanks for those who prayed for Helen’s 6 Talks and seminars in 6 Weeks. It was a pretty crazy period of time and I felt I was living week to week! I’m thankful for all that God has taught me, even as I taught others. This included:
- God convicting me of my sin and the tendency to blame others and my circumstances for my sin – just like Adam & Eve (Genesis 3, Clothed in Christ talk)
- God reminding me of 1 Corinthians 13 in our “Jesus and Love” workshop & me realising that I am not very loving when it is inconvenient or hard
- Being grieved by the reality of suffering in the week before the “Jesus and Suffering” workshop, when a friend’s father passed away suddenly. In the midst of grief, I was deeply comforted by Jesus’ words to Martha “I am the resurrection and the life.”
You can listen to Helen’s talks here. “Clothed in Christ” playlist for reflection here.
As some of you may know, I have been taking a subject at Moore College each semester this year. This semester the subject is World Religions and the Gospel. We’ve had guest lecturers come in to educate us on Buddhism, Islam, and Hinduism, and I have found the subject to be both engaging and challenging. I have found it so engaging, because I have found that I do very little evangelism with those from a different religious cultural upbringing to myself. But this has been very challenging for me as well, because I’ve realised that I have had to unlearn many aspects of my own western culture, in order to better communicate the gospel. As part of this subject, I have been interviewing one of my Hindu neighbours. I’ve had the great opportunity to share the gospel multiple times, and it’s been wonderful to see my neighbour open to continuing the conversation. However, this subject has helped me see that this sort of evangelism requires a lot of patience and self control. Would you please be praying that I may keep up my relationship with my neighbour, and that he would hear and believe the gospel!
Seeing God at work
Something I (Helen) have been praying about and learning to do is to have eyes to see God at work. Being a high-achiever, it is so easy for me to focus on what I am doing and how my ministry makes a difference. But often that just makes me proud when I see the fruit of my ministry and dejected when I don’t see the fruit. I’m thankful that Carmen my trainer models thankfulness and joy and celebration when she sees God at work in his people. I’ve seen God at work:
- in sisters who treasure Christ and serve his people even when they struggle with their own weakness and mental health
- when I got to sit at a meal where a 1.5 year old Christian exhorted a 1 month old Christian about the gospel of grace
- in the life of a young woman who has started to come to church, because she realised her self-centred life was not working and who realised that she needed to turn away from being self-centred and towards God
Praise God for:
- the privilege of teaching his precious, life changing and eternal word
- sustaining us through a busy and tiring Term 3 with the Jesus And series and Helen’s many talks and seminars
- a short but restful time off, celebrating our 5 year anniversary
Pray:
- that God will mould us and shape us to be more and more like Jesus
- that we will have opportunities to share the gospel with our neighbours as we practice personal evangelism. Nate has had several good conversations with a Hindu neighbour.
- for MTS Recruit which is coming up which all 4 of us will participate in – that God will work to raise more workers for his harvest.
The Marsden Fund 