Since I last updated you I've had
Senior Staff Conference for AFES on the mainland,
Mid Year Conference for our students up in Launceston
O Week Mission for Semester 2.
Preacher's Workshop Masterclass
Women's Winter Festival where I preached a sermon on Jesus Is Light to women in Hobart
Prayer meetings CAN be rather drab, no one's certain what they're meant to be praying for and everyone sits around waiting for someone to start. With clear direction and diversity it can actually be a gathering worth coming to and getting excited for. One thing I learned at Senior Staff Conference just from taking part in it with 200 other Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students staff from across Australia was how to do prayer well in big and small groups. As we prayed together through a list of items, at times we prayed in pairs, other times one person or a series of people represented us in prayer, and yet other times it was opened up to anyone to stand and pray. I've taken this all on board and have shared with my Fellowship Group leaders how they can use lead their groups through incorporating diversity to create a constructive prayer time.
Women's Weekend Away
Registration Closes in TWO DAYS
I will be MCing this conference and delivering a workshop on "Women on Mission". Young women 13-18 years old are encouraged to come, too! (My daughters (8 and 10) are slipping in under MC privileges ;)
Kathy Thurston from Sydney/Brisbane will be speaking about how knowing God is what life is all about and we learn that by exploring how wide and long and high and deep God’s love is for us in Jesus.
Family
We're headed to California in September to visit family and hopefully connect make some new ministry prayer and financial partnerships with Christians there.
My grandmother lives in the high dessert north of Los Angeles, near where the space shuttle would land and where they tested top secret stealth jets (that weren't so secret to locals). My parents, who are missionaries in Germany, will be flying out to spend time with us there, too.
Olivia is looking forward to the possibility of a bus tour where we may get to visit San Francisco and some of the other major sites like Yosemite.
Ella is going to find it difficult to limit her special toys (erm, "friends") to just one for this trip.
Mike is getting his cycling grear ready and touching base with the local cycling store. He asked when their group ride was on. They mentioned that the group tends to go rather fast. Ha! Challenge accepted.
Connecting and Investing
As you can see, I am extremely close to receiving my fully-funded goal of $3,283 per month through financial partnerships from people like you. Some months I will get a spike in a generous one-off gift and other months are sustained by the consistent weekly/fortnightly/monthly giving by generous, partnering Christians who are excited to be a part of God's work.
This week I've attempted to connect personally with 70 alumni from Uni Fellowship to invite them to join you and me, partnering to see how God is going to use us to equip our students to proclaim Jesus to their friends. Thanks to those who have responded, I've got to learn where they are at in their lives and how I can pray for them and support them, as well.
Please pray that some of these will get excited partner with us.
You can engage with others who are taking action through prayer or financial support in the Facebook group.
If you'd like to invest in my work through regular, ongoing financial support, please click on the SUPPORT button below.
Giving Back to You
Sharing resources is my way of giving back to you and supporting your own relationship with Jesus and your church family and your own ministry. All links have been shared in Christine: Behind the Scenes. Join us in the group to discuss how the content might affect our lives and gospel work.
Priscilla: Ben Witherington's historical fiction describes the early church through the eyes, experience and contacts with key players of a woman in the 1st Century. Historical events like the burning of Rome, destruction of Jerusalem's temple and the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius are all included and help to create a timeline. When and why the gospels were written and key historical information about key people from Apollos, John Mark, Phoebe, Junia, etc. all make it a great read for any young or mature Christian. The historical context fleshed out about Corinth and why Paul delivered particular instructions to that church in two letters was also useful.
We Set Off to Reach a Remote Tribe in the Amazon. Turns Out They Were Waiting for Us. : Young Brazilian missionaries brought the gospel to a tribe, whose language was dying and were poor and under-educated. They had heard about a Creator on the radio and had set up a hut for when this Creator would send people to tell them more.
You're a Theologian. Become a Good One: "In one sense, all it takes to be a theologian is to have an opinion about God. That’s it. The moment you think or say anything about him or her or it or whatever “God” is to you, you’re doing theology. The real question, therefore, is not whether you are a theologian. It’s whether you are a good one."
3 Reflections After My First Year as a Christian: "When I was exploring faith and became a Christian, I read any and every Christian book I could get my hands on. The gospels helped me to understand the basics—don’t assume that your non-Christian friends won’t want to read the Bible."
Both Purity Culture and Hook Up Culture Failed Me: "True love comes in the Incarnation, when Jesus entered our suffering world to make all things new. As I look to the naked, bloodied man on the cross, I see someone who loved me so much that he died in order that he might call me daughter. He never promised me marriage. But as he calls me his child, he ushers me into a new family—the body of Christ—that loves me and meets me in my deepest loneliness."
Upcoming Speaking Events
24-25 August: Bay Christian Church Camp: Women Using Their Gifts in Church
6-8 September: Women's Weekend Away MCing and Workshop (Women on Mission)
12 September: Engage Conference 2 x Workshops (EXvangelicals and Social Media, Part 2)
22 September: Summerleas Christian Church Missions Spot