Lies that Women Should Be Like Men

Have you watched this BBC documentary The Detransitioners She2He2She?

The Fall created a struggle for these young women informed by a culture that says girls and women can’t or that they are less or that they are weak or that they are in danger because of their sex. Satan whispering lies that bring death to teens all over the world.

The answer is not to retreat from our gender but the people of God proclaim the truth of the gospel drowning out the the lies of Satan.

Beware when the church proclaims these same lies.

Our gospel worldview gives us hope and answers in this confusion.

Women and men are made in the image of God. We are good. Eve was not lesser than or a dysfunctional Adam. Adam was not enough. Eve would not have been enough. Together as man and woman, they were good.

In Corinthians we read Paul advising the church on how to conduct themselves orderly when they gather. Some women were presenting themselves as men when partaking in meetings. The Holy Spirit says NO to this. Pray as women! Prophesy as women. Sing as women! Your gender is good. Your identity is in Christ.

The Corinthian society was causing gender confusion even then. To be worthy of being heard, you must be as a man. To be worthy of status, you must be a man. To be worthy of safety, you must be a man.

The gospel says NO.

Christ is worthy. In him you are worthy. As a gendered male and female you are worthy. Your identity is in Christ.

Instead we ought to be advocates for girls and women. Affirming their worth. Guaranteeing their safety. Viewing them as fellow-image-bearers of God rather than as less than or as a sexual temptress. Teaching them that they have a place at the table to be heard, to use their gifts to serve the community of Christ and the world, and don’t have to be more like a man. Discrediting the claim that this is a man’s world and to survive in a man’s world women must be as men.

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At University Fellowship of Christians we are in a unique position to speak into the University realm of conversations and ideas and worldviews and point those who are questioning, confused by the world's lack of answers where authenticity becomes the ethical standard.

Christians and churches (both local and further afield) partnering with us in this important work makes a massive difference in young people's lives as staff and students are showing up and are here for these types of conversations.

The Big Story Gospel: a resource

Most of us are familiar with the "Cross bridging the gap" or "Two Ways to Live".

The Big Story Gospel presentation was developed by InterVarsity USA (our sister campus mission in America) to be in conversation answering the questions that today's students are asking.

They aren't necessarily looking for a pathway to God. And their concerns and despair about the trajectory of the world are real. I love the balance between individual/corporate and atonement/victory.

I think all of us have seen enough tools to know that none of them answer all the questions. You may look through the app and think it doesn’t focus enough of personal sin and the broken/restored personal relationship with God. You may find that it has reversed the purpose of the good news of Jesus in that restoring the world and relationships with others is listed before relationship with God. Doesn’t a restored relationship with God first allow all these things to flow from it?

I think where this tool helps evangelists think through our approach is that it helps us start the conversation on the same page, where they are at. It also helps us communicate that the power of the resurrection is both internal but also we are sent out be that Kingdom of God influence in the world. I don't know many other tools that do that.

Tools are just that. And this is one tool in the hand of a worker sent to bring healing and restoration and life to a dying humanity.

Could you see yourself incorporating some of these ideas in the way you talk about the good news of Jesus?

They also have some good advice on how to follow up with a new follower of Jesus.

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Semester 1 Begins!

Feb. 4 - Staff Vision Day

Over the 5 hours we worked through the historical context of Isaiah, leadership development, and effective teaching that engages the minds by stimulating emotions, creating community and telling stories. We also moved around the building as we worked through “worst case scenario” (What do we do if our first Citywide Gathering only has 25 people?) which turned out to not be terrible at all but rather an exciting opportunity.

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Feb. 4 - O Week Mission Launch Night

Over pizza dinner, I had the delight of meeting a gentleman from the northwest of our island state to came to our volunteer info night to learn how what we do might be replicated at the rural northwest campus of UTAS. I was able to connect him with one of my student leaders who had relocated to that campus and hoped to launch a Fellowship Group in Semester 1.

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Feb. 17-20 - Orientation Fliering

Students, staff and local Christians worked together to contact as many first time UTAS students as we could. We stood outside their faculty orientation lectures and invited as many as walked in as we could to join us the following week for free pizza dinners: our way of showing hospitality and to get the word out that we are here for them. Our hope was that they would come to one or all and meet out students and have some great conversations. As a result our pizza parties had around 50 students attend each night. And more importantly we recognised some of them at our first public meeting! We were low on local volunteers and so missed some of the lectures or couldn’t cover all the entrances but we thank God that the students showed up and connected with us in meaningful ways.

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Feb. 19-21 - Pre-Season Conference

Because we were low on student leaders at the beginning of this year, it was all hands on deck for staff. I did a sermon and two workshops in the Gospel and Christian Living and another on the Local Church with first year students.

Our theme this year was Kingdom Parables. During my sermon on Thursday, I took the young women through the parables of the weeds and mustard seed and yeast in Matthew. We discussed how there is an enemy and evil in the world and how we will live and grow alongside evil, pain and suffering. The sermons from the conference will be uploaded to our site soon.

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Feb. 24-27 - O Week Campus Mission

Charlotte at the northwest Cradle Mountain Campus doing the same survey we did here in Hobart and connecting with students in the hope of starting a Fellowship Group.

Classes have begun and we are on the ground meeting students, surveying them about their beliefs, giving away re-useable coffee cups, and having some great conversations. I spent one day with a 1st year med student helping me connect with others at the medical building. I met 2-3 students who were interested in getting a new med student group up and running and was able to talk to them about what kind of group would best meet their needs and their busy, always changing schedules. Across all campuses we gave away around 600 cups, inviting each to our public meetings. We received nearly 150 contact details from people who wanted to know more. Each will be contacted directly and invited for a coffee and a chat. From there we hope they will join either a Fellowship Group or begin attending our Christianity 1a course.

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Feb. 27 - Citywide Gathering

At the end of our campus mission, we held our first Citywide Gathering. The photo above is BEFORE three more rows of chairs were added as people came in a bit late. More than 60 people came along to our first event, half of them were new. Due to our earlier time slot, people rocked up after class and stayed for hours afterwards talking. One of our senior staff talked to some Catholic students and prayed with them after they seemed to have understood the good news of Jesus for the first time. Another staff member talked for hours with a fellow who is thinking through what it means for him to take faith seriously. I’m sure many other quality discussions were had as several students and staff didn’t get home till close to midnight. A very exciting start to the year for us.

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Mar. 2 - Breakfast Session

A few years ago, the Uni Fellowship team decided to experiment with having a monthly breakfast sermon session. I’m pretty sure it was assumed that it wouldn’t work. Last year, however, it really took off and this year’s first 7:30am Breakfast Session was a massive hit. Mikey preached from Isaiah 6-8, giving a helpful historical background to the people and places mentioned in Isaiah. Tiglath Pileser III became TP3. Mikey also Meme-Splained “OK, Boomer” before connecting the meme with people of Israel with being set in their ways and beyond changing their mind or heart. God was giving them over to their hard hearts. Students are welcome to stick around for as long as they like afterwards to hang out or chat to staff. Future weeks may have cafe-quality coffee available afterwards, too.

All sermons from Pre-Season, Citywide and Breakfast Session will eventually be uploaded to our Sermon page.

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First Fellowship Group Meetings

Four weekly Fellowship Groups have already kicked off (including Charlotte’s first group in the northwest). In fact, one group had so many this week that from next week it will split in two. These groups are committed to praying for their friends and classmates throughout the year, as well as our campus mission and events, other campus missions around Australia and global mission. Over Semester 1, they will read through a biography of Jesus together discussing the same five questions as they read. As the overseer of Fellowship Groups, my hope is as their praying for their friends to know Jesus, they will also grow in confidence in their ability to read a Gospel and help their friend meet Jesus in God’s Word. Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students has an excellent resource called UNCOVER that helps students do this with one friend or in a small group.

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The Next 2 Weeks

Over the next two weeks, I’ll be meeting with students from the O Week Campus Mission who have given us their contact details because they way to know more. As we chat over a cuppa, I will learn where a student is at in their journey of knowing Jesus. A Gospel Gift of $10 will help cover the cost of mine and her coffee. You can donate using the “Support My Work” button below.

I Want to Be Better Than This

From 2 Peter, Chapter 1

Do I sound like my -ology/-ism rather than Jesus? Do I have all the philosophical answers that back up my theological position ... but lack love? Can I squash an intellectual opponent with absolute certainty that my argument is logical, based in Scripture with historical tradition on my side but waver in my certainty in knowing God? Can I parrot all the jargon and Bible verses ... without knowing what God really thinks on the issue? Can I have knowledge but not be sanctified?

My prayer for our students this year is for them to know and love God and learn and grow to be more like Christ rather than their intellectual hero.

This is what I loved about National Training Event and what we do on campuses across Australia throughout the year: modeling and giving students the confidence to learn directly from Scripture and developing skills that will help them think, speak and act in love and and benefit others throughout their lives.

This was sparked by a group conversation where a number of us expressed discomfort reading articles and blogs that are merely preaching to the choir, belittling culture and making snide damnations on all others. I started thinking about the times I’d observed this in person with Christian leaders and am keenly aware that I want our students to be so much better than this.

If like me, you too want to be better than this, consider reading God’s Word with your heart as well as your mind this year.

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Podcast: Where I Talk about YOU

This past week my interview with The One Thing podcast hosts Derek and Scott went live.

Over 19 minutes, I talk about my relationship with those who have warm feeling towards my work, support me and invest in me and my ministry. Nurturing these relationships is very important to me and a blessing in return.

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The Difficult Lesson of the Achan

All Uni Fellowship staff are active and engaged members of local churches. I’m rostered on to teach Sunday School to 4-11 year olds. Last week’s lesson was on the sin and consequence of Achan. Here’s the email I sent out to the whole church on Monday morning:

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Hi Church Family,

Sunday School teachers do not regularly teach the lessons to be learned from the sin of Achan after the fall of Jericho.

But this past Sunday that was my lesson to teach.

It’s a heavy responsibility that we as a church family have in developmentally appropriate ways teaching our children the heavy consequences of sin.

Achan deliberately did the opposite of God’s explicit instruction. As a result, God was not with them and several Israelites died in their next battle. His sin that he attempted to hide from God and everyone else had serious consequences. In the end he was exposed and himself underwent the ultimate consequence when the people of Israel stoned him.

We talked about about how experiencing this would have RESTRAINED the people from making the same mistake.

One might choose to end it there with the emphasis of “think twice before you do something naughty because there are consequences”.

But that’s not where we ended.

The consequence for sin is terrifying. It is final. The Israelites were right to be afraid. The kids and the leaders all know that we mess up and are selfish and deliberately rebel against God. What do we do?!

Jesus.

How good it is to have this account in Scripture that points us to our need for Jesus! The consequence for our sin is death. And Jesus in his mercy and love took that consequence on himself. He has rescued us. We are made alive because of him. We live every day in gratefulness for his amazing rescue.

Help us as Crossroads Kids leaders point our kids to Jesus and his amazing gift of life that he gives us.

Your sister,

Christine Jolly

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Promoting Pre-Season

We need your help getting the word out to every new and returning student to UTAS in 2020 about University Fellowship of Christians Pre-Season Conference. Below are the links and information you’ll need to help us spread the word.

We also welcome all students

• taking a Gap Year,

• studying at TAFE,

• or are mature age students.

This year I'll be delivering one of the main sermons to the young women on the Seed Parables in Matthew, as well as, two electives on "The Gospel and Christian Living" and "The Local Church".

Here's our pitch:

"Kick off your Uni year by coming back early from holidays to join new and returning students in getting ready for the new year of mission on campus. We organise a relaxed program with a generous mix of thoughtful teaching, practical training, free time and social activities.

"New to Uni in 2020? Pre-Season is a particularly great way to transition from your High School life to your new University one. It provides an opportunity to find familiar faces, make friends and start working out what your faith looks like in the new phase of life you now find yourself."

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Questions? Contact info@ufcutas.org

Location: Wellspring Church Building, Sandy Bay

Timetable
Wednesday - Friday, 19-21 February 2020

• 9:30am Main Session: Kingdom Parables in Matthew (Mikey, Christine, Cameron: student president of Launceston Uni Fellowship, and Alan)

• 10:30am Morning Tea

• 11pm-12am Electives: The Gospel and Christian Living (me), The Local Church (me), AFES and Uni, Contextualisation, Ministry of the Pew, Welcoming and Belonging

• 12pm-1pm Lunch: in Faculty Clusters: Health, Arts, Science

• 1pm-2pm Fellowship Groups: pray for our classmates, friends, campus mission, national movement and world missions and read the Bible with the same students you will meet together weekly with in your area of study

• 2pm-3pm Two Ways to Live Training: All in

• 3pm-5:30pm Afternoon Social Activity: Bushwalk, Coffee Crawl, Sports, Beach, Games, Botanical Gardens

• 5:30pm Dinner

• 6pm Evening Activity: The Wellspring Cinema Experience, Banquet, After Party hosted by a local church

Cost: $59 (evenings only), $79 (full conference), $250 GOLDEN TICKET (includes Pre-Season AND Mid Year Conference at a heavily discounted price)

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Christine Jolly, preaching on Esther 6-8: Revenge and Redemption for Pre-Season Conference 2019.

Please use the above information and links below to helps us spread the word to young people in your churches whether they are

• doing a Gap Year,

• studying a trade at TAFE,

• are a mature-age student, or

• are starting or returning to UTAS this year.

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5 Resources for Bible and Prayer … AND MORE (UPDATED)

As we start a new year, many of us pause to consider how we might proceed with shaping our own discipline of reading the Bible and communing with our God in prayer. I asked those in my Facebook group what resource they use to shape their personal relationship with God through His Word and Prayer.

One of the members of Christine: Behind the Scenes noted that she wants to not just focus on reading the Bible but she wants to read it well:

“I want to read the Bible with a focus on what it says about God’s character, his promise to us and focused readings on topics such as what it is to be loving and being in fellowship with others.”

Below are some of mine and their recommendations. Rather than feeling the internal pressure to do-it-all, why not find one of the below resources that might fit with what you want to do this year and make it work for you.

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Dwell

I supported this app’s launch. Dwell is a Bible listening app. If you’re not used to listening to the spoken word, it can take a bit of mental adjustment to get accustomed to it and mindfully re-focusing your mind if your thoughts stray. But it’s worth it. I enjoy listening to the same passage again but with a different voice. David (lovely older gentleman), Felix (a young man from Africa) and Rosie (an earnest woman from northern England) are my favorites.

Update 2/1/2022: They’ve added more translations and voices … including children!

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Daily Prayer

I have found that in my work, new followers of Jesus desperately want to learn to pray.

This app is gorgeous and gives you different prayers to pray following the rhythms of the day and seasons of the church and also prompts you to use the structure of the Lord’s Prayer to form your own prayer. I have notifications set up to prompt me to take a moment to pray.

There’s also Bible reading incorporated in the daily prompts including reading or listening to the Bible.

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A few people in Christine: Behind the Scenes enjoy using The Bible Project to give them an overview and big picture of Scripture.

The Bible Project’s mission is “to help people experience the Bible as a unified story that leads to Jesus.”

They have excellent series, themes and word studies on

• How to Read the Bible

• Justice

• Gospel

Update 2/1/2022: The Bible Project’s weekly podcast takes the conversation between Jon and Tim (and often includes Bible scholar, Carissa) deeper into some of the language and themes addressed in their videos. It’s the only podcast that I consistently listen to every week. I’ve learned so much.

They’ve also launched an app 1 January 2022 to help bring their content together. If you enjoyed their videos, the entire library is available on the app including hyperlinks to Bible passages and blogs, podcasts and resources while you watch the video. This year videos and podcasts and the app will be introducing Bible reading skills that will focus on the Pentateuch (first five books of the Bible). Rather than reading through the Bible in a year, I'm looking forward to slowing right down, reading through the different “movements” and re-reading in different translations (I’ve just bought an First Nations translation through IVP and my German Bible, as well as different English translations).

The Bible Project Classroom has also been a brilliant way to up-skill and refresh my Bible college/seminary education (15 years ago now). If you’re keen to study how the Hebrew Bible was put together or study the theme of Heaven and Earth or take a deep dive into a book of the Bible, I HIGHLY recommend the experience. There are 6 other students in the video, each from different backgrounds asking excellent questions along the way. I’d be keen to work through a class with a group of friends. And like ALL of their other content: It’s FREE!!! Paid for by generous supporters of their ministry.

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Verses

I think I might try this scripture memory app out this year. I like the game aspect of it, a bit like Duolingo for memorising passages of the Bible.

One of my student leaders from last year used this app and found that it worked really well for him. I asked him how he would advise others to get maximum benefit from it:

Repeat activities, even when it says you can move on, until you are confident in your own mind. Endeavour to understand and meditate on what you are memorising and why you want to remember it rather than being too focused on memorising lots of Bible verses.

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New City Catechism

I also love this resource. Redeemer Church has taken historical catechism and narrowed it down to learning one modernised question and answer per week over a year. Together as a church, men, women and children grew in their theological understanding of their historic faith.

My family used the kids’ version which led to some very interesting family discussion helping our daughters flesh out some deep theological truths. The app (or book) includes commentary from historic and contemporary theologians.

There are even songs for children to help with learning.

This year, I’m going to use the Verses App (above) to memorise the Scripture used in New City Catechism.

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Lectio 365 (added 2/1/2022)

I love using this app during the occasional lunch break. It helps me slow down, focus on listening to God through his Word, reflecting on it, speaking back to God how I desire to yield to and walk in step with his Spirit.

There’s also a family version that is great for the car commute to school together facilitating good family conversation, reflection and prayer together. (We walk to school so I can’t vouch for the carpool experience LOL.)

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Honourable Mentions: PrayerMate, YouVerson’s Bible in One Year and Bible Eater Plan were also mentioned in Christine: Behind the Scenes.

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Join Christine: Behind the Scenes for more discussions about resources and a behind the scenes look at my ministry.

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Top 5 Blog Posts of 2019

Happy New Year! These were the posts most viewed on christinejolly.com last year. Enjoy!

1. Review: Developing Female Leaders : Seriously, if you haven't got this book yet, read it and passed it on to your church leaders, what are you waiting for?! I'm buying 10 and keeping one in my work bag to always give away. Mikey, my boss, read the chapter on the Billy Graham rule and said:

   "Wow. Wonderfully written, nuanced, thoughtful...

   summarises a lot of stuff I've thought or had hunches about

   in a really clear way

   not *just* a women's book, eh?"

2. "We cannot say to the women: 'Go Home ...'" : Someone made a T-shirt of this last month. I'm not a fan of the design so if someone else is keen to give it a whirl, I want one.

3. Connecting and Investing : This year, several of you participated in a questionaire that really helped me fine-tune my approach in interacting with and caring for you, my gospel partners.

4. Jesus Is Light: a biblical theology sermon : In the bleak mid-winter here in Hobart, we gathered around God's Word and reminded ourselves of how God sent His Son to illuminate our sin and shame and show us His way, truth and life. You can listen to my sermon in the link above. 

5. Flair for the Dramatic : A supporter told me that the best bit of advice from this blog was to practice out loud how you intend to do it SIX times. This helped him prepare for an upcoming talk he needed to give.

2019 Stories from Students and Staff

This year we did a series on different religions, philosophies and worldviews called: The Universe Next Door. The first week of Semester 2 we were on the Sandy Bay Campus raising awareness about our group and this preaching series.

We invited students to 'vote' with a ping pong ball which view of God and the universe they most identify with (Atheism, Agnosticism, Deism, Polytheism, Pantheism or Monotheism) and then invited them to our events. This was amazingly successful with around 800 students participating during the week and several really good conversations.

Our first Citywide Gathering of the new semester had around ten guests, about five who weren't Christians. They really appreciated the evening and a few people have signed up for the Christianity 1A course!

The sermons from our Universe Next Door series have been uploaded to our website and podcast so you can listen along with us.

Mikey Lynch
Campus Director

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This year my involvement with the University Fellowship of Christians has been fairly busy, but very rewarding. This year was my first year on the Executive Committee, leading a Fellowship Group, and helping to run a Christianity 1A group. The Christianity 1A group that I helped to run in first semester has been a highlight this year. A group of recent Christians and non-Christians who were looking to further investigate Christianity met and went through a series of six studies together, based around Matthew’s gospel. In addition to providing experience with discovering the best way to read the gospel and discuss different concepts with non-Christians, it was also very rewarding to see other students slowly work to understand the gospel further and deepen their connection with Jesus.

Shea Bunge
Bachelor of Arts, 3rd Year

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This past semester I met with a young woman three times to discuss Jesus and life and doubts. First was after she made contact with us expressing interest in joining us. Second was after a crisis of identity and faith. Third was her telling me she is now ready to return home a different person with a clear mission. Her semester with us helped her own her faith in Jesus for perhaps the first time in her life. The quality of relationships our students extended to her helped make Uni Fellowship a safe space to ask hard questions about what it means to risk all to follow Jesus. Is he truly worth it? She now returns to her home country after only a semester ready to invest in other people's lives. "My cup is full. I feel I MUST share what others have given me while here," she told me. Working in campus ministry is fast-paced, equipping students to partner with us in our mission and investing in the short-term growth of young people for their long term benefit of being life-long disciples of Jesus.

Christine Jolly, Senior Staff
Fellowship Groups and Faculty Cluster Events

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A highlight of this year would have to be the student-led event, You Can’t Ask a Christian That! which took place halfway through Second Semester. The event allowed people to submit anonymous questions and have them answered by a panel on the night. The panellists consisted of a wide range of individuals, from clergy to students. Overall, the event was very successful, well received and we had even more attendees than was expected. The panellists provided us with some really well thought out answers, and the discussions that followed were really encouraging. We also had several people come along who had never attended a Uni Fellowship event before..From the collaboration between students during the planning, right through to the actual night, it was clear that God’s hand was in it all.

Harrison Newman
Bachelor of Pharmacy, 2nd Year

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I joined Uni Fellowship at the beginning of this year by attending the Citywide Gathering during O Week. Being raised in a Christian family was a privilege but wasn’t enough. It takes much more faith to understand Gods love for us. Moving to Hobart and joining Uni Fellowship has helped me to grow more in faith each day and to share his love among others has been a blessing. All the student leaders have become a major influence on me and have helped me see my path in the ministry serving God amongst my subcontinental community and everyone around me. Earlier this Semester, the Leadership Development and the mentoring chats have helped me develop my leadership abilities. It’s been a fruitful journey this year reflecting on the things I have learnt.

Sibin Varghese
Masters of Accounting, 1st Year

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Recently someone told me they are always disappointed in holidays once they end—that the rest they thought they’d get or the things they thought they’d do never fully came to fruition. I’d like to share with you one part of my recent long service leave which did reach my expectations. I wasn’t disappointed in when I had to return to my regular work (s an engineer eight weeks later. I was able to spend the first half of second semester volunteering with the University Fellowship of Christians at the Sandy Bay (and Conservatorium of Music) campuses. Starting with Mid Year Conference in Launceston, then O-week in Hobart, I was embedded with the staff and students. I attended many of the events, helped out on practical levels, and even did a bit of research. I was also able the chat with students who had questions about Christianity - both Christians and non-Christians. I was encouraged by the students’ enthusiasm, hospitality, and faithfulness as well as the great teaching and training.

Fiona Haynes, Alumna


Bachelor of Engineering (Civil), 2001

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First year back with Uni Fellowship has been a whirlwind! It’s been seven years since I last was on staff, so in one sense has felt like I’m back in my old stomping ground. Yet there’s also many new things to pick up! One fantastic part of our O Week mission is inviting all our new student contacts for coffee. This year I met Leon, a Buddhist med student who was open to hearing about Christianity. He and I have been meeting together for 9 months and in recent weeks have been reading the Gospel of Mark together. On the regular, I oversee training our new students in the basics of Christian leadership, and although I’m still finding my feet with the program, we had a fantastic year this year. I’m excited to see more students trained in word ministry, prayer and one-to-one discipleship!

Alan Reader, Senior Staff
Student Leadership and Training

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I moved down from NSW this year to start my first year at UTAS. I heard about University Fellowship of Christians through friends at my local church and I ended up joining in Semester 2 of 2019. The first Citywide Gathering I attended, I was very impressed with how friendly and welcoming everyone was. Soon after that I quickly started to join their other activities and Bible study groups they offered throughout the week. My favourite experience at Uni Fellowship this semester would be the Tuesday morning Leadership Development Program. These gave me the opportunity to gather weekly with other Christians of the same age and learn about God. This has really furthered my knowledge of the Bible and my personal growth with Christ. I am really keen to keep attending next year. I pray that Uni Fellowship continues to flourish and spread the Good News.

Etienne de Kock
Bachelor of Agricultural Science, 1st Year

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Attending Citywide was the beginning of what I hope will be a lifelong journey. A series of nudges had pointed me back toward God after many years away from church and I had begun to question ‘why would anyone be a Christian in this day and age?’ I was equal parts curious about this question and envious of the absolute sense of security my Christian friends seemed to feel.

One of my beautiful friends, who had been brought to Christ through the Fellowship two years prior brought me along to Citywide. Mikey’s preaching was unlike anything I had experienced before having grown up in a very conservative Greek Orthodox household. I was transfixed by the way he presented evidence about Jesus.

After this I signed up for Christianity 1A—although I thought I knew the Bible pretty well from my upbringing, I wanted to get back to basics and see things with new eyes… and Oh, did I ever! How did I never realise just how amazing Jesus was? A few weeks into Christianity 1A and after listening to just about every recording of the Fellowship podcast, I felt this intense assurance that what we were reading was the truth. I don’t think I ever knew what joy actually felt like before Jesus called me to him.

Not long after this, a close family member was diagnosed with terminal cancer and I realised that God knew I couldn’t walk that journey alone and so he called me back, knowing that it was time. I’m so grateful for the support networks that helped me realise how good he is.

Martha Galea
Bachelor of Business, 2019

Ministry Update

Year in Review

Thanks to your prayer and support during 2019 I have been able to do the following:

• Visit and promote my work to 8 local churches.

• Oversee and Train 8 Student Leaders.

• Design newletters, several fliers and digital images for Uni Fellowship.

• Present workshops and seminars for Uni Fellowship, Tasmanian and interstate events and conferences on a range of topics.

• Sit on 2 Q&A Panels.

• Oversee 8 Student Leaders.

• Preach twice.

• Train 22 recent grade 12 graduates to understand the gospel--not just the WHAT but also the WHY! I helped them develop a solid personal story share how they have personally encountered the good news of Jesus.

• Share resources and ideas with you in Christine: Behind the Scenes to benefit your own personal ministries.

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January Project

Our Staff Team Leader, Mikey Lynch, is great at encouraging us to pursue our passions to bring great benefit for the kingdom of God. He knows that I am passionate about women seeing themselves (and church leaders seeing women) as "co-laborers in the gospel" just as Paul called several women in the early church. We've had several of these sort of discussions in Christine: Behind the Scenes.

Mikey prompted me to consider using my time in January while the students are still away to develop an online resource that church planters can use to learn about how to recruit women on their teams and use them strategically as co-laborers in the gospel for the entire life and growth stages of the church. So stay tuned for more discussions in January as I begin fine-tuning these ideas and prepare a draft proposal for an online course for church planters. I've already floated the idea with two people at Geneva Push and they look forward to seeing what I have in mind.

Don't miss out on the project discussions! You can join the group here.

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2019 National Training Event

Nearly 2000 university students from around Australia gathered in Canberra in early December to be inspired by local and global mission to proclaim Jesus and to be trained in a variety of skills ranging from

• Knowing the gospel and telling God's story of redemption through their own story,

• Reading the Bible,

• Biblical Theology,

• Systematic Theology,

• Biblical Ethics,

• and Teaching a Series

A friend of mine went every year to NTE and did every strand.

I thoroughly enjoyed leading my week-long training with two other campus workers from Brisbane. My greatest delight was watching 22 recent Grade 12 graduates pour over passage after passage throughout all of the Bible that took them beyond their memorised gospel script into the WHY of Jesus needed to come and WHY they and their friends need Jesus. They are now equipped to have conversations on campus with their friends that will go beyond just sharing their testimony and a memorised gospel presentation. They can actually answer questions and cultivate an ongoing conversation with new friends.

At meals, you never know who you're going to sit with. I had several wonderful conversations with other staff and students. Please pray for Paula. Paula discovered this year that she can paint. In February, she sensed God leading her to create a painting ministry. Prompted by God to communicate his grace in her art, she sells her paintings to create parcels for those entering the psych ward at her local hospital.

You can follow her and read her writing on Instagram at project__grace

I'm looking forward to next year's NTE.

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Meet a Team Member

Pictured above is Anita Kapinga who was elected to be the 2020 President of University Fellowship of Christians' Student Executive Committee. She is also one of the students on my leadership team next year and one of the recipients of two books some of you generously donated.

1. How has Uni Fellowship helped you "proclaim Jesus and present everyone mature in him"? (Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students mission statement)

Uni Fellowship has taught me what it means to live out the great commission in whatever context I am in. It has given me practical tools and a supportive environment/ team which encourage me to proclaim the gospel, taking hold of all opportunities.

I have also learnt the importance of having Jesus central to everything I do and all my relationships. As Christians we must be continually learning from one another and pointing each other toward our Lord.

2. How have you benefited from 1 to 1 ministry in the past/present? What do you hope to learn in 2020 to hone this skill yourself?

I benefited enormously from 1:1 ministry with a former Uni Fellowship staff member, as we encouraged one another and spent a lot of time thinking about how each passage we read should change our lives and thinking.

In 2020 I hope to learn how to better move from friendly catch-up conversations, to conversations that count for eternity. I’d love to be able to have honest conversations about spiritual issues as a natural and regular part of my Christian relationships.

3. How might learning more about prayer help you be a better Fellowship Group leader?

In learning more about prayer myself, I hope to be able to use fellowship group time to pass on that knowledge by example and by sharing. I would love to be able to guide my fellowship group in prayer that brings all glory to God.

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Gospel Giving

This Christmas give a Gospel Gift to a friend and save the chicken, goat and school supplies for their birthday.

You can choose from the following gifts that will directly support the work I do in proclaiming Jesus and presenting our students mature in Him. You will receive a digital copy of your gift within 24 hours. For a print copy, please allow 1-2 weeks for delivery.

Your regular monthly contribution or one off gift goes a long way to making my work sustainable so that I can get on with proclaiming Jesus and presenting our students mature in Him.

If you'd like to know more about partnering with my work financially and giving the gift of the gospel, this Christmas, send me an email at christine@ufcutas.org . Or click on one of the Give buttons below.

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Family

Many friends, supporters and colleagues have approached me and asked me with deep concern about how 2019 has gone regarding my work. These expressions of concern really boggled me. It was my sister-in-law who brought clarity for me: their concern may come from knowing how difficult my daughters initially found transitioning to my new work commitments.

Of course!

My confusion can only come from that I think these last few months have gone really well. I think we've all forgotten their big feelings about my work.

If anything, I know we've "arrived" because when I was away in Canberra for 5 days, I received ZERO urgent text messages from family members. And all those jobs that my girls thought only mummy could do, they either trust their dad now to be able to do it or he has actually trained them to do it themselves.

They enjoy occasionally coming to my office (I've got games here we don't have at home) and meeting the students. The students and other staff (nearly all parents themselves) are marvelous about talking to them making them feel a genuine part of our ministry.

My girls have gone from resenting my early-morning or late-evening meetings to realizing that those meetings are actually rare and I still walk them to school most days and pick them up and cook dinner for them and am super available to talk about any tween dramas at school. Each night I'm home, after we pray and read, I stay with them while their music plays for one song each ... just in case there's one more thing they want to get off their mind or need just one more snuggle.

This year Mike and I have had some really constructive conversations about making sure we communicate our work commitments with each other well and also making sure our expectations around work are on the same page. (They were. We were just making sure. Definitely a regular healthy conversation to have!)

Today is the last day of school for our girls and both are looking forward to next year. Mike's work, on the other hand, is still going hard. We'll make sure he relaxes properly during the holidays.

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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.

Spurgeon: All at It: "We cannot say to the women, “Go home, there is nothing for you to do in the service of the Lord.” Far from it, we entreat Martha and Mary, Lydia and Dorcas, and all the elect sisterhood, young and old, rich and poor, to instruct others as God instructs them. Young men and maidens, old men and matrons, yes, and boys and girls who love the Lord, should speak well of Jesus, and make known his salvation from day to day."

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Upcoming Speaking Events

Bookings for speaking at your church, ministry, school or event are open for 2020.

Please contact me at christine@ufcutas.org to discuss your event.

28 March: Tasmanian Women's Bible Conference (Talk - Equipping Women in Word Ministry)

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Gospel Gift Catalog

This Christmas give a Gospel Gift to a friend and save the chicken, goat and school supplies for their birthday.

You can choose from the following gifts that will directly support the work I do in proclaiming Jesus and presenting our students mature in Him. You will receive a digital copy of your gift within 24 hours. For a print copy, please allow 1-2 weeks for delivery.

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$10 - A Coffee Conversation

This gift helps cover the cost of two coffees.

Christine will often meet with a new student who has expressed interest in learning more about University Fellowship of Christians at Tasmania’s only university. As they chat over a cuppa, Christine learns where they are at in their journey of knowing Jesus. They are then invited to participate in any of our events, learn more about Jesus through studying the gospel of Matthew with other students or join a weekly Fellowship Group of other Christians in their area of study.

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$30 - 2 Books for Student Leaders

This gift helps cover the cost of two books.

University Fellowship of Christians regularly gives books away to students to encourage deep and broad reading habits. Christine Jolly is giving two books each to her team of students who lead Fellowship Groups. In 2020, her team will be reading a book on prayer and another on 1 to 1 discipleship ministry. Over the year, these leaders will personally put into practice what they are learning, pass on this knowledge to their weekly Fellowship Group meetings, and use these skills for years to come.

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$50 - Team Planning Session

This gift helps cover the cost of a team planning session.

Christine Jolly’s role at University Fellowship of Christians is to equip and coach students through planning a series of evangelistic events throughout the year. Students from Arts, Science and Health coordinate events with the express purpose of inviting their friends and classmates to become friends with other Christians and to hear Jesus proclaimed as Saviour and Lord.

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$100 - Training Resource

This gift helps cover the cost of a training resource.

Christine is committed to training the next generation of church leaders. Part of that is creating resources such as blog posts, videos, and other forms of online content. All of that costs time and money. This gift helps make these resources accessible to not just the students on her team but also more broadly to local church members and leaders at local training events and the possibility of online video courses for church planters nationally.

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$250 - Training Seminar to Learn a Gospel Skill

This gift helps cover the cost of a training seminar.

Christine uses her teaching background to train students in a variety of gospel skills: how to understand and communicate the good news of Jesus clearly through telling your own story; how to think theologically about politics; how to understand the Gospel of John and its themes compared to the other gospels; how to use social media well as a Christian; how to grow in godly discernment; and so much more to come in 2020.

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$500 - Student Mentored over a Semester

This gift helps cover the cost of a mentoring a student over a semester.

Christine meets with students on her team and other young women to read the Bible and pray. She provides a safe space to ask deep, probing questions about what it means to follow Jesus as a student, leader and young woman. Her hope is that these students, having experienced a good mentoring relationship with her, will go on to do the same with others.

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$1000 - Communicating God’s Story through a Student’s Story

This gift helps cover the cost of training students to learn the gospel well enough to tell God’s story through their own story.

Over a week in Canberra, Christine teaches a group of recent grade 12 graduates from all over Australia to thoroughly understand the good news of Jesus so that they can authentically tell God’s story of redemption through telling their own story of encountering this good news. What a powerful skill to develop before stepping foot on their university campus!

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Your regular monthly contribution or one off gift goes a long way to making my work sustainable so that I can get on with proclaiming Jesus and presenting our students mature in Him.

If you'd like to know more about partnering with my work financially and giving the gift of the gospel, this Christmas, send me an email at christine@ufcutas.org . Or click on one of the Give buttons above.

Gospel Giving This Christmas

Front of Gift Card

For those of you who have prayerfully partnered with me and my work financially, I am returning a portion of your contribution this month in the form of a gift that you can pass on to a friend or family-member this Christmas season.

You'll be giving the gift of the gospel instead of a goat or a chicken or school supplies.

For those who have been thinking and praying about giving to the work I do, I'm printing more covering a few different aspects of my work:

• 2 books for a student leader to grow and learn as a follower of Jesus

• A Fellowship Group Leaders team planning session

• Resources created for training students and church leaders

• A Training seminar for students to learn a gospel skill

• Student mentored over a semester

• Training students from across Australia over a week to understand the good news of Jesus and communicate God's story through telling their own story
  

Your regular monthly contribution or one off gift goes a long way to making my work sustainable so that I can get on with proclaiming Jesus and presenting our students mature in Him.

If you'd like to know more about partnering with my work financially and giving the gift of the gospel, this Christmas, send me an email at christine@ufcutas.org . Or click the Give Now button below.

Back of Gift Card

I am Thankful for You

Thank you.

Because of your support, partnership and investment, I got to be employed in gospel work this year.

Because of you I get to spend my days proclaiming Jesus, in prayerful dependence on God, in partnership with our students at the University of Tasmania on a small island state south of Australia, at the uttermost end of the earth.

Together with the other staff, we are working towards presenting our students mature in Him, raising up the future leaders of the church, sending them out as missionaries wherever God leads them.

Thank you.

Students as Priests

On one hand we invite friends to church or Bible study ... but are we priests? The staff at University Fellowship of Christians hope to equip and encourage our students to be just that.

Desi, a graduate and alumna of Bulgarian Christian Student Union, remembers her time at university as one in which students were like aliens, living in a foreign land of the secular campus, and thieves, snatching people from darkness and bringing them into the light of a relationship with their Creator and Lord.

But Desi wishes she had also been a priest: 1 Peter 2:9-12

 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

Desi says:

Don’t make the same mistake as I made. You can live out your role on campus as a royal priesthood. Perhaps you will ask a question that will change the mind of your lecturer forever. Perhaps you will hold a position regarding a theory that will make a lasting impression on your classmate. Perhaps you will do something that will make people curious about your faith. Perhaps a bold act will turn into an echo that will change your university, city or even society.

You can read her entire article here at the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students blog.

A grand example of some of our students acting as priests on campus are Eve and Courtney.

Eve started The UTAS Zero Waste Society and Courtney did the write-up about the society for Togatus, the university's independent societies magazine.

University Fellowship of Christians staff do not want to monopolize the social calendars of our students and want to as much as possible free them up to engage in Uni life and develop meaningful relationships, making an impact on our culture.

Please pray for our students and leaders that we may continue to serve in God’s kingdom as priests.

"We cannot say to the women: Go home ..."

From Charles Haddon Spurgeon’s sermon All at It:

"As there were no exceptions on account of educational defects, so were there no exclusions on account of sex. Men and women were to spread abroad the knowledge of Jesus. We read that, “As for Saul, he made havock of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison. Therefore they that were scattered abroad” (and these must have been men and woman) “went everywhere preaching the word.” There are many ways in which women can fittingly proclaim the word of the Lord, and in some of these they can proclaim it more efficiently than men. There are minds that will be attracted by the tender, plaintive, winning manner in which the sister in Christ expresses herself. A Christian mother! What a minister is she to her family! A Christian woman in single life — in the family circle, or even in domestic service— what may she not accomplish, if her heart be warm with love to her Saviour! We cannot say to the women, “Go home, there is nothing for you to do in the service of the Lord.” Far from it, we entreat Martha and Mary, Lydia and Dorcas, and all the elect sisterhood, young and old, rich and poor, to instruct others as God instructs them. Young men and maidens, old men and matrons, yes, and boys and girls who love the Lord, should speak well of Jesus, and make known his salvation from day to day."

The entire sermon is absolutely delicious. Enjoy!

Ministry Update

I am ordering books for my team of student leaders to work through next year: Tim Keller's book Prayer and Sophie de Witt's discipleship book One-to-One. I'm ordering 6 copies of each.

I would love to invite you to sponsor a copy or two you can give a one-off gift of $15 or $30.

Australian: Click Here to Give

United States/UK (tax deduction): Click Here to Give

I will write your name in the front cover so that students will know that you have blessed them with their copy of the book and have invested in the learning, training and discipleship.

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In 2020, I plan to host 4 events for YOU, my prayer and financial supporters to come and learn together. I will present some of the content and workshop/electives I've led for the students and also take you through a history of women serving on mission in the church throughout the centuries. Stay tuned for more information in the Facebook group and these email updates.

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Family

My family and I have just returned from our pilgrimage (every 3 years) to visit my grandmother who lives in the high dessert north of Los Angeles. My parents (missionaries in Germany) also flew out from Germany to join us. We enjoyed early morning donut runs, warm weather and piddling about with family on nature walks, Native American museum, playing with old-school Barbies and lunches at the local rural airport diner.

I did my best to check-out of work-mode and be 100% present, enjoying my family.

Ella and Olivia loooooooooooved Chick-fil-A and swimming in my auntie's pool. Locals thought they were nuts as the water was too cold for them but not for us Tasmanians.

Mike reconnected with some cyclying buddies from last time and participated in a race our first weekend there.

Please pray for that region of the US. They are currently experiencing devastating wild fires that began while we were there.

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Connecting and Investing

In August, I worked with a local church's elders and church members to begin an ongoing conversation to identify and equip and empower and encourage the men and women in their congregation into leadership positions that were available to them. The elders had observed a gender imbalance in certain church roles and welcomed the opportunity to help them fill these gaps for the sake of the gospel so that both men and women were complementing each other in the mission of the church to see their community know Jesus and become mature followers of Jesus. In return, the church blessed me by investing in my work on campus with university students.

While in America with my family this past month, I've also welcomed new financial supporters bringing up the monthly financial support by $200 per month. The missions coordinator at the church we attended also invited me to keep them posted and send through more information about how they can pray and support my work.

If you'd like to invest in my work through regular, ongoing financial support, please click on the buttons below.

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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.

The Early Church Thrived Amid Secularism and Shows How We Can, Too: "Faithful Christians have gone before us, bearing witness to the truth of Christianity, the power of the gospel, and the high calling of discipleship. Calling out across the centuries, they tell us that it is possible now, as it was then, to live as faithful followers of Jesus the Lord in a culture that does not approve of it or reward it."

Evangelizing Youth in a Selfie Age: [AUDIO] “The thing about the Narcissus myth is that Narcissus wasn’t just in love with himself; he was in love with the image of himself. I think that’s very interesting in an Instagram age—we fall in love not even with ourselves, but with the curated image of ourselves we project into the world. And yet it’s so empty, it’s so hollow. So you’ve got this really interesting disjunction between investing in an image and, at the same time, the prizing of authenticity.” — Glen Scrivener

The Cross Is Our Stairway to Heaven: "Our salvation was not a transactional matter of a horizontal fix. We are those who have been rescued from a vertical drop. Our salvation comes not from someone on our level, but from someone infinitely above it. How great his condescension! How high and wide and long and deep. And so we confess the source and location of this salvation: 'I lift up my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord.'”

The (Successful) Pursuit of God: "As Tozer wrote himself, 'Our pursuit of God is successful just because he is forever seeking to manifest himself to us.' This is a generous view of God, more generous than Tozer embodied perhaps. Because I have to believe that the manifestation of God isn’t limited to hours prostrate on the floor or the neglect of a family in zealous pursuit of ministry."

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Upcoming Speaking Events

3 November - Good News Christian Church (missions spot)
22 November - St. Johns Presbyterian Church (youth group)
29 November - 4 December - AFES National Training Event (NTE): Strand 12 Leader

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Ministry Update

This partnership that you and I have in proclaiming Jesus to University of Tasmania students and presenting them mature in Him can feel very one-sided:

• You are praying for me and our work on campus.

• You are financially giving so that I can do the work required.

• You are opening emails and reading updates and showing up to our events to support us and interacting in my group on Facebook.

I intend to improve our partnership and let you know that I am genuinely praying for you, your family and your mission.

"For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better." Ephesians 1:15-17

In light of that, expect to hear from me. I will ask how I can pray for you and better partner with you as Paul did with those who supported him in prayer and meeting his physical needs.

In the photo above is my prayer notebook. You'll have a page dedicated to you and a record of how I am praying for you.

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Family

Both of my daughters have signed up for the primary schools Southern Tasmanian triathlon. Phew! This is new territory for me. I was never very sporty.

We just finished using New City Catechism as a family. Each night Mike read a question and we all had a go at sharing what we thought the answer might be and then discussed the answer given in our book. In future years, we might return to the resource again, using the devotional where two prominent theologians (historical and contemporary) flesh out the concepts raised. The app is excellent, including both a child's version, adult version, accompanying scripture and commentary, and songs.

Mike and I had the rare opportunity to do ministry side-by-side. The Uni Fellowship Arts and Science students put on a Q&A event You Can't Ask a Christian That! Mike and I were paired together and answered questions about abortion, hell and religious freedom. Over the night other panelists answered nearly 30 questions, each person consistently pointing to the gospel of Jesus Christ over and over again in their answers. Nearly 50 people came along, 30 people who were not previously connected to Uni Fellowship.

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Connecting and Investing

Looking at my chart above you can see how up and down my own incoming finances are each month. I'm so close to my goal line but not quite. Some do like what my husband and I used to do, give a large sum once a month which puts me over the line. But if they were to give even a small amount steadily over the years, the more sustainable and stable my finances can be.

If we dip below 60% regular giving, we are required to give a significant portion of our work-week to raising more financial support. I'm not there, by the grace of God, but that is largely because I've opted to be paid for only 2 days a week of work rather than the 2.5 my role requires and I'm actually working.

If you'd like to invest in my work through regular, ongoing financial support, please click on the SUPPORT button below.

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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.

Liturgy of the Ordinary: Tish Harrison Warren breaks down the mundane activities of a 24 hour period and shows us how our lives are a living sacrifice, even the mundane ritual act of brushing our teeth, caring for the vessel that God created for our souls day in and day out. Insightful for those who feel like life ought to be always lived on the edge for the sake of the gospel.

Plugged In: connecting your faith with what you watch, read and pray : Daniel Strange writes about how Christians consume culture. "Whether it's TV boxsets, Instagram stories or historical novels, we all consume culture. So it's important that we are neither bewitched by it—buying into everything it tells us—or bewildered by it—lashing out in judgment or retreating into a Christian bubble."

Daughters of the Church: women and ministry front New Testament times to the present: Of particular interest to me was the chapter on Bible Women during the modern missionary movement who worked alongside of Western missionaries going before them, preparing the way for the gospel, assisting them and staying behind to build up the church, women and children. They worked as translators, teachers, evangelists and were invaluable to the rapid growth of the gospel and Christianity throughout previously unreached regions of the world.

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Upcoming Speaking Events

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
23 October: Tasmanian Church Planting Conference, Elective, (Church and Social Media)
29 November - AFES National Training Event (NTE): Strand 1 Leader

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Debrief: You Can't Ask a Christian That!

Our science and arts students pooled their resources together and put on a Q&A session that proclaimed Jesus at every turn. My husband and I enjoyed being teamed up and having a go at answering the following questions:

• Should christians who do not support termination of pregnancy do more to support young mothers?

• Can some Christians be pro-life and other Christians be of the view that women should have the right to choose whether or not to have children?

• From my understanding, Christians need to have a faith and belief in God in order to inherit eternal life. With that in mind, what happens to the people that never get a chance to hear about the Christian faith, therefore missing out on the opportunity to believe in the God? Where will they end up?

• With the understanding that Christianity is the faith upon which western morals are based, should we have freedom of religion?

Here’s some stats for you:

• 47 people attended.

• 30 guests joined us at our You Can't Ask a Christian That! event.

• 3 sets of 2 panelists answering 4 questions per set.

• 3 late questions put to the whole panel.

• 27 mini-evangelistic sermons proclaiming Jesus as the answer over an hour.

• 1 stirring testimony from a student, who attended a Christian school but didn't feel that it was safe to ask all of her skeptical questions until she joined us at Uni Fellowship.

The event was excellent all around and 100% planned and owned by our students.

Please pray for those who attended, who still have questions. They've all been invited to join a Christianity 1A class and also come along to this afternoon's lecture "Aren't All Religions the Same?" and Thursday night's Citywide Gathering lecture on Atheism.

Anna from Sydney was recently down in Hobart for work and popped in to check out one of our Faculty Cluster Events. She had this to say:

“One of the highlights of my stay was the chance to attend a Uni Fellowship event on the Monday night. The event was called 'You Can't Ask A Christian That' (inspired by the ABC TV series 'You Can't Ask That'), and was entirely student-run.

“Students could submit their questions online before the event, and then six panellists took turns (in teams of two) to answer the questions.

“There was also a testimony from a student who had recently become a Christian through the uni ministry, and a break for free pizza.

“The panellists all gave clear, faithful, measured and respectful answers to some very curly questions.

“I was particularly encouraged by an answer one of the student panellists (Anita) gave to a question about Christians and the LGBTQI+ community. She answered in a way that was incredibly loving, gentle, and compassionate, while also clear and faithful to the Bible.

“It was also wonderful to hear the powerful testimony from Eve, another student in the group.

“This really motivated me to continue praying for and financially supporting the ministry in Hobart so that the students and staff can reach even more people on campus.”

Thank you for sharing your experience with us, Anna.

Ministry Update

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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."

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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