It's been an exciting start to the year. 2016 sees the beginning of many new ministry opportunities such as Student ministry with Phillip Jensen, the Governing Board at Moore and taking on responsibilities as a senior Student at Moore. At the same time it is the beginning of the end of my time at Moore, with a view to beginning full time Word ministry next year, concerning which, Pip and I have been given confirmation of what we will be doing next year which is exciting.
Student ministry with Phillip Jensen at Two Ways Ministries
I have learnt so much from Phillip already this year. Phillip has been running a Two Ways To Live - theology of - course for college students which has been really helpful in explaining the essential doctrines of the gospel. I have been catching up with Phillip every Friday afternoon for 2 hours where we chat about ministry and to make sure we are following up people who have been coming to Phillips two ways to live seminars or who we want to invite to the conferences later in the year. He has helped me understand our role in ministry as primarily being about training others for ministry. Please pray for me that I would grow in my ability to train people for evangelism as I run the 2W2L course for students at college and continue to take people out for evangelism. And pray for Vince, from China, who I met through walk up and have been reading the bible with over the last month. He has grown much in his understanding of the gospel and has been challenged to respond to the gospel
Serving college this year
Student ministry with Phillip Jensen at Two Ways Ministries
I have learnt so much from Phillip already this year. Phillip has been running a Two Ways To Live - theology of - course for college students which has been really helpful in explaining the essential doctrines of the gospel. I have been catching up with Phillip every Friday afternoon for 2 hours where we chat about ministry and to make sure we are following up people who have been coming to Phillips two ways to live seminars or who we want to invite to the conferences later in the year. He has helped me understand our role in ministry as primarily being about training others for ministry. Please pray for me that I would grow in my ability to train people for evangelism as I run the 2W2L course for students at college and continue to take people out for evangelism. And pray for Vince, from China, who I met through walk up and have been reading the bible with over the last month. He has grown much in his understanding of the gospel and has been challenged to respond to the gospel
Serving college this year
Governing board
I was elected as the Moore Theological College Student Representative on the Governing Board of the college which is a real privilege. It involves catching up with people like the Archbishop and the Principle of Moore every two months to discuss and make decisions on behalf of the college in regards to all manners of things like finances, enrolments, building management and planning for the future. In many ways it functions much like a parish council in a regular church and so this experience I'm sure will prove valuable for ministry over sight in the future.
Job hunt
After 6 years of training for full time Word Ministry were finally nearing the end of our time at college. Whilst the list of advertised jobs for next year comes out in June, I decided to be proactive and to put a resume together in December which I sent out in early January. We have had interviews with four different churches. Pip and I are thankful that God has gifted us in a variety of ways which we feel equips us for a variety of ministry roles including youth, young adults, evangelism, university ministry and schools chaplaincy. We have been primarily looking to find a staff team that we could see our selves working well with so it is important that we get to know the staff team well in particular the Senior Minister and his wife as this is the most vital relationship.
On Saturday a youth/ young adults Assistent Minister position was confirmed at St David's Forestville - PRAISE GOD! They have a theologically strong staff team, an evangelical model of ministry and Pip and I get on well with the Senior Minister and his wife. Its rare to have a position firmed up this early so God has been very gracious. Thanks so much for all your prayers. Pray we finish the year well at College and that God would prepare us well for taking on this position next year and that we would begin to develop strong relationships with the staff team and lay people there.
Senior student
I have enjoyed serving the community at college, particularly in my role in overseeing how we serve one another at college and helping to orient the first years.
Ivf
We are currently doing our last round of IVF for this cycle. If this round is not successful we are going back to a specialist to see if there are any more tests we can do. Please pray this round would be successful, but also that we would joyfully trust God whatever the outcome. And please pray, in the event that it doesn’t succeed that our time with the specialist would give us a better insight into what might be causing our unknown infertility that we might take whatever steps necessary to help fix the problem.
Infertility support night
Pip and I held an infertility support night for couples at college a few weeks ago. It was important not only for supporting, praying and reading the bible with people but also for raising awareness about the reality that many people at college struggle with infertility. By raising awareness the hope was that people who struggle might be more willing to share their struggle with others and how God is at work in it. Also, that people who don’t struggle might know that God’s word is sufficient for them to be able to minister to such people. Our conviction is that God has given this hardship to us for a reason that we might glorify him, give thanks for all God is doing through this, and comfort others with the comfort we have received.
Dig
Infertility support night
Pip and I held an infertility support night for couples at college a few weeks ago. It was important not only for supporting, praying and reading the bible with people but also for raising awareness about the reality that many people at college struggle with infertility. By raising awareness the hope was that people who struggle might be more willing to share their struggle with others and how God is at work in it. Also, that people who don’t struggle might know that God’s word is sufficient for them to be able to minister to such people. Our conviction is that God has given this hardship to us for a reason that we might glorify him, give thanks for all God is doing through this, and comfort others with the comfort we have received.
Dig
As a DIG Committee member, I have been helping plan for this years DIG Conference. We had 493 people attending this year which is exciting. The talks were on Romans 8 around the topic of freedom, and everything we did up front and over the coarse of the weekend was designed to point back to the Word of God. We also had a seminar by Patricia Weerakoon on Sex, Gender and Identity which was very helpful and timely. I was encouraged to see so many youth groups serving over the weekend. Please pray that the Word of God would continue to dwell in people richly that those who came to the conference would be built up to trust and persevere in Christ.
Change in financial situation
Thanks so much for your prayerful and consistent partnership in the gospel. Your ongoing partnership with us and the opportunities we get to spend time having meals with you and hearing about what God is doing in your lives is a constant encouragement to us. At the end of last year we were down to $100 in savings and it was amazing being reminded of Gods providence as the exact amount we were praying for as a buffer to start the year was sent to us right after we sent out our supporters letter! At the beginning of the year we sent out a target that we were hoping to raise through our supporters of $14,000. Though I was not originally going to be receiving a student ministry bursary, recently Phillip Jensen told me that they were in a position to offer me such a bursary. After discussing this with Pip we accepted the bursary. What a blessing. This means that we are now asking for less from you, our supporters.
This means that we reducing the amount we are asking by $7,790 which is the bursay from TWM which is equal to the Diocesan recommended student minister stipend. This takes the amount we were asking for this year down from $14,496 to $6,706. So far we have received $6,255 So to reach our target we are only asking for another $451. In the past a few one-off amounts helped us considerably in reaching our goal. Considering that the amount we are now asking for has reduced, we ask if you could not send us any larger one-offs as the continual regular support we have been receiving will be more than enough for the rest of the year. In fact, it looks like we will reach our goal well before then, so we will keep you updated.
If you have already given a certain amount based upon our original budget and would like to have us send you back some of what you have given please let us know and we will happily send it back.
Thankyou so much for your generosity and support towards us in going above and beyond what we had asked. We would love to hear from you and how we can pray for things in your lives also!
Change in financial situation
Thanks so much for your prayerful and consistent partnership in the gospel. Your ongoing partnership with us and the opportunities we get to spend time having meals with you and hearing about what God is doing in your lives is a constant encouragement to us. At the end of last year we were down to $100 in savings and it was amazing being reminded of Gods providence as the exact amount we were praying for as a buffer to start the year was sent to us right after we sent out our supporters letter! At the beginning of the year we sent out a target that we were hoping to raise through our supporters of $14,000. Though I was not originally going to be receiving a student ministry bursary, recently Phillip Jensen told me that they were in a position to offer me such a bursary. After discussing this with Pip we accepted the bursary. What a blessing. This means that we are now asking for less from you, our supporters.
This means that we reducing the amount we are asking by $7,790 which is the bursay from TWM which is equal to the Diocesan recommended student minister stipend. This takes the amount we were asking for this year down from $14,496 to $6,706. So far we have received $6,255 So to reach our target we are only asking for another $451. In the past a few one-off amounts helped us considerably in reaching our goal. Considering that the amount we are now asking for has reduced, we ask if you could not send us any larger one-offs as the continual regular support we have been receiving will be more than enough for the rest of the year. In fact, it looks like we will reach our goal well before then, so we will keep you updated.
If you have already given a certain amount based upon our original budget and would like to have us send you back some of what you have given please let us know and we will happily send it back.
Thankyou so much for your generosity and support towards us in going above and beyond what we had asked. We would love to hear from you and how we can pray for things in your lives also!
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