Update from King's College

Swot Vac…Australian for, “We get a whole week off to study for our final exams which are spread over the following two weeks.” Sounds like an idea we need to adopt in the States. This week has been nothing but a study week for most of the men at King’s. Thus, most of our visits have found Kingsmen either studying diligently or procrastinating hastily. Thankfully, we have been able to get dinner each night this week with a Kingsman, and God has blessed our conversations with these men greatly. Please pray for continued opportunity for Gospel conversations with these men as we finish up our time here in the next couple weeks. The retreat last weekend was a great time of fellowship with our brothers and sisters here, and it was great to hear God’s Word going out before all of the Australian students. Sunday night we had a Mexican Fiesta at our place for any of the students from the colleges that we have been ministering at, and it turned out great! We had over fifty people present before the night was over! This coming Sunday night we are having an ice cream party at our place after the last Impact meeting of the semester. Please pray that God would bring all of our friends we have made here, so that we can all say farewell to one another, as many of the students will be taking exams during our last week here and may not have time for us to visit. Also this Sunday, a friend from Kings is taking us to see some Australian sights and culture. Please pray that God would use the great relationship He has given us with him to be able to share Christ with him. Lastly, please pray for our time tonight with one of our friends from Kings who we are going to a rugby game with. We have not had much time to get to know him yet, but we are praying that tonight will be a giant leap in our relationship.

Update from St. John's College

This week at John’s has been an exciting one. We had a fiesta at our house where four guys from John’s came out to hang. We had a great time hitting the homemade piñata that was made and everyone loved the burritos and tacos that we had. This week we have also had a compassion for the guys we have been spending time with, looking for every opportunity to talk with guys by themselves about spiritual things. At times it was disappointing, because things did not go our way, but God is sovereign and his will be done. Just the other day we had the opportunity to get in the word with Tom Cootes and go through Ephesians 2. We were able to challenge him to look at his life to see if Christ is the cornerstone of his life, the foundation of his life. Some things to be praying through for this week are:
- Creative ideas for last days on campus
- Rugby game, opportunities with Matt Hornick
- Poker game next Wednesday

Update on the Women's Ministry

Hey Mates,

It is starting to feel more like winter…brrr. This week is the last full week with the students, so we are pushing and praying hard. God has really blessed us with strength to finish strong and to not be comfortable when we really want to be comfortable. It is so sweet how God has given us trust with the girls. We have come a long way in our relationships with these girls as they are starting to be more open to talking about what is really on their hearts, such as sharing about their walk with the Lord or about what they think of Christianity.
The retreat went really well and we had a great time. It was so amazing to see God bring some of the girls we were praying for to the retreat, even when they said they were too busy to come. It was a really good time to have deeper conversations about the gospel and it has given us more opportunities to follow up with these girls on what they learned at the retreat.
This week is SWOTVAC and most students are buckling down and studying hard for their exams. Lisa and I bought a lot of lollies (candy) and made biscuits (cookies) and brownies for all the girls we have been building relationships with. It also gave us more opportunities to love them and to get more time with them when they needed to take breaks. This week, we also invited one of the main girls involved in Unimpact and some of our friends to come to our unit to bake cookies so they could get away from their college for a little while. God has been so faithful in our prayers and have really used the times we get to hang out with the girls to have meaningful conversations, which we have been praying for. (We had a really encouraging time with a girl named Clare who we even had the opportunity to share about how we became Christians and what it is like for us.) We are going to a Rugby game tonight, so please pray that girls would come and that it would be a chance to ‘shine like stars’ before these girls as God draws those girls closer to Himself. God can move mountains; He can surely use Rugby games for His glory.

Update from Cromwell College

Our time is almost over in Australia, with only about a week to go! We've learned so much about dorm and life ministry from this summer being campus ministers. We're much more prepared for next semester back at school on Tennessee Tech! We still don't know what we're called to do for the rest of our lives after school, but we have time to think and pray about it.
It's great to see what God is still doing here. We've been hanging out with a freshman Tigger, and he's been really enjoying our company, we believe. He was one of the guys that seems the least spiritually interested. This week, which is a study week for college students before their finals, we were spending more time with him studying, so he could study as well. He asked us how we became Christians which was really strange because he seemed like he had no interest. We told him our story and asked him about his, but he said he didn't have one. We began asking him other questions about his beliefs, family, and experience with Christianity, but he basically had no thoughts or background. Also, we've been and want to continue doing bible studies with Chris who has been really interested in Christianity. Just be praying for him and Tigger because God's been really opening them up to us.

Update from King's College

Another uplifting week has passed at King’s College. God blessed us with some more time and deeper conversations with some of our new friends here. A couple more guys opened up this week to talk with us about spiritual things, which was extremely encouraging. On Tuesday we were able to introduce David to a guy named Marc that we met playing basketball. God opened up the door for David into spiritual conversation with Marc, and after talking with David, Marc came to the conclusion that he was not a Christian. He wants to talk more with us as he is trying to understand the Gospel, so please pray that God would give us much time with him in our last weeks here and that he would become connected with the ministry here. Praise God for opening his heart and giving him an interest in talking with us! This Wednesday was the last meeting of the weekly Bible study, as the students are now moving into the end of their semester and final exams. Please pray for a retreat we are going on this weekend with many students, Christian and non-Christian, from the university. Pray that God’s Word would go out, and that everyone there would be drawn closer to Him.

Update from Emmanuel College

G’day Mates,

God proved faithful again this week! The fiesta at our house was awesome, God brought about fifty people out. Our day in the city was also a really fun time. The friendship God gave us with Thomas has been very profitable. We were able to naturally talk about spiritual things with him this week. Thomas shared with us what he believed and we got to share what Christ has done in our lives. After we got done talking he said he would be willing to talk again about the claims of Christ. So pray that God would continue to work in his heart and bring him to faith and repentance. We are trying to be an encouragement to the body here and inspire them to live a life that is worthy of God who has called them into His own kingdom and Glory. So pray that God would instill a vision for His kingdom in the hearts of the Christians at Emmanuel. Thanks so much for all of your prayers.

Update from Cromwell College

God has been blessing our ministry here at Cromwell College. We’ve been hanging out spending quality time meeting and eating with guys in the dining hall. It has been natural for us to share the gospel and spiritual things openly with a guy named Chris. We shared the depths of our sin that Christ rescued us from a lot this week. We explained the gospel and our testimonies in a way where he could understand what coming to Christ is all about. He began responding with confession of sin and remorse for it. We could see God removing the blinders from his eyes to see his need for purpose and satisfaction in Jesus. He seemed to be overwhelmed and had a repentant heart but was scared to become a Christian. He had several key questions that we tried to shed some light on. We kept going back to the gospel and helping him see what following Jesus is all about. At the end of the long conversation, he humbly asked if we could pray. So, we laid hands on him and prayed for God to come to his rescue and save him. We are planning on starting a bible study with him so please be praying for us and him. We are also trying to ease into spiritual talk with other friends we’ve made, so please keep Tigger, Echo, and Kenneth specifically in your prayers.