May 2005

“How deep the Father’s love for us! How vast beyond all measure!” These lyrics are so true. A series we did recently at iChurch on ‘The Cross’ was a wonderful reminder of this. For it’s the Cross that gives us assurance of God’s love for us, beyond all question. May we keep Christ’s work as the very central focus of all that we do.

“For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified”(1 Corinthians 2:2)

In this letter I’ll try to fill you in a little on what we’re doing now in our new roles. I’m sorry I haven’t written earlier. I intended to send this edition in March!

CATH’S NEWS
The pictures of Cath were taken over a month ago. She’s now 3 weeks from her due date! Please thank God that Cath is doing really well, and the baby is healthy and very active. She is delighted to be home in Hobart with her family and close friends.
Cath’s quite busy because she’s continuing to study her education degree by correspondence. She’s enjoying coming to the FOCUS talks each week, seeing what I am up to around the uni, and catching up with lots of girls.
She’s also very happy to finally be in a unit, which is right next to the university (2 bedrooms!). This was our 4th move in the last 3 months, and it’s nice to feel like we’ll be staying put for a while. Cath is enjoying setting up our nursery.

JOE’S NEWS
I’m also doing really well. I’ve fitted back into the Hobart scene quite easily, although I do miss our friends in Sydney and the lifestyle there. Work at the Uni as an MTS Apprentice is really great. It has brought adjustments, which I’ve been coming to terms with reasonably quickly. After my days as a student, and then work as a teacher, I’m very addicted to timetables. One of the first things I did when I started work for FOCUS was to decide how I wanted to use my time, and then went about filling up my own custom made timetable! This helps me operate efficiently.
It also helps having an office at the Chaplaincy Centre on Campus. David Jones got me a desk and a computer there because he is the Presbyterian Chaplain. However he has very limited time to come into the Uni, so he’s glad to have me making the most of that facility and the resources that come with it.

FOCUS
Please thank God that we have made an excellent start to the year at FOCUS. Under Sam Green’s leadership we were able to get in contact with many first years. At this stage there are a group of about 60 students who come to our weekly main meetings. All up we’re trying to work with around 150 students from a very diverse range of church backgrounds, which is exciting.
One of the biggest highlights for me is the amount of evangelism that I’ve been able to do. At the moment I’m spending half a day each week doing stranger evangelism around the uni, but soon I hope to increase this to one day a week. There are about 5 other Christian students who help me each week with this. Please pray that this number also increases and that people come into God’s kingdom.
I also spend significant time meeting one-to-one with people each week. I’m trying to disciple 8 blokes through reading the Bible and praying together, getting them involved with evangelism and leading Bible studies on Campus. One of them is from Japan and he is not a Christian. I met him when doing stranger evangelism. Please pray that as he comes to understand the gospel he will put his faith in Jesus.
One of the Bible study groups I lead is called MCG (Medical Christian Group). We’ve had weekly Bible studies as well as social and evangelistic activities at the Med. Faculty. There are now about 6-8 regulars, and with God’s help we’re still trying to establish relationships with 12-14 others that we met in the first week of Semester.

iCHURCH
As you know, Cath and I are both involved with a local church for internationals called iChurch. We help lead public meetings on Sundays that consist of a talk, singing, and discussion over lunch. I’ve given one talk on the righteousness of God (Romans 3:21-26) in the series on the Cross I mentioned earlier, and 4 talks from Ecclesiastes. (I gave two of these talks at FOCUS recently). We also help lead bible studies on Thursday nights at the Chaplaincy where we all share a meal together and then break off into 3 bible study groups.
iChurch has a group of very committed leaders, but the work is hard. People attend very irregularly, and most of them are still developing their English. New people are coming and going all the time. Our congregation is made up of mostly Chinese and Korean students, with a few from Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, Columbia and Australia. Thank God for bringing 2 of our Chinese students to faith in Jesus. Please pray that God helps our church to grow with regular and committed Christians and provides more leaders.

“Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field” (Matthew 9:38)

COMING UP
Our baby is due on the 26th of May, so please keep praying for a safe arrival and that we will transition well into our new roles as parents.
The Mid-Year Conference this year for FOCUS will be on ‘The Kingdom of God’. I will be running an elective on ‘Preaching the Kingdom’. To understand the Kingdom is to understand the whole Bible, so please ask for God’s help with this. Please pray also that Cath and I will be able to make it to this, along with many others, as it will be very soon after the arrival of our bubs, God willing.

SUPPORT
Thanks so much for the support that you’ve shown us. I hope you can see how much we can thank God for, especially since we have been able to make a good start to the year through the generosity of so many. Please pray that God will continue to provide for us through the giving of others. At this stage we do need more financial support so that we can not only finish this year, but also continue during 2006.
If there’s someone who you know who would like to receive this newsletter, please let me know.

GRACE AND PEACE BE YOURS
Thanks for all of your prayers, Joe & Cath