October 2006

Welcome to Cafe Towns!

This is our first edition being read via our new blog site. (I've also posted our previous newsletters for the record.) How exciting!

"Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness." (2 Peter 1:2-3).

It's an amazing thought that everything we need for life and godliness has been given us by God through our knowledge of our Lord Jesus. Everything! We have it all in him, already. And that must mean we don't need anything that we don't already have in him. I find that so encouraging.

FAMILY NEWS

There's been so much happening, it's hard to know where to begin (which is probably why September's newsletter is being written in October!)

The move
It began when we saw in the Saturday paper a roomy 3bm unit with little yard and nice deck, going for $170pw! We knew we needed to move cause our lease was running out and the rent was going up. Plus Elijah needed somewhere to run around. And this place was perfect. Well, to cut a short story even shorter, by the following Wednesday we were sleeping in our new home! People say Joe 'moves' quickly, but this one even surprised us! We don't have a photo yet but hopefully you've received our new details by email. If not, let us know!

The family

We're all really enjoying our new place. Elijah's favourite spot is the back deck where he can kick around his soccer balls (he has more than one). (We like it as well cause the balcony's quite safe and he can't go anywhere). Other than reading picture books Elijah spends most of his time at the moment kicking balls. Cath's favourite stop is sitting in the lovely afternoon sun out the front. Joe's favourite place is the veggie patch cause he's always wanted to be able to grow more than just herbs. We also all enjoy living a few minutes walk from the beach. It's great to all get on a bike (we have a baby seat) and roll down to the water for a bbq in the early evening, now that daylight savings has kicked in.

If you'd like to hear more about Elijah, visit www.lijibeau.blogspot.com!

MINISTRY HIGHLIGHTS

Joe's final 'Sermons in Acts' in September went particularly well. He preached Peter's sermon to Cornelius' household from Acts 10 (The Unexpected Gospel - 'good' people need saving) and Paul's sermon to the Athenians from Acts 17 (The Unknown Gospel - 'smart' people need saving). The talks will be up on the web soon if you're interested (http://www.focusutas.org/talks/).

Breaking the ICE (Inter-Cultural Evangelism)

A highlight for Joe has been taking 10 plus students through a training course he's written on Inter-Cultural Evangelism called "Breaking the ICE." It's about understanding cultures and learning to communicate the gospel accordingly. The final week was an 'inter-cultural conversation meeting' where guests from China, Korea, Malaysia and Japan were invited along to share with us what they thought local Aussie students need to learn about Asian culture. It was really lively!

Issues for Internationals

At IBM we are finishing up the Semester with a short 3-week bible series called "Issues for Internationals," looking at the specific challenges posed to international Christians by their home cultures in relation to idolatry, persecution and cults. The studies in Acts involve lots of discussion and applications aimed at preparing Christians to return to their home countries.


Finishing Up

Joe is also presently organising the The FOCUS Wrap-Up Party and a FOCUS DVD to be sent out to you soon, along with our supporting churches. (Both these are replacing the FOCUS Report and Support Night of previous years). Their purpose is to give thanks to God for his work amongst us at the Uni during 2006, and to say a big thank you to all of our many supporters (that's YOU) who - through prayer and financial giving - have enabled us to do this work.


JOB HUNTING

Joe's ministry apprenticeship is finishing this month, in line with the end of the University Semester. As I'm sure you can imagine, this means applying for jobs and sitting interviews as they come. With this has come the renewed temptation to think that what we need for our lives, is not just our knowledge of the Lord, but all these other things as well... you know, all the things we feel like we need... all the things the world tells us that we need... like impressiveness - success and status. Praise God that "his divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him!" It's such a good reminder to us, because the truth is that we have everything we need already in Christ, and it's not any of that stuff. We can be content in Him.

"People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction... But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness." (1 Timothy 6:9, 11).

The challenge to pursue godliness at the expense of worldliness like materialism is something that we're really praying God will help us do at the moment while we make choices about career paths. We really want to transition into some type of work that allows us to continue being involved in ministry here in Hobart.

On-going support

I'll be ceasing work with AFES on October 29th. It's imortant to realise that financial support will continue to be debited until the National Office recieves written notice to cease that support or to transfer it to another area/staffworker. We said in our June Newsletter, "It will be a great help to the finances of AFES Tasmania if those of you who are able to continue supporting me financially do so for the remainder of the 2 year period of my MTS..."

There's three options, that I can think of:

1. You can continue to support me for a time to reduce the deficit I've left for AFES Tasmania, and I will notify you when this is completed. To do this, you just need to continue your giving.
2. You can transfer your support to another staffworker (such as Sam Green, or Damon Richardson and Mike Jolly, who are beginning their MTS with FOCUS in 2007). You can do this simply by emailing accounts@afes.org.au. (Or contacting AFES National Office, PO Box 684, Kingsford NSW 2032, ph. 02 9697 0313, fax 02 9697 9265.)
3. You may wish to stop your financial support to AFES. Again, you can do this by emailing accounts@afes.org.au.

Thank you again (!!!) for all your on-going support. Because of it, Joe's been able to spend 2 uni-years teaching God's Word to students from all over the world!

OUR DAILY PRAYER

This reminds me of a really cool Proverb I read not long ago:

"Two things I ask of you, O LORD;
do not refuse me before I die:
Keep falsehood and lies far from me;
give me neither poverty nor riches,
but give me only my daily bread.
Otherwise, I may have too much
and disown you and say, 'Who is the LORD ?'
Or I may become poor and steal,
and so dishonor the name of my God."
(Proverbs 30:7-9)

What a prayer! It's given me a renewed commitment to praying as the Lord himself taught us to pray, "give us today our daily bread." I've printed it out and stuck it on the back of our toilet door, so that I'm at least praying it daily...

We'd love to hear from you. We'll be writing again soon.

Lots and lots of love, the Townsies.