Heavenly Father, please make us mature in Christ. Build up your kingdom, shaping us to have hearts that mourn and repent of sin and cling to Christ for all righteousness. Mould us at JCU, into a group that is hungry to know more of the character and work of Christ through your word. May we crave it and satisfy ourselves with it, nourishing our faith until we are rooted and established in it, full of hope and love.
Amen
Thank you for praying along with me in Cairns. I keep asking God to build up his kingdom through the AFES ministry here in Cairns and beyond. You are most welcome to jump on this blog site any time and join me as I pray. I write my prayers for the group here almost daily (that’s my goal anyway).
Relationships, relationships, relationships …
This semester has been one of slowly feeling my way along. We are a small campus and it takes me quite a while to build relationships so it often feels a bit quiet. Nevertheless, we’ve had a regular small Bible study each week with students keen to dig deeper into the Bible and let it shape their lives. I’ve been able to meet up with a handful of students 1-1 to read the Bible and think through gospel issues together. We’ve had a few social events to just spend time getting to know each other and some one-off dinners at our house every now and then.
Pray that people will get to know me and and happily join in with our goal to point others to Christ for his glory and their great benefit.
More relationships… I’ve enjoyed chatting to some of the churches up here about what this uni ministry is about. It has been one of the most encouraging parts of us coming up here. So many people are glad to see something like this start up in Cairns and are praying along with us. I’m hoping to invest more in these connections.
Pray that the church in Cairns will be united in the gospel, marked by its love, and driven to proclaim Christ.
More relationships… A couple of weeks ago I was at the annual Senior Staff Conference for AFES in Sydney. Apart from it being freezing!! (for a far north Queenslander), it was great to meet so many of the other people who have been plugging away at uni ministry for years and also others who are just starting out as well. The week was soaked in prayer and rich in encouraging conversations and Bible teaching. I’m looking forward to catching up with these new friends again soon.
Praise God for the diverse but united work of AFES across all states and territories in Australia
Mid Year Camp
Something coming up for you to be praying for… We have our Mid Year Camp happening on the 22-26 July. We’ve had to change the location twice now, which makes planning a little bit difficult but hopefully the students will still be eager to come along and be built up together. Peter Jensen will be preaching and the topic is “The God of Relationships” (I’m looking forward to it even more than the students I think). We’ll be joining in with the Townsville JCU students as usual and should have a great time.
Pray for the Peter, myself and the Townsville staff team as we prepare teaching material for the Mid Year Camp. Pray for the cooks as they prepare the logistics of feeding everyone, and thank God for their generous and flexible service. Pray for the hearts of the students (and us) that they may be ready to listen to God’s word.
At home
By God’s grace and many of your prayers, Wendy and I feel like we have grown a little in patience. A while back I posted a prayer on this blog regarding patience and I think some of you must have added your hearty amens because from the following day we found our self control a little more tamed, and our perseverance a little more tempered. Thanks! Brynley loves kindy and has been learning lots of useful life lessons there. Erin’s character is really coming out now- she loves chickens (live and on the plate) and cooking (pretend and in real life). Currently we have some of our family visiting which buoys our spirits a lot.
Keep praying for sustained patience and love for each other especially in this first year in Cairns.
Hello to all you Cairns mob
Thanks for the Sem1 update. We are always praying especially for the patience bit. Hope you are all having a great time together and can have a good relax in the break. Go thee with God. Love you heaps.
By and Gil
Thanks you mob. Very much appreciate the prayers.
Dear Lloyd
Its lovely to hear all your news. Where has mid year camp moved? Many years ago Tim Urnsure met with my son Nick in Townsville and did a bible study one on one, because no one else turned up. Nick has always remembered this and he felt so special that Tim took the time to do this. So its just wonderful hearing all your news.
God bless you and the children and Wendy.
Robyn & Terry O’Sullivan
Thanks for the encouragement! We’re now locked in to New Life Pastures at Kennedy all going to plan.