Easter - it's the new Christmas

In the last few weeks, so much has happened & it's hard to report on it all without skipping over things or doing them an injustice. But here goes...

One of the questions we are quite often asked is "What do you miss from the UK?" - generally, at that point, your mind goes blank, as you try to rack your brains and think of things that fit into that category. There certainly are things we miss from the UK (Aside from the obvious - friends & family, I would list KP Skips crisps, Dandelion & Burdock, the sheer scale & choice of Tescos & good old M&S with all it offers as things that are missed), though there are also numerous things that the UK doesn't have that we enjoy here too. But there are many people who live away from the UK for a variety of reasons who also miss things - we consider ourselves very fortunate that we get to enjoy many comforts that Western society provides.

Having said that, when asked what we miss from the UK, one of the first things that springs to mind is from the student work with UCCF - Carol Services. For me, Christmas-time was such a good opportunity to share Jesus with many non-believers who came in their droves to Carol Services around the country. They were often one of the highlights of the year. Due to the rhythm of the year here, Christmas falls in the middle of our summer holidays, so Carol Services aren't an option & I miss them big time! However, we get to make the most of another significant event in the Christian calendar - Easter.

The Easter period brings 2 weeks of holidays for most of our students and a busy flurry of activity with Easter outreaches before the holidays (see previous post) and various Easter camps during the holidays. I was involved with 3 of those camps - here's a few reflections on each:

Victoria University (Wellington) ICF & Massey University (Palmerston North) OCF Camp

Held over Easter weekend at a Marae, a Maori meeting house with over 80 students there, we had a great time together, as we introduced both Maori culture and traditions, along with the Gospel. It was super to see students from right around the world interacting and engaging with both these, and great to hear my colleague Val share the message of Jesus creatively and clearly.

It was thrilling during the course of the weekend to hear news of one of our international students who wasn't there coming to faith as a result of the regular one-to-one Bible studies she is involved with Lesha, who is our resident evangelist, as well as full-time student.

Joint Auckland Regional Camp

I have been involved with a few of the 7 groups we have in the Auckland region and so had an overnight stay at this week long camp. It provided some opportunities to spend extra time with some of the students I meet with, without the pressure (for them) of having to rush away to their next lecture.

Nigel Pollock was speaking from the life of Joseph. I only heard one of his talks, but it challenged me in certain areas of my life and reminded me that it's not just students who need to hear God's Word and apply it!

Victoria University (Wellington) CU Camp

The final camp for me was the Vic CU camp, which was held this past weekend. I was one of a 4 speakers they had invited to speak on the topic of 'Encountering God'. As my talks were at the start and end of the weekend, I decided to use the talks to look at the "bookends" of encounters with God in the Bible - Genesis & Revelation. It was a good reminder for me of the fact we live in the tension of the world not being what it was & the world not being what it one day will be. Although a smaller group, they have made progress in recent weeks and have seen quite a number of new students coming along. It's all part of growing a community who will look at God's Word together & then share it with those around them.

Over Easter, I was also involved with the day organised by Langham Partnership (NZ) on 'Kiwi-Made Preaching'. I will report on this separately & also hope to write on it in my next column in 'Evangelicals Now', but it was a real privilege to share my burden for evangelistic preaching here in NZ. It was also great to see Jonathan Lamb, (whose daughter Becky was involved in the CU at Cardiff when I was there) who had travelled from the UK to be with us. Jonathan's work, along with Paul Windsor here in NZ, is that of raising up preachers around the world who will share God's Word to bring believers to maturity. Within TSCF, we hold Paul in high regard - his commitment to Scripture & to Biblical preaching, alongside the wrestling with how to do it in a Kiwi context is something that resonates with each of us. Paul has been a helpful influence for TSCF, particularly as he is on our Board. We are delighted to support his work and want to be part of the wider work of Langham here in NZ.

At the end of the Easter holidays, on both sides of the Tasman Sea (NZ & Australia) we remember ANZAC day. It's a bit like Remembrance Sunday (in the UK) or Memorial Day (in the USA) where those who have gone before and sacrificed their lives are remembered. For NZ, ANZAC day particularly remembers those who lost their lives at Gallipoli in WWI. I woke early and attended the dawn service in Wellington along with several thousand others including the Prime Minister. Again, ANZAC day affords us opportunities to reflect on things of significance and to share the hope we have through Jesus with others. It also gave us the opportunity to see the sun rise over Wellington harbour & provide a spectacular array of colours as the scene changed by the minute.

So, all in all, it's been a good Easter - I'm looking forward to making the most of the opportunities that Easter provides in future years. As we focus on Jesus' death and resurrection, I am aware of how few students know or even care about why they are getting 2 weeks off studies and would love to share it with them in the years to come.

Houston, we have a problem...

It's busy, busy, busy here at the moment - the above picture was from last week's ICF camp (& is a "hongi" - a Maori greeting which is literally "the sharing of breath". It illustrates a small, but significant part of what we're trying to do in TSCF - to get students to relate to the culture around them. Tomorrow is the start of the CU camp & I'm one of the speakers (& still preparing!), so I must be brief.

This week, Mel, the CU President at Victoria University made 2 statements which both illustrate one of the big problems we face in our outreach here in New Zealand, but I fear is true around the world in the student scene and beyond. The 2 statements Mel made commenting on Victoria University students were:

"Nobody knows anyone in their lectures..."

"You don't really sit next to people in lectures."

Read them, ponder them & think about what they mean and their implications, remember the words of Romans 10 (below) & please pray for us.

"...how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?"

Big Questions

I'm en route home having spent today with AUT CF and their Easter Outreach. The outreach was excellent and was a continuation of the good work that has been happening on their campus.

On the main thoroughfare from the Quad into the library, the students designed a cross, which had above it "Jesus: Who do you say that I am?" Students were then invited to write their responses and stick them to the cross, before receiving a mini-egg. The outreach took a little while to get going, but once a number of people had posted their answers, it became a major attraction, with people stopping, looking, thinking. Even a hail-storm mid-way through the afternoon didn't diminish the interaction with people about this vital question! One of the CF members said to me "This is the bravest outreach we have done yet, as it forces people actually to think who Jesus is, not just building relationships with them."

Similar outreaches have been happening in Lincoln and Wellington. It was particularly striking though, that there was a significant lack of hostility towards Jesus and/or the Christian Fellowship. In fact, many of the responses were sympathetic to the person of Jesus. At AUT, there are quite a high proportion of students from Pacific Islands. For many, this means there is at least some Christian background and I think this shaped many of the answers. We also seemed to meet quite a number of Indian students, and their attitude to who Jesus is could be described as respectful, even if not totally accurate!

Here are some of the answers that were posted today:

My favourite response is the one which says "Pass?" - I think it's an honest answer which represents where many Kiwis are at.

I encouraged the AUT students to consider doing a similar activity after the 2 week Easter holidays with something along the lines of "Jesus grave is empty - what happened?" so that we are not just engaging students with Jesus' death, but also His resurrection. We were trying to think of creative ways we could grab attention for this - an empty cross is one idea, though we are working on another - watch this space!

Do pray for the Easter camp for the Wellington & Palmerston North international students which starts in the morning. Have a great Easter!

Life in Colour

It's been an interesting few weeks for me. While our Northern Hemisphere friends are enjoying the change from winter to spring, I have had to remind several friends that one person's spring is another person's autumn (or fall, if you're that way inclined!). The bright, sharp colours of summer are giving way to a more autumnal feel - the brightness of day seems to be lost so quickly to the darkness of nightfall.

Somewhere over the rainbow - a recent view from our kitchen window

I've unfortunately felt a little off-colour the past few weeks, having picked up a bug which laid me low for a while. I feel much better than this time last week, but still am not feeling 100% and would appreciate prayers for an improvement in that.

The signs of the end of the summer are all around us - yesterday, the international cricket season finished over here for another year. The Indians had been in NZ for some weeks, touring and playing, as well as bringing their vibrant colours, noisy drums and enthusiastic dancing to the cities of NZ. For many Indians, NZ offers a chance to get closer to their heroes than they ever would in India. I experienced this firsthand, a few weeks ago in Auckland, when I was meeting with Ray Wong, an Auckland Uni student and evangelist up there. We were chatting, when all of a sudden, he was distracted by the arrival of Sachin Tendulkar (one of the greatest cricketers in the world, ever!) & Yuvraj Singh (arguably one of the better players in the world currently!).

We chatted briefly to them, particularly as both had played for Yorkshire.
I was impressed by the humility of Tendulkar, and the impossibility of his life - as he was regularly interupted and bombarded by hero-worshipping supporters. It was in stark contrast to the Kiwi attitudes towards celebrity. Unfortunately, I didn't have a camera with me, but managed to use my laptop to take this poor quality shot of "The Little Master", Yuvraj & myself. I also managed to briefly share about my work for the Great Master here in NZ.

One local radio station has been promoting the cricket by proclaiming "the Rock Stars of cricket are coming to Wellington..." In the midst of their tour, we had a visit from the National Director of UESI, the IFES movement in India. TSCF & UESI have a close partnership - each year, our students provide funds to support theological education for some UESI staff. It was lovely to meet David Jayakumar & hear his vision and passion for reaching the millions of students in India. It is a colourful and complicated country with real variety around the regions - the picture below reminds us there are over 1 billion people there, and we are reminded that "Salvation is found in no one else" other than Jesus. We long for the Gospel to penetrate and change India.
Another area where we'd like to see more "colour" is on one of the campuses here in Wellington. Massey University is currently on 3 different sites throughout NZ - Palmerston North, Albany in Auckland & here in Wellington. Last week, Gina Wong (TSCF Staff) & some of the Wellington team met to plan how we could go about establishing the work at Massey Wellington. They came up with this vision statement for Massey Uni, which is also known as "the creative campus".

"Bringing the colour of Christ, through community, to the creative campus."

Do pray for them as they seek to connect with people in the various departments and seek to share Christ in those communities in colourful and creative ways. We would love to see students being reached for Christ at Massey.

This weekend is the Victoria Uni ICF & Massey Uni OCF (both international groups) Marae weekend. It involves taking a load of international students to a Marae (a Maori meeting house), explaining & enjoying the Maori culture over the weekend, but also sharing the Gospel in the process. Please pray for the incredible opportunity this provides.