Year 13 student Zoe Murray is counting down the days until she can take the gospel across the Pacific Ocean from one island to another.
The 18-year-old Lord Howe Island permanent resident is one of four Year 13 Youthworks Gap Year intensive students who will join the other 32 continuous students on a month-long Fiji mission from June 26.
Commissioned for the mission last month, the Year 13 team are busily preparing to partner with local churches in the Fiji island of Viti Levu where they will minister the gospel in a culturally diverse range of contexts which range from orphanages to universities.
They will also be involved in community projects, presenting the Fijian Youth Leadership Conference and splitting off into smaller groups to stay with Fijian-Indian families.
"We're going to be involved in their church and community, doing schools ministry and doorknocking or just whatever is needed", says Zoe excitedly.
Meeting ministry challenges on a small island
With only 350 residents on Lord Howe Island and no high school, Zoe is one of very few young people involved in gospel ministry on the island. Most 13-to-18-year-olds on the island are tourists or working in the tourism industry, and she says there is a significant drug culture among the youth.
"There is a real need for outreach ministry but at the moment we don't have the resources or the consistency to carry it out", says Zoe.
The Anglican Church Zoe attends is led by different Sydney ministers on one-to-three-month locums and has two services a week, a children's ministry and an adult's bible study.
"The small community also makes ministry difficult. We've invited friends to church before and the next day the whole island knows and doesn't fail to comment on it either,” she says.
As part of the Year 13 program, Zoe (pictured centre with fellow Year 13 students) is involved in School Scripture, Sunday School and assisting in church services on the island when she is not learning online or undertaking her intensive block lectures in Sydney.
Whilst loving all she is learning and doing through the Year 13 program to date, Zoe admits she is very much looking forward to seeing how God works in a different culture to her own.
"I'm excited too (coming from secular Australia) because we've been told that just about all Fijians love talking about God and religion " it's going to put a whole new spin on our doorknocking and uni evangelism!"
During the Year 13 Fiji Mission (June 26 " July 24), Zoe Murray will be one of a few other bloggers keeping Sydney readers updated on their journey at sydneyanglicans.net/year13.
