Students from Moore College have returned from their missions excited, exhausted, and encouraged.
The missions exposed students to ministry in a whole lot of different contexts: from the city ministry of ECOM (Evangelising Commerce), to Kincumber on the Central Coast, and the quiet New England country town of Uralla.
"Mission was great!" says Clive Buuljens, whose team packed their bags for Uralla in the Armidale Diocese.
"The warm and welcoming nature of the country folk " Christian and non-Christian " was a great encouragement,” he says.
“Our billets and the congregation really appreciated us. They said it was just what the town needed."
Uralla residents respond
The close-knit nature of a small country town worked to the Uralla team's advantage.
Clive tells of how they reached a man who had recently been released from jail.
"While I was walking home to our billets one day", says Clive, "I saw a guy fixing his car and said hi to him. The next day David Pitt and my wife Sarah also saw him and said hi to him. As they kept walking he called out to David, "hey, come back here'.
“As they chatted he told David that he used to be a criminal but was out of jail now and was interested in finding out about Jesus. A couple of days later David explained the gospel to him and he gave his life to Christ! After David explained to him that he would have to put off the old life, he still shakily said he was sure he wanted to follow Jesus!"
Progress in the city
By contrast, the city mission team made the most of city worker’s lunch hours.
Team members say the mission took them miles from their comfort zones.
“I'm an unprofessional bloke from the "burbs of Wollongong " Dapto to be precise. It was uncharted territory for me,” says city mission team member Paul McPhail.
"We had a great time listening and sharing - sometimes for up to forty minutes,” he says.
“We gave out lots of gospels to interested people. We were surprised by how willing most people were to discuss Jesus. We gave one man a gospel of Luke, and we later saw him reading it in another place " praise the Lord!"
Entertainment leads to evangelism opportunities
Matthew King, who was part of the team that visited Kincumber on the Central Coast, recalls lessons learnt at a local primary school.
"We wanted to give everyone on the team a go at doing something different, so we changed roles all the time,” he says.
“So the puppet changed voice, personality, and even gender! But we reached a lot of kids " and some teachers " with God's good news and some really bad jokes."
Clever thinking also captured the attention of Kincumber’s adult population.
"The men's breakfast on the Saturday was a highlight", says Matt.
"The speaker was a former bomb disposal expert. What better topic for getting blokes along? They were talking about it all week. Unfortunately there were no practical demonstrations."
Students found themselves reaping the results of past sowing.
"Our team did a lot of baptism follow-up visits that were very effective", Matt says.
"One of our team went with the minister to visit one family. The lady's parents were visiting from Denmark and didn't speak English. It just happened that our team member speaks Danish! Who says there's no God" ?"
Lessons you won’t find in a text-book
Students says the missions gave them a new appreciation for the hard work done by the ministers and church members of the churches they visited.
"We all learned how hard country mission is, and how lonely it can be", says Jacqui Watson of the Uralla team.
They say they were also encouraged by the examples of some senior saints.
"It was great to see people who have been Christian longer than I've been alive, and still going strong, sometimes with little support", Clive continues.
"There was a ladies’ prayer group in one of the smaller villages who get together and pray systematically for the whole diocese, for their church, the minister and all their Christian and non-Christian friends, remembering those who are sick. They also show great love for each other, and they prayed for our outreach during the week."
