AFES National Director Richard Chin missed Mid Year Conference (MYC) this year, one of the few he has missed in more than 20 years. But the former UNSW Medicine student and Wollongong University chaplain has been involved in more MYCs than he can remember.
This year Richard is overseas for the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students' World Assembly 2007 in Canada from 11 to 19 July 2007.
Under the title ‘In Christ, into the world’ IFES will consider some of the big issues facing evangelical students today, celebrate the 60th anniversary of IFES and welcome Daniel Bourdanné as the new IFES General Secretary.
Mr Chin is someone who has been greatly influenced by the MYC ministry, attending his first MYC us a UNSW first year Medicine student in 1983.
"MYC is where I understood the gospel for the first time. Bishop Paul Barnett was speaking because Phillip Jensen was on a sabbatical at the time and he was speaking on the doctrine of church," Richard says.
"What I recall most is that he said you can know whether you are a Christian or not by asking yourself if Jesus is number one in your life."
This forced Richard to revaluate his life.
"I knew God was number two or three but not number one. The next year Ivan Lee was interviewed as a Moore College student who had left a Medicine degree. As a Med student myself I thought it was absolutely ludicrous," he says.
"But I was challenged to ask "why shouldn't I do full time ministry?'. It was a very seminal moment."
Richard says the impact of MYC on his own life greatly influenced his decision to enter university ministry himself and play a large role in organising MYCs for over a decade.
"At MYC I saw people become Christians and others as if they were going through a second conversion. The gospel gripped people in a way it never did before. Seeing that happen at MYC over course of a week, year by year was a great joy," he says.
Richard says he has been privileged to see the ministry of MYC grow.
"University of NSW and Sydney University get around 400 to 500 at the respective mid year conferences. The one in Newcastle will have their largest ever with 160 coming this year," he says.
"The strength of MYC is having one uninterrupted week of looking at the Scriptures in great depth at a number of levels," he says.
"The main talks are doctrinal, the small groups look at the Bible for themselves and do manuscript discovery and the seminars elaborate on the theme for the year.
Richard says the university years are a key time for reaching people with the gospel.
"The strategy of student work is that you have students in a window of life where they are seeking to make big decisions. They are gathered in large numbers at uni campuses so it's an essential ministry."
