Becoming Home and Encountering Jesus

I have not blogged for a while. Amazing how much guilt can be generated by this thing. It has been a busy wee while. I have really got into routine here, with the job and with living in Auckland. What a blessing this is. It is so good to feel like this is home, to feel comfortable and that things are normal here.

Routine is by no means boring though. In fact life has been anything but boring over the past few weeks. All the activites I have mentioned before are continuing - we are actually beginning to come to the end of some things for this semester, exams are now looming (still a wee while - students here seem to work a bit harder and keener than I remember!). Having shared before about the value of investing in individuals it has been amazing to see the fruit that comes from 1to1 meetings, from listening to people and sharing the Word with them.

OK, a quick rundown of what is going on with each group:

OCF
What a joy it has been to be part of the training of the impact group leaders in OCF. We had a review session this past week and sitting with the couple of leaders that came to the session on Wednesday it was just amazing to see the way in which God has used these leaders and grown their groups but most of all really grown these leaders in His word. They were talking of how it has helped them to read the Bible for themselves. We are praying this will continue next semester as we progress on with John in the groups. It has also been great to get to know some of the girls a bit better over coffee these past couple of weeks!

EU
Although still a small group they are growing in encouragement and confidence and it was great to see the first of their coffee and tea stalls, set up centrally on campus early morning on a Tuesday. It was brilliant to see people's reactions to this and to have some great conversations with students who stopped for a hot beverage! We have been progressing through the book of Isaiah on a Tuesday night which has been great, a challenge to me at times in preparing it (which is good!) and stretching in studying it together. We are hoping to continue with Isaiah 40 and following next semester.

AUTCF
So much is happening with AUTCF but a consolidation in leadership has been needed for a wee while and this has been great over the past few weeks. Seeing people really grow into their leadership roles and communicating well has been fantastic and it has also allowed some of those who have been very involved in the past to take off a bit of the responsibility. It has been a privilege over the past few weeks to be part of an investigative Bible study at AUT called Jesus on Trial. We have met weekly and spent time in Luke, encountering Jesus in his ministry. It has been amazing. So much has struck me for the first time in it as well as reminding me of stuff that I have seen before but have promptly forgotten. I think it is the encounters we see of Jesus with individuals - life changing encounters - that have struck me most. Last week we were studying Jesus healing the woman with bleeding and then Jairus' daughter in Luke 8. What an amazing privilege to sit with students encountering Jesus calling attention to the woman's faith, having healed her,in front of the crowd and telling her to go in peace. Jesus on Trial is going to continue on next semester and we are praying that we will see more people involved, particularly those who are wanting to encounter Jesus for the first time.

With regards to life with me - I am loving my time here. I feel like there are a lot of things that have been confirming God using me in this place over the past wee while. It has also been so great to just have a lot of fun over the past wee while. Particularly this past weekend - it was Queen's Birthday weekend (can't believe you have to come this far from home for it to be celebrated as a holiday!) and, as well as going to see BoyzIIMen on Saturday night - truly amazing, I managed to get away to the Coromandel for a night with Annabe. Again, what a beautiful country...