X-Track::Training for Living Cross-Culturally with a Mission

The training and preparation for our overseas mission that we received this summer was simply incredible! We feel that it has perhaps been some of the best training and practical life application that we have ever gotten from Campus Crusade for Christ.
We have definitely come away from our time with a greater awareness of the variety of people God has made on this planet and a rekindled passion to reach the world for Christ, starting with our assignment in New Zealand!
It was also life-giving for us to take part in the national staff conference this summer. There were some rich times where the Speakers really helped point our hearts to Christ.

More Students Coming to Faith

The second semester at Victoria University is well under way and Student Life is once again reaching out on campus to give students the opportunity to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Along with the help of 25 Summer Project Students who came to Wellington from U.S. mid-western universities, our team is once again promoting the “Tune In” campaign on campus. As we raffle off a the prize of a new MP3 music player, we pray that God ultimately uses it to point many to Him. We’ve already seen 6 students make decisions to follow Christ duringb the first week back and we are praying that many more will have a chance to know Him through this outreach! We are asking God to use “Tune In” in a mighty way at Victoria.

While we have been back in the United States this summer for our training, our staff team back in Wellington has been working hard to lead more students to Christ and develop students who have continued to be involved in our campus ministry of Student Life.
During the first week of July, our team and a dozen students from Wellington traveled to Matamata on the North Island to attend Student Life’s Winter Conference. The conference was focused on helping students know how to stay connected with God and walk with
Christ for a lifetime. There were around 120 students from universities on the North Island who attended.



One of the most exciting things to see at these conferences is how God literally changes students lives right in front of your eyes. Such was the experience that Matt Wunderle from our team had. A student of his named Sugi hadn’t been showing much consistency in walking with the Lord prior to the Conference and Matt wasn’t even certain that Sugi would attend Winter Conference. Well, Sugi came and throughout the course of the week it was obvious that the Holy Spirit had been doing a great work in His heart. Sugi at different times during the week would come up to Matt and tell him all about what he was learning from God and ways he felt challenged in his faith. Now Sugi desires to have a greater impact on his campus back in Wellington and even wants to teach other men how to share the Gospel!
This is just one of many stories of how God has worked in student’s lives during this conference!

I Fell Off The Blog Wagon...

Well, it's been some time since I've actually sat down to write anything. Jill and I left New Zealand and went back to the United States for the summer to get additional training for our work in Wellington. In the busyness of the summer, I just never made a point to blog (I'm sure some have even given up looking at my page because of it). Anyhow, we just made it back to New Zealand this past Friday. We had an interesting summer... a lot of great things and a lot of situations that tested us as well... but all in all, I'd say we had excellent time at home seeing friends and family. We really enjoyed the training and spiritual refreshment as well. The last few weeks in the States proved to be a little tumultuous, as we weren't even sure if we'd be able to make it back to New Zealand as planned. I can share more about that later. I hope to bring everyone up to speed over the next few blogs. For now, we are glad to be back and look forward to settling into life in Wellington once again.