More Videos from New Zealand

The above video I did as "follow along" interview of my mission with Wellington Studnet Life. The hope was to give people a taste of what a day on campus is like for me and provide overall vision for what we are trusting the Lord for as we launch spiritual movements here in New Zealand.

This video below is a promotion video made for US college students who are interested in doing an internship with Campus Crusade for Christ with us here in New Zealand. The inteviews were done with our most recent team from 2008 and a couple students from our ministry. They did a fabulous job sharing their personal experiences and articulating what the spirtiual climate is like here in New Zealand.

Above are a series of Summer Project recruiting videos I've put together for US University students who are interested in coming to serve in New Zealand over their summer break. The interviews are of students who came on the 2008 Project. I really believe that Summer Projects are great short-term missions that really grow students spiritually and increase their hearts for those who are lost and hurting.

A Christmas Letter from Josh & Jill

New beginnings…. This has been a recurring theme that has been impressed upon our hearts over the past year. It was a new beginning when we welcomed a different team into Wellington. It was a new beginning as we celebrated the birth of our second son, Hudson David Felix. There were new beginnings as we started a fresh campus year, saw disciples take personal steps of faith as never before, and witnessed students decide to really follow Christ for the first time in their life. On a larger scale we have also seen new beginnings in both the United States and New Zealand as these two countries are experiencing a change in leadership. We’d be the first to admit that these beginnings are not necessarily easy, but we’ve also found that they do provide us with new opportunities to find joy, experience growth, and trust the Lord even more.

One specific story of a new beginning that we wanted to share with you is about a first-year student called Josh. Entering his studies at Victoria University, Josh knew it would be a year full of new experiences and new challenges. But Josh has one more particular challenge that set him apart from other first-year university students… he is bound to a wheelchair because of a disability he’s had since birth. During a club’s day event, Josh stopped by our Student Life table to fill out a ‘Tune In’ survey. When one of our staff followed up with him later, he expressed that he really didn’t want to be involved in any way with our group or even want hear the gospel message we wanted to share about.
Little did Josh expect that he would meet and become friends with Johnny and Ruth who lived on the same floor at his hostel (dorm). Johnny, Ruth, and even a few others who all lived with there with Josh were first-year students who had already gotten involved with Student Life. They had a desire to impact their university friends for Christ and so they invited Josh into our community. Despite his previous resistance, Josh was willing to give this “Christian Group” a second chance. As he found friendship, acceptance, encouragement, and people willing to go on a difficult spiritual journey with him, Josh made a decision to follow Christ.
For Josh, this year has been a new beginning. He still has many questions about what it means to live for God, but he has been committed to attending church and being around the Student Life community. He is also trying to study his Bible more and listen to input from other believers.

We want to give many more students like Josh the opportunity to hear about the amazing love of Jesus Christ so that they too can make a new beginning. As 2008 draws to a close, we remain thankful for your partnership in this ministry of reconciliation. Your prayers and gifts are making it possible for many students in Wellington and from around the world to hear the Gospel. Join with us in asking the Lord that 2009 will be a year of fruitful harvest and that many will find a new beginning… a new life through knowing Jesus Christ!

“And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.” (Philippians 1:6 NLT)
Warmest Regards, Josh & Jill

Water for Christmas

The following is a little piece my wife Jill wrote for our most recent newsletter:
Over the last year God has been deepening my heart for issues pertaining to “Social Justice”. I have several friends that have adopted kids from Africa and reading their Family Blogs has been “eye-opening” to say the least. As I have been studying the book of Isaiah God brought to my attention this verse: “Learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the orphan, plead the cause of the widow.” Isaiah 1:17. So, the Lord recently brought something across my path and I am very excited to be helping this Christmas to raise money to dig wells in Africa. Did you know that Americans spend $450 billion dollars a year at Christmas and it would only take $10 billion to solve the world’s water problem? Please visit: www.Water4Christmas.com and see what we are up to!
I really appreciate and admire Jill's heart for such things. Together, we think this is an awesome opportunity and possibly achievable in this generation... it just means we have to be less consumeristic over the Christmas season and more generous... crazy thought, huh? We also started a Facebook Group, Water for Christmas, that grew from around 50 to over 1,000 members in less than one week. We hope that those who join the group would be willing to give to this and provide clean water to people in Africa. A little bit from a whole lot of us can go a great distance! Hope you might want to join us too.

Looking Back & Looking Forward

In reviewing this past year, it is so awesome to see some of the ways that God has been at work amongst the staff and students of our movement. Just to give you, as our partners in this ministry, a glimpse we’ve listed some of the ways He’s blessed our group below:
™ Our team found great flats (apartments) in the city that have given them greater access and contact with students. Many non-Christian students have really enjoyed the hospitality of our team and have felt very welcome at the flats.
™ The once-a-month Student Life gathering (FUSE) has continued to grow to around 30-35 students. Many have enjoyed the time so much that they now (naturally) want to meet more frequently and are looking to meet every other week beginning in 2009.
™ A group of our committed students started an Action Group in their hostel (dorm), the Weir House. They’ve met weekly to show and discuss Nooma videos (short spiritual videos by pastor Rob Bell) with other students at Weir. Around 10-15 have consistently come. Two of those students, Josh and Trevor, who were spiritually seeking have since made decisions to follow Christ! They have been asking great questions about faith, started attending a local church, and are studying the Bible.
™ As our students have been developing meaningful relationships with each other, they have actually helped promote community on campus. Both the Mount Street Café and the Atrium common space have now become a place were students are connecting and cultivating community. It’s so sweet to see our students meeting together to study the Bible, mingle with others, and share their faith in these settings!
™ Our students are getting more excited to lead and take ownership in our movement. There are probably around 10 who are eager to lead their own Action Groups in 2009, but we hope to see more interest still.
™ We are beginning to develop relationships with some local churches and other Christian groups who desire to work together with us to see the campuses impacted for Christ.
Wow! We look ahead to next year with great faith that God will continue to do more that we can think or imagine!

They’re Here! :: Third Year STINT Team

Back Row: John*, Steve, Nate*, Josh, (Isaac), Dan*, Justin,
Front Row: Kara, Susanne, Lindsay*, Jill, (Hudson), Lacey

On October 10th we welcomed the third U.S. STINT team to come to Wellington, New Zealand! Our new team members are John, Nate, Dan, and Lindsay (all indicated with a start* above). After their long plane flights, they were happy to hit the ground! The photo above was snapped at a restaurant in the sleepy little town of Martinborough during a combined team retreat. We are happy to report that Steve (our token “Kiwi”), Kara, and Susanne, after raising additional financial support, will be returning to the mission with us in 2009. Justin and Lacey (far right) got engaged while on STINT together here in New Zealand and will be getting married in Chicago this January. They’ve talked about returning to Wellington after their wedding to pursue jobs and further studies. We are excited about their potential return, as we’ve really valued their friendship and heart for people. We thank the Lord for continuing to provide us awesome teammates to labor alongside in the mission field. We look forward to 2009!

A Look at What’s Happening Around Campus

Saying Goodbye to Sarah

From the beginning of our time here in New Zealand, we’ve had the privilege of pioneering Student Life in Wellington with Sarah Overmyer. Sarah has served as a team leader with us, overseeing much of the woman’s ministry on campus, conducting training for our staff team, baking wonderful goodies for us, and so many many other things that all of them cannot possibly be mentioned! Over the past two years she has grown to be a good friend to us and our boys. She’ll be greatly missed. Sarah will be spending the next year working in the Great Lakes Regional office for Crusade. From there, she is planning to get additional training for overseas ministry and hopes to return to Wellington in 2010. We’re thankful that she has this opportunity and desires to return to New Zealand.

Seeds, Growth, Fruit :: God at Work (From October 08)

[Above: Photos of Josh teaching students about how they can help extend the gospel to others on campus.
The string illustrates the Gospel crisscrossing people & relationships.]



[Staff and students of Student Life pray over Sarah as she prepares to head back to the USA.]


“What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul?” [Or what is Josh?] “Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building.”
[1 Corinthians 3:5-9]

As I look back over the two short years we’ve been in New Zealand, I continue to see and acknowledge that it is God who is growing our new movement. As the second year of having Wellington Student Life present on campus draws to a close, I am grateful for the results we can observe. There are presently 117 students connected to our movement. Eighty (80) of those students are involved in Action Groups and discipleship on campus where they are learning what it means to walk with Christ for a lifetime and have a mission to the Lost around them. The remaining 37 are ones that our staff and students are continuing to build meaningful relationships with. Most of them have heard the gospel more than once, but have yet to place their faith in Christ. We are praying that as they continue to hear from us about Jesus and bear witness to our lives that they too will decide to give their hearts to God!

Keynote Music Ministry Tours New Zealand

July has obviously been a very busy month for us! In addition to the Legacy Conference and NZSP08, we have also recently hosted a band, The Queues, from Keynote (the music ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ in the United States). The Queues joined us in Wellington following the conference to organize a music outreach and unified worship and prayer night. They are touring all the major universities in New Zealand throughout July to put on similar events. We pray the Lord uses their gifts to bring many to hear the Good News about Jesus Christ!



[Adam Smith, Lead Singer for the Queues, leading worship at Legacy Conference.]

NZSP08 :: U.S. Summer Project

Since the beginning of July, staff and students that are part of the New Zealand Summer Project (NZSP08) have joined our team here in Wellington to assist us in our mission of putting every student within arm’s reach of Jesus Christ. Because of their help we have been able to, for the first time, have presence on every one of the satellite campuses of Victoria University! This has been so helpful, especially as we have been trust God to raise up students at the Karori campus which is on the outskirts of the city. They have connected with around 15 students at Karori who are wanting to know more about Christ or are eager to see God have an impact on their campus. Pray with us that the Summer Project leaves a lasting impact and that student leaders will be raised up.

More Photos from Legacy 2008

[Leigh, one of our committed student leaders, prays with others before going sharing in the community.]




[Students from Asia, New Zealand, the United States, and Pacific Island worshiping together!]

Legacy 2008 :: In Review

How can I make a difference that will last for eternity? This is the question that 370 Student Life staff and students asked as we spent a week in Waikanae at LEGACY conference. Students from all over New Zealand and Fiji met together to celebrate 25 years of Student Life and to discuss how to continue to impact New Zealand and the world with the gospel.

The Lord really did some remarkable work specifically in the hearts of the students we minister to in Wellington. There were initially 24 students form our campuses that registered for the conference, but there were 29 who actually ended up coming!!! The time they spent together proved invaluable as we saw great community built and many step out in faith, making commitments to return to Wellington to lead Bible studies, remain active in sharing the Gospel, and even take part in short-term missions.

Leaving a legacy is about living for something that is bigger than ourselves. It’s about taking the message of Jesus Christ—a message that has been passed down from generation to generation—and sharing it in a relevant way with today’s generation.



We were privileged to have speaker Rodd Sawatzky [Above] join us from Canada. Rodd spoke passionately each morning and encouraged us to put God first in our lives, deal with sin and develop relationships with others that will help us to grow.


[Steve Cantwell, staff from our campus, welcomes students to Legacy Conference]

Legacy :: National Winter Conference

During the first week of July, before university classes resume, students involved in Student Life from campuses all over New Zealand will have the opportunity to attend this year’s Legacy Conference. These conferences always provide students with unique opportunities to grow in their faith, build new friendships, and develop a heart for the lost. We hope they will be inspired to leave an eternal legacy on their campus.

The Making of Disciples

One of the highlights for me this year has been working with some of my key student disciples. I wanted to highlight a couple of them because I’ve been really encouraged by their faithfulness, availability, and teachability.




Ollie: I can say that this guy has been with us from the beginning. Even before our team arrived in country, Ollie has had a heart to see his classmates have the opportunity to know Jesus Christ. He and another guy, Johnny, took time out of their schedules to head out on campus and share their faith even before Student Life came to their university. Now that there is a team on campus, he is excited to see a greater impact and more students have opportunities to trust Christ.



Jason: When I first met Jason, I wasn’t sure he’d be interested in meeting with me because he lives outside of the city and, being a pastor’s son, was already involved in his home church. Still, he said he really wanted to have a impact on campus. Since our first meeting, Jason has been faithfully studying the Word with me, sharing his faith with classmates (and recently with strangers!), and inviting friends along to Student Life gatherings.

How to Follow Christ?

As I move into my second year as ICS in New Zealand, I discover more or more how much I really don’t know about following Christ and yet God has called me to lead a staff team overseas! This year, I’ve seen a deep desire emerge in my heart and in the hearts of my teammates to truly live a missional lifestyle – where ministry is not our life, but our lives are ministry. Personally, I feel like I struggle far less with the conceptual side of following Christ than I do with the action side. And I’m not talking about the daily “Ministry to Do” checklist, but really living out my faith day by day so that Christ would be seen and known through my life.
As we’ve felt this tension in our hearts, we have hoped that students within our movement would begin to grapple with it as well while their own journeys to becoming disciples of Christ. To help facilitate this, we’ve formed a once-a-month gathering point (instead of a weekly meeting) to bring students together from all our campuses in Wellington to deeply explore their faith in the context of community. This evening (which the students call Fuse) entails a dinner together, a faith discussion, communion, and fellowship. Recently, we have been dialoguing about the “isms” of New Zealand culture (e.g. consumerism, syncretism, designer paganism, etc.) and how they influence, for better or worse, our faith in God. So often, the ideologies of our cultures seep into our faith and affect it without us really being aware. Hopefully as we uncover these “isms”, it will serve as a catalyst for life change and produce creative ideas for how to engage our campus and community.
Ultimately, as our student movement comes together at Fuse and other connecting times, our goal is that we are considering “how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.” [Hebrews 10:24] We want Jesus to be known and the Gospel to be within arm’s reach of every student… everywhere.

Fuse :: The Student Life Monthly Get Together

At this stage, with the newness of our movement, we currently have a once-a-month get together that the students have called “Fuse” - meaning to unite or blend into a whole, as if by melting together. This is the concept of our event, as we bring together the campuses in Wellington for an evening of sharing a meal, fellowship, encouragement from God’s Word, and challenge to influence the campus for Christ. Around 30 attended our first Fuse!

Student Spring Breakers Visit us from the States

For two weeks straight (March 10—March 22), we hosted students from Midwest universities that came all the way to New Zealand for a week of meeting students on campus and sharing the Gospel. It was great for us to have more hands on deck to follow up with people from “Tune In”. It was also extremely visionary for the Spring Breakers to come and experience helping pioneer a new campus movement. We greatly enjoy their encouragement and excitement for ministry (as well as all the goodies they brings from America)!


[Jeff and Suzi Daratoni, Patnership Directors for the Great Leakes Region,
led a team of students from Indiana schools.]


[Isaac hanging with the team.]


[Illinois students share a meal at the Felix’s house.]

[Chris Burton (left) was part of our staff team in New Zealand last year.
He led the group of Illinois students. It was so nice to see him again!]

Results from “Will You Tune In?”

“Amidst the background static of life and the confusion of our culture there is one major broadcast that most people have not discovered…” “Will you Tune In?”

Our first term “Tune In” outreach went very well. For some unforeseen reason (we see it as the Lord’s favor), we had three of the best locations for our tables at our campuses in Wellington. We found ourselves positioned right in major throughways for students passing between lectures. This certainly provided many opportunities for us to interact with them. Several students involved in our movement showed up to lend a hand too. It is always rewarding to see students reaching out to students! We were able to survey a total of 893, with 159 saying that they were spiritually interested, and seeing 40 first year (freshman) students get plugged into Student Life. At this stage, we have only seen 2 students indicate decisions for Christ as a result of Tune In. But we have surfaced a number of students who are interested in attending Explore Groups in order to examine the Bible with us in order to make a decision about Christ. Please pray for their eyes to be opened and hearts to be receptive.

Photos From "Tune In"