Our Summer Letter

Dear Partners in the Great Commission,

As July approaches, more and more of the colder southern winds make their way up from the Antarctic to the New Zealand coastlines and blow through the capital city of Wellington. As it gets colder and wetter, we are very grateful that our landlords have graciously installed a heat pump in our home to keep us warm, cozy, and less susceptible to sickness this winter. We still laugh, thinking about how different this time of year is for our loved ones in the northern hemisphere, as we wrap ourselves up in blankets and sip hot drinks.

It is hard to believe that we have been living and working in New Zealand for nearly 3 years now! We continue to be challenged by the task entrusted to us of leading a major metropolitan ministry, providing vision and direction to our staff, and longing to cultivate a movement of students who truly follow Jesus Christ. This is all part of the dream of putting every university student in Wellington, New Zealand, and the world within arm’s reach of the Gospel. In our short time here, we have seen God raise up a movement of over 70 committed university students who are desiring to walk with Him, grow in their love for one another, and help proclaim the Good News about Jesus Christ on their campuses!

As we reflect on all that God has done here through us, we constantly acknowledge that we could not complete the work of this mission without the faithful support of ministry partners like you. We thank God in our prayers for you, especially for your continued giving despite the economic challenges that have taken place in America. Still many other’s who have partnered with us have had to reduce or cease their giving to us all together because of financial difficulties.

It is for this reason that we are asking you to consider giving a special, one-time gift this summer (our winter) to help make up for what is lacking in our monthly support. Your extra gift will help us meet all our needs and continue, unhindered, in our mission. If this is something you feel God is moving you to help with, please click here to make your donation or the 'Donate' link to the left side of our ministry homepage. We appreciate you placing this request before the Lord! We hope you have a safe and restful summer. Thanks for locking arms with us as we reach Kiwis for Christ—working together toward fulfilling the Great Commission in this generation!
Serving Christ with you,
Josh & Jill

Adam & Ash :: Finding Faith in Christ

[L>R: Dan, Nate, Adam]

Nate and Dan on my team have been spending a lot of time pouring into the life of a Chinese exchange student called Adam. Staff and students from the 2008 Summer Project that came from the United States were the first ones to meet Adam. Nate reconnected with Adam at the beginning of this school year and has been investing in him ever since. Adam has been quite skeptical of Christianity. Still, he could be found hanging out around Student Life and our staff team. Nate encouraged Adam to come along to a Christianity Explored course at a local church. After many questions, much prayer, and attending our Autumn Retreat, Adam placed his faith in Christ! We are so excited for Adam and we can visibly see the joy of his salvation in Christ!


[L>R: Jeremy, John (back), Ash]

Ash is a guy two of my teammates met and developed a friendship with last year. This year, I’ve continued to invest in a friendship with Ash. I’ve been reading a church history book with him to help him answer some questions about God and the Church. He’s also sat in on a few of my campus Bible studies. Ash agreed to come to Autumn Retreat and came away really challenged by the talks. Later, I was explaining to Ash how someone can know that they have salvation by looking at Romans 10:9. It says, “...if you confess with your mouth, ’Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” I asked him if he knew if he could say this for himself. He said, “Yes.” Upon his confession of faith, I’m excited to see him grow in his understanding of Jesus and what it means to live for Christ.

"To Know & Be Known" :: Inaugural Wellington Autumn Retreat

I am very please to report back to all of you about our first ever Wellington Student Life Autumn Retreat! Now at our third year since pioneering a local university movement, we finally believed there was enough student involvement and momentum to host a retreat. Twenty university students joined us at El Rancho Christian Camp in Waikanae, north of Wellington city. The theme of the retreat (“To Know & Be Known”) was focused on helping students in our new and growing movement to get to know Jesus Christ better, grow in knowing one another, and then helping others around them to come to know God as well. Our guest speaker for the weekend was Justin O’Malley who is the National Director for Student Life in New Zealand. He did an excellent job helping our students look at Christ up close and he passionately communicated God’s heart for those who are lost. One of the highlights for the students was the afternoon of the “faith walk” when they led each other around the camp blindfolded! This was an exercise in listening to God and walking in faith as well as building trust in fellow believers. The highlight for me and our staff team was the two non-believers who attended the weekend retreat. You can read about Adam and Ash in the next article!



Staff and students play “American” football



Our Guest Speaker,
Justin O’Malley



Sylvia takes a jump of faith during the Saturday afternoon “faith walk”