Year in Review :: Celebrating the Lord’s Work in 2009

2009 Statistics of Our Local Movement:
4,775 Students given the opportunity to hear Gospel
949 Spiritual Conversations with students
327 Students heard the Gospel with chance to respond
16 Students indicated decisions to follow Christ
68 Students involved locally on a discipleship level



This past year has been a year of several firsts for us here. As God has increased both the size of our movement and the involvement of our students, we’ve been able to add new elements to Wellington Student Life to continue to develop our students and help them grow in to life-time Christ-centered laborers. 2009 has brought about our first Autumn Retreat, our first fully integrated US Summer Project Team, the start of weekly training times for our key student leaders, and our first kiwi student intern (Leigh Proctor) from our local movement! In addition to this, it has been really rewarding to see a handful of students really take the initiative to lead in areas like our monthly Fuse meeting, leading men’s and women’s times, and leading other students in Action Groups (small group Bible studies). And as I look at our statistics, I’m encouraged to see that the Gospel is being sown broadly here in Wellington (and that brings glory to God!), but also realizing that the soil of students’ hearts is hard and they are far from knowing God. Continue to join with us in praying that God will soften the hearts of students in 2010 to hear and respond to the message of God’s forgiveness through Jesus Christ. Also pray for us as we lead our team and the students, that we might be able to connect well with the Lost in light of the culture and spiritual climate on the university campuses here. As we reflect on God’s work here, we know that the prayers and committments of our partners are a part of what has made all of this possible! Thanks.

Men’s Time :: Not Shrinking Back

[Me near turbine with Wellington Harbour below.]

I enjoy getting together with the men of faith in our movement and really picking apart how we can continue to spur each other on in our walks with Christ and lead others in life and faith by example. At our most recent time together, we went on a tramp to the Wellington wind turbine. As the school year is drawing to a close, I spent time talking to the guys about Hebrews 10:38-39, which says, “’But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him.’ But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.” Often summers can be challenging for university students as they leave campus and close Christian friendships and networks. My reminder and encouragement to them was that summers don’t have to be and shouldn’t be a time for us to shrink back in our faith, putting God to the side or our spiritual growth on the back burner. Instead, I challenged them to consider how to “redeem” their summer, continue to walk in faith, and believe God for the preservation of their spiritual lives over the break. My prayer is that these men will take the initiative to stay connected to each other and stand firm throughout the summer holidays. It is also my desire that when they get back to university next autumn that they can see how they’ve experienced great growth and are even having a stronger walk with the Lord as we begin to take the gospel together to next years’ students!