Mid-project and other great things

We have figured out that in the 2 weeks that we have been sharing on our faith with people on campus we have been able to share the Gospel with people from [get ready for a big list]: New Zealand, China, Cambodia, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Fiji, Norway, Iraq, Iran, the Philippines, South Africa, England, Germany, Vietnam, Oman, Samoa, Japan, the United States, the Nile Islands, Tonga, and Australia. That is a total of 24 different countries! I got to walk a student named Steven Zhang, a 2^nd year student from China, through one of the first follow-ups and as we got to the end of it I asked him how sure he was that he had eternal life in Christ and he said 50%. I was surprised because he had said that he already believed in Christ. So I walked him again through the prayer to receive Christ into his life and asked him if he wasn’t sure if he had done something like it or if he wanted to do it now to be sure and without hesitation he said, “I want to be sure, I want to be sure.” So we prayed through the prayer in the middle of the atrium of the student union. That is just one story, but it was great to be a part of what God was doing in Steven’s life.

Some of the guys were able to get involved in trying to minister with some of the STINT team by getting involved in communities of university students. Ronnie, Alex, Chris and I got to be involved in the indoor ultimate Frisbee ministry by going to a practice on Tuesday morning. We were able to see how some of the stinters do longer term ministry and met up with a girl named Maggie that knew Corey Grazul from last year’s trip! She just transferred to Victoria and has been looking for a place to get plugged in. She was telling us how she was feeling homesick and was so thankful that God set up meeting our team and getting her connected with the Campus Crusade for Christ ministry here.

Thursday night we had a men’s and women’s time where the guys were able to ask a panel of women questions and a separate time where the girls could fire away questions to a panel of guys. Then we were able to have a meeting for just our team with a time of worship, testimonies from Kim and Ronnie, and some teaching from Galatians. We had our first sharing time where we were able to tell some stories of what God has done, some funny things and even some frustrating situations that we have been in. It was great to see what things have happened with different people on the project and was probably the most beneficial thing that happened the whole evening.

Right now we are in Rotorua for our mid-project retreat. It is in the north part of the north island and is known for its natural hot springs. The pools are naturally heated but it does make the entire town smell like sulfur… not the most pleasant thing to catch a big whiff of… Last night we talked through some of the norms and values that we went over during our briefing in LA – things that we wanted to be to true of us for the project. It was really good for all of us to get to talk through lots of things. Today has been a day for us to enjoy some tramping (NZ for hiking), Zorbing (a human hamster ball), Agroboating (a 3 person rocket boat) and some rides down a luge on the side of a mountain. It was a really fun and relaxing day for all of us.

A few things that we would love for you to be praying for:
- Lee from Malaysia who wants to become a Christian but his parents told him he would be disowned if left their faith.
- A girl named Tracy that wanted to pray to invite Christ into her life on her own. Pray she would and that we would get the chance to follow up with her.
- For God to open a student named Xia Oyu (pronounced Shou You) to hearing and receiving the Gospel.
- safe travel on the 7 hour bus ride back to Wellington.

dave

picture 1 – Ronnie and I playing indoor ultimate Frisbee
picture 2 – Alex and Emily emcee-ing our meeting
picture 3 – Johanna bouncing down the hill in a Zorb
picture 4 – Brian, Amy and Kim shooting down the Luge
picture 5 – Alex’s red badges of courage (after wrecking on the luge)