First Cell Group and other stories...
Hi all, sorry I haven’t posted in a while, most of my internet time has been answering all the lovely emails I’ve been sent =)
Wednesday night saw our first cell group Bible study with CF. We started a bit shakily with 2 people turning up (our faithful prez and another exec member) but by the end of a long two hours had grown to half a dozen – including another boy!!
We’ll be looking at Ephesians for the next few weeks, so spent this intro night reading the whole letter aloud and then picking through for keywords, themes, and any questions they might have.
Some quotes:
“Wow! I’ve never pictured this as a letter before…was it really read all at once?”
“I can’t wait until we get to chapter 5, I have so many questions!”
I was greatly encouraged by their response to God’s Word, especially their enthusiasm to engage with nasty words like election and difficult cultural topics like men and women and the ethics of work…woohoo!
In other news, I moved house today. At 5 minutes notice I was asked to vacate my little concrete box for a slightly larger gyprock-lined box upstairs. I’m now sharing with an IT nerd from Melbourne called Tom who’s working with the Presbyterian church offices and kindly lending me his dial-up occasionally. At least it forced me to clean up all my stuff…I kinda miss my geckos though…
We have a strategy meeting this Saturday for our Friday night groups with CF and our upcoming Easter crusade, please be in prayer for that as I try and encourage them to think more about different ways of approaching teaching and evangelism, and thank God they have been so welcoming and gracious in accepting my suggestions so far. Ooo, and I’m preaching tomorrow night for the first time at CF on Luke 16 as an ‘intro to uni life’ (thanks Paul for the passage, I poached it from something I remember at Credo).
I also spent a chunk of today with the Paschke’s and some SU volunteers planning an Easter camp at the new Skripja Yunyon Kampsaet at Pango Point. I’ll be speaking at one of the senior (upper high school and tertiary students) sessions on discipleship and running a training workshop on 1-1 Bible reading.
Lastly, I have a cold…on a tropical island.
Posted: Mar 5, 11:23 PM Category: USP
J · Mar 5, 11:36 PM
Sorry this was kinda rushed…so much to tell and so little bandwidth!
Beth · Mar 7, 05:07 PM
Hey man,
sorry I haven’t read this sooner, but you know how it is my life is simply too important to put on hold to read about your little adventure…. jokes!
I was really encourgaged to read about how God has already blessed you in your time there, please know I am praying for you and will try more diligently to be a concious observer of you time in Vland!
take care brother
Michael Pailthorpe · Mar 9, 11:53 AM
Hey Joel, Vanuatu Sunset is in full brew all day sunday at WRAC. Now, all I need is for people to like drinking coffee.
J · Mar 9, 05:07 PM
Michael – people just don’t realise how good they have it in Sydney, someday they’ll go to churches overseas…and long for the coffee they could have had then ;-p
Beth – I suppose I can forgive you…maybe…but thanks for praying!!
Kimi · Mar 9, 05:47 PM
Have u been forgetting to wear your v-land bling Joel?
Katty · Mar 11, 02:48 AM
so which upstairs unit are you living in? the boys or the girls?
whats the camp? is it organised by the english speaking church did you say?
i was looking at photos of selime just then with kimi, man i miss selime!
im so worried about coming to vanuatu though, because im sure i wont remember everyone’s names, and they’ll remember my name
hmm
oh and i may be coming much earlier now
J · Mar 11, 07:13 PM
the ‘girls’ one at the moment…there were mumblings of me moving again though so who knows, eh?
It’s an SU one – kind of an upper primary to tertiary one but tapping all the ISCF groups they’ve seeded over the years as well as churches.
Haven’t quite made it to Selime yet, three church services a day is enough for the time being :-s
Don’t worry too much, many have forgotten me altogether – or they remember me having come once before…so don’t stress too much!
How much earlier are we talking?