G'day mates! (they do actually say that here) I haven't gotten to talk to any of you guys yet since we arrived in Australia, so I figured I would post where most of my friends were likely to look.
We've been in the country for about a week and a half now, and in Armidale for a little over a week. Armidale is a good-sized town by their measuring: a whopping 20,000 people. It's also devastatingly cold by their standards, but as it turns out it's about the same as our seasons in Birmingham. We're at the University of New England, a school of about 5,000 with a lot of medical, education, and agricultural science students. I'm spending most of my time in Duval College (their colleges are like the schools in Harry Potter, for a point of reference). Students in Duval are into all kinds of things, but tend to be very sociable.
A few encouraging things: the church here, St. Mark's Chapel (Anglican), has been wonderful to us. It's weird to be a Christian here, so the believers are more committed to the gospel and take living as a Christian very seriously. They've served us in all kinds of ways, from feeding us to their pastor teaching us once a week, and we're truly grateful for them. The believers among college students have been great as well; they're genuinely seeking to grow in their faith, and have taken us under their wing socially to help us meet people. They love to rag on us--I think mockery is a love language here--and we have a great time laughing at and with one another.
In addition, our team (10 students) has been really faithful to pray for and seek out the non-believers here. As I'll explain in a bit, this is very difficult here, but our guys and girls have been champs about encouraging one another and building community here. I'm really thankful for all of this.
If I could ask you to pray for anything, it would be for our relationships with non-Christians. They've seen us as outsiders coming into the communities they have, and they have no real reason to try and build relationships with us: the burden is totally on our initiative, and oftentimes they don't care to respond to us well. We are having some victories--two of our guys are practicing and maybe even playing with one college's rugby team--but it has been slow progress. It's disheartening to have efforts at loving others rebuffed, so please pray 1) that God would provide us with friendships among non-believers and 2) that we would trust in Christ's sufficiency so as to not depend emotionally on their responses to us.
Another prayer request is related to this. Generally, Aussie non-believers are very apathetic towards the gospel. It takes the average Aussie female 1.5 years to come to Christ after first hearing the gospel, and the average male twice that. In light of that, we don't really expect to see anyone come to Christ through us this summer; we may have people we get really close to with whom we may not get to share the gospel at all. We're constantly reminding the team that God provides all spiritual growth, and that what we are to be faithful to do is to love these students and scatter what seed of the gospel we can. It is difficult to minister without the expectation of visible results, however (even though we know it's an idol), so please pray that God would give us the courage and the will to be faithful rather than needing success.
If I could give you a few specific names to pray for in Duval, Benny and Pete are two Christians who are intentionally laboring in the college. Pray that they would be encouraged and equipped. Amos, Aaron, Josh, and Anthony are the only other Christian guys there, and they are struggling to courageously love non-Christians: pray that God would give them boldness and satisfaction in themselves. Dale, Joshua, Cale, Pinky, and Eldin are non-believers we've begun to build relationships with: please pray that God would prepare their hearts for the gospel and allow the love we have for them to ultimately point them to Christ.
Sorry to post such a huge blog, but we've had a busy week. I'd love to hear how you guys are doing, what God is doing in your lives this summer, and any way I can be praying for you, so please let me know. I love you all, and hope to hear from you soon!
