"God willing...I shall return."

Today is my last full day in Dunedin, New Zealand. I feel like there’s a Hobbit stepping on my sternum. Like, I feel a tiny weight in and on my chest right now. It’s pretty weird and all I can do is chalk it up to the love and burden I have for this place and these people. It’s been pretty life changing being here for 11 weeks.

As a ministry team, we’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: we’re all completely at the mercy of God for everything. We are totally dependent on Him to move in men to meet with us. We’re totally dependent on Him to grow the seed that we’ve planted and watered. We’re totally dependent on God to save. We can’t “lead people in prayers.” We can’t convince them to “get saved.” We can’t articulate the Gospel so well that their eyes get opened. And on and on I could go.

All we can do is faithfully live out and share the gospel, and pray that God does something supernatural. All we can do is live faithfully and hope God does something incredible, because even if we live faithfully according to His word, He can still tarry and withhold His loving hand from those with whom we labor—He owes men nothing (Romans 9 and 11). But praise God that He takes great pleasure in the salvation of men. For His Glory, he calls men and women out of spiritual death and into life with Him.

I don’t know much, but if He chooses to save the guys I’ve labored with, I’m going to go be an absolute, over-joyed mess. I will probably cry in a way I’ve never cried before. I’ll dance in a way I’ve never danced before. I’ll laugh in a way I’ve never laughed before. My hope is in Christ alone, but a deep-heart felt prayer is for the salvation of these dudes here at this university.

I told Megan the other day that this place has cut me deep. I feel the weight of this country’s desperate need for Christ and this place has helped me sense my own continual need for Jesus as well. A question that haunts me (in a good way) is: “Why me? Why did He save me?” I mean, he could have left me alone in my sin and allowed it to destroy me. But, he didn’t. He saved me. I see this country’s apathy—most of them just don’t care about Christ at all. But, I care and I want them to know Jesus. God willing, I’m coming back here. I’m coming back to this place if He’ll let me.

Tomorrow, I am leaving New Zealand. Tomorrow, I will rejoice in who Christ is and what He is doing in New Zealand. Tomorrow, I will have clear eyes. Tomorrow, I will have a full heart. Tomorrow, I will say, “God willing, I shall return.”

-Nate Xanders

My Kind of Guys: Hugh Wilson, Pastor Matt Chandler, Lee Strobel, and Dr. Luke the Evangelist

I’m a guy with questions. Most of my questions begin like this: “Yeah, sure...but why...?” Like, you could tell me your favorite flavor of ice cream is vanilla and secretly in my brain I’m wondering, “Okay, I believe you, but why? Why is vanilla your favorite?” I don’t always ask “why” out loud on questions like that because it might seem a little intense, but I still wonder.

Someone once said to me, “I think you’re a guy that really wants to know the truth.” And that’s probably a good evaluation. I’ve always had a hunger for truth, but it wasn’t until my early college days that I learned that to really know truth—to really find it and work it out with your hands, you’ve got to ask good questions. Basically, my personal journalism and communications training in college were like handing silverware to a man that loved to eat a lot—feasting becomes more effective when one has a knife and spork at their disposal.

The more questions I asked, the more skeptical I became—not about God or faith but more so about the world and the goofy way that it operates. After becoming a Christian, Christ began to use my skepticism to re-shape my worldview into a Biblical one—He’s still working on that in me.

One of the things that I have come to appreciate is really good skepticism. Good skepticism is calm, rational, reasonable and seeks truth and understanding rather than winning or argumentative victory. I also enjoy people that are good skeptics and filled with questions.

That’s why the Gospel according to Luke is my favorite synoptic gospel. Luke was a thinker and a bit of a skeptic—and so was Theophilus, the man to whom Luke wrote Luke and Acts. Luke was a doctor but let me tell you, he was also a fantastic journalist and historian. The gospel of Luke could only be assembled by Luke, if he was asking great questions of eyewitnesses of the life of Jesus.

Enter Hugh Wilson. Hugh and I have been hanging a good bit since all the other guys left. I like Hugh a lot. He's my kind of guy. He’s the first guy I’ve ever met that definitely, beyond the shadow of a doubt knows more about movies than me. It’s quite nice being on the other end of that conversation about film and it is fun to talk about how the Bible is an intense narrative that surpasses any movie we could ever see.

Hugh asks great questions, he’s intelligent, and he’s a good thinker—it would be great to see how those play out in Hugh if Jesus saves him. He formulates varsity level questions on his own and wants to know the truth. I gave him my copy of “The Case for Christ” by Lee Strobel. Strobel had many of the same questions about faith and God before coming to Christ and writing this book.

Hugh said, “It [the book] is a really good read, aye? It’s enjoyable.”

He read Matthew while the other CCP guys were still here and now he’s blown through John’s gospel too. So what did I tell him to read next? Luke.

Hugh, like a good skeptic, asked me, “Why Luke?”

To which I replied, “Because you and Luke would get along really well.”

This is where Pastor Matt Chandler of the Village Church in Flower Mound, Texas comes in to the picture. Matt preaches the way I want to be preached to—he’s intense, he’s a rambler, he’s a guy that preaches hard and deep, he’ s funny, he’s angry, he’s over-joyed and he’s a skeptic. When I heard him preach for the first time I knew this was a guy that was extremely relevant to any dude age 16-60 and it just so happens that the first sermon I ever listened to by Chandler was as he was preaching through Luke. It took him two years to preach through Luke but it only took me two weeks to listen to all 45 sermons in that series. Because of how much Chandler has impacted me, I told Hugh I would give him an mp3 copy of all 45 Matt Chandler sermons from the Gospel of Luke (calm down, you can download all of Chandler’s sermons for free at http://fm.thevillagechurch.net/) so Hugh could follow along with Matt as he read Luke. Because dumping 45 sermons on some guy is pretty intense, I listened to the first one with Hugh today. He liked.

Hugh said “This guy seems really relevant and he’s good—he’s not at all boring.”

I walked home with Hugh and he copied the free sermons to his MacBook. Tonight we’re going to see a movie and then chat some more about Christ.

And don’t worry about Hugh feeling over-loaded. A Lee Strobel book, 45 sermons on mp3, and The Gospel of Luke aren’t too much for this guy. He’s got a real hunger and thirst for information and truth. The hope we have, however, is not that all of his questions will answered. The hope that we have is Christ. We have to believe that it is Christ alone who can reveal Christ to Hugh. Hugh needs eyes to see and ears to hear and only by commanding and powerful word of Christ can he receive those things. We want for the gospel and Jesus to become extremely personal to Hugh.

It’s like Andy Stanley once said, “Well, what happened? Did I get all my questions answered? Well, no. But all of a sudden Christ and the Gospel were deeply personal to me and I didn’t need all my questions answered. You’ll never get rid of all your questions and all your obstacles. But when Christ becomes personal and real and you follow him, the questions and obstacles just feel like they’re not as big and not as important anymore. When it becomes personal to you, you’ll still have questions—you just won’t have to have them answered.”

That’s my prayer for Hugh. My prayer for him is that Jesus Christ would just invade his personal space. My prayer is that Hugh will see how big Christ is and those questions will just become so small. My hope is that God will, as Dr. Eric Mason once said, “flagarantly foul” Hugh with His love and that that love would change Hugh forever and redeem Hugh’s skepticism for Christ and His Glory.

-Nate

The Supremacy of Christ in Carpentry and Patience

When everyone abandoned me here—I mean, when everyone left for the States, I had to break down all of our bunk beds and stuff. Then Josh informed me that we would build a shelf in the shed/garage so we could store the mattresses and broken down bunk pieces. So we started doing this little project and about four hours later we (and when I say we, I mean Josh, because I knew from the start this would take forever) realized how deep we were into this thing. So we kept at it and with about an hour worth of work left, Josh looked down at his watch and said, “Well, time to go home.”

I’m still blown away by the fact that we were so close and he called it a night. So a week later, here I was by myself looking at this cluttered shed. And I finished the carpentry alone. As I was cutting the wood and nailing it into place, I thought about how amazing it is that Christ spent years and years as a carpenter and never sinned. It’s such a frustrating task. Cutting wood in that shed just warred against me—and that’s what Jesus did for a living. He was a carpenter. The tools he had to work with were archaic compared to my power saw and drill. Now, I would argue that He, as the God of the universe, had a “slight” carpentry advantage, since He did it professionally for over two decades and, oh I don’t know, made all the trees by speaking them into existence and then holding them in place by the power of His word. I’m just saying, I don’t think Jesus ever cut the wood incorrectly—but that’s complete conjecture, I know. None of that is really the point.

One thing is for sure, I don’t think I have the patience to do carpentry six days a week for over 20 years. But Jesus did. Carpentry takes unbelievable patience. And we know that Christ is perfectly patient. As I thought about Christ as a carpenter, I couldn’t help but think of His patience as Savior and Lord. I thought about His unreal patience with me and with us. My prayer is that His patience with these guys here in Dunedin would be displayed to them. Our prayer should be that they would come to Christ and taste His mercy, His grace, His love, and His patience—just as we have.

Please pray for Hugh, Team Duff and Team Studholme as I labor with them. They have all returned from their semester break and today I get to hangout with these guys. Hugh has been reading “The Case for Christ” by Lee Strobel and is really enjoying it. Team Duff is still reading John and still asking great questions—please pray that I would ask great questions as well. Join me in praying that God would reveal Himself to them and display His supremacy and His supreme patience to them.

-Nate X.

We Are Created for Community

I like to think about the Creation story in Genesis. It’s pretty crazy. I mean, when we read it through fresh lenses and just observe it as if we haven’t heard it a million times before, it rings true just like it always has; but there are some really cool things in the first two chapters of the Bible. The story of Creation goes a little something like this:

God is. The story begins with God and His eternal, infinite existence. So, there He is—just doing God things...because He’s God. The Triune God of the soon to be universe is just fellowshipping with Himself—just kicking it—in His triune nature. God is three in one and one in three—there is this Godhead community. Then the Godhead decides to start creating stuff from nothing. He creates and says, “It’s good.” He creates some more and says, “It’s good.” Then He does some more and says again, “It’s good.” He does this seven times: creates and declares His creation to be good.

But then He says something interesting. God says, “It is NOT good...” Well, what is He talking about? He finishes the sentence by declaring that it is not good for man to be alone. This is really cool. Adam is there in the garden surrounded by animals of all kinds—and yet God says man is alone. He designed us for community with Him and for community with others. He declares this at the very beginning of the story. He created man and it was good—but it wasn’t done yet. God’s plan was always community.

I think I’ve always understood this to be true—academically. But I think CCP has grown me in the depth of being really acquainted with this truth. I miss my CCP teammates. There is no debating it. Community and fellowship with them deeply blessed and enriched my life. But praise God because I have found sweet fellowship with Kiwi believers here in New Zealand. Even though university has the week off, and all the students have left for the holiday, there is a remnant that is still here in Dunedin. It brings me great joy to know that the Father ordained that this week in my life should be laden with the fellowship of believers.

There are men here that ferociously love Christ and I am so thankful to be around them. I think this stirs my heart to worship because they are living proof that God is making good on His promise to save and transform peoples from every tribe, tongue, and nation. Let our prayer be that God would bring more and more Kiwis into our community—that He would save men and women and bring them into sweet fellowship with Himself and also, us.

-Nate Xanders

“If you really believed in an omnipresent God, you would operate as if you were never alone and without community and fellowship.” –Dr. Del Tackett

And Then There Was One

On July 6th, twelve Americans arrived in New Zealand as the Cross Cultural Team. Seven weeks later, on August 20th at approximately 9:38am New Zealand Standard Time, eleven members of Cross Cultural Team got on a plane to begin the 30+ hour journey to Nashville, Tennessee, USA. But one team member was left behind. The twelfth and final member watched as the plane pulled away from the terminal at the Dunedin airport. There were 12...and then there was one.

Calm down, they left me here on purpose—nobody panic. Yes, the rumors are true. You read Zach’s blog entry correctly. I (Nate Xanders) am still here and it wasn’t a mistake. Well—I mean them leaving me here wasn’t accidental...only time will tell if it was a bad idea or not. I’m kidding. It’s not like being left on the other side of the planet all alone is a big deal or anything. And living all alone in this big, old, dark, cold house is a cake walk. Sure, I almost peed my pajamas last night because of how terrifyingly empty this house is at 2am, but it’s all for the sake of the gospel so...no big deal. I’m just joking; it’s really not that bad. But seriously, it’s hard to fill such a large humor void left by the departure of Sean Stallings and Megan Sparks. It’s like a laughter vacuum has been created here in Dunedin and now the whole town has no idea why they’re so sad.

On a happy note, I won’t have to do any grocery shopping during my extra month here. There’s enough food here to last me a good six weeks. If we had left the other Nate here, he’d have enough food for about 10 days. Thank you to all the girls for buying way more food that you could have ever eaten. I think I could eat Weet-Bix three times a day and never run out. Sam...that flounder you bought...what were you thinking?

Buying way to much at Pak n’ Save = CCP Fail
Leaving it all to Nate = CCP Win

Also, you guys have no idea how much work they did getting this house ready for us. It’s crazy—and now I’m helping put it all back the way it was before. It’s pretty encouraging to see the church’s vision for this house. I hope CCP 2011 will grasp the weight of Grace Bible Church’s dedication to this ministry. I think we all know how greatly they served us this summer (winter here in the southern hemisphere).

I’d like to give each of you my thoughts about you over the past 48 hours as I have missed you all very much.

Megan and Liz: your bunk bed refused to come down. It is rebelling against the fact that you’re no longer here in the house. I think you two should fly back so you can take it down yourselves.

Nate F.: All our apples still smell like your stinky tea. Thanks for nothing. But hey, I still love you brother and can’t wait to fellowship with you soon.

Fennell: I miss you snoring right above me in the top bunk. Something about it was soothing. Every time I hangout with Hugh I think about how encouraged I am by you.

Kyle: Kyyyyle! When stuff goes bad around the house, I have no one to blame. When stuff goes bad around the house, there’s no one to fix it. Also, I miss our conversations...and when I say conversations, I mean you talking to me in your sleep and me telling you, “Shut up, Kyle!”

Sam: Once again...the flounder...you’re killing me. The whole kitchen smells like fish now. You owe me (and Zach) one “Blood Brother” and/or a “Christ Receiveth Sinful Men.”

Kendall: Skew! Skew! “Grow up Kendall.”

Sean: Finances took Josh like a million years—and it was just me. Thanks for serving us this summer and being the goofiest dude on the planet. I dig you and everything about you.

Girls: Your shower is like a phone booth—for oompa-loompas. It is really that small—like, I’m amazed. But thanks for leaving me all the girly soaps and stuff. I smell great—like flowers, bubbles and the stuff that dreams are made of.

Megan: Since you left I figured someone would need to take your place at spilling food everywhere. I got tuna, egg yolk, apple juice, and milk all over the kitchen in 24 hours.

ZNR: I found some boxer briefs with your initials on them. Thanks for being a great CCP team-leader. I appreciate you and all you did for us as a team.

I love you all. Please pray for me and continue to contact via email and Facebook. I treasure your encouragement and prayerful intercessions on my behalf.

My friends have left me alone on the other side of the planet and yet I will praise God for He, and not my friends, is my rock and my salvation. He is my fortress and I will not be shaken.

-Nate Xanders

God Softens Concrete

The week started with a bang on Monday when Riz, James, and Duffy came over to play mafia (a card game). After the game was over, James and Duffy stuck rolled out, but Riz (the darker guy standing in the picture) stayed around. It wasn’t long before we were moving through the depths of the gospel. God was at work, as Riz knew himself to be a sinner, and unworthy of someone to die in his place. It was mind blowing for him. It ended with him taking a free Bible to read through the gospel of John, with the plan of us meeting up with him and the rest of “Team Duff” for pizza Wednesday night to discuss the gospel.


The next day we went and ate lunch with a guy named Nick, who Nate F. had shared the gospel with last week. He was having trouble believing in the validity of the scriptures and hadn’t thought much about the gospel since the last convo. We left him with some literature to address his issues. Nate meets up with him again thursday for the last time.

Wednesday night rolled around and we met up with Team Duff to eat at Filadelphio’s Pizza. Before we had been sitting there for 5 minutes, Kendall asks Riz if he has been reading John, and he had! The conversation quickly exploded into tons of questions about the gospel and Christianity. We ended up spending about 2.5 hours talking through the gospel with these 6 guys as most of them heard it truly for the first time. “I never thought Christianity was like this. I just thought the bible was a list of rules Christians kept” was one comment I remember. In the van ride back to their college, they asked, “Can we go back to your house and get those free bibles, like Riz got?” So we took them all back to our house and gave them Bibles and set them off to read the gospel of John. A couple days later Duffy told me there were things in John he “had been showing everybody”.
(Glenn in the Red Beanie and Tom in the blue/white/gray jacket)
We ended up spending the weekend with them at our evangelistic retreat, sharing stories of our conversions, and fielding random questions as they came up, but mostly just loving them. Right before bed, Duffy pops up from his sleeping bag and says, “Hey Xanders, how long you been Christian?” While to the right of him, Tom is questioning Nate frantz about 2 Peter and asking me if I go to church every Sunday. It was a wild time.

We will only see them a couple more times before we leave. Our prayer is that these six guys will join the Staff guy Josh Eyre or Nate Xanders (a team member we are leaving for 4 weeks) and study the gospel of John with them, and eventually to repent of their sin and follow Christ. We would ask that this would be your prayer also.
This picture is of our evangelistic Retreat.

- Zach, Nate F. and Kendall

Exciting Times

This past week has been a very exciting time for myself and the team because we are coming to the point of sharing the Gospel with our new friends. The stories are amazing of just how much people just don't know about Jesus and Christianity in general. It is really great to see the interest many people have taken from the ministry teams sharing the Gospel! We are all praying that God would grow these seeds!

Over the past month I have just tried to get connected with some of the students that attend Grace Bible Church, and it has been a great time to encourage the Christians in their walk with the Lord. Your life looks especially here in New Zealand as a Christian, and it is even harder if you don't have any other Christian friends. I also started playing with a soccer team (the Nova Girls). I only played 3 games with them, but it has been cool getting connected with some of the girls. I wish I had more time here to develop deeper relationships with them! I have also been hanging out with two girls, Holly and Kirsty (in the picture). They have become my good friends here in Dunedin! Holly is a Christian and we started reading 1 John together on Fridays and just talking through questions she has. These times have been really great! Kirsty doesn't really have any spiritual background, and I shared the Gospel with her this week so just pray I would encourage Kirsty to think about the things we talked about and to investigate Christ, but most of all pray that God would bring her to know Christ as Lord and Savior! God has also opened up some doors to friendships just within the last two weeks with the Muslim community in Dunedin, and it has been SO sweet so far. I have got to meet 4 girls (2 from Malaysia and 2 from Saudi Arabia). One has invited me to come to the mosque this week to break their fast seeing as though it is their month of fasting (Ramadan). Please pray for open doors to at least give them a Bible before the team comes back home. So, that just about sums things up!

I really don't want to leave, but I thank God so much for the 6 weeks we have had here so far. It has been a great time to enjoy and be challenged by living with everyone here in Grace House. It has been great to see a Gospel community being lived out before my eyes. It has been a great time of being sharpened by having people speak truth into my life and help to point out sins in my life that I never would have seen. It has been great seeing what full time ministry looks like, and so, so much more! I could go on and on!


In light of these things please pray:
-God would get the glory he deserves in NZ and Dunedin especially at Otago Universtiy
-God would change hearts as the Gospel goes out (at the retreat and the rest of our time here)
-God would give strength to Josh and the Kiwi students as they follow up on our contacts

Thanks (or as the Kiwis say 'Cheers!') for your prayers!

All Systems Go

This Saturday and Sunday we are inviting all our Kiwi (NZ) friends to a farm in Palmerston, which can be seen in the photos above with sheep farmer Paul. One of the main reasons for this trip is to connect some of our lost Kiwi friends with students here in Grace student ministry who can continue to share and live out Christ to them. We also hope to share the Gospel with any of our friends who we might not have had the chance to do so with yet.

As you can see it would be pretty key for them to be able to make it. Pray that God would remove obstacles allowing them to go.

Another huge deal going on tomorrow night - we are having our rugby mates from Studholme college over tomorrow night to eat pizza and play poker for a trophy. Pray that God would enable all the guys to come and that he would provide the opportunity for gospel conversations and that he would change their hearts Ez 36:26-27.

Our time is dwindling here in Dunedin, yet God is blessing us with last minute and meaningful relationships. Sam and Ben have enjoyed hanging with Hugh, a second year student studying religion. Hugh knows quite a bit about Christianity and understands its unique message, but has yet to take up the cross and follow Jesus. How awesome would it be to see a new birth here in NZ this summer?

Coming to a close!!

Meet Sasha, Alicia, and Rose! Please pray for these 3! We have had the opportunity to share the gospel with all of them. Sasha comes from a Catholic background and Rose and Alicia have had little previous spiritual influence! Megan and I have spend a significant amount of time with these girls and we pray that God changes there hearts! The gospel was very new for Rose and Alicia. They were very happy to hear the message of Christ, but are quite apathetic to the call of repentance. When I asked Rose if she had ever thought about spiritual things she said, "I hope that this life isn't all there is." And then at the end of our conversation there response was, "Wow, Sheffey, that is so cool that you can beleive something so strongly...we don't think we could ever be so sure of anything." We are not exactly sure where Sasha is, but we pray that God will change her heart through the gospel. Sasha has a hard time wrapping her mind around the grace of the gospel because of the her works-based Catholic background. She was able to say though that she, "wasn't living as she should". We had the conversation with her after she came to evening church with us.


I thought I would through up a couple of pictures of Josh and Kirsten! They will be carrying on the ministry after we leave which is not to far away! We really only have about 1 week left before we will start our debriefing and closing down of our trip! It has flown by!!
Here are some of our newest friends! From left to right Hannah, Marianna, Raywen, Lauren, Liz, Tess, Megan, Me. Hannah is one of the Kiwi students who has been hanging out with us so that she can meet the girls with whom we have connected. We are trying hard to connect our contacts to other christian students so that when we leave they will be able to carry on where we left off. Marriana is a sweet christian girl we met on campus who we hope contunues to get plugged into the ministry and the church! Raywen and Lauren are here flatmates (housemates).

Plowing Concrete with Rocker Haircuts

Some have said that ministry in New Zealand is like plowing concrete, and we have found this to be the case. But after many activities and events, our relationships have started paying dividends.

Starting early this week I heard a student named Mike Mufatta say, “I have never heard that part” as he pointed to a diagram that we drew for him to explain the gospel. Mike had heard that Jesus had died, but he had no idea what Jesus had died for. He spent anywhere from 30 secs to 1 minute after each question deliberating over the answer in complete silence, having never heard or thought about his sinfulness and God’s wrath.

Later that night we went to eat, get haircuts, and play basketball with what has come to be called “Team Duffy” which is just 6 guys from a college (dorm) called Unicol, one being named Ryan Duffman. We had planned to share the gospel at the Dinner table but we did not have the opportunity. We went from there to a session of hair cutting, where the Kiwis got to plan our Rocker Haircuts to make us fully Kiwi. Later while playing basketball, I asked Riz (a member of team Duffy) if he would be interested in getting together and talking more about Christianity. He said that him and Team Duffy had been talking about it ever since we shared some of the gospel with them the first time and then said, “We must not understand well, because we still can’t figure out why someone would just take all our messed up stuff.” My thought was, “I don’t either, but Jesus does.”

Earlier that same day, Nate Frantz met with a guy named Nick who has come out to do a few activities with us, but has mostly kept a small distance between us. Nate communicated the gospel clearly to him, only to find that he understood the gospel decently well already, having heard it from another ministry, but couldn’t believe the Bible was true. Nate began to blow his mind with facts about the scriptures and their reliability. Nick was surprised to say the least.

To the left (Riz, Zach, Nate, Kendall, Duffy, James, and Sam)

As you can tell, things have been livening up a little bit around here and we need your prayers. We want to trust God with our coming week that we will be able to have follow up conversations with Nick and Mike, while making the gospel completely clear to Team Duffy. Pray that they would be saved. (Team duffy = Duffy, James, Riz, Matt, Tom, Glenn). We are taking as many of them as possible to a retreat this coming Saturday. Pray for their attendance. Also, if you have a sec, blow up those pictures of our new Rocker haircuts that are COMPLETELY NORMAL HERE!

-Zach

Week 5

The weeks are flying by, It's crazy to think that we have less than three weeks left. I feel that the amount of things we have learned are incredible life lessons about ministry that could not be learned or taught by reading books, doing inductive studies, or being placed in any other environment. I feel that it is clearing up our visions for what God has in plan for our lives. One of the hard things to come to grips with is that relational ministry is slow and takes lots of time. It is really hard to come to grip with because for the first time alot of us have been able to focus solely on ministry without worrying about school and grades, and the students we are meeting aren't going the same pace as us because they do have those things to worry about.

Some things all you guys and gals can be praying for.

-The girls are having a girls movie night tonight, so pray that they would really bond with the girls and they would have ample opportunities to share the Gospel.

-Studholme College- pray that the relationships we have the in the college would grow past good acquaintances into real friends- last week we got put on hold because they left to go on a ski trip

-University college- Tonight Zach, Nat, and Kendall are eating dinner with Duffy, James, Ryan, and Tom and plan on sharing the Gospel with them.

- We are also playing basketball with a bunch of guys tonight at Unipol (The Gym) so pray for a good turn out and gospel conversations.

-Pray that we like Paul in 2 Corinthians 1 would really on God alone and not out own strength or knowledge

-Pray that god would change the hearts of the kiwi's who hear the Gospel

-Friday night we are having a game night and inviting all our lost kiwi friends pray for a big turn out and gospel conversations.

-we are also having a evangelistic retreat next week end, pray that tons of our lost kiwi friends would be pumped about coming and turn out and get to hear and see the gospel lived out.

Rightly Placed Hope Frees Us to Love Well

This summer during my quiet times I have been doing most of my reading in the letters of Paul. Because of my particular aptitude and personality, I really like the truly meaty theological selections from his writings. The truth is this: when I read through his letters, I usually just read all the other stuff as quickly as possible just so I can get to the passages that are my favorites. This is a really worthless way to read scripture. I already know what those favorite passages say and I know what they’re communicating doctrinally and theologically, but I don’t often stop to meditate on the other stuff that is just as important—if not, more important for me to read and implement into my life. I give you Colossians 1 as Exhibit A.

I think Colossians 1:13-23 is one of the greatest passages of scripture that Paul ever wrote (and for goodness sake, he wrote 16 unbelievable chapters in Romans). But as I began to read Paul’s letters this summer, I decided to really, really read all of the text and try as best I could to absorb it all. As I took this approach, I didn’t even make it past verse 4 in Colossians before something new really jumped off the page. Colossians 1:4-5 tells us that the Christians in Colossae have love for all the saints, because they have placed their hope in heaven. Paul seems to suggest in the next sentence that loving others is a basic part of the gospel. I believe it was Tim Keller who explained that love isn’t really love until it costs you something—love by definition requires sacrifice. For instance, to love well this summer, we’ve had to sacrifice. Because let’s face it: there are 12 of us and that’s a lot of sinners saved by grace to stuff into one house. But, I think it’s shown us all where our hope is. If that hasn’t shown us, then evangelizing and building relationships with the lost has for sure.

I think that’s the biggest lesson the Spirit shone on my soul as I read Colossians 1 the other day. I felt like Spirit was whispering, “Nate, they’ll never know the Supremacy of Christ from Colossians chapter one if someone doesn’t love them sacrificially.” It’s true. Relationships are a mess of sacrifice, but they’re a mess worth making—especially if my hope isn’t found in the relationships, but rather in Christ. Jesus didn’t make a great sacrifice so that we as believers could avoid sacrifice—his sacrifice enables our sacrifice for the kingdom and for people. The past couple weeks, it has been really hard to get lost students to call us back, text us back, or even come out to get free food. I’ve never encountered this much of this in the States and it’s been challenging. I have been encouraged by our team though. Our rightly placed hope frees us to love well. These guys (and girls) lay it out there day in and day out. They desire so much to love people well and to sacrifice comfort, sleep, feelings, emotions, pride, and even physical well-being to reach the lost. I count myself richly blessed to be with this team.

If you read this, please pray that we would look to make more and more sacrifices to love the lost in Dunedin. Please pray that God would move in us to be aggressive with our love and that He would move in them to respond. Thanks for reading and thanks for praying. Thanks for loving us.

-Nate X.

Well this has been a really sweet week..it started off with a little trip to Queenstown. We got to hang out as a team and relax a bit and do some sweet site seeing of this beautiful country. My favorite part was when we went to the ski slopes and slid down the mountain in our trashbags ...There we are with our trash bags (from left to right, Ben, Sean, Sheffey, Megan, Kendall, Sam). The next picture is Sean after we went down the mountain. It was really crazy trying to take pictures and videos, we found ourselves getting really frustrated with our cameras. What we wanted to capture and show everyone wasn't near what we were seeing with our own eyes. Looking at God's creation was overwhelming. I couldn't help but think in wonder and awe of His glory to be revealed.

After we got back from Queenstown we came and started back on campus just hanging out with people and trying to deepen the relationships that we have made. Last night (friday night) we had Wings/Texas Hold'em night and we had a huge turn out. The purpose in our Friday night House party is to invite the people we have met and to bring them into our house and deepen our relationships with them. We want to love on them and show them what our whole team is about. Last night was a success, there were girls that came that we had never met before and we were able to get with them and hang out and we have planned to hang out with them tonight and watch the All Blacks game (the huge NZ rugby game). So be praying that through spending time with these girls that God will open up doors to share Jesus Christ with them.

Megan & Elizabeth

Zoning In

We have divided the overall team into ministry teams. Each team (ours is Kendall, Nate Frantz, and Zach) has been hanging out with different groups of students we have met (usually first year students living in the same dorm). We have now started to focus our time and energy on those students. This has really helped us be intentional and specific with how we spend our days. We have grown to be good friends with several of these students and we are now praying and waiting for opportunities to engage them in spiritual conversation as we play basketball, football, rugby, and hang out around town. This is what we have been waiting for. It is a big deal. Many of us have either started to have these conversations or are close to. Please be in prayer for God’s supernatural hand during these times. It can seem very awkward or weird bring up matters such as sin and the necessity of Christ. But we fear God and seek to please Him, not these students.

Praise God! Last night we hung out with some key students we have really befriended. After watching a professional game of Rugby we went to eat some McDonalds. I was praying for good conversation, but the McDonalds we went to was crowded, dirty, and disorganized. There was only one spot in the corner (that allowed for conversation that was occupied that I was praying the Lord open up. Right when we received our food, the people sitting there left. We sat down and ate and had some general conversation. Then Zach asked to two of the students we were with, “Do you have any spiritual background?” They responded, “No, we know religious people, but we have never been or really talked about it. I always wondered what happens to a person after they die.” Then we asked them, “What do you think it means to be a Christian?” One student responded, “someone who goes to church, doesn’t curse that much, and doesn’t drink that much.” The other student said, “Someone who believes in God.” We talked a little about our purpose in life and whether religious issues are talked about with their friends. The conversation was going just okay until one of the students asked, “What do you think it means to be a Christian?” From this we were able to tell them that we don’t do things in order to be a Christian and be right with God. We told them about the issue of sin and how much God hates it and is going to punish us for it. We told them how Christ came and took that punishment on the cross and did that for us and that it is free. They looked surprised and said they have never heard that before (it is common that most students know little to nothing of who Jesus is). We asked, “What do you think of what we just said?” They both said, “It’s crazy how Christ takes all our sin.” It was hard for them to grasp the concept of someone doing that for them. The conversation was about 15 minutes, but it was what we were praying for. They were open to talking about it. God had given such a good friendship and trust with them that it was a genuine time. This is only the start of these conversations as we will try to meet with them with the intention of talking about the Christian message. At the end of the conversation I felt the relationship grow deeper by talking about more meaningful things and we look forward to having similar conversations. Thanks for the prayers. It was so exciting to begin sharing with the students we have been investing our time and energy in. May God be made know in these student’s lives.

Nate F. & Kendall T.

Opportunities!

Just a quick request! I would like to ask you all to pray for opportunities! At this point it is sometimes hard to know exactly how to connect with students! We have began to connect to some, but we are always looking for new ways! Please pray that God will open doors and that we will simply be creative! Thanks a bunch!

Sheffey

Hit & Miss

7/7/2010

Hit: Dunedin hosts the “world’s steepest street.”

Miss: The challenge is to drink a milkshake before running up it. I will post pictures of the street hopefully no milkshake incidents will occur.

Our team is slowly connecting on campus. So far our contacts have been pretty spotty as we try to connect with people. We’ve spread ourselves thin so that we can know where to take root in friendships. For me, ministry here can be like going on a date in the 7^th grade – unfamiliar, awkward at times, and wishing you knew better how things are supposed to work. We keep putting ourselves out there everyday, going wherever students are. It’s a great process, but we have exactly one month left! Please take a sec to pray for us to find our niches here on campus with just the right students.

- Sam Metzger

Hit: Everybody walks everywhere

Miss: “When walking down the street, it is abnormal to pass people on the right side of the side walk.”

Today, the implication of being in New Zealand coincided with the verse in Acts 1:8 which states “..you will be my witnesses...to the end of the earth.” We are practically near the “end of the earth” by being in New Zealand. It is amazing to see how God is bringing the truth of the gospel into the entire world as He promised! God is gathering a people from every tribe, language, and nation to worship Him forever. Also, the demographic on campus and in Grace Church is quite interesting. It is common to meet people from other countries like Nigeria, Vietnam, Malaysia, and the South Pacific Islands. This campus seems to be an attractive place to study and has the potential of raising up laborers that could easily go into all the world by students simply going back home.

- Ben Fennell

Miss: Apparently Rat-tails, Mullets, Jorts, and short shorts haven’t gone out of style since the 70’s because Kiwi’s think they are all still sweet as.

The Church body here has been super encouraging so far. Everyone we have met has been super encouraging, from the farmer we stayed with for a couple of days to young couples, and the elderly. The church here looks totally different than most churches in the states. It’s not the obvious things like size, building type, and worship style that are so inspiring. The culture here has left no trace of complacent Christianity.

Everyone in the church is passionate about seeing the Gospel go out. From Gavin the farmer whom we stayed with; by loving on the shearers as Christ did the Samaritan woman, to Bill sharing with his coworker, Austin (a former catholic ,now atheist) with patience knowing that it might be years before God changes his heart .

As can clearly be seen, the saints are being equipped through expository preaching to go out and preach the Gospel, not just inviting lost friends to church so that the pastor can do it. They own up and take responsibility to Acts 1:8. They are sharing the gospel in the workplace and neighborhoods and have a heart to see it reach the ends of the earth.

There is real fellowship, people don’t rush out the door as soon as the sermons over to get a bite to eat or catch the game; they sit around and talk about Christ and what he is doing. These people live out Hebrews 10:24 to the T. Hebrews 10:24-25 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

The Kiwis’s in this church are passionate about taking the gospel out of the Church and onto the campus, and into the workplace so that people will come to worship the one true living God because of His Mercy and Grace. I hope that this description of the Church here would encourage and spur everyone on as much as it has encouraged us.

-Kyle Morris

Students, Soccer, and Sausages

One of the primary ways we have been spending our time is getting to know the Kiwi students that are already connected to the ministry here! Two of them are sitting on the couch between Nate and Kyle! The guy in the red sitting to the right of Ben is David. He is on staff with CO Australia. He has been helping Josh out with our trainings. He is looking to move to New Zealand and join Josh on staff here within the next year to help build the ministry.
One of the the primary ministries CO has to the campus here is to set bbqs on campus on the nights of major parties. The goal is to hand out sausages to students who have been drinking all day (literally). The thought behind it is to love on students and to connect with them. This is a picture of the line of half drunken students standing in line for sausages!
Though the sausage ministry I was able to meet a few girls that play soccer for Studholme college. Megan and I were able to go and play soccer with them on Saturday morning! We are hopeful that this will give us an opportunity to meet tons of girls! We were able to go hangout with a few of them later Saturday evening. We are praying that our relationships deepen with them quickly! From left to right Elizabeth, Claire (kiwi), Emma (kiwi), Me, Megan, and Kate (kiwi).

Some of the guys have been hanging out with a few of the first years that live in university college (a college is similar to a US dorm). Top right next to Sean is James. The guy on the right of Kyle on the front row is Duffy. James and Duffy have been spending quite a bit of time with our guys over the last few days. Pray that God would continue to deepen the relationships between these guys and our guys.
Please continue to pray for the deepening of relationships and the opportunity to make the gospel known to each of these students! Thanks a ton for your support!
Sheffey

Head colds, ministry, and the Sovereignty of God

Well, it has been an interesting two weeks and right now a couple of us have what I can only describe as the Kiwi brand of the common cold. God is good and He is providing strength and energy to see us though it. I can’t remember the last time I felt this energetic while having a cold bug. I’m typically pretty worthless when I'm sick. I’m usually the guy who crawls into a hole and hides until I’m all better, but that hasn’t been necessary. The other guys (or as we say here: “blokes”) on CCP are all really encouraging and challenging to be around and they have been God’s chosen vehicle to energize me as they spur me on to love and good deeds.

Pray with us as we pray for physical wellness. My hope is that we will all get well soon but more importantly, my prayer is that God alone would be enough. My prayer is that He would be satisfying and sustaining above all else. "Jesus minus everything equals salvation. Christ plus nothing else equals satisfaction." God will teach us great things about Himself as we rely on Him for energy and strength. Our head colds in New Zealand are nothing compared to the sacrifices made by saints world-wide. The suffering of those saints pales in comparison to the cross of Christ. Our team will be just fine.

I got the opportunity to meet some Kiwi students last week and managed to get their phone numbers so we could meet up and chat some more. The first student I really got to meet on campus while we were doing some outreach was a guy named Tom. Tom is a really funny guy. I’m hoping that we will get the chance have lunch with Tom and his friends this Friday. A first year student named Josh Cole invited me and some of the guys to come hangout with him and his friends at The Cook which is a local tavern. God opened up some doors during that time for future conversations and my ministry partner (Sean Stallings) and I hope to hangout with Josh and his friend Brian this week. I met another first year named Peter and he invited Kyle Morris and me to play rugby on Saturday with his college (dorm hall). He and his hall mate Nathan will be seeing more of us in the next week. Please pray for Kyle and me as we get ready to play rugby and connect with another dozen or so students.

In and over all of these relationships that we are building, God is Sovereign. And the Devil is powerless to stop what God wills.

-Nate X.

“In the end, the gates of hell couldn’t shut us down.” -Lecrae Moore

Footy with the Kiwis

This past week was the first week our CCP team started laboring on campus. We have met many students through sporting events, hang outs, and going to campus events. The guys on our team decided to play flag football every Friday and eat dinner at our place afterwards. Many of the people we met we invited to play flag football. The kiwi guys were really excited to have a chance to play some American football, since rugby is their main sport. Many of them watch it, and know how to play, but it is not played that often. There were around 15 students who came out to play. It was funny seeing how excited they were to play and try using their football terminology. One student on the winning team said that when they won, he felt like they won the super bowl. This is a very significant event where we can develop momentum with the ministry and build deeper relationships. The students we have been meeting are starting to turn from acquaintances to friends. We are all thankful to God for giving us favor and being able to build relationships in such ways as playing American football.
Something we have started doing is grilling up free sausages to drunk people. We did this three times this past week. By doing this we are able to show them the love of Christ by serving them and it is also a great opportunity to meet people. This has been helpful in meeting a few students and meeting up with them later. It is cool to see there responses to the act of loving kindness. It really shows how the act of serving people physically is a great avenue to serving them spiritually as well. It doesn’t make sense to people what we are doing. When they ask why, it provides a great avenue to tell them the reason we do it is because of the transforming work He has done in our lives. When thinking how Christ came to serve and give His life as a ransom for many it is so easy to ask, “Why”? It has been transforming for us to see that when true Christian service happens, it leaves the world wondering “why?” and the answer is always Christ.

Please be in prayer for us as we start to develop relationships. Developing deep relationships with trust with a few select students is huge. We do not want to spread thin and make little impacts, but we want to go deep and make life long impacts in people’s lives. So please pray for some “key guys” that we can really start pouring our life into.

Nate Dog and K-Dog

A sweet week in Dunedin!

Well this week has been such a blessing. God is teaching me so much about His faithfulness.. A few nights ago we went to a party at one of the girls flats (house) that Sheffey met on campus and we met some sweet girls and had some cool conversations. It is so cool how God has already given us favor in the eyes of some of the kiwi's we have met. One of the girls that Elizabeth met came to our dinner and hangout last night. They are just so open to hang out with us. I have a lunch date with one of the girls Tuesday and I know Elizabeth will be hanging out with one of them this week and Sheffey has a coffee date planned as well. So be praying for these reationships that these girls will open up to us and we will be real with them and bold and love them. This morning Tess, Sheffey, and I played soccer and joined a team with some girls and we will be hanging out with them later today. Its so exciting how God has already opened up beautiful ministry opportunities..So please be praying for us as we labor on this campus!!

To see an article and pictures from the big party Tess was talking about, check out this website.

Just Another Semester in Dunedin

Every semester starts with a huge party, in every sense of the word. It was probably the craziest thing I have ever seen. And it was really sad to see these people worshipping at the idol of drunkenness among many other things. Please, please pray that God would break down this idol. He is worthy of all the students' worship.

As everyone was partying it up and burning couches and stuff, some of the college ministries cooked sausages on the barbie (barbecue) and gave them to the students. It was amazing even in the midst of all this how thankful the students were. The would ask, "Why are you doing this?" We would respond by saying, "We are Christians and we just want to love you in a real practical way, by feeding you sausages!" My 'American' accent also lead it questions of why I was in Dunedin which would lead into a spiritual conversation sometimes. Please pray for the students there are so many out there that don't know the truth or have partial truths or know they are living in sin and know the truth but they are so hardened. Pray for V. and Johnathan, and tons of the other students we met tonight why desperately need the Lord!

Pray for us as we start our first week of ministry on the campus. We have already made some good friends with our fellow Christians! Pray as we meet their non-Christian friends, get students connected with the ministry, and pioneer here on campus seeing as though the ministry is only 1 1/2 years old.

Thanks everyone for your prayers! Don't stop! ;)

"Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus" Philippians 2

The Trip

We are finally here....but it took a little while to get here:) Here are some snapshots from the trip. To the left picture is Zach weighing Sean's luggage! Each bag that we checked had to weigh less than 50 lbs.
The right pictures is the 3 girlies hanging out the night before we flew out!


Here we have Allisa Hodge on the left and Ruthie Martin on the right! The Hodges and Ruthie drove us to the airport! Thanks guys!

The left picture was taken during one of out layovers. We were in transit for 33 hrs total! We had different flights. We were thankful that the traveling was VERY smooth. We praise God for the opportunities we had to share Christ with many people during our flights and layovers. The airports being full with people from all over the world present wonderful opportunities for cross cultural evangelism.
The picture to the right was taken during our 13 hour flight from the U.S to Northern New Zealand. It was LONG:) Sam and Nate are sitting in front of Megan and another passenger.

One thing that has been tripin us our has been the driving. In New Zealand they drive on the left side of the road! It is really different!
Everything we had always heard about the beauty of New Zealand was so so true! I only wish these pictures did justice to what we really saw! It is absolutely gorgeous here!!!


One of the first things Josh (the campus director here) had planned was to send the team out to Farms outside the city! He wanted the team to get a taste of what he called "true New Zealand culture". They had the opportunity to on sorts of things on the farms and to see the beautiful New Zealand countryside.
Zach and I got to stay with Josh and his wife Kirsten. We had the opportunity to rest and to get to know them better. It was wonderful! They love Jesus so much and love the campus! We are very excited about parternering with them these next few weeks.