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.