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).