wow it’s been a while since I’ve blogged or updated as to how Minty is going for me
so when I last left off I was worried about MINTY 1.
Well how was it you ask?
Minty 1Minty 1 was awesome. Started of minty at welly with just some bonding time with the other Minterns for breakfast talking about practical jokes and illegal number plates! We then later on proceeded to the kaptiti coast of Ruamati, 10 mins from paraparaumu shopping centre at this awesome as Bach! At the Bach while we were staying there for the 5 days it consisted of the 4 Minterns and Andy Shudal, Tim Hodge and Gina Wong. There were also other staff workers and ex Minterns that appeared throughout the week. While at minty 1 it definitely helped prepare me for the things to come for this year with scripture and study. I got loaded up with a pile of books including Wayne Grudem which is massively thick! We looked at topics such as leading bible studies, our faith at the workplace, working with students, and our supervision and support raising and lastly out study.
But wait! That’s not all! I got to spend some irreplaceable time with the Minterns for this year. They include Phil Luey, Peta Maria Harris and Nathan Paton. Man these guys were awesome. There was a lot of back yard cricket and beach time. The water was beautiful land warm. There were also days where Kapiti Island looked like it just disappeared completely. One of the most memorable moments was the first night when we walked along the beach at night. The sand light up and glowed beneath us. It was due to us standing on micro organisms and them releasing something which made the sand glow. An amazing experience I Also managed to teach some of the Mintern how to break dance or just pull of the baby freeze!
Once I’ve gotten back it was just 3 weeks of orientation ahead of me.I did a first few days at MIT where they had a really good orientation. All the students came out to their quad and just chilled while watching the performances. It gave a good opportunity to give out flyers and interact with some people.
After the first week I managed to get away for a few days with the OCF leaders or committee to get to know them hang with them and find out more about OCF. Was just a day trip but was awesome as time away.
The next two weeks I was placed at Auckland Uni. First week was called Pre O week and I felt that it was really awesome. It started with 9.30 starts I think and finished roughly around 2 each day. There were days where it rained and where we felt discouraged but we ploughed on. I remember meeting certain people such as an atheist just looking for a general chat and some girls doing nursing. I found that week rather encouraging because although there want so many people there a lot of the people stopped to see what you were about. We were also shorted staffed a bit for the stand because OCF had decided to commit to running a lantern festival stall which was that weekend so they were all busy away prepping for that.
The next week after lantern fest there was an abundance of helpers which was awesome as to see. I felt really encouraged to see lots of people there wanting to help. I even had a chance to make new friends with the stalls next to us. I was especially encouraged by the KYCF group. Man those students are on fire for their group. I constantly saw them reaching out to someone, talking in their own native tongue and got tones of sign ups.
That weds we had the welcome party and boy there was a bunch of people there. I think someone counted at least 75 new students there which are encouraging to see. On the night we had praise and worship from KYCF members leading the band, and then Jeff and Jane explain about TSCF and have the president’s talk about their groups. Afterwards it was a mix and mingles time with food and drinks. We ended up going through 50 pizzas. Man Demolished!
That Friday was OCF’s first Friday meeting for the year. There were plenty of new faces and was just a great time to hang out and to get to know everybody. We played a few ice breaker games led by Juin and Chester. Extremely funny as we got into 4 groups and got to know everyone’s name by calling out another persons name in our group before we got hit by the person in the middle with some rolled up paper. Also had a game or Chinese whispers mixed with charades. Extremely funny. All in all most of us had a great time and went to food alley after for further bonding over food. YUM!
Then over last week and a bit there’s been a few events going on. One was has science disproved god and Christianity on trial. They were both really good to attend to and great to see so many students and members of the general public just interested about god and their disciplines and how it can affect their jobs and friends. I also managed to have my first one on one with a guy called warren. awesome guy and told me the tragic story of the 2004 tsunami floods in shirlanka how it happened right before his eyes. Hope I get to see more of him though out the semester as he is very busy with his mechanical engineering degree at AUT.
Recently ive just been studying hard through Grudem and the bible, however have been falling behind on my bible study reading plan each day but I’m hoping I can catch up on my next day off. Also been encouraging diving and looking into Ephesians as I’m leading a bible study group or impact group on Tuesdays with Rachel Guo for OCF. It’s an interesting experience as I’ve never lead such a big group before.
Thank god for:
The awesome out reach that has happened so far
The commitment of students wanting to share god’s word
The time and the words spoken through scripture during my minty training
The opportunity to be able to lead bible study and get more involved with student Ministry.
Please pray for:
the willingness and burning desire to catch up on my bible readings and through Grudem
Knowledge and understanding of my studies
The students signed up for the new groups to feel at home and be committed to the groups and impacted in their student lives
The wisdom for leading bible study groups.
Anyways I better go and catch up on reading. Chow!
