Minty Update!

Wow guys sorry it’s been so long since I’ve updated
just been so busy and wrapped up in Minty

First of all I would like to thank God for the work he’s doing on campus and in the lives of people. Its amazing seeing changes in people!
Secondly thank you all for getting behind me in my mission work on campus. It’s encouraging for me that people care about what I do and want to get behind me and the other staff team in TSCF to make changes in the lives of students. GO BODY OF CHRIST!

So what’s been happening?
I can’t quite remember what has happened since I’ve last posted so I’ll try do the last month or tow

well the student group I’m working with OVERSEAS CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP had a camp called strengthen in ngawahia last month. Was awesome to see 70 + people there hanging out and bonding.
We got up to some crazy games such as fly chicken fly - this consists of a raw chicken as a ball in a similar game of netball except one person on your team is the hoop.
We had Pastor James Lai from Lighthouse Christian Fellowship from north Auckland stay with us over the camp. He spoke on the Armour of God from Ephesians 6.
One of the high lights of camp was the 3rd day. Pastor James Lai was praying over people and anointing them with water from the Jordan River. It was an amazing experience as you saw students around you break down and let Jesus break down some of r the walls on the inside.
Overall the camp went really well as the title suggested strengthen; the people who came were more united as a body and a group for Christ :)

I’ve also had the privileged to lead the impact group training session. Impact group is small groups created in OCF and we are going through the book of Ephesians as a bible study. I managed to lead theses leaders in understanding more about Ephesians 3 and in Pauls prayer for the students to make Christ feel more at home in their hearts.

Study for me has been rather hard but enjoyable. Lately I’ve been diving more and more into the wisdom that is of Wayne Grudem. Last month I had done an assignment on the trinity. If you guys want to see it feels free to ask me about it. Rather interested that not once is the word trinity mentioned in the bible! J
Lately I’ve been struggling with god’s sovereignty as Grudem advocates a case for Calvinism. After wrestling about it for a few weeks I’ve come to the conclusion that neither is right of wrong. I was reminded of this in 1 Corinthians 1 :12 when it says ¹²What I mean is this: One of you says, "I follow Paul"; another, "I follow Apollo’s"; another, "I follow Cephas^a]">[a]"; still another, "I follow Christ."
I came to realise the more I try find out more about arminianism and Calvinism the more I’m drawing away from Jesus. I’m a follower of Jesus! J Also realised that theologians have been arguing about this for centuries so I don’t think a lil intern will find the answer to it.

Lately I’ve been seeing students wanting to step up to leadership! What a blessing it is for us to have such a vast amount of willing people who want to do more to help spread the word and glorify Christ! This really showed in the leaders training day as we staff modelled what it was like to be a hospitable group to students coming int. we had the attendance of 6 groups at the leaders training with potential leaders! Ben spoke from the book of Philippians and what it means to be gospel shaped and gospel centred. He also challenged us to share the gospel in 160 characters. Can you do it?

Lately I’ve been working with a student who’s really been seeking who god is. It’s been amazing seeing them wrestle with who Jesus is as they ask more questions about him and find out more about him. This person came to me not really knowing much about god, just that he answers prayers and had been reading passage from Psalms, Ephesians and even Romans but not really understanding what they were reading. I am now trying to get them to stick to reading the gospel of Mark. The shortest gospel in the bible to help give them some understanding of who Jesus is and I’m also texting them some questions to think about as we go through it together. J

Thank god for

· The stepping up of leaders and people

· My financial provision and support so far

· Students wanting to make a change

· The strengthen camp as it ran smoothly

· The effectiveness and the impact of leaders training day

Please pray for

· Students to change themselves as they wrestle with what it means to be gospel centred and shaped

· Minty 2 in 2 weeks away

· The OCF committee as they try make change and find replacements for the next AGM

· God to continue to shape and change lives on campus

Sorry it was such a rushed update will try update after minty 2 properly
thank you all for your support
god bless

Duncan