It has been a rather long time since I last wrote.
Please accept my humble on-my-knees-with-puppy-dog-eyes plea for your
forgiveness!
So, of course, this is going to be a longer post.
But I'll break it up with some photos because pictures are pretty and some
people's attention spans are shor---oooooh look, a butterfly!
Ahem. Right. Anyways....since we last wrote...
Mid-Semester
break
Yes, the last post was just after the break ended.
But it was a great time, so I thought I'd pluck out a few highlights.
1.
Philip Island
We spent three days on a holiday house at Philip
Island with about 10 other Ridley friends (and their friends). It was a great
time to get to know them better, enjoy the freezing, wild, wintery weather of
the Island and pretend we were having an 'overseas holiday'.
 |
| On the beach (note; only one person in shorts. Yes. He swam.) |
 |
| Sensibly, we did not swim. Note my extreme coverage of clothing. |
2.
A house to ourselves & lots of games!
Our housemates enjoyed a real overseas holiday to
Europe while we hung around home, and enjoyed playing copious rounds of a game
called Carcasonne.
 |
| It's addictive. A new map every time! |
3.
A trip 'home' (Adelaide)
We hit the road in the last week of June to enjoy
some time with family and friends in Adelaide. We were the first ever guests at
my parents' (Sarah's) lovely new house in Lobethal. They'd only moved the
furniture on the day we drove over! Ask Sarah how impressed she was when, due
to the lack of side gates at the time, she had to chase the dog after letting
it out the backyard.....!! We got to spend time at Lobethal Lutheran Church
(Sarah's previous church) as well as making it to both AM & PM services at
Trinity Bay.
 |
| The dog. Who ran away. He is looking at my unimpressed face. |
4.
Running a holiday club - together!!!
We spent 4 mornings during July running a Holiday
Club program at Wattle Park (in Melbourne's Eastern suburbs). Believe it or
not, this was the first time Stephen and I had worked together on such a project,
so it's probably a very good thing we were doing the Marriage Course at the
same time!! (It's all good!). I (Sarah) really enjoyed seeing Stephen in his
element, surrounded by energetic, active children, and teaching them about
God's love for them. We had a 'rock music' theme (gosh, music and ministry?
That's not us at all!!) and told the children about David's story in the Bible.
My comment by the end of the week was, 'I'm so glad children's ministry is YOUR
gifting, honey! I'll do it again with you.....in year's time!!!).
Famous last words.... we are going to run another
beach mission in January together....
Marriage
Course
During July and August, Stephen and I attended St
Jude's Carlton every Tuesday evening to go through a Marriage Course. It's
called 'The Marriage Course'. Ingeniously titled, isn't
it?
It was a brilliant. We enjoyed having a night out
together, complete with nibbles, drinks and delectable desserts. But, more
importantly, the way the Course is designed meant that we were given practical
tools and exercises to communicate about various aspects of marriage. We highly
recommend it!
I also wrote an article about the course for the St
Jude's newspaper as well - you can read it online here.
 |
| This was us 4.5 years ago. A happy day. Still married! |
Made
Good
During August, I worked with Ridley College to help
present Made Good, which was a series of talks by John
Dickson, aimed at non-Christians, about different issues in life. It was a
challenge to fit this work in with College, but I made it! The talks went very
well and were very well received. The part I most enjoyed was setting up the
website (do click on the link...it's a cool site!) and the part I learned the
most from was going through Melbourne Uni, and the CBD, asking people questions
for a vox pop, that was used in a video for introducing the topic for each
talk. If you'd like to listen to the talks, click here. The Thursday night talk is an excellent example
of how to approach homosexuality from a compassionate, Christian
perspective.
Puppet
workshops and seminars
Stephen has done a couple of seminars and workshops
during the year, teaching people how to use puppets for children's ministry.
One for St Alfred's, Blackburn, one for a Children's Ministry conference and
for Ridley College's Children & Youth Ministry Training Day. He'll also be
running a children's ministry workshop for NTE 2012 (see
the write up here).
College
A reminder of our subjects:
Sarah
New Testament introduction (part 2)
Old Testament introduction (part 2)
Intro to Theology
Gospel, Church and Australian Culture
My favourite subject this semester (sorry to any
lecturers who are reading this!) would be the Gospel, Church & Australian
Culture subject. It's been a fascinating and challenging look at what is the
good news of Jesus to our 21st Century Australian context, and how do we
communicate it to the various subcultures we live in? I've been challenged to
consider how I live out this good news in my life, and our church community, to
also be able to better articulate what the good news of Jesus means to us today.
I (Sarah) also wrote an article for the quarterly Ridley Report. It's an interview with an Old Testament classmate who runs a mixed martial arts gym, which is also his ministry. It's on page 3, under the 'Ministry and Training' section. Click here to read it.
I (Sarah) also wrote an article for the quarterly Ridley Report. It's an interview with an Old Testament classmate who runs a mixed martial arts gym, which is also his ministry. It's on page 3, under the 'Ministry and Training' section. Click here to read it.
Stephen
New Testament introduction (part 2)
Old Testament introduction (part 2)
Early Church History
Youth Ministry
You read correctly - no Greek anymore...until next
year! After trying Greek at Melbourne School of Theology and discovering that
it was a completely different method of learning than he was used to, we
decided that, with no financial loss, we would put Greek on hold and pick it up
again next year. He has already completed Greek A, and just needs to complete
Greek B. At Ridley, Greek B is spread over two semesters.
Stephen and I have also been leading our Chapel
band this Semester, which has been good fun.
Church
We've feel we've really settled into Parkville St
Jude's, and last Sunday (30 September), I even led the service for the first
time. I've also been meeting regularly with the church's pastoral care worker,
Deb, for prayer and encouragement, which is great.
At the end of August, the congregation had a Camp,
held at Mt Eliza. We went along for the Saturday and Sunday, and, as camps
always are, it was a great time of getting to know people better and spend more
time with our home group. The guest speaker, Charlie Fletcher, (who lectures
part time at Ridley) spoke from Ecclesiastes. It was interesting to study a
book that I find is a bit too easy to ignore sometimes!
As part of his Youth Ministry subject, Stephen has
been attending the St Jude's Youth Group on Friday nights (as a leader, not a
youth...) and he also organised their camp which happened on 21-23
September.
2013
Sarah - AFES
Next year, I (Sarah) have applied, and been accepted, to do an apprenticeship with the Christian Union at RMIT Melbourne, through AFES. I've been meeting with Steve and Heather, the senior staff workers, and am in the process of putting together a letter which will be sent to both inform family and friends about what this will look like, and to raise funds for my position. I need to raise about $27,000.
Stephen - more study
Stephen will be continuing his Masters at Ridley and is currently considering which subjects he'll be doing. (Well...once his church history essay is completed and handed up tomorrow, then the consideration will commence!!)
So, after all this....there is obviously MUCH to praise God for, and needs to bring to Him.
Praise God with us for...
- Sustaining us both through a challenging, tiring, but very edifying Semester 2 of College.
- Support from our family and friends as we study together and seek to serve God in ministry.
- The faculty and staff of Ridley, for their faithful teaching and service.
- For a loving and harmonious living situation, for no hassles with our landlord (he's quite nice, actually!) and for continuing friendship with Chris and Gill
Pray with us for...
- Safe travels next weekend, when we head back to Adelaide for a friend's wedding
- Continued concentration for the last few weeks of this Semester (4 weeks to go) and for our exams
- That Centrelink would reinstate our rent allowance quickly and with minimal bureaucratic fuss (we believe in praying for miracles)
- For Sarah as she approaches people to ask for prayer and financial support for next year
- For wisdom for Stephen, to work out the subjects he'll study next year
 |
| We do get out occasionally....a day at Sovereign Hill was a great way to spend time with Stephen's parents for Father's Day. |
No comments:
Post a Comment