Thursday, December 28, 2023

December 2023 Missionary Newsletter

City Sanctum Up & Running

Thank you for your prayers for the relaunch of City Sanctum. We were able to relaunch in September and had subsequent meetings in October & November.

Our theme for our first three months was "God's plan for work," using Tim Keller's book Every Good Endeavor. I spoke on the first and third parts of the book, while Harbour City Church pastor and MTW Sydney team leader Jim Jung spoke on the second part.
  • Part 1: God's plan for work -- designed good, with dignity in all work, for our good and the betterment of society.
  • Part 2: Our problems with work -- our sin brought a curse upon our work, and we use our work for selfish goals.
  • Part 3: The gospel and work -- how God can redeem our work, and we as Christians can impact God's world through the work he gives us. (See audio links below if you'd like to listen to any of these.)
Our attendance has been steady at 11-12 per meeting so far, largely from Harbour City Church. And we are quite happy with our restaurant venue, which allows us to grill our own steaks for $10 off the menu cost, and just has a pleasant vibe for our purposes.

The theme for the first quarter of 2024 City Sanctum meetings will focus on work habits, discussing procrastination in our January meeting. Please pray that the talks will be beneficial to attendees, and that they will invite their not yet saved workmates who can encounter this "back door" entry to the Christian faith.


We also implemented our first quarterly evangelism training event, calling it "Equip 315," using 1 Peter 3:15 for our theme: "...always [be] prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect."

In our Equip 315 events, I will be sharing various methods of sharing the gospel. In November, I focused on how to discern whether our prospect is likely already a Christian or is in need of hearing the gospel, and how to "earn the right" to share the gospel, using the Evangelism Explosion model (video link below). 

14 people attended the November Equip 315, including one young man who has been attending our church for a couple of years but is not yet a Christian. We have had a number of conversations in recent months about the gospel and his resistance to embracing the promises of God.

End of Year Giving

Thank you so much to all those who have been partnering with me in the gospel by way of financial contributions. Missionaries do not go out without such partnering.

I also am so thankful for those who regularly lift me up in prayer. Missionaries cannot be effective without their prayer warriors.

If you would like to make an end of year contribution, I do appreciate your consideration. You can make an online contribution by clicking on the photo below.

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Calendar

Thursday, January 11
City Sanctum meeting
Topic: Procrastination


Jan. 29 - Feb. 2
SOW university ministry summer camp (I'll be speaking on discerning a calling into ministry)

Thursday, February 8
City Sanctum meeting

Saturday, February 24
Equip 315 training



Prayer Points

 
Praise God for his blessings on the re-launch of City Sanctum, and the first Equip 315 event. Pray that he will grow the ministry to be a blessing to our members and to reach many lost with the hope of the gospel.

Pray for my preparation of upcoming talks including the "procrastination" talk for City Sanctum, and the university ministry talk on "discerning a calling into ministry."

Pray for a couple of young men at HCC who I am mentoring.



Topical Bible Study
Harbour City Church holds quarterly "TBS" events. In November, I was asked to speak on "Handling Difficult Questions" when sharing our faith. I had prepared to address 17 different common objections; surveying our attendees during the event, I had time to speak on just three, including "Why does God allow bad things to happen," "The church is full of hypocrites," and "I don't believe the Bible." (Video link below)

Filling the Pulpit
With HCC's two pastors both out of the country earlier this month, it fell upon me to fill the pulpit one Sunday. I was assigned "Zechariah's Song as part of our Advent series on "The Songs of Christmas." (Video link below)

Bali Surf Camp
With my current visa, I must exit Australia every 90 days. In September, I took the opportunity to attend a five day surf camp in Bali. I was relieved that I wasn't too old to learn (although I'm certainly still very much a beginner); but even better than the surfing, God allowed me so many opportunities to share the gospel! Of particular joy was sharing with a 20 year old young man from Munich who is half Jewish and half Chinese. Colin is a very bright young man and was very curious about the Bible, having forgotten most of what he had learned studying for his bar mitzvah. He asked many questions. Please pray that he will continue to seek after the God of his fathers.
Links to above mentioned speaking engagements:

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