Gods Plan Is Best [Emily@RMIT]

I wanted to share with you a little bit of an awesome lesson that God was teaching me when I was on summerSALT Lorne. When I was there, I started to read John Pipers "Desiring God." It is so good. It took me all of the first week of project just to get through the Introduction and the First Chapter. A lot of what stuck out to me was Gods Plans, and how they are sovereign and perfect and WAY better than anything that we could think of.

Something that really just broke my heart when I have been in Lorne ['08 and '09] is just how girls are just SO mistreated by schoolie guys and toolies. When I was there, I was really struggling with the fact that God was allowing all this crap to happen to these girls, when we were praying SO HARD against it.

God was preparing me for those hard nights by reminding me in the mornings of His awesomeness and His handle on things. It also made me realise that God will do anything, if it brings His children to him and hell on earth is the only kind of hell they experience. Now, saying this does not by any stretch mean that it doesn't suck, and isn't painful for us to watch, and people to experience, but it does remind me that, who am I to think that I should WANT to stop something happening, and then possibly standing in the way of them finding God. It is such a hard thing for me to wrap my head around because there is just that fine line.

Anyway, I am not sure about how much sense this makes, I just wanted to remind you that God is in control, even though it may not [and lets face it generally doesn't] look the way that we would like it to.

Here are some words from John Piper, which have just spoken so much truth into my life in the last couple of weeks that will hopefully speak into yours also.

"If God reigns as sovereign over the world, then the evil of the world is not outside His design. 'Does evil befall a city, unless the Lord has done it?' [Amos 3:6] This is the reverent saying of God's servant Job when he was afflicted with boils: 'Shall we recieve good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?'[Job 2:10] He said this even though the text plainly says that 'Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord, and afflicted Job with loathsome sores.'[Job 2:7] Was Job wrong to attribute to God what came from Satan? No, because the writer tells us immediately after Jobs words 'In all this Job did not sin with his lips.' [Job 2:10]...The clearest example that even moral evil fits into the designs of God is the crucifixion of Christ. Who would deny that they betrayal of Jesus by Judas was a morally evil act?

Yet in Acts 2:23, Peter says, 'This Jesus delivered up according to the definite place and foreknowledge of God, you cruxified and killed by the hands of lawless men.' The betrayal was sin, but it was part of Gods ordained plan. Sin did not thwart his plan or stay his hand...The hardened disobedience of men's hearts leads not to the frustration of God's plans, but to their fruition"

John Piper, Desiring God, 1986

The Power of Prayer [Gina@RMIT]

This summer I went on my first project to SummerSALT Lorne. It's funny to look back and see what my initial expectations were in comparison to how much God exceeded those expectations.

In quoting Josh the Spiff: 'When we prayed...we saw God move.' This happened on so many occasions. In particular our team was pretty disappointed on some nights when our Drop-In Centre was low on numbers. We retreated to the 'prayer stairs' and God was truly faithful in prayer. He was in every word we spoke, every move we made and every heart we encountered. It was amazing to watch first-hand how receptive the schoolies were especialy when we'd find out later that night or the next day that our brothers and sisters had been praying over the conversations the entire time.

I was hugely impacted by a couple of boys who just completely opened up their lives, their thoughts and their struggles. Throughout both conversations I was praying so hard that God would lead the conversations and guide truth into my words. Both times I asked God for help in the form of someone from our team. And both times he answered faithfully, pretty much straight away. It was perfect timing, but why does that surprise me?

Because before project, I didn't really know the reality of how powerful prayer is. God teaches you so much in two weeks. He uses the fellowship with other Christians, He uses the conversations with non-Christians and He uses you the way He wants you to be used. It's not that I'm learning something completely new, but He reinforces truths and reveals Himself in ways previously unseen.

This past 6 months has been an absolute blessing, joining Student Life in first year was the best decision I've ever made, and I have God to thank for that!

Titus 3:3-8. Check it out! And also the Mission Megumi Blog like Veronica said!

Love In Christ,
Gina.

High Light of Schoolies 09

There are so many stories I could share from Schoolies. I'm not here to chuckle about Kiwi accents though, so I've decided, instead, to tell you about what was for me the pinnacle of my time at Surfers Paradise.

We were at a place known as Headquarters where there are many people waiting outside the building for their friends. One such person was standing on his own a few metres outside the entrance. I went up to him and started talking to him. I cannot remember how the conversation progressed but he was an easygoing guy, seemed completely sober and I think we made a pretty good connection.

After we talked about different things he asked me what I was doing. We got talking about chaplaincy which led on to Christianity and since he didn't seem to have a clear understanding of what that was about, I deftly enlisted the help of the KGP, in addition to the Holy Spirit in order to give him the truth of the gospel. I'm not just saying that either. I've used the KGP a number of times before but this time was different. I sincerely believed what I was saying and knew, perhaps only in my heart, that my words had the authority of him who sent me; it was almost as if I was experiencing the things I was saying for myself and empathising in a way. There was a power in what I said that did not come from me.

He was enthused by what I was telling him and fairly soon we reached the response point. I went over what we had talked about and asked if he wanted to place Jesus in the driver's seat of the car of his life. To my delight and no small amount of surprise he said yes! I had never reached this point before but after I recovered from shock we said the prayer together and he received Christ into his life.

Others in my group came over and asked how it had gone. I don't know if it only occurred then as I realised what had happened or whether it was earlier on, but I was filled with an inexpressible and overwhelming joy in the Spirit. I've never felt so good in my life. It was amazing. Praise God for working through me to bring that guy from death to life in Jesus our Saviour and Lord!

I don't believe this experience is limited to people at Surfers Paradise. God desires that all might come to know Him and when we present people with the gospel and allow the Holy Spirit to speak to their hearts, it is abundantly clear that we can and will see people come to Christ.

From Torquay, with Love. [Michael@UNSW]

I can hear your voice right now, I've not a thing to fear.

I want to walk, please show me how- Spirit draw me near.

If we look back upon my life, just one short year ago-

I had my doubts, I had my fears, but now I've let them go.

We've come so far along this road, but only just begun.

I know that you will walk in me, until this day is done.

But 'til that time, the fight is on- I place my trust in you.

Jesus: the name above all names, and a love that makes me new.

All sin is washed away, and I am cleansed by your blood,

I am free because you pulled me up out from the mud.

When things come up and threaten to take away my heart,

Your voice speaks to me and says "You are my hands' art".

You made me and you formed me, and you know my every way-

So thanks that we can sit and talk, as we have done today.

I find it hard to express, the peace inside of me-

You broke away the shackles, and you set this captive free.

Now I am no longer bound, by heavy iron chains.

All the lies have faded now, and only truth remains.

I find myself, here with God, enjoying conversation.

I find peace, I find love, and nought is condemnation.

You give me a voice to speak and talk, to shout and to sing,

There's just one fact, and one whole truth, and that is Christ is King!

Post Summer Projects Posts [Nica@USYD]

Hey lovely Student Lifers! Summer Projects has wrapped up for most so this is the time to get blogging! This year I was unable to attend Summer Projects so I can't wait to hear your stories ^_^

I have heard very exciting snippets here and there, including an amazing 77 new siblings from the Schoolies project. God is awesome!

The idea for this blog has been long in the making so I hope you're as enthusiastic as I am about actually having it so we can share what God is doing and encourage each other. In my excitement, I've given it a facelift and I hope it's easy to navigate around. There are instructions on how to blog on the left hand side. Let's get this ball rolling!

Looking forward to hearing your stories. ♥


With bucketloads of love,
your sister in Christ,
Veronica D


PS. Mission Megumi is still happening in Japan and you can read all about it here.

Why Blog? [Kit@USYD]

So... for many of you the idea of blogging may be a bit foreign or even weird. So I'd like to share with you a bit of background as to where this came from.

A few Sydney people may remember a long time ago on 2008 Lorne Summer Project, we discussed the idea of using a blog for our campus to circulate news of what's happening on our campus. But unfortunately, nothing happened for a while, until a fateful car trip a few days ago following the ever-awesome Mid Year Conference in Albury. There were 3 Sydney students in the car and one student from Geelong and somehow the conversation turned to how little we know about what goes on on the other campuses, especially those that are geographically removed from each other. So we thought, what better way to share news, praise and prayer points and things we've been learning in campus ministry than in a common blog? One in which any Student Lifer can post about what's going on at their uni?

I hope you guys can see the potential of this tool that Nica has very generously set up for us. It's a place where hopefully, we'll be hearing from SLers all over Australia about what God has been doing in the movement. I'm very excited, and I hope you are too. :)

Welcome [Nica@USYD]

Hey guys... this space is available for YOU to write testimonies / thoughts / devotionals / prayer points / whatever you like so we can see what God is doing in Student Life at different campuses. I'm sure it will encourage and bless us as a family!

How to blog:

1. Sign up for an account from http://www.blogger.com - it's really easy!
2. Email thenica@gmail.com from the email address you used to sign up and state your name and campus.
3. Wait to be invited to contribute
4. Add yourself as an author after you've received the invitation
5. Start blogging! Please put your campus name (as shown in navigation bar) in the "Labels for this post" box and add your name and campus after the title of your post, eg. "What I learned at MYC this year [Nica@USYD]"
6. Tell your friends!!


** Please be mindful of these things as you blog:

♥ Student Life is a non-denominational Christian group
♥ We want this blog to be a source of encouragament and inspiration so use common courtesy and please don't mention names of any non/pre-Christian friends you're reaching out to
♥ Anyone can read this blog so don't reveal any personal information about yourself such as phone number or address etc.

That's it!! Happy Blogging! ^_^

Questions?

Can't find your campus?

Not sure how to blog?

Have a suggestion to make?

Want your personal blog to appear in the Blog List?

Just need to stalk the person who started this blog?

Email: thenica@gmail.com ^_^

♥