These are the days!

We will rejoice and be glad in them!

The past few weeks has been a wonderful time of life and ministry.  I've enjoyed the many delights of ministry, as well as all the bonus catch ups and coffees on the side!

Ministry at Church has been a wonderful encouragement.  A few priceless moments:

Conversation in the back of my car between two teenage girls: "I used to be like that once, but I realised that I had to change my attitude towards them."

Super shy boy: "Joy, I just really need to talk to you sometime"

One leader: "I'd really love to meet and read the Bible with him."

Thirteen year old: "How do I live for Jesus' Kingdom in every day life?"

Being on campus is always a highlight.

- a really cool gospel conversation with some international students

- a couple that I read the Bible with became Christians last week

- new Bible reading groups and a chance to read the Bible with a new friend

And every day life has so much joy and delight:

Monday evening walks by the creek

Spent a couple of sweet days with Olivia and Sabrina from America

Footy Times

Took some of our youth group up to the Northern Suburbs to visit a Church, visit a Mosque and meet some refugees living in the area.  A great time of learning and serving.

Had a sweet catch up with the Vines family: chatting about ministry - current opportunities and new ones, played with guinea pigs, did school pick ups and more!  So great to see old friends!

Moved back into "my mum's basement" - Japanese style!

Coffee Times - and heaps of them!

~ waiting.....

Pacific Internship 9

What did I learn:

I find reflection and processing really difficult.  I need to talk things through for me to work things out.  I'm so thankful that God's given me so many great and gentle opportunities to begin to talk about our internship.  At first, I was totally overwhelmed by how you even begin to unpack what went on, but as people would ask questions, and I would begin to talk, I began the reflection process.  Here are the two main things I can articulate that changed for me over the six weeks.

Firstly, I was challenged about my attitude towards evangelism.  I am always open for opportunities to share my faith with people, and I even try to put myself in situations where I will meet people who aren't Christians.  BUT, I would kind of just hang out with them, wait for them to ask me questions, try and be godly, and be happy just hanging out in that safe zone.  I was so challenged while we were away, that you actually need to be intentional in your relationships.  There is actually a bigger picture and agenda going on in life, and that people might come to acknowledge Jesus as King and glorify him!  If that is the case, then I need to have that same agenda.  I remember an incident so clearly, which just changed my thinking.

We were at the airport waiting to board our flight back to Fiji.  There were two Aussie girls in line with us.  I was just chatting with them, finding out why they live in Fiji, what they do, all those kinds of things.  We chatted for a little while, and after we went through and said goodbye, Langdon asked me, 'Joy, did you get an opportunity to share with those girls.'  And my immediate thought to myself was, 'Umm...no?  Why would I do that?'  I was just chatting with them, they were strangers, I was just being friendly...why would I ever try and talk about Jesus with people I was just standing in line with...  

Even as I write it here, I feel so ashamed of what I was thinking!  It wasn't until we came back to Fiji, I was wrestling through how it's possible to be intentional about being open to having conversations with people.  I think it's the difference between 'doing evangelism' and 'living evangelism'.  I was happy to get into evangelism mode as long as it was this set time of day where I was in the zone...but praying for opportunities in every day life...and then taking those opportunities that God affords, well that's totally different!  I've been so challenged by this, and I've been praying a lot about how I can live like this here in Australia.  Just being aware of the possibility of conversation, of moving the conversation towards Christian things, of asking good questions, then actually sharing the gospel with people!  Wow!  It's awesome!



Secondly, I was totally encouraged, challenged, blessed, confronted by the way God is at work in life.  I believe in a sovereign God, in control and ordaining all areas of life.  What I experienced while I was away was that God was also intimately involved in all the tiny areas of life.  I started to notice this change on the day I was in the rain waiting to meet the girl to share with her, and I prayed that God would bring someone along who he had been working with, and that was when we met the guy who had already met members of our team.  Read the full story here!  I was blown away by how obvious it was that God was at work in the whole situation.  Then I started to think about this some more.  For me, it was so clear that God had brought me to Fiji...if it was up to me, I had a million reasons to be in Australia, but I wasn't - I had 6 weeks in Fiji.  Wow!  What was God going to do over those 6 weeks.  Well, if my agenda is to become more like Christ, and to faithfully share the gospel with those in life, then I had a very small window of time here in Fiji, to pursue those two things.  Then I started to think bigger.  Wow!  God has me exactly where he wants me to fulfil his purposes in and through me!  The implications of this are endless.  God has me and has brought me, to exactly the point in life where he wants me, so that God might be at work in my life, wow!  All the things I'd been reflecting about in terms of my identity and who I am suddenly fit into this big picture of God, at work achieving his purposes, but in an intimately involved way.  He loves me and his purpose and plan and timing will always be perfect.  It brings two massive implications straight away: firstly, contentment.  If I know this, then contentment becomes the most natural response.  It's not about me and my life, it's about God's big plan for the world, and the way he is using me in that.  Secondly, an awareness of God in life.  Just the way he provides opportunities and the way he uses the circumstances he has placed me in to be a witness around me.  I love that I've been able to know and enjoy God more over these last 6 weeks!

Pacific Internship 8

How do I ever begin to explain everything that has happened over these last 6 weeks.  We reflected last night on how easy it would be to go home, to withdraw from normal life, because it's too hard to go from here and explain what has happened, and it's too hard when you miss everybody.

How do you begin to explain what it feels like to sit for slabs of hours, soaking up Scripture and reflecting on application.  How do you begin to explain how it feels when someone you've been sharing with, comes to Christ.  How do you begin to explain the community you've enjoyed when you can't really understand it unless you were here.

Withdraw, enjoy in quietness, reminisce ... I'm determined not to do that.  I'm determined to do everything I can to be able to share this experience as a witness to others.  Because it's only in sharing that I will really be able to reflect and work through this experience in the context of reality.

How do I feel?  I'm sad to leave.  I'm sad that this time is drawing to an end.  I'm sad that the relationships I've enjoyed for 6 weeks, won't be the same ever again.  I have loved, enjoyed and shared with so many different people.  We know each other better than people in Melbourne know me.  We've served together, prayed together, 'angsted' together!  We've had to work through issues, chat through problems, engage with Scripture.  It's been everything I love about life and ministry.  And now it's finished!  

Our last 24 hours together: we had devotions, went to town for pizza, enjoyed new experiences, shared the ways God has worked in us, had a dinner feast, celebrated a birthday, had thank yous, danced, sat by a bonfire, roasted marshmallows to perfection, watched the stars, had last conversations, had a sleepover altogether, shared last minute angst (of course!), hugged and cried (I didn't cry), slept (maybe an hour tops), hugged some more!!

Some of our friends have left already...it's sad.  The rest of us are about to enjoy our last meal together before we fly out in a few hours. 

It's time.  Time to come down off the mountain.  Time to get on with the job.  It's time to see what God is going to do in life in Melbourne!  It's exciting!!

- Joy

Pacific Internship 7

Today, we had to fill out our evaluation for the internship.  What should probably have taken an hour max - took me over 3 hours.  I really enjoyed filling it out (most of it) and enjoyed working through my reflections and thinking through different things.

One of the things it really helped me to do was to begin to think about how the internship has impacted me, and how am I ever supposed to communicate those impacts to people back home!  So much has happened and so much has changed, and I'm still trying to put all that together and process it all, let alone being able to share that with others.  It's exciting to think through though!

So, tomorrow is really our last day together before we all fly out on Saturday.  This week has been a helpful week of study and training, but also a valuable week to begin wrapping up. I'm still not totally figured out, but getting there.  I want to be totally at peace with where I am up to by the end of tomorrow.  We'll see!

One story:  So we went out on OJT one afternoon this week and after visiting a friend in the market, we went into Chicken Express to get a coke.  While we were in there, I said to my team, 'Ok guys, we can't just hang out in here, let's talk to someone!'  So we spoke to the closest guy, who turned out to be from Vanuatu!  We were able to ask him a few questions about himself, and we learnt that he went to church every week, read his Bible regularly and wanted to live the Bible's way.  I wasn't sure if he was a true Christian or if he was trusting in his works for salvation, so we shared the truth of how Jesus saves, and Jesus alone!  And he said, 'Yes! That's what I believe!'  Awesome!  We didn't have a lot of time to continue the conversation, so we shared some details with him, so he could connect with people back in the church in Vanuatu.  We gave him a gospel tract which explained the truth we had shared.  He loved it, so he took another one to share with someone else.  It was a really encouraging time talking and sharing with this man!!

And this photo is not posed...it's just a sneaky shot I talk while I was sharing!