I love what I get to do with life and ministry here in New Zealand and connected with TeachBeyond. My wild life links ministry partners on three continents and dozens of time zones. This blog is a place I can share some of the stories on the ground wherever I’m serving with the growing number of people who love me outside of my current location. I’m so grateful for the gift of connections with people from Fischingen to Huntsville to the neighbourhoods (or suburbs depending on your definition) of Christchurch.
As I spent most of my Saturday schedule sending a couple hundred emails, I was praying for the TeachBeyond TCKs scattered around the globe who I am helping establish relational rapport with. It may seem like a strange thing to do with my work hours, but I know that this arc of care we’re developing that lets each TCK know they are loved and known by their global care team is critical. One of my former students who didn’t have a mission to provide that told me how valuable that work is in his opinion. He emphasised to me that he was grateful for those kids having me on the TCK care team because I was the person he knew he could call anytime he needed through his late teen years and now well into his twenties. This particular TCK’s compliment carries a bit more weight due to his cynical view of mission work in general. I really cherish those blessings of affirmation that I’m doing well the work God has set before me.
Recently, I have had a couple precious moments hearing affirmations of God putting me here in New Zealand as well. One came through a thoughtful email from parents encouraging me in my work which may seem simple, but due to my personal history, the affirmation hit deep. I also am blessed by friends who actually want to hang out with me, and these friends get excited about the spread of the Gospel in New Zealand, and that builds my excitement for being a part of what God is doing here beginning in this city and within our church whānau.
I finished reading this book recently about the history of Christianity in New Zealand, and it carried right up to the past year. I knew some of the names in the book. I also know I’m working with some of the youth who will be writing the books a generation from now that tell the story of revival in Christchurch – and I got to be on the ground while it happened. Some of these kids don’t even know Jesus yet, but I am so excited to be a part of their discipleship journey. I spent a lot of hours this week strategising and praying and preparing for term two and specifically how I can support the integration of young people who come from un-churched backgrounds into our church whānau. How did Jesus reach out to me? I had the gift of coming from a Christian home, but I was still reached while I was a sinner. The words of brokenness that match the lives of some of these people currently are true to who I was before Jesus came into my heart and the Holy Spirit transformed my life.
When I hang out with my friend Ruby who just became a Christian recently, she gets so animated talking about how God has transformed her life. She’s started praying with me for these young people she hasn’t even met – just like so many of you who read my blog all around the world are praying purposefully for Riccarton Youth Community. I’m so blessed to have this massive prayer team around the world and in the city who care about these young people. I also consider it a privilege and a blessing to be on the ground working with them. I just got off a call with one of my closest friends who is still living in Germany, and a huge part of our conversation was strategising how I can engage a group of the church kids to feel like youth group is a place where they are known and loved and discipled well. I have such a range of backgrounds represented in this gathering of young people, and it is so exciting to think about the different ways they will fuel revival across this city as the Holy Spirit moves in our church.
Not only that, but I’ve got this incredible leader team who are passionate about discipleship and loving God and loving others. This afternoon I had my term 2 planning meeting, and while I went into it feeling like I had more I could have done, I saw my leaders step into thoughtful reflections and give insightful feedback on how to disciple young people best this coming term. This ministry doesn’t rest on me (thank goodness). I love serving on this team.
I’m so excited about what’s ahead for me – and this week it includes two days of discipleship conversation and training with my staff team and a probable relaunch date for my website. If you’re reading this on the new design, you can thank Nick for his awesome work transferring over my content from both the posthope archive and my previous platform onto this new redesign he created for me with some room to grow new features in the future.
