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walshy — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 05:16:00 GMT

The mission to Cessnock was a roaring success! Thanks for your prayers.

The Church

The high school visit went really well. We got to setup in the playground at lunchtime. Now someone had the brilliant idea of setting up a big sign saying "Don't Talk to Me" - gotta love reverse psychology. Anyway, under the sign a couple of us would silently write out bible verses, and give them out. Then the rest of us would 'pounce' on the kids, asking them to read out their verse and have a go at explaining it.

The Mission Timetable

It was a great way to instantly start talking about Jesus and the gospel. I was saddened and distressed however at how little most of the kids knew - they couldn't even tell me what year Jesus was born in, let alone what he did!

We often think that you need to go to deepest darkest Africa to find people who don't know about Jesus - but no, there is an entire generation of kids right here in NSW that have never heard the gospel. Please continue to pray for the kids of Mount View High School - particularly the few I spoke to who seemed interested in learning more about Jesus.

Angie and Jodi on the Radio

Next up on Friday was the radio station, which we hijacked for 2 hours. I gave a short talk on the Resurrection which seemed to go ok - I got all excited and started doing hand motions in front of the microphone, even though I knew that no-one could see me - except for Jodi, Greg and Angie of course, who must have found it quite strange! You can read my talk here. I'd greatly appreciate any comments you might have.

Notes on the Resurrection

As for my testimony, that was a little more interesting. After spending the whole of Saturday afternoon typing it up, I was struck with a drastic problem - the printer didn't work! With no time to fix the damn thing, I gave up and headed off to the carol service. But praise be to God - somehow I managed to calm down, say a prayer, and speak noteless, off-the-cuff!

Carols in the Hunter Valley Gardens

Looking back on the mission, it's easy to see how God worked through me, and the rest of the team - enabling us to step out of our comfort zones and do the seemingly impossible. Please continue to pray for Cessnock - that God will be at work in that town to bring people back to himself.

Team Cessnock

I'm in Sunny Cessnock!

walshy — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 09:01:33 GMT

If you've been wondering why I've been mysteriously absent for the past week, wonder no longer! I've been on NTE.

For those of you who don't know, NTE stands for "National Training Event". It's put on every year by AFES for Christian uni students. This year over 1200 of us (from as far away as Perth, Nth Queensland, Hobart and Fiji) met up in Canberra for the 5-day conference, before being sent out on mission for another 5-days.

My mission team consists of 10 people from Credo (the Christian group at UTS), and we're spending the rest of the week helping out the West Cessnock Congregational Church. This is my 4th time up to Cessnock, and I'm still struck by the joy and generosity of the church members, who all so graciously billet us and feed us.

Tomorrow we're visiting the local high school, taking over the local radio station for 2 hours, and running the church youth group. On Saturday we're putting on a carols service for the whole town in the Hunter Valley Gardens. And on Sunday we are running both of the church's services.

Please pray for the whole mission team as we work to pull-off these events, and share the gospel with as many people as possible. Pray that God will be working in people's hearts, to open them up to the good news of Jesus. And please pray for me also, as I do a 10min talk on the radio, and give my testimony during the carols service.

I'll post some more on NTE, as well as some pictures, when I return to Sydney.

Brighter Horizons : credo

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I'm in Sunny Cessnock!