Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Keeping focused on the harvest...

There is quite a lot happening over the next few weeks. Here is a brief
summary:
The 4th year diploma major projects are due at the end of the week.
The students are madly typing and correcting their work, but this is
very difficult because very few people have computers! Wednesday is a
public holiday for local province elections. Also on Wednesday a team
of 13 people arrive from New Zealand to continue working on the new
staff house. Rachael's mother arrives on Sunday for a one week visit.
There will be other groups visiting on Monday and Thursday next week.
On the 5th and 6th October the 2nd year diploma students are holding a
two day football competition and fundraiser. It will take most of their
focus over the next two weeks. The week after that many staff will
leave for General Assembly and be away for 1 or 2 weeks.

Our main goal through all of this is to try to help and encourage
students and other staff in all the work they will be doing, but while
still keeping the focus on our training for ministry. During busy times
like this it is easy for us to drop the work of discipleship,
evangelism and teaching in order to do "urgent", practical tasks.
While we want to help in these other tasks, we cannot afford to lose
our focus at Talua because there are almost always activities like this
taking place and visitors staying at the College. So please pray that
we will continue to have time to prepare our classes well and to meet
with the students for mentoring. Pray that the students will continue
to value their learning from God's Word and keep this a priority.

Monday, September 17, 2007

Talua Sunday

Last Sunday was Talua Sunday and the students and staff from Talua
travelled to churches throughout Santo to lead services and preach. The
day went very well. We travelled to Narango and greatly enjoyed our
time in the Village. The service went well and it helped us to learn
more about village life and the issues people are facing. Give thanks
for the day and pray that God would continue to provide more teaching
and encouragement for people throughout Vanuatu.

This is the first week of normal classes. Glen is now teaching Hebrews
to 2nd and 4th year diploma students, Psalms to 2nd year certificate,
and Joshua- 1 Kings to 1st year diploma. Rachael is teaching the women
how to write and lead Bible studies. Please continue to pray for us in
our teaching and for the students.

We are also trying to continue with discipling/mentoring students. It
has been difficult because the formal mentoring times are regarded as
less important than many other College activities and so are often
cancelled. It is very hard to find time to meet with students in the
busy College program and with all of the extra events taking place.
Please pray that God would protect this time that we have with the
students and that it would be a real blessing to both us and the
students.

Lastly, a lot of people at Talua are suffering from a cold or flu that
is going around. It is not really serious, but enough to make everyone
feel tired and lethargic. Our family all have it, although it is only
mild. Please pray that God would restore everyone to full health
quickly.

Sunday, September 9, 2007

The joys of Greek

Greetings,
Last week was very busy with the Greek intensive and a fundraiser on
Saturday. This next week will also be very busy as the Greek intensive
continues. The students doing Greek have been very enthusiastic! Almost
all the 2nd year diploma students began the course and no one has
stopped coming yet. They are very enthusiastic and really enjoying the
course. This is a great encouragement to Glen.

We have begun meeting with some of the students we are mentoring and
will try to begin meeting up with the rest during this week. Glen would
also like to begin meeting with a few 1st year diploma students in
preparation for next year when he is formally responsible for them.

Next Sunday is Talua Sunday, when the students and staff travel out to
different villages to lead the services. The teaching will be from Luke
15:1-10 on the lost sheep and the lost coin.

Rachael's classes went well on leading Bible Studies. She has the
normal struggle of working out how well she is communicating, but the
women seem to be responding well.

Thank you again for your prayers
Yours in Christ,
Glen, Rachael, Sophie, Bethany and Matthew

Please Pray

• Pray that God would give us energy and sustain us during this busy
time.

• Give thanks that the students are enjoying Greek and working hard.
Pray that they would have wisdom as they decide whether to try to
continue with learning Greek, and that if they decide to do this that
God would give them motivation and discipline. Pray that the Greek they
learn, whether a little or a lot, would be used with humility and bring
benefit to the church in some way.
mentoring

• Pray that students would prepare well for Talua Sunday and preach
faithfully. Pray that people in the surrounding villages may be built
up in their faith in Christ and challenged to live holy lives. Pray
that those in the villages who don't know Christ would hear the Gospel
proclaimed clearly, and that God would work by his Spirit to bring some
of them to faith and repentance.

• Pray that God would help Rachael as she teaches the women in Bislama,
and pray that the women would have a desire to learn to read God's Word
better, to trust and obey it, and to teach it to others.

• A few of our family and many others at Talua have a cold. Some of us
also have upset stomachs (from the fundraiser). Please pray that God
would restore us to full health quickly so that we have strength to
serve him.

Saturday, September 1, 2007

Start of Term 3

We have had a good week of rest and then a week of preparation for
classes which start on Monday. This will be a very busy term. Glen had
a fairly late change of classes and so still has quite a lot of work to
do. For the first two weeks of term Glen will be teaching an intensive
Greek course to second year diploma students. He will also begin
teaching Joshua-1 Kings to first year diploma students. Rachael will be
teaching in the women's program on how to write and lead Bible studies.
Please pray for both of us in our preparation and teaching.

Mentoring will continue this term and we will write more later, but we
should begin again this week.

Glen's ordination has been postponed by the Presbytery because of some
minor issues, mainly that we want to make sure that there is clear
communication between the churches in Australia and Vanuatu regarding
the meaning of this ordination upon our return to Australia.
Postponing an ordination seems a big issue in Australia but it is not
really like that here. The things still need to be sorted out are
fairly minor, but please pray that it would all proceed smoothly from
here.