Australia has 1.4 million students attending 43 accredited Universities. It is a huge mission field that represents enormous possibilities. Power to Change is present in 29 Universities. Unfortunately, we can only provide fulltime missionaries in half of these.
Have you ever wondered what the life of Jesus really looked like? Reverend Phil Meulman from St Mark’s Forest Hill, Victoria did. When he began engaging with Church Movements in early 2018, he experienced Jesus’ life first hand. Bringing along his leadership team, they also experience the life of Jesus Christ through our rigorous study.
The First Steps training has challenged my student leadership team in ways that I think will prove to be pivotal in their lifelong walks with God. Not only has the training better equipped them to go out and share their beliefs, relying on the Spirit, but it has also profoundly challenged them on their own convictions and beliefs.
Of course, I have compassion for the poor and people with special needs! My church reaches out to them and my family give in many ways. For goodness sakes, I, of all people understand what it’s like to live with mental illness in the family. Don’t I smile and talk to homeless people? Sometimes I even buy them a meal.
The mission trip to Coron was my husband, Peter’s fifth medical mission in the Philippines and my second. Peter first travelled with GAiN to Tacloban in 2014, at the invitation of Dr Malcom Hughes. At the time Peter was a builder; but not for long. He returned home with a passion for dentistry and returned to the Philippines in 2015 as a student. I agreed to accompany Peter in 2016 and travelled to Legaspi to join the team. I missed the 2017 trip but was able to accompany the team to Coron this year.
Man heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps. (Proverbs 16:9)
Though we may step out onto missions without a clear idea of what we will do on the field, God has it planned from start to finish. The first time I heard about GAiN’s Philippines medical missions, I realised it was an excellent way to combine my passion for health with giving people the best medicine possible, the eternal healing message of the gospel. So after going in November 2017, I returned for the second time in February.
Just how important is a coffee? And how do you have a coffee with someone who lives over 1000km away?
These were the critical questions that our Campus Global Missions team have been wrestling with recently.
Esther was a student leader in our Monash movement during her undergraduate degree and attended our local summer mission, as well as the Philippines medical project, with Power to Change's Global Aid Network (GAiN). This year she is doing Honours research at Monash Hospital. She shares the story of connecting with ‘J’, an Afghan woman who is on her research team, and inviting her to read the Bible together.
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