April Newsletter
Hello everyone and welcome to April’s newsletter.
Our students are on a mid-semester break this week, which gives us a brief chance to pause and update you all on what’s been happening this past month.
Last month we announced the inclusion of the Kairos course into our curriculum. Well, we have completed seven of the nine weeks and it has been incredible. Many of the students have been challenged and stirred by the course material and the passion of the facilitators as they learn about the different types of mission work and contexts in which they take place. As a staff, our prayer is that each student would finish this course with a better idea of how God is calling them to fulfil the Great Commission.
One example of how Kairos has stirred the students is the beginning of a daily morning prayer group. In week 5, the students learned about the power of unified prayer and many of them felt they needed to put this into action. As such, students are now meeting daily in the Prayer House at 6:30 am to fervently pray for Aotearoa and the nations abroad. Even after only two weeks, the students are noticing a change in themselves and their relationship with God and are feeling more and more stirred to pursue God.
Prior to the students going on their mid-semester break, we celebrated an early Passover. It was a fantastic evening of learning, remembering our redeemer Jesus, eating, and fellowshipping as a community. We’d like to say a HUGE thank you to the hospitality team for the beautiful set-up and delicious food – Steve and Tracey Wilson from The Happy Puku and our chefs Heather and Celeste. You are amazing!
This month we began our “Outstations”, which are practical ministry opportunities outside of the classroom. In years past these have typically been within local churches. However, with the Covid restrictions, we have been forced to look outside the church for ways to minister to our community. One of the ways we’re doing this is by participating in Jesus Reigns NZ, which is an open-air worship service at Memorial Park, Tauranga where the Gospel is preached, and prayer is offered to anyone interested. Another opportunity we’ve taken part in is a monthly city prayer walk with James Muir (Alumni Coordinator). This is a time of praying for the city council, struggling businesses, relationships with Tangata Whenua, and future city developments while walking through Tauranga City Centre. Anyone is welcome to join in with the prayer walk or Jesus Reigns. Email frank@fbc.ac.nz if you would like to know more details.
We were privileged to have Logan Mills, the National Director for Christian Surfers come and speak to our students this month. Logan is one of our regular guest speakers and we love his testimony of how God has used his passion for surfing to spread the Gospel and reach the surfing community. It’s a great challenge for our students to ask themselves, “what has God put in my hand?” and how might I use that to reach people with the love of Jesus.
Alongside our spiritual habits, we always make time for fun. This month we had a community movie night in the classroom. As a result, a generous donor saw that we were using a bedsheet for our projector screen and has bought us a proper projector screen, which we are very grateful for and are looking forward to using. This month our chef Heather also put on a homemade pizza night and invited the whole community. It was another fantastic evening of fellowship and delicious pizza!
With Easter just around the corner, our students had the opportunity to help with the delivery of the Hope Project pamphlets. This is an amazing initiative started by Dave Mann (a regular guest lecturer at Faith) whose goal is that every New Zealander will hear the Gospel message. The students delivered over 500 booklets to the Mount Maunganui area and we pray that each home would begin to question the true meaning of Easter and discover Jesus!
Once again, thank you to everyone for your ongoing prayers and support.