Chinese Students walked away with John's Gospel

Great conversations!

Was trying to get some admin done in the chaplaincy office at the university when a flood of Chinese students came in to use the microwave and make cups of coffee.

Some just made a beeline for the appliances. Others made eye contact & greeted me. A handful of the friendly students then sat down on the couches around the small room and ate their lunch.

I asked what they were studying and why China needed so many business students. One thing led to another and, what do ya know, we're talking about Jesus! It happens.

Two of the more keen students lingered longer than the others and, after sharing the best news about Jesus, I gave them a great little notebook Gospel of John especially for Uni students with no faith background. 

Pray for Leroy and Katrina, that we, or someone, will have further conversations with them, and that they'll be convinced that God loves them and has love them before they ever heard about Him. 

I'd like a longer and larger table. A table around which I could have people in for a meal, and to linger over conversations. It's through conversations that trust is built. It is through trust that we have influence. It is through influence that I'll be able to show people just how much Jesus loves them. I need a larger longer table.

What story would you expect to hear from this young lady? What might you learn?

Connecting with students from refugee backgrounds for support and relationship

Opportunities 2016:

• I am networking with and for 3 new church plants across the North Island in 2016-2017! Postage for donated communion trays, books and equipment for the new church plants will be around US$500.

•A new Ministry Centre & House is needed so we can continue to provide refuge for women-at-risk, hospitality for travelers and spiritual seekers, and a ministry office. I’ve been renting so far, but would love to purchase a place so we do not have to relocate often. US$250,000 will provide a deposit and breathing space for us to buy and furnish a house with several bedrooms and adequate bathrooms. Note: Average house prices in Auckland are more than US$600,000.

•Auckland’s urban diversity and the ever changing university community provides access to people groups and countries we’d not easily reach, i.e. Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, China, Malaysia and others. Pray for wisdom and courage.

•2016 student orientation at Massey University distribution of Gospels of John. We need US$4500 for this outreach.

•An Outreach Food Truck will give us many opportunities for conversations. Specific contexts where we already yearn to use a food truck are at the universities, after big events in the city, for benevolence and at the surf beaches where we have nearby church events in the evenings. US$12,000 will purchase an adequate vehicle and allow for electrical fittings and equipment.

Covenant with you, my ministry partners:

There will be a paper trail for every dollar we spend. We will be transparent as to finances and activities and I remain accountable to the directors of The Ark Christian Ministries in the US and the elders of Shore Community Christian Church in Auckland. Ask any question and expect an answer.

Jill Shaw

•  Shore Community Church  •  Refugees & Refuge House  •  Disciplemaking  •

•  Cross-Cultural Communications  •  Mentoring Missionaries & Leaders  • 

•  Massey University Chaplaincy  • Networking for Church Planting

... all in a postChristian country where most people have no idea of the gardens of Eden or Gethsemane, or of the existence of Genesis or James.

To donate and financially partner with Jill's ministry in New Zealand, please donate online  or send checks payable to The Ark Christian Ministries-SP to: P.O. Box 43581, Louisville, KY  40253 USA        I'll be grateful for your solidarity, confidence and prayers.

AUCKLAND SNAPSHOT

Auckland will be home to two million people by the early 2030s, according to projections made by Statistics NZ.

The new report says the city, which is the country's fastest growing region, will account for three-fifths of the country's population growth between 2013 and 2043.

The rise will lift the current 34 out of 100 people in New Zealand living in Auckland to 40 out of 100 by 2043. Supply & demand affects increasing property values which also affect ministries, churches and missionaries

More than 200 ethnic groups are recorded as living here and Auckland is considered more diverse than London or Sydney, with 40 per cent of its population made up of different ethnicities. NZ Herald

Auckland is a busy urban center, NZ's largest city and extremely ethnically diverse.

PAUL’S CHURCH PLANTING STRATEGIES IN THE BOOK OF ACTS

Urban Evangelism and Church Planting

  Paul focused intentionally on urban church planting.  His strategy to make disciples began with evangelizing the cities and planting local churches in them.  In each of Paul’s missionary journeys, he crossed the Mediterranean world, going from city to city with his message and establishing churches.  For Paul, the city was the natural place to preach the gospel and plant churches.  He recognized it as the flashpoint from which the gospel would spread out to surrounding areas.  Referring to Paul’s three missionary journeys, John Stott wrote, “In each case the missionary journeys included the capital cities in their itinerary—Thessalonica being Macedonia’s capital, and Corinth being Achaia’s, and Ephesus being Asia’s.”

Paul considered the cities as the most strategic places and among his highest priorities for his church events.  Paul’s strategies included preaching the gospel in the cities, and from there the gospel could spread to the rural areas surrounding each metropolitan center.  As a result, the entire regions and provinces ultimately heard the gospel.  Roger S. Greenway stated, “Paul proved himself as an effective urban strategist in evangelizing the towns and cities.” He established his goal to evangelize the cities and towns at every available opportunity.  He realized that the cities are the strongholds of social evils, and that, planting churches vibrating in proclaiming the gospel and making disciples, is the only power to combat them. 

Allen wrote, “It is not enough for the church to be established in a place where many are coming and going unless the people who come and go not only learn the Gospel, but also learn it in such a way that they can propagate it. When he had occupied two or three centers he had really and effectually occupied the province.”  When one looks at those places, each city or metropolitan center is situated on a major Roman road or is located near a major seaport. These represented former great trading centers which attracted many immigrants from all over the known world.  Paul beheld the urban centers as evangelistic strategy for reaching the surrounding territories. 

To reach out to a person in the name of Jesus Christ in a city is to simultaneously reach out to the rural population.  Again, Allen observed, “The centers in which St. Paul established his churches were all centers of Greek civilization. Nearly all the places in which St. Paul established churches were centers of Jewish influence.  St. Paul established his churches at places which were centers of the world’s commerce.”  

Keeping it local, while serving global

Auckland  New Zealand:   Shore Community Church  •  Massey University  •   Refugees and  Refuge House   • Discipleship  •  Chaplaincy  •  Inter-Cultural Communications  •  Mentoring missionaries and leaders

Change is inevitable and is often good. After 16 years of affiliation with South Pacific Christian Fellowship, Jill is making some organizational changes.  She has affiliated with The Ark Christian Ministries, an established credible ministry, a board of directors, stringent accounting procedures and a long history of working with churches to get ministry done in the US and overseas.

Celebrating 30 years in ministry

These changes affect banking and accountability but not the ministry in NZ.  It continues, to God's glory, as before. 

Jill is staying in NZ, doing many of the same things she has been doing, but rather than have her $$ support and communications go through SPCF in Colorado, Jill will continue to work through her forwarding agent, Cheryl Belding in Louisville and The Ark in Indiana.

We'll soon make changes to the account names. The checks will eventually need to be made out differently, but we'll let you know all about that when the legal stuff is done.

SPCF's focus is specifically on church planting while Jill's ministry includes more than church planting. i.e. university chaplaincy, continued ministry with Shore Community Church, refugee support, community engagement, hospitality, discipling, etc... 

Jill leaves SPCF with relationships in tact and with all involved focussed on God's glory and building the Kingdom. 

So what changes: how the checks are made out, the name of the organization.

What doesn't change: Jesus, the nature of the ministry, and the Louisville P.O. Box to which donations can be sent.

What is money needed for:

US$500 in monthly support for ongoing expenses & outreach.

US$4500 for really cool gospel diaries for new student orientation in January 2016

US$12,000 for a van to provide soup for cold surfers, kinda like the woman at the well, but soup instead of water, with conversations to follow.

US$250,000 for a house with a bigger table and more bedrooms so I don't have to turn people away. Women at risk and people in the margins need hospitality and to see Jesus lived. Help me buy a house in which to create that home.

-->

It is all for His glory that I seek common ground with as many as I can, teaching them to dwell with Jesus and seek God’s face, walk in step with the Spirit, and pass on to others what has been passed on to them, just as it was passed on to me. 

Massey University Spirituality Week

This is the way we’ll influence and change the world; life on life, one cup of tea at a time, in conversations and relationships that are immeasurable in the way they’ll radiate outwards…. 

My Sunday School had no idea their influence would reach so many countries and cultures through that little girl sitting in the second row. I’m still grateful.

Be sure and find us at www.jillspcf.org

Just a glimpse into some conversations

Had a great conversation with a Punjabi Sikh female shuttle driver. She gave me a hug with tears in her eyes before we parted, thanking me for encouraging her. We'll see if she gets in touch again.

Spoke at length with a Jewish woman whose husband is serving in Afghanistan. She asked me how to pray. We're continuing the conversation by email.

Shared a table in a crowded restaurant with a Japanese woman and ended up talking about discipling her daughter and living biblically in the tension of a post-Christian social order.

Met and prayed with a Chinese woman who leads a Christian television ministry. She was encouraged to meet another woman in ministry outside the church. We've since emailed each other as well. 

Conversations are a theme of my life and ministry. I never know where the conversations may go, but I know Jesus is a participant in each one. To have initial contact, and then receive a follow-up email is amazing! 

Thank you for praying for me as I live and love and serve and am open to any conversation with anyone. Only God can prepare and equip me for this. It's too unpredictable for me to think I'm adequate without Him. 

Grateful, and often amazed...


Fragmented bits don't always make a whole: how we view God
Teaching tonight in FaithLIFT Week 3.

Understanding the character & nature of God matters because...

Who He is determines:

- How we relate

- What we expect

 -How we interpret His Word.

Who we say/think/feel/know God is will determine much in how we live, read and understand Scripture, and in how we grow in our faith.

In tragedy we hear people say, “Where are you, God?”

The more reasonable and helpful question might be “Who are you, God?”

God’s character, what He’s like and what we can expect from Him will make a huge difference in how we pray, how we respond to tragedy, how we worship, and how we embrace the future, including eternity.

Our expectations must sync with His character and nature,  or we have a recipe for disappointment and a real crisis of belief.

It's one thing to tell the Gospel to someone who has never heard it before.

It's another thing to sift through the fragments of a person's faith and understand where it all came unstuck.... so as to help them reassemble the bits worth keeping.