The Week That Was

This week was the second week of Orientation for AUT on both campuses. On the North Shore campus, clubs day took place on Tuesday and Sarah, Jeff and I ventured up to help out with North Shore Christian Fellowship - a new group set up by Laura and Jack. We weren't the only ones there though. There were 5 other Christian groups with stalls there - Campus Christian Movment, Christian Club, Real, Ako 4 Christ and Red Frog. The presence of the 6 Christian groups definitely made an impact on the students with many of them saying that we were all there "to battle it out". With just Toastmasters and the Salsa club there with stalls, we were the majority (I don't know if that happens very often?).

Now, I don't know what the other groups believed about Jesus and the Bible, so I don't know how relevant this will be but I remember during a bible study last year (I think that it was a bible study.. or maybe a discussion), we were discussing if Jesus is talked about and people hear about Him, even if it is in a negative context, is it really a bad thing? Jesus is still present in people's minds, whether it be because of that man proclaiming Him on the street or because of the unexpectedness of someone saying "I burn bibles" (which actually did happen - more on that later). So, regardless of whether these people are right or wrong about Jesus, the bottom line is that people are hearing of Jesus. But here is the tough part; teachings of Jesus and hearing of Jesus. Different - yes, but sometimes confused. This kinda ties in (?) with a bible study that we were doing with EU (More on them later too - exciting!). In 2 John 1:1-13, there is a warning about "deceivers" as those "who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh" and those who do "not continue in the teaching of Christ"; it says, "Watch out that you do not lose what you have worked for" and "If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching [of Christ], do not take him into your house or welcome him. Anyone who welcomes him shares in his wicked work." What am I trying to say here...it's good that people are hearing about Jesus, but when it comes to learning about Jesus, people need to discern whether what they're learning is correct, or is in fact of Christ. Confusing, and I haven't made it very clear here, and I haven't come to a definite conclusion, but just wanted to get it down - maybe something to come back to.

Anyway, so, NSCF got about 10 sign ups - an encouraging start for them I think and exciting to see what will come from this group this year.

AUTCF - took up the optional clubs days this week (Mon, Wed and Fri) with the actual clubs day on Thursday. They handed out milo and flyers and there were good conversations and lots of keen people who signed up. I wasn't actually there on Thursday as I was at an Auckland Team Meeting at the TSCF office, but AUTCF took up the opportunity to have stage time - so about 5-10 minutes of time on the stage in the centre of the quad. They did a milo-chugging competition, with the winner drinking about 10 cups of milo (from what I've heard) and walking away with a 1.9kg tin of Milo (which I'm sure he won't finish before it expires!) Jess also got up on stage and shared what AUTCF were about during our stage time. There's going to be a welcome event with pizza this coming Tuesday, where we'll get to meet the new people who have signed up.

EU - we had our first meeting yesterday, talking abit about vision and why everyone was there, as well as doing a manuscript bible study in 2 John. It was a small group but all were keen and very encouraging. One guy who came along had just become a Christian 3 weeks ago and was keen to get into the bible studies - amazing. Am planning on chatting to him more in the coming weeks, but he has class til 3pm and the EU meeting is 2-3:30pm at the moment, and there are a few people who couldn't come because of the time so that might be revised. Really exciting to see this group starting to get off the ground, and with all new members I think they will be able to take ownership of this group and do amazing things.

So the "I burn bibles" guy - was actually a lecturer - don't know his name or lecturer of what but I overheard him saying that he burnt Bibles. The guy that goes around AUT and AU trying to get you to update your election enrolment details happened to be standing next to our stand yesterday (and had a couple milos himself) and the lecturer, came up to him and said something along the lines of "what do you think about christians, I burn Bibles." And the election guy just straight out said, "I'm a Christian." Now, election guy seemed quite soft-spoken, so it turned out to be a very short conversation with the lecturer saying, "Oh, well I burn Bibles, I think all religions are evil" And thats about all the dialogue i heard. But election guy came over after lecturer left and said, "I didn't expect to hear that. People with different views huh. The end times are coming soon." ??? But I myself was thinking "did i really just hear that?" ("I burn Bibles"). And thought that the election guy was VERY cool - just saying, straight out, "I'm a Christian." Not ashamed and not afraid but confident that he had Christ.

So and interesting week that was.. I'm sure there will be many more...