Ministry Week

Hello Dear Friends. 

It’s been a while since I’ve done an update on here and a lot has happened in the past months! 

I plan to catch up on updates in the form of several posts over the next couple weeks. I’ll start with what I’ve been up to most recently, then work backwards from there. 

A couple weeks ago, I had the opportunity to lead a group of students on a ministry trip to a local church!

Ministry week is a regular occurrence here at Capernwary. For one week a semester, groups are assigned to local churches throughout the North Island. It is an opportunity for students to live out what they have been learning at the Bible School, participate in outreach and serve the local community.

Myself, along with a group of 9 students were assigned to Te Awamutu Bible Chapel. Though the church was located only 15 minutes away from our campus, students were billeted in local homes. This allowed for the opportunity to get connected with people and experience the hospitality from local church members.

Throughout the week we worked closely with their church staff and participated in many of their weekly ministries and outreach projects. The week was “Chock-a-block” (or very full, as the Kiwis like to put it)! In addition to serving around the church, students had the opportunity to teach daily at a school, run an after-school park program for kids, and help with youth and children ministries. Yes, if there could be one word to sum up the week it would be: kids. Lots of kids. 

Shout out to the church’s ministry coordinator (Carey), and our team’s student leader (Jonas) for your organization skills & leadership. Seriously. Without you the week quite likely would have been a disaster. 

My role as the staff member on the team was overseeing the week as a whole, checking in with the student leaders, leading group debriefs, and lots of student drop-offs and pick-ups!  I also did a lot of checking in with the church leaders, school teachers, and parents of the kids. 

A big part of it wasn’t necessarily leading but stepping back to let the students lead.  It was really cool to see them step into different roles and watch them use their gifts within ministry. All of the students were 100% committed and motivated, which made the full-on week quite manageable. Big shoutout to my TABC team! You guys rock.

Many connections were made, good conversations were had, and it was hard to say goodbye at the end of the week. 

For me personally, the learning takeaway of the week is that leadership is hard. Shocker. 

I’ve experienced many challenges in the past months. I’ve taken on new roles which have revealed ugly parts of myself and also grown me severly. 

Finding a balance between being a leader and friend to students who are close to my age is hard. Learning to step back and let students lead, but still be present and contributing is hard.  Responsibility can be overwhelming. Finding support for myself is hard. 

To those who took the time to check in on me during ministry week — thank you. Your encouragement truly means the world. 

Overall I have been reminded time and time again of the importance of looking to Christ. It is his strength working within me that surpasses any striving motive of my own. As much as I want to focus on being a good leader, that is not the point. I’ve recognized serving God can easily become my priority above God himself. 

My prayer is that I would not be working out of my own motives or strength — that only Christ would be working, and that his joy would become apparent to others through me. Please continue to be praying this prayer over me. That I would find my strength in Christ alone.