And it's a new year again...

[Snail]

I hope everyone has had, or is having, a good holiday period. (cue: giggle from Cat)

So did you go away anywhere interesting? What did you get up to? What changes do you have coming up this year? What do you hope to do?

It would be good to hear some news.

[freney]

Sure.

I've got some changes!

Kristy and I have just moved out of Newtown over to North Epping (towards the north-west of Sydney, for those elsewhere. Near Macquarie University, if that helps). I've finished up study at Bible college, and I'm starting work as an Assistant Minister at North Epping Anglican. I'm the young adults minister, so involved with evening church, uni students' bible studies, youth group, scripture teaching, and more.

That's for part of the week. The other part is a couple of days on campus at Macquarie Uni, with the Christian Union there. It's an AFES group (Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students), so keen on growing as Christians from studying God's word, evangelising, and loving around them those on campus. I'm helping out there too.

So big changes: job, church, house. I'd love your support too - particularly in prayer (contact me and I'll add you to my list of people to send prayer updates to), and if you're able financially too (see http://support.freney.org for more info).

Anyone else got anything going on?

Sam.

[JMc]

I just managed to get to a day of the STIR conference (formerly Queensland Youth Convention), and it has achieved its purpose of stirring me to think about a lot of stuff... Was great to spend the day with Christians, both friends and new faces, and spend time hearing speakers and discussing some key things.

The conference theme was "You Haven't Got Long", and it was based around the reminder that we are all facing judgment, and it's not far away. I got a number of things out of the day, but the key message for me was from the main speaker, a guy from Victoria called Mike Raiter. While it was a reminder of something I already knew, he presented it in a way that really made me think about it.

Simply, it was the reminder that we must give an account of what we have done, and this should be reflected in every day we live. Regardless of anything this world brings, we must be able to stand before God and say we have been faithful in our stewardship for him.

This is not something I've done well in my past. The new year brings a lot of changes for me (out of uni, going into work in my field, major frisbee, overseas travel), so I intend to strive to change this part of myself into the bargain. Prayer and support would be great.

Anyone else hitting conferences, missions, camps, etc?

[freney]

Hey, sounds great. Mike's a great guy.