Tim’s Tidings: April to July

Hey!

Sorry for the delay with this supporter’s letter. As the youth ministry was running two camps in July I thought it would make sense to include them in this letter rather than wait and include them in the next letter. I’m a little over a quarter into my internship at the moment and I’m finding that it both more and less than I expected.

Crossfire

Crossfire is definitely one of the main thrusts of our youth ministry. Every Friday night during term time we run an evangelistically driven youth night. What we tell the kids who come to youth is that it is “a safe place to hear a dangerous message.” I look forward to Friday nights and it is one of the highlights of my week. This is for a number of reasons. I love that we get this opportunity to meet non-Christian kids. As a ministry Crossfire has always tried to make sure that the kids know that it’s for them and their friends-as leaders we don’t really know their non-Christian friends and we can’t minister to them. But they can and on Friday nights we get to share that ministry with them and that is a real joy. It is great to be able to share the gospel with people-especially when they come to you! Crossfire is a constant encouragement to me to see kids from year six to year twelve who are all keen to see Jesus making a difference in their friends lives. The other great thing about Crossfire and this was something that was a little unexpected is seeing what a difference a fantastic leadership team means. I’m not exaggerating when I say that this is one of the best teams of leaders I have ever worked with. They all put in effort every week to make sure that Crossfire is an open and welcoming community where it is fun and safe to be.

I had the opportunity again this term to speak at Crossfire which is something that is absolutely great to do. I spoke on the parable of the ten virgins and my main question for the kids was-are you ready for the kingdom? It was a good experience especially as I was able to debrief with one of the pastor’s at St. Paul’s who gave me valuable feedback. That is one the blessings of doing my internships at St. Paul’s, we have a great team of pastors who are always willing to give advice and answer questions which is incredibly beneficial.

One of my other duties at Crossfire is to make sure that the storeroom is kept tidy. Now this isn’t particularly interesting except for the fact that it is an incredibly helpful training tool. It is easy (especially for me) to kept swept up in how great Crossfire is and how keen the kids are but then to forget how much work goes into keeping Crossfire great. Cleaning out the storeroom especially after a camp helps keep me grounded and reminds me that ministry is not always exciting and not always fun. Sometimes it involves getting dirty and having the storeroom to tidy is a great reminder of that!

Camps

In July as a youth ministry we’ve run two camps. We re-launched our evangelistically focused weekend camp, and also ran Study Camp. Our weekend camp is called Winter Break and the focus was all about the kids. As preparation went into it Rod, the youth pastor, made sure that kids that came to Crossfire had an opportunity to really shape it into a camp that their non-Christian kids would like to go on. The camp went really well, I was helping site-direct the year 6-8 site and it was a really good weekend. The kids that we had on camp really enjoyed the weekend and the leaders help make it a standout weekend. Some of the highlights were the bonfire on Saturday night where the kids really loved making s’mores (marshmallows + chocolate + biscuits = wonderful) and damper. Tim Hawkins, our youth pastor emeritus, gave an absolutely wonderful talk on Romans 6:23 contrasting ‘the wages of sin is death’ with ‘the gift of God is eternal life in our Lord Jesus Christ.’ It was a message that would have resonated with any audience not just teenagers. One of the things we noticed about camp was that as much as it was evangelistically driven and we did see decisions made for Christ (praise the Lord!) was that the vast majority of kids on it were our Christian kids. Which leads to lots of questions for me, ie, are camps the best way to do outreach? That is one of the great things about being an intern you get the space to ask questions about this with out having to stress as much about the results-that’s something for the pastor to do! In all seriousness though Winter Break was a great camp and leading on it was a real joy.

The other camp we run is Study Camp which is an opportunity for our year twelve to get in a good solid week of study before their trials. It is also a great time as we get to minister to them. The theme of the week is to finish year twelve with no regrets about our ministry to our friends, no regrets about our family life, no regrets about our study and especially no regrets about our walk with Jesus. I’m impressed by how dedicated they are to studying (much more so than I ever was!) but also by the genuine passion many of them have for Christ. It’s a real blessing to get to spend time with them and get to know them a bit better. I also had the opportunity to speak about finishing with no regrets about our ministry to our friends. I spoke on Philippians 3:12-20. As I prepared it I was particularly struck by Paul writing, ‘and now say again even with tears many live as enemies of the cross.’ I was challenged by this and reminded that there are really only two options: salvation or damnation. It was a spur to me to spend more time with my non-Christian friends and I hope that I was able to express that in my talk.

Training

One of the joys of the internship has been the fortnightly training sessions we’ve been having.  We’ve had training sessions on Christology, church history, ministry to the pew and how to deal with suffering. They are all taught by the various pastors at church and getting to spend time with wiser Christians and tap into their experience is a great blessing. The other interns also help make the learning fun!

The other training that I do is my study at Morling Bible College. I’ve finished my first semester (no results yet) and it was so good. I loved seeing the Bible opened up for me. In particular the Old Testament class (an intro to the OT from Genesis to 2 Kings) was fantastic. I really enjoyed learning about how it all ties together, how we can see God working at saving the Israelites and how He constantly returns their sin with love-but also at times retribution. I was challenged by the class particularly in how I read my Bible and notice God’s constant love for us and his preparation for the cross. I’m very much looking forward to looking at the prophets next semester!

Miscellaneous

One of the great things about my internship is that it gives me the opportunity to come into contact with people I would never otherwise meet. One of the guys in my small group invited one of his non-Christian friends to our church’s “Why we don’t believe series” and I’ve been able to start to grow a friendship with him. We’ve met up to talk about the Bible covering everything from evolution to why Jesus had to die on the cross. It has been good for me to articulate what I think about this but also encouraging to see how God works in people’s lives. We’ve also had the opportunity to just hang out and become friends which is also fantastic.

I think that along with a continued prayer for humility and awareness of other’s needs as I do my internship I would love prayer for my continued ministry to the young man I was talking about. Pray that I will be honest with him and that Christ will really speak through me and his other Christian friends to him.

Thanks for journeying with me and taking the time to see where I’m at. This wouldn’t be possible without your help and I really appreciate it.

Tim Collison

For those who may have lost or ‘misplaced’ details on how to support me:

BSB: 032-173

Account: 87-1775

Make sure that the deposit is clearly tagged with the words: ‘Tim Collison’

Please inform me if there is any change in your level or frequency of support.