General Ministry Update!
So much has happened since our last update, and it hasn’t helped that I failed to get an update out for November. LThe National Youth Ministry Convention in October, was amazing. Not only as a great opportunity to get together with some of the ATS team, but also to see so many young leaders come together to grow and improve in how we do ministry and mission.
A few stand out things for me included:
- Brad Griffin (“Sticky Faith” seminar) shared the importance of connections for young people, not only with their peers, but also with older and younger people in a community environment.
- He also shared how essential it is to be able to create an environment where young people can ask the hard questions and feel heard.
- Krish Kandiah highlighted the importance of balanced ministry that includes knowledge, emotion and action (Head/Heart/Hands). Or as I like to think of it: Truth and Love in Action.
We’re thankful to God for the house that He has provided for us to buy, and thanks to everyone who helped us move. The move has felt like an on-going saga in itself, but grateful that we’re here now.
Thanks Trav for suggesting that I look at Campus Crusade for Christ’s SHIFT:m2M training. I was able to slot in to a catch-up retreat at the end of October, and we had the second retreat in Brisbane last week.
I’m loving walking through the life of Jesus in this course, and learning how He modelled disciple-making through dependence on His Father - combining life and ministry, and creating a movement that is still flourishing today. It’s all about how to make disciples who make disciples. There is soooo much we can learn from Jesus’ life.
There has been interest in Hervey Bay to see ATS facilitate a Christian Leaders Retreat in 2016. I’m keen to have conversations around this, and will be following up with ministry leaders in the area to see whose interested, and nail down a date.
Christmas is just around the corner. As we make time to celebrate God coming and living among us, may each of you be blessed and reflect on all this means, and reflect out God’s love for your family, friends, neighbourhoods and communities.
Mike
Financial Support Update! THANK YOU for your financial support! We’re grateful for your partnering with us. While Mike is focussing more on raising awareness of ATS, we’re shifting our focus from asking for support toward Mike’s income to support to cover ministry expenses. | We invite you to consider whether God is calling you to contribute financially to help cover ministry expenses. A couple of examples of this would be to cover travel/accommodation expenses for Mike to travel to Hervey Bay for a Christian Leaders Retreat; or for the family to travel to Adelaide for VERGE next year. Watch this space! J |
Toowoomba Family Life! – by Ray
Life has a way of getting so busy that you look back and go where did that year go. Well this year has been exactly like that. I can’t believe we are almost at Christmas. So much has happened in the last 2 months, we truly are running to keep up with what God is doing.Firstly, we were told that the owners of the house that we were living in was going to be selling the house and she was giving us the first option to buy it. We loved the house, and had been wanting to buy it, but in the weeks leading up to this, just felt that it wasn’t right for us, and with Michael going to be doing a lot more travelling in the coming months, that we really needed to move closer to my work, so that I could walk to work and not be dependent on people for lifts.
Well, God in his usual way, just blows us away and provided, not only a home loan to the exact amount that we needed (we didn’t think would happen with Michael only doing 2 days paid work a week), but also an amazing house only 2 km from my work and its in a really nice neighbourhood. The kids love the house as well and the school bus picks them up just down the road. There is a city bus stop just out the front of our next door neighbours house, so there is always a way to get around.
The house is an 80 year old Queenslander. It has a nice yard, and gardens and has heaps of roses. I have never much been into flowers, I have always preferred veggie gardening, but I think I am changing. I keep cutting the flowers and putting them in a vase. We have (I think) 13 different varieties of roses.

Hannah and Josh have both finished school for the year, so will have 2 months off now to celebrate Christmas. Hannah is really wanting to find a job, please pray with us for her to find a suitable job, not only for the holidays, but also to carry over as a Saturday job for when she is back at school.
We will have a new addition to our family from Christmas time, we are finally getting ourselves another dog. We left our beloved dog in Hervey Bay with a friend due to her being old and having arthritis (we knew she wouldn’t be able to handle Toowoomba’s winters), and unfortunately she has now died. But we are going to be getting a Border Collie x Kelpie puppy. To say we are all excited is a bit of an understatement. The kids have never had a puppy, so I don’t think they realise what they are in for. Josh has been researching on google about how to train a puppy and how to build a dog house. The puppy is only 3 weeks old at the moment, hence why we are getting it at Christmas time.
We wish you all a very happy Christmas. Thankyou for taking an interest in us and what God has been doing in and through us. Thankyou for partnering with us, we hope we can be as much of an encouragement to you as you have all been to us.
Merry Christmas
Rayleen
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