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A few weeks ago I had the privilege of speaking at the Hurstville Chinese Baptist Church. It was my first ever translated sermon! I spoke one phrase in English, and my interpreter translated it into Cantonese.

It made me understand many things about the body of Christ. It showed me that language and culture may make fellowship difficult at times, but it doesn’t change our unity in Christ. I saw this clearly as we celebrated the Lord’s Supper together. This enacted word brought our diverse backgrounds together in a profound way, having already heard the Lord speak to us through his word.

It was wonderful to enjoy the fellowship and love of doing on earth what we are already doing as gathered disciples in heaven. Thanks to my brothers and sisters at HCBC… see you again soon!

In the days leading up to Easter, 1300 Trinity Grammar School students heard that they were guilty of nailing God.

The annual Easter Mission was run this year by staff and students of Anglican Youthworks College. The theme, ‘Nailing God’, showed how every person alive was guilty of killing Jesus.

The mission included a one-hour seminar, which was repeated for each of the six High School year groups. The seminar included talks from Jodie McNeill, Graham Stanton and Al Stewart, as well as music from Nathan Tasker.

During the hour the students assembled in small groups of around six people, where a Youthworks College student led them in interactive discussion about the material presented.

In addition, the Youthworks College students taught many of the Christian Studies classes, as well as spending time in informal discussions during lunch time.

During the weekend of 26-28 March, I spoke at the Central Coast Youth Conference. The camp, held at Mangrove Mountain Retreat, was organised by representatives of a number of Anglican churches from around the Central Coast.

This inaugural event was attended by high school aged students from many churches in the area, providing a great opportunity to build friendships with other Christian youth in the region.

I gave a series of six talks on Galatians entitled “Why be a Christian? The talks had the following titles:

1. Only Jesus rescues us (Chapter 1)
2. Only Jesus ignores religion (Chapter 2)
3. Only Jesus saves by faith (Chapter 3)
4. Only Jesus sets us free (Chapter 4)
5. Only Jesus shows us true love (Chapter 5)
6. Only Jesus makes us new (Chapter 6).

In addition, I also conducted a training session on youth ministry for youth leaders and ministers from the Central Coast.

Sermon at Cross-culture Bible Church, Arncliffe on Sunday, February 15 2004. Text is Galatians 6:1-10. Audience was adults in the morning congregation.

Read the text of the sermon here

Click here to listen to this talk using Windows Media Player.