Bush Dance 2008

The Stamboli's are a brave family! Once again they graciously hosted our annual Australian bush dance and did a fantastic job.

Lennon was under much pressure to increase the UCSF girl numbers (from his dismal performance at the welcome event), but faithful Shumbeyi (Alumnus) came to his aid by recruiting seven lovely girls from Fenella, who were silently whisked away for their 9pm curfew, leaving glass slippers behind.

Overall attendance was really good and better than expected which was a great contributor to the success of the event. Dancing, music, juice, green lawn, sandwiches, good company - what a combination!

Fortunately for John's voicebox, he was not this time preaching the next day .....

only leading the singing!

Newsflash

Hey folks, despite NUST still looking like a ghost town, our calendar is still running.

We kicked off with our introduction to the book of 1 Peter last Friday and it was well attended by local NUST students, Polytech students and two faithful alumni.

This Friday is the bush dance at the Stambolies' so make sure you get there. And follow our events on the calendar link.

Committee Retreat 2008

Despite the chaos at NUST, we were still able to get most of our committee together for our annual retreat. This time we decided to check out Lunka Lodge with the hopes that maybe we can use it as an alternative camp venue.

Well, apart from the fact that the lodge is just fabulous and only 20km from town, we had a great time just being together, studying God's word, praying and planning ahead. I think we each came away feeling deeply privileged to be a part of a really sound and committed team.

Unfortunately Simba, Wadzanai and Lizzy were not able make it for the retreat - we look forward to catching up with you guys soon ......

and having a big indaba!

Orientation 2008

For those not quite up to date with the latest news, NUST managed to register and orientate the first years but only to tell them on the following Monday that lectures will only start at a date to be advised.

Well, the Lord is certainly not tied to the politics of our nation - we can be most grateful for that! We had incredible opportunity to reach the first years wtih the gospel throughout orientation week, even though it was fairly chaotic and unpredictable. Many thanks to the team that gathered for the two weeks prior in order to plan and prepare.

Herewith an extract from our last prayer diary entry which you may find most encouraging:

"Well Monday was very interesting. We all arrived at the lecture theatre/hall at 08:30 with a number of first year students. By 09:30 there were about 120 first years loitering outside waiting for something to happen. Eventually Gift (students worker) took the initiative to seek out the registrar and ask her if they were actually coming to do anything. He was then asked if there were any students out there! When he explained the situation and that he was also waiting to present after the faculty, the registrar very casually said that if he wanted to talk to the students then that was fine! Well, after much deliberation we rounded up the Christian group leaders and proposed the plan – we would simply just tell all the students to take a seat and hear what we have to say and explain that whether the faculty pitched or not was up to them. With unanimous agreement we duly told about 3 students to make their way inside and all the rest just followed. The plan then proceeded like clockwork with the gospel presentation followed by the group presentations and then the speaker simply dismissed the students! The faculty came about 30mins later and rounded up the students again.
The rest of the week proceeded with all the faculty meetings starting on time and as planned, and we managed to present the gospel at the end of each one, such that we can say that every first-year has heard – quite amazing. Do continue to pray with us that the seeds sown will grow."