Partnerships

As Tracy and I saw earlier today on their website, "Don't Go It Alone" is the slogan for the Monash University Postgraduate Association. It's not a bad slogan either when exploring grad ministry in Australia as Americans living quite literally on the other side of the world.

We would love to see thriving graduate student (postgrad) communities built here where the gospel is powerfully transforming lives. We would love to help build those communities. While it seems that God is calling us to do so, it is definitely clear that we can't do so by ourselves. And so, we have been primarily praying that God would lead us to individuals and groups with whom we could partner.

He is definitely answering our prayer! On Wednesday, (our first day here) we met with Malcolm and Sandy, two staff members with Christian Union (CU) at Melbourne University. On Friday, we met with Graeme, a staff member with CU at Monash University. Yesterday, we met with Peter, Matt, and Chris, staff members with CU at LaTrobe University, and last evening we held a Skype conference call with Lewis, the National Director of Postgraduate Ministry for AFES, the parent organization for (you guessed it) CU. Can you see a pattern emerging? I don't believe that there is another Christian Union staff member in Victoria working with postgrads that we haven't met.

In every one of those meetings, we shared our desire to see the gospel come within arm's reach of every postgrad on their campus, to see Christian postgrads thriving in their relationship with God, to see a new generation of Christian scholars raised up and mobilized, and to develop partnerships with existing Australian campus ministry organizations to see those three dreams become a reality. They shared with us their vision for postgrads on their campus as well as the current status of their ministries. We shared some more about what we have been learning as a ministry at Penn State. And then we talked about the ways a partnership might mutually benefit both organzations.

We left each of those meetings so encouraged, excited, and hopeful. We share with the staff from Christian Union the same vision for building a gospel-centered movement among postgrads on their campus. We share with them a Kingdom perspective, that is the desire to see God's Kingdom built, not Campus Crusade or Christian Union. And we share with them a lot of like-mindedness in how that might happen. It is so beautiful to see the Body of Christ function as Christ intended it to do.

Please continue to pray. Tomorrow I (Ashley) am meeting with Simon, a faculty member at Monash University who coordinates the CU postgrad ministry there with Graeme. On Friday, we are all meeting with Malcolm, Sandy, and some of the postgrads involved with the CU ministry at Melbourne University. Hopefully, I will also be able to talk to Lewis, the National Director, via Skype before we leave.

In each of these meetings and in conversations that follow over the coming weeks, we hope to figure out more specifically what these partnerships will look like and what next steps to take.