Prayer letter 07 - And a Happy New Year!
November - December
Dear Partners,
I just found out yesterday that another person at Captivate has become a Christian. Praise God!
The last two months has been chock full of thinking about Christmas Mission Season, which I have been project leading at Captivate Church.
And now as the year wraps up, staff team have been preparing for next year; priorities, goals, and plans.
Please pray for our follow-up; that our members would be bold to invite their friends into further gospel conversations, and to our LIFE course.
Please pray for wisdom for the staff team to set goals and plan 2025 to maximise our master’s business.
Christmas at Captivate
The Small Group Community Events were a smashing success! Please join me in praising God for the 37 non-Christians who came and engaged with us and the gospel! Here’s what our groups did:
Wollamsam (korean vietnamese rice paper rolls) night.
Kit-kat house making.
Nativity photoshoot.
Gingerbread house.
Ornament making.
Supporting another event by doing awesome decorations.
Attending our Carols or Church at the Park events as a group, and being extra-intentional with invites.
Almost all of these events had an explicit gospel moment like a testimony, or prompts for deeper conversations around the theme of Christmas. It truly was beyond what we (staff) expected, and everyone was so excited to invite their friends along.
We also ran a Carols event, and Church at the Park. It’s been an exhausting month! But what’s always encouraging is seeing the way the whole church comes together to be on mission - including some of the youth!
Youth Event - Escape Room
Praise God for our ‘Lost Mummy’ themed escape room social at the end of November! It was a blast trying to curate the experience for them, and it was super exciting that we got 9 visitors on top of 7 regulars for our biggest youth ever!
After the escape room, one of the leaders gave a ten minute seminar-style talk explaining the gospel through the theme of Treasure.
“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.
- Matthew 13:44-46
2025?
I can’t believe it’s only a week away from 2025, and from halfway through my apprenticeship. Over this year God has taught me a lot of things and I can’t wait to go into next year with a big imagination for what God will do in Ryde and how he will grow me.
Reading over a year’s worth of ‘take away lessons’ from my monthly reflections, a few themes have stood out:
Prayer. God loves to answer prayers, prayer takes discipline, it’s a responsibility and requirement of my ministry, and a massive privilege. You will never regret time spent with God.
Rest. I’ve felt physically tired for much of this year and it’s still a big piece of the puzzle to work out.
Trust. Whether it be my own sinful desire for control when other people don’t operate the exact way I want. Whether it’s anxieties about people’s growth and ministry successes and failures. I can always trust in the steadfast God who cares for me and works out his plans through weak vessels like myself.
Changes for 2025
I’ll be training two new leaders (a married couple) to lead our gospel community groups. Planning out what training will look like has made me realise how much I want to grow as a small group leader: being persistent in prayer, thorough in preparation, seeking spiritual fruit, leading and facilitating discussion, etc.
A smaller but similar task will be identifying and training people to ‘replace’ me in the ministry teams I lead, especially bible readers and prayer team.
I’ll also be doing a ‘change project’. What I want to do is revitalise and grow our church’s partnership with global missionaries. This might involve forming and leading a team to help the congregation be partnered with and praying for mission.
That’s two fairly big things - and I’ve got other ideas cooking behind the scenes too. A cursory look at my workload suggests that something will need to give to make room to do these projects well.
Please pray for wisdom for my trainer and I to shape my role next year according to what is good for the gospel, good for my training, and good for my personal spiritual life.
Ministry Apprentices in the Macquarie Area
There are no other ministry apprentices at my church, so I’ve been meeting up with a few guys I know who are doing ministry training and live (or lived) around my area! We’ve been meeting once every two months, sharing our lives and praying together. Last night we had dinner at mine (with no vegetables) to celebrate the end of our year. Thank God for the encouragement these guys have been.
Finances
My support raising is on track, thanks to your generosity. A heartfelt thanks for your partnership in the gospel.
Often across new calendar years, financial circumstances change. I don’t want to take it for granted that you will continue to partner with me financially next year! If you wish to make any change to your support, please DM me on facebook/whatsapp/insta, email me at radman@captivatechurch.org, or fill out the partnership form again.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year everyone! May God’s blessings be made known to you as we celebrate the incarnate Son who came to save.
Please hit reply and send me your prayer points!
Praise the Lord 🙏
May God of heaven and earth continue His good work in you, lead you, shape you and make you his vessel of blessing🙏🙏🙏❤️