It’s been a wild ride so far! Thankfully, by the Lord’s provision, our prayers have been answered and our CCP team has made it to Dunedin, New Zealand. Thank you to all who have been praying for us. We thankfully made all of our flights, and there was no lost luggage. We are still adjusting to the new time zone and recovering from 39 hours of travel, but for the most part, we are almost over the jetlag that came from crossing sixteen time zones!
Today the CCP team is beginning full time ministry on the college campus – that is the University of Otago. New Zealand is a quite secular country, so the majority of the students at Otago did not grow up attending church. They likely have little to no familiarity with the Bible, and are skeptical of organized religion. On Friday, our CCP team attended a festival for Māori new year, and we met some students from Otago. We were blessed with opportunities to have gospel conversations with many of them, and through this, we learned that in New Zealand, people would commonly label themselves as agnostic. Many of them are on the fence on whether or not there is a God. I’ve also noticed that many people in New Zealand simply do not pay much attention to whether or not there is a God; many of them have little interest.
This past week has been filled with lots of cultural training and settling into our new living situation. Our CCP team is living at Grace House, which is the Engage ministry house, owned by Grace Church (the local church). The Engage team was very kind to allow us to live in this space, and it is conveniently one block away from the University. Engage students commonly spend time at Grace House, whether that be in between classes or after church, etc. It is a great way for students and staff to be in fellowship with each other and for friendships to grow.
The purpose of why our CCP team is in New Zealand is to serve the Engage team. Our goal is to connect students who are new to the ministry with the students who have been involved with the ministry for a while. We meet new students by hosting events on campus, such as outdoor barbeque, sports, games, and pancake night. Engage is what the Campus Outreach college ministry is called at Otago. Since Otago is a public school, Campus Outreach exists here by being a club on campus, called Engage. The mission statement of Engage: Glorifying God by building Christlike labourers at the University and Polytech for the lost world. The Engage staff team has been so wonderful in welcoming us to New Zealand and teaching us about how we can be successful laborers on the campus.
On Saturday, Talia and Liv, two Engage students, took us to Tunnel Beach, one of Dunedin's most well-known scenic spots. After a short hike, we arrived at the beach, and I was absolutely in awe of it! The Lord’s creation is truly so incredible, and it was awesome that we got to spend time and get to know two University students while doing so. It's amazing that the Lord reveals glimpses of His character and glory through what He has made! We are looking forward to spending more time doing fun things with students in these next five weeks, whether that be at the University, hiking outside, hanging out in the dorms, or at Engage.
Prayer Requests:
1. Boldness in the gospel. That we would have the confidence to preach Christ in an area where He is not known. In 2 Corinthians, we are learning about how Paul preached boldly. Not because of anything he has done or his own ability, but rather because of what Christ has already accomplished on the cross.
2. Continued health. As some of you may have heard, it is winter in New Zealand! Some of us are already developing colds, which is expected with this kind of weather. If you could pray that there would be no further sickness that would prevent us from being with students, that would be awesome!
For updates from the Engage team, you can follow @engage_otago on Instagram.
– Olivia Usselman, CCP student
