TSCF Conference: Mission from McDonalds to Mongolia

Auckland. The big smoke. And the location of this year's annual TSCF winter conference, this year on the theme of Mission from McDonalds to Mongolia.

A fantastic way to arrive was via ferry. Liz's maiden surname is Fuller so I couldn't really turn it down!

It was great to be with so many students from around NZ, including several from Lincoln & Nelson (above is the Lincoln & Nelson crew, minus Sarah & the other Tim, but with a giant Barry Cleal at the airport, so that's nice), to learn from God’s word from Acts 1-4, and take part in Destination World and a day trip.

'Destination World' was a collaboration of several missions agencies giving an interactive experience to overseas mission in the 21st century. We all assumed different identities as we progressed through the various rooms - from passport control through to a translation centre, a medical centre, an Islamic country, and several others. I loved seeing the mission agencies engaging in a way that the postmodern Generation Y could get excited about.

It was wonderful to have Bushby & KJ join the conference for one evening too. They were both undergrads at Lincoln when we arrived here, and have now graduated and live in Auckland. Although Bushby, working as a hot-shot property manager for a large commercial firm, is gradually owning the title 'Aucklander', KJ, as a true Southland girl, is more reticent.

I alsso enjoyed catching up with Michael. (No photo sorry!) He's a student at Auckland University, with parents from Laos. He met some OCF (Overseas Christian Fellowship, one of the TSCF groups on that campus) students and wanted to find out more about Jesus. The OCFers said 'we don't meet during exams, but do come to our conference.' So Michael did. It was great to meet him, and 4 others who were very openly saying they weren't Christians but wanted to explore Jesus more. Do please pray for Auckland OCF as they continue to run Bible studies with Michael.

One day we spent out and about - at a Buddhist Temple, an Islamic Centre and a local mall, learning and observing the ideologies of each (photos are of the Buddhist Temple and this odd idol - seems to be iPod Buddha with a little snowman......)

Several students were nervous about the Buddhist and Islamic places, thinking their faith in Jesus might be shaken (although, interestingly there were no such fears about the mall). Instead, in the debrief time, it was obvious that the truth of the gospel became clearer in the face of the lack of assurance of salvation offered in the answers of the Buddhist and Islamic teachers we met.
It was cold in the main hall for some - especially Australian colleagues! Nick - I salute your ingenuity to get a hottie to go with your Bible while sitting right in front of the heater!

I was pleased to surpass, by nearly $1000, my target of selling $6000 (retail $8000) worth of good quality Christian books. We don't just want to sell books, but generate a culture of book reading to enable faithful witness to transform NZ and the Pacific.

All in all, conference was a wonderfully encouraging, exciting, fun, stimulating, and tiring time!