Greetings supporters, friends and
family,
We’ve finally made it through our
busy season in New Zealand and it’s time to report on all the
amazing things God has been doing here. A lot has happened over
the summer so I wanted to take a few minutes and give you the
highlights of it all.
It has certainly been a
whirlwind! Christmas is busy enough on it’s own but in New
Zealand it also marks the beginning of Summer. It’s the end of
a school year so everyone is having their end of year
celebrations and exams while at the same time preparing for
summer holidays, which often include long trips to various
destinations. Many residents in Auckland are from other
countries and take this opportunity to travel home. So all in
the span of a month and a half we had our
Christmas production,
various Christmas celebrations (youth party, worship team party
etc…) followed by our huge summer program for the youth ministry
called Xtreme Summer
Challenge. Not to mention being very involved in the
planning and execution of
Ignite, our 2nd annual National Wesleyan Youth Camp,
on January 11-14th. As tiring as it has all been, it
has been a great time of ministry and fun.
First of all, our ECW Family
Christmas Event was a huge success and many people in the
community enjoyed a two hour variety style evening of fun and
worship on December 23rd. (Amy sang a medley of
winter Christmas songs to help us remember you all back home).
We discovered lots of new talent in our church from the
children’s production, youth items and several adults who also
participated.
Then on New Years Eve we kicked
off our second edition of the Xtreme Summer Challenge. Since
the XSC Youth Program was very successful last year we decided
to repeat the program but on a larger scale. Amy and I planned
three 4-hour, and one 8-hour, Amazing race style events in
January and had our 4 XSC teams compete for points and the glory
of “fighting the good fight and finishing the race”. We put
them through the paces with rock climbing, swimming, hunting
local shopping malls and a historical village (and lots of other
crazy tasks along the way) in a long distance race through 4
different suburbs of Auckland. We ended at the summit of Mt.
Wellington, one of the many volcanic cones that dot the city,
where we could see all of the areas we had covered throughout
the race.
But here is the best part. Our
average attendance last year during the XSC was somewhere around
14-17 yet for the past 3 weeks we have been consistently up over
30 and had our largest attendance ever of 39 last week. The
youth group seems to have broken a barrier point that has
allowed us to become more attractive to a non churched audience
and we are seeing an influx of new students on a regular basis.
Many parents, who do not attend the Wesleyan Church, are
thrilled that their children have a youth group to attend. God
is surely on the move and we ask for your prayers as we share
the gospel over the coming months with over 10 students not
professing a relationship with Christ. We still have one more
month of our XSC program remaining and we expect great things to
come. Please pray for the continued growth and influence of
SURGE.
Right smack in the middle of the
XSC we had Ignite Youth Camp
(www.ignite.wesleyan.org.nz)
and it was another highlight experience in our youth ministry.
The students who attended were richly blessed by strong biblical
teaching and a very uplifting atmosphere. The Camp speaker,
Jeff Eckhart, asked the adult leaders to recognize students with
potential for future church leadership. We were thrilled to see
that 10 of the 12 students there from SURGE Student Ministries
were affirmed in their leadership skills (although we were not
that surprised as most of them are currently in a leadership
role within the youth group). It was a great confirmation of
the work God is doing in their lives. Another highlight for me
(Amy) was that, as a cabin leader, I got to pray with several
girls who were committing their lives to Christ- it doesn’t get
any better than that!
On a different note, We have had
the opportunity to write a worship song together during our time
here in NZ. We submitted that song to the Wesleyan Song Quest
for the South Pacific Area Convention of the Wesleyan Church
held in Australia during the same weekend as Ignite Camp. Our
song was chosen as one of the top 4 and is being distributed to
churches for use in services. It is a dream of ours to produce
biblical worship songs and this is a step in that direction.
Hopefully in the next few weeks we will be able to put the song
on our website for you to listen to and download if you would
like.
And last but not least we would
like to announce that East City Wesleyan has called us to return
for another 2 year service in New Zealand and Global Partners
has agreed. We will be returning to Canada in September of this
year for a period of home ministry and aiming to return to NZ in
January 09 for another 2 years. If you would like us to plan a
visit to your congregation in those months home please don’t
hesitate to ask. We would love to share what God has done and
is continuing to do here in this country. Our mission at ECW
was always to aid in the transitional process of the anchor
church in the country. ECW has a 5 year plan to be able to
sustain an assistant pastor but is only 2 years into that plan.
When Amy and I return they will be doubling their support of our
ministry and that will significantly reduce the amount of funds
we will need to raise but it doesn’t eliminate our need for your
continued financial and prayer support. Please begin to pray
about the role you can play in continuing to partner with the
Wesleyan Methodist Church of New. We’d love to have you on our
prayer and support team for another two years.
PRAYER REQUESTS:
-
Please pray for my (Drew)
continuing struggle with TMJ disorder (a misalignment of the
jaw that causes severe headaches and pain). A local dentist
is doing great work to help eliminate the problem but it is
still very difficult to deal with at times.
-
Pray for the youth ministry of
ECW and the new students that are attending. Pray for lives
to be dedicated to Christ and students to come to a saving
relationship with Jesus Christ.
-
Pray for our upcoming camping
trip on February 29th that God would use the time
to touch the lives of students at SURGE.
-
Pray for Amy and I as we plan
the details of our return to NZ in January 09 and the
financial support we will need.
Thank you so much for all you do.
We sincerely appreciate and recognize your contribution as does
the church here in NZ.
Blessings,
Amy & Drew Donovan
www.addministries.com
www.surge.org.nz
amy@addministries.com
