Engage is St. John’s youth group that runs during two morning English services (9:30am and 11:00am). It was great to meet and chat with some of the high schoolers before anything official started.
Greg met Erik, who’s in year 9, and he told Greg he grew up in Christian family. The kicker was that his family had only recently migrated from India. He said the key difference between church there and here is, “You can fit everyone in the church building”.
It was greatly encouraging to hear of similar stories of high schoolers who were migrants but somehow found their way to St. John’s.
Then we made a start. Leonie shared her powerful testimony where she described a recurring nightmare of hers, which was representative of her life in turmoil before she became a Christian. In the ensuing events in her life, she then revealed what the turning point was for her – trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ. Her recurring nightmare then became a dream that symbolised her salvation.
Paul then had the honours of giving a talk on John 4:1-26. He helpfully explained to the kids that whilst the Samaritan woman at the well was looking for satisfaction in life, Jesus offered her something better that would truly quench her thirst – he himself was the Messiah she was looking for!
We then broke up into groups for Bible study. In the senior boys’ group we asked, ‘If you received a text message now that would expose your greatest shame, what would it say?’ This was met with complete silence, and an awkward looking down at shoes. We had struck a cord. The study ended with Dan and Greg showing these boys that in Christ, nothing is too shameful to be forgiven by our merciful God. If only they turned to Jesus and asked for forgiveness.
All in a day’s work at St. John’s Parramatta.
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