It was an amazing week to spend together as a team in Oxley Vale and we were thankful for the prayers we received while we were away.
The highlight for many on Friday was the combined youth group event held at St Paul’s with about 160 kids. The youth from Oxley Vale said they were amazed that there were ‘so many Christians in Tamworth!’. Bishop of Armidale Rick Lewers did a challenging evangelistic talk that outlined Jesus’ last hours before the cross. He explained that, like many of the teenagers would have experienced, Jesus was betrayed, falsely accused and bullied by those around him, yet, he never sinned. Everyone was encouraged to fill out a feedback form then and there and we thought there would have been many youth who made a commitment that night. Exciting stuff.
On Saturday we attended a ‘rural ministry’ session with Rick Lewers at a property out near Somerton. Some of us got a bit lost on the way (and our car nearly ran over a massive brown snake!) but when we eventually arrived they had put on an incredible country brunch. We sat on hay bales! It was great to combine with the other Moore mission team who had been in South Tamworth and also with a mission team that had come to Tamworth from Queensland! Rick put on a short presentation about the diocese and encouraged us to consider rural ministry as an option after college. He ended with: we don’t want you if all you do is sit around and blog all day (gulp…) but we do want you if you can chuck your gumboots in the back of the car and drive out to disciple the famers while they are dipping the sheep.
On Sunday we had a warm send off at Oxley Vale Anglican where they laid hands on us and prayed for us.
What a great experience for my first ever Moore mission!
