Keeping Up With the Andersons - By Toby

Caleb

nospam@example.com (Toby Anderson) — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 13:17:13 +1100

Full Name: Caleb Toby Anderson

DOB: 2008-11-13 3:28amWeight: 3.53 Kg

Height: 50cm

Eyes: Blue

Hair: Debatable, possibly strawberry blond

Distinguishing Features:

Extreme cuteness
Strong legs
Strong arms
Strong suck
Ability to feed continuously with only short breaks
Ability to sleep for up to 6 hours even while being cuddled by friends and relatives

A growing family

End of Semester

nospam@example.com (Toby Anderson) — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 17:32:16 +1000

We recently had a holiday in Jervis Bay. It was great fun, and we got to see the bottle-nosed dolphins that live in the bay. Here are some photos we took.

Us at Jervis Bay

Dolphin at Jervis Bay

After our holiday we had a training weekend for our Scripture Union mission on location in Tarcutta. Each section's plans for January started taking shape, which is very exciting.

Now we are into the second week of a 4-week block of lecture time, with an essay due this Friday. Next week we need to get stuck into studying for our exams which will start on the Tuesday of the following week (we requested to do our exams two weeks before our fellow students because our baby is due in the college exam week). We won't bother trying to go to lectures in the week we are doing exams.

It's a busy time of year for everyone at SMBC; This afternoon I had to study in the dinning hall because all the desks in the library were taken up (FYI there are 62 desks in the library), and for us this busyness is compressed by 2 weeks. Our last exam is on 7 Nov. After that we only need to be concerned with our baby. It's very exciting. Many of our friends have just had babies, and they're very cute. It's a bit scary too, but I 'm definitely looking forward to it. We've rearranged our house so what was the study is now a nursery and the living room ~~doubles~~ triples as a study and dining room - which actually works out pretty well!

Pray that we'll get all our college work done in the next few weeks and that we get through exams. Pray for MG's final month of pregnancy and for the birth.

Essays

nospam@example.com (Toby Anderson) — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 14:10:25 +1000

I'm working on two essays this week. The first which is half done is a response to Hebrews as if I was an original recipient. The second which I'm yet to start is What is the rationale for the ruling against mixed marriages in Ezra-Nehemiah?. I don't really like writing essays because it's hard work, but once I get into it I actually like it because I learn so much from researching and I end up knowing a lot more about the topic, and I really love learning stuff.

The last essay I wrote was about how chapters 2 and 3 of Revelation (The letters to the 7 churches) fit in with the rest of the book. Here's my conclusion:

The whole book of Revelation provides a big picture of what God is doing, into which the present afflictions of the church can be placed. Chapters 2 and 3 contains the messages of the glorious Lord Jesus as He addresses specific churches directly and indicating He knows their situation, their strengths and their weaknesses. It is exhortation to continue under pressure with the rest of the book as motivation to do so: The upcoming judgment of the world and victory of Christ. As their current situations are placed alongside God's grand plan for the world, these messages also allow the hearers to see that their suffering as part of something much bigger. Finally it provides them with hope, through the promises to those who overcome, as they see into the future a new Jerusalem where there is no more pain, and so they can push on toward that goal.

Misc stuff

nospam@example.com (Toby Anderson) — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 12:49:52 +1000

This week is a research week which means there are no lectures and we have time to catch up with reading and assignments. MG and I are working on New Testament assignments. Mine is abut how chapters 2 and 3 of Revelation (the letters to the 7 churches) relate to the rest of Revelation and MG's is a similar question on chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians.

This week SMBC is also hosting a conference about teaching Acts, which means two things for us:

We're allowed to come to a talk from Acts each morning, which is useful for getting us out of bed.

We get really nice morning tea.

People using laptops in the library

I've noticed that the use of laptop computers has been on the increase at SMBC. I just had a look around the library and 45 out 59 students working here at the moment are using laptops.
As you might have guessed, I'm procrastinating from doing my essay. Gotta go, it's time for lunch.

The thing about history

nospam@example.com (Toby Anderson) — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 16:07:36 +1000

We've both recently finished writing an essay about Oliver Cromwell and his impact on the religious and political life of 17th century England. Did you know that England had no monarchy for a decade? That during this time the Baptist Church came about because of Cromwell's tolerance for religious splinter groups? That ever since then England has had a constitutional monarchy instead of a monarch with absolute power?

Anyway, although church history is a really fun subject, I've noticed that it's really difficult to write history essays. The reason is because you generally have to decipher the causes and motives behind the actions of individuals and groups who are no longer alive. Generally causes and motives are a blend of an unbounded number of variables and all you've got to go on are descriptions of the events by people who weren't there and possibly a few things the people involved said or wrote that are distantly related to the topic and very specific to some particular context.

Even so, church history is still a very interesting subject, and I'm enjoying it thoroughly.

Catching Up

nospam@example.com (Toby Anderson) — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:03:14 +1000

Sorry we haven't put anything up here for so long. I'm going to try to be more regular with making posts from now on (not knowing whether anyone still reads this). We're hoping to put out another newsletter this month, but I might pre-empt it a little by giving you a brief rundown of the highlights of this year.

Main thing is that Mary-Grace is pregnant! The baby is due in November. This will mean a lot of changes to our lives starting from net year. Firstly MG will finish her study and graduate with a Graduate Diploma (leaving open the option for continuing study later), while I will go on for 2 more years and get a Masters. Secondly we will probably change churches and I might be a student-minister. We will strive to keep ties with our Christian family at Christ Church.

I'm very excited about becoming a father, but it is a scary thing too. Pray that we will both be able to make the necessary adjustments, and be good at raising children to love God.

We both passed our first set of exams, and are now in second semester, where we have sensed a significant increase in the pace of our study. Pray that we wont fall behind, particularly as we will be taking exams early, so they don't clash with the birth.

We still thinking and praying about what our long term ministry will look like. We hope to gather some close friends around us to pray with us about our future. Let us know if you're interested.

Hey, this blog looks different!

nospam@example.com (Toby Anderson) — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 09:29:36 +1000

I've just changed the blog software from Wordpress to Serendipity, because I think it's better.
It all started when a new version of Ubuntu was released. I felt like my server needed a fresh install of this operating system, to clean out all the junk. While I was at it I thought I'd improve the blog software, and so here it is. The whole process didn't cost any money, but it did take time (which I should have put into working on my new testament essay about people's responses to Jesus at different stages of His ministry) but I think it was worth it.

I imported all the entries from the old blog, but the pictures didn't come through. Sorry.

Looking Back

nospam@example.com (admin) — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 00:25:29 +1100

Looking back over the last two years I can really see the value of what I've been doing. The benefits for myself and also for people I've been serving.

For myself I've learnt a lot about what Gifts I have and how I can use them to serve the Church. I've also been forced to practice a lot of some things that I'm not very good at such as one2ones and leadership, so now I'm getting better at these. For others I can see how God has worked through me to help them mature and for some people I have been a part in them coming to know Christ, and I think this has been more important than any other benefits going.

Thank God for how He has blessed me and others at Sydney University over the last two years.

National Training Event

nospam@example.com (admin) — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 21:03:45 +1100

Over a thousand students from all around Australia (even Perth) congregate at Canberra each year for NTE. In The first four and a half days students are trained in ministry with 8 strong evangelical talks, 14 hours in smaller groups wrestling with God's word, and one elective of their choice. In the second four and a half days students are trained in ministry by actually going out in teams and doing mission.

Even though this will be our first year at NTE we will be leading one of small groups. The passage we will be looking at is Romans 3:21-26. Starting from nothing, by the end of the four days each member of our group will have written a useable talk from the passage. Hopefully many of them will be able to use the talk in the mission part of the conference.

We will also be leading one of the mission teams along with a student from EU. We will be going to St Johns Ashfield with a team of 20, helping out with the kids club, the mothers group and also engaging with the community door to door, at the station and at the shopping mall.

We're very excited about NTE. Please pray that we will be well prepared, that the students get lots from the training and that the church is helped by the mission.

What Encourages Me

nospam@example.com (admin) — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 18:39:30 +1000

With just one week to go before normal conteact with students finishes, this is a fairly frantic time. But even with my todo list ever growing along with my list of unread-but-need-to-read emailsÃ‚Â I still have a lot to thank God for. The two things that have encouraged me most recently:

God has been saving people. Both of the international students in my God's World course have decided to become Christian in the last few weeks. Also other people who have been in contact with MG have become Christian including a girl in economics just last week.

Students have been doing more walk-up evangelism. On monday our team of evangelist who approach people on the front lawns to talk about the gospel is usually between 4 and 6 people but this week it swelled to 14 as the students who were being trained in the Leading People to Christ course decided to get involved.

Pray for those who have become Christian this year. Thank God for His mercy and pray that they will be strongly connected to a church and warmly welcomed into God's family by other Christians. Pray for evangelism at the EU. Thank God that it's happening and pray that the momentum is not lost over summer.

"mid"-semester break

nospam@example.com (admin) — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 13:33:18 +1000

This week the students have been on holidays in the "mid"-semester break. In reality there's only 4 weeks left of classes, which will bring us to the end of our last semester with the students! After that we'll be mainly woking on summer projects (whatever they will be) and preparing for the summer conferences (Club Veg and NTE)

On Monday and Tuesday we had changeover conference, because recently the EU has elected or selected a whole new bunch of student leaders to be in faculty committees and specialist teams (such as the evangelism team, the Public Meetings team, the IT team, etc) and changeover conference helps these students work out what it means for them to be a leader in their role.

We spent time thinking about what it means to be a leader and team member, about how the staff and student leaders relate together. We thought a lot about the three objects of the EU:

To present students with the Christian Gospel and to lead them to a personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

To strengthen Christians in their faith and witness and to encourage them to continually submit every aspect of their life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

To ensure that Christians in the University are made aware of the nature, needs and challenge of Christian service at home and abroad.

and how one or more of these drives what each committee or team is doing. Each team spent time together thinking about their vision of what they could achieve in the future and their current goals that would help them achieve that vision. Next year the EU will put on a big mission, and the team in charge of that got us all to brainstorm ideas for it.

On Tuesday night one of the students put on a mid-autumn festival celebration for the international students. This is a big day in the asian calander, where all the families get together and eat moon cakes, so it is a time when international students away from home will start missing their families. This student wanted to show them that even though they wern't with their natural families thay can be part of Gods family and have fellowship with Christians. Many international students came to this party and had lots of fun and could watch the Jesus video in Chinese or Korean.

From Wednesday to Saturday the International Student Ministry is on a road trip to Canberra. MG is with them, and I'll let her tell you all about it when she gets back. Meanwhile I have been stying at my parents. I took two days annual leave for Wednesday and Thursday, and spent much of that just relaxing. I visited the offices of Global Recordings Network as one of many possibilities of what I may do in the long term. I would like to use my IT skills on the mission field.

Yesterday I went abseiling with the Science committee. One of the students is into rock-climbing, so he had access to all the required equipment and training.

Tonight MG will get back from her Canberra trip just in time to sing in a concert her choir is putting on. I'll be an usher. I expect she'll be absolutely exhusted. Thank God that Monday is a public holiday.

Thank God also for the zeal and abilities and Godly character of the new student leaders. Pray that they will lead the rest of the EU well. Pray also for the big mission next year.

Servanthood Talks

nospam@example.com (admin) — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 14:00:12 +1000

You can now listen to the servanthood talks I gave to the pharmacy faculty earlier in the year. See the tab above.

There Ain't No God mission

nospam@example.com (admin) — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 08:02:57 +1000

The mission went really well. The highlight was the debate on Tuesday. It was well advertised and there were over 300 people attending (in a lecture theatre that only holds 200). It was a shame that there were people who came and had to leave because they couldn't squeeze in. The debaters engaegd well, and it was a great time for all, but the best thing was that one person indicated on her communication card that she wanted to become a Christian! Please pray for the follow-up of this girl and for everyone else who came to the debate. You can listen to the debate yourself.

Also we had other events including a talk by Warwick de Jersey that you can listen to too. Less people came to this, but it was a good talk anyway. There is also a talk on today in the largest lecture theatre on campus by Greg Clarke about "The New Atheism" (I can't remember the full title), but it fits well as an extension to our mission that we didn't plan at all.

Pray that students who invited their friends to events will continue to get opportunities to raise this topic of conversation with them.

God working => us busy

nospam@example.com (admin) — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 22:39:15 +1000

Sorry about the lack of posts recently. It doesn't mean that nothing is happening on campus, on the contrary, it means there's so much going on, that we haven't had time to keep our blog updated. God is surging forward in His work, and we're all running along behind Him trying to keep up

For example, in one staff meeting two weeks ago the following things came up:

180 people who, at AnCon, expressed interest in full time ministry need to be followed up. Each of the trainee staff has been given 10 to 15 people to meet up with on top of what they already do.

4 new small groups for international students has turned into 6, and so there was a hunt for more people to lead these groups, which God has now graciously provided.

AnCon also generated an influx of students keen to do more walk-up evangelism. I now lead one of many teams of students that meet weekly to go out and do walk-up evangelism in pairs for two hours.

Promotion for Refresh Conference needs all hands on deck. By the way, this is a conference that you are invited to. Its on the 7th to 9th of September at Deer Park Conference Centre, Port Hacking. At the conference you can hear in more detail all the great things that God is doing at Sydney University.

Thank God for the way He has used AnCon and is working in the students this semester for His glory. I am really excited this semester, because I feel I am really at the coal face and achieving for God's Kingdom every single day. Talking about full-time ministry to students who are already keen about it, and doing two hours of pure evangelism each week makes me feel like I'm cutting to the chase.

Off to AnCon today!

nospam@example.com (admin) — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 07:55:49 +1000

Sorry you havn't heard from me in some time. As soon as I was back from taking a break I was very busy finishing preparations for Ancon: mainly preparing my seminar on the historical reliability of the New Testament.

This morning we leave for AnCon (going via Officeworks to photocopy and also picking up some students on the way) Pray for our health over this next week, as we are not feeling top of the world right now. Pray gor general safety at AnCon and that God's Word is faithfully taught and received.

There are 375 students registered for AnCon, which is more than last year.