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OMNIvision

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In April this year I am planning to move to the UK. “but why?” you might ask. The answer has to do with where God is leading me next in his plan for me. I know I wouldn’t have experienced the wonders that I did whilst traveling on the M.V. Logos Hope if I’d ignored God’s call – and now here I am again ready to head off.

You see, since I became a Christian (in my mid teens) I have had this focus. I want to use technology to help people draw closer to God. I want to get the technology out of the way of what He is saying to the Christian, and to the everyman. Have you ever been in a church service where the words never seem to come up on time? Or the microphone is never switched on at the start? Well I have, and I’ve made those mistakes too. Ultimately while we need the microphone and the screen in a large gathering, we don’t want to think about them instead of God and his purposes.

I’ve been looking for and praying for a way that I can use this passion in a more evangelistic sense. Whilst I love ministering to the saints – I feel a pull to be involved in some way in ministries that reach out to the unsaved. I am drawn to the big evangelistic events and the christian conferences that spur young Christians on to great things for God. I want to use what God has given me to enable others to reach the masses with the good news. I want to be a part of mobilising Christians to share their faith with their fellow students, their co workers, their families and even with people in other countries.

OMNIvision is a UK based division of Operation Mobilisation – an international mission orginisation with over 6100 full time missionaries in more than 110 countries. Whilst OMNIvision’s role in the wider organisation is small and unglorified, it is vital all the same, aiming  to fulfil psalm 96:3 – “Declare his glory among the nations, his marvellous deeds among all peoples”. It’s headquarters and studio is in Carlisle – on the Border of England and Scotland. Whilst they are involved in may of these large events across Europe, their core vision is achieved by creating 5-10 minute documentary videos.

Imagine if Christians around the world were aware of what God is doing in some of the most unreached places in the world. Imagine if they knew what to pray for, how to give and where they could go. OMNIvision’s professional camera crew travel to the places where the gospel is starting to take root and capture on video what is happening. Back at the studio, editors put together a short programme that transports the regular Christian from a cell group setting to the mission field – Seeing the faces, hearing the voices of the people who need Christ’s love. They are given key points to pray for. I will be involved in maintaining the OMNItube website where the videos are available to watch and download. Helping them to reach more people. OMNIvision are keen to have a developer like myself on the team.

I will be going there mid April 2012 and initially staying for 2 years, though I could possibly stay longer. I will be a volunteer, so I will need to provide $1800 per month to cover my accommodation, food, transport, insurance, superannuation and travel home. Of course without an income I need to depend on God to provide the funds for this call, and He does that through faithful sponsors who donate monthly anything from $12 to $100 and higher. If you would like to sponsor me for this amazing call, please contact me.

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An update

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Isn’t it amazing how time flies? It’s been over three months since I returned to Australia and it seems like only a few weeks. January has been a busy month in a sense, and yet there hasn’t been any big moments to write about, so please allow me to share with you what God has been doing with me in January

By far the most exciting part about January is that my girlfriend Ruth has come to visit me (and for February too!). For those who don’t know, Ruth and I met on the ship and started dating three months before we left to return home. She is a primary school teacher, loves God and is committed to missions. We have enjoyed a sprinkling of sightseeing amongst the very normal days of going to work and going to church. We’ve had a lot of opportunities to share meals with people who’ve prayed for me over the two years, and if you’d like to the the same, we’d be delighted.

One of the key projects I took on when returning home was to re-build the aging grace community website to cope with our ever expanding ministry. Whilst there’s still plenty to be done, I’ve been making steady progress and can now include a screen-shot for you. I hope to launch it early next month.

OM International (based in the UK) have asked me to put together a payment gateway for them allowing people to donate to the ship ministry directly from the website. It’s quite fun playing with credit card transactions and gateways and I’m learning a lot in the process.

Whilst the AV side has eased off this month, I’ve been able to install a more permanent system for the amplifiers at Grace Wamberal so to reduce wear and tear and setup time. I’m working on documenting every part of the AV system so nobody ever needs to be confused.

I am now in the process of applying for a UK visa. I went to Sydney recently to have my fingers and face scanned, and I’ll be sending in my application form next week. Please be in prayer that the application would all go well. I have my new brochures which I’ll be handing out, and I have a confirmed monthly support target and a breakdown of the costs involved.

I’ll be sharing at Grace Wamberal on February 12th and Erina Baptist on February 19th.

Please continue to be in prayer about my wrist injury. I have something called intersection syndrome which causes pain when twisting things (say, opening a jar) and using a computer – not good for a computer programmer! Progress has been made and prayer has helped, but there is still a journey to full recovery.

Audio Visual, Personal

Christmas at Home

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“We’re just glad to have you for Christmas” were my Mum’s kind words. After two years away from home missing Christmases and Birthdays, it was good to be home this year for my birthday, Christmas and New years. Often I think to myself that even though I would never change where God has taken me, I have in some way neglected my family and friends back home – that I’ve travelled the world doing God’s work, but left friends in the lurch. Spending this season at home, before jetting away again is an opportunity for me to make up for lost time. To spend quality time with my family, to help around the home where I can, to laugh, cry and hope with friends wherever they are at in life and to share with anyone who wants to know a little of what God has been doing in my life. My prayer is that God will use me in the time that I am here to bless people.

I was also delighted to spend this Christmas Eve at Grace Wamberal. I put in many hours of planning and two days of maintenance work to bring our lighting installation up to scratch for the carols service. It was so rewarding to see it on the night – everything working and arranged for the best coverage. Few if any people commented on the lighting this year, and that’s actually the way that I think it should be. They didn’t notice it at all, rather they were rejoicing and celebrating Jesus birth. When large numbers of people notice what I do, whether positive or negative – I know I’ve done something wrong, because my job is to point to the saviour, not to wow people with special effects.

As the new year dawns, I’ll be getting back to working in the church office on websites near and far in addition to continuing work on the audio visual equipment. I hope to be of the best use to the kingdom of God that I can be during these summer months at home. In April I will be heading over to England to be involved in an Audio/Visual missions movement called OMNIvision. I wish you and your families and friends all the best for 2012.

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The Christmas Story

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Waiting for the show to start, my Dad and I were a little nervous. Everything seemed to be working, but we felt like just about anything could go wrong. Dad and I had teamed up to provide the audio coverage of The Christmas story at the Hive in Erina Fair – our local shopping centre. Local churches Erina Baptist and Green Point Baptist came together to perform the Christmas story with Mary and Joseph riding in on a donkey, shepherds with sheep and wise men riding on camels through the shops! Passing shoppers stopped to watch the kids pre-show and listen to the carols and commented that they loved the singing.

After the show, we could take a deep breath and thank God that the show went well. I also though to myself that I am really lucky to live in a country where we are allowed to put on a Christmas play about Jesus and nobody tries to stop us. I am also really thankful that churches and individuals have stuck their hand up and said ‘We want to do this’. Without them, this message would be completely absent from my favourite shopping centre and public meeting place.

As Christmas approaches rapidly I am helping with these shows – two more will happen on Thursday and Friday night at the Hive at 6pm – and I’m busy preparing Grace Wamberal’s Audio/Visual gear for the possibility of Christmas Eve inside if it rains. And as the day draws nearer and everyone around is making last minute preparations for Christmas, I too start to feel the stress. Isn’t it nice though, to go to Christian run carols events, or to events like ‘Road to Bethlehem’, to watch movies like ‘The Nativity Story’ or simply to read through Luke 1 & 2 and marvel at the miracle that happened on that first Christmas. God became man, dwelt among us – and he came to restore us to right relationship with himself. It all causes me to think – how is my relationship with Jesus right now?

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God’s strength in me

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“Thank you for sharing with us today, I really enjoyed listening – you spoke so well” – It’s great to receive compliments like this, but even better still it’s great to see the ways in which God has helped me to grow over the last two years – and one of those is public speaking. When I left home two years ago standing on stage was a painful experience – I would break out in a sweat and stammer over my words, looking at my notes for some sort of help. During my time on board I found myself many times being asked to stand on a stage in a church and tell people about the ship or tell them about what God has done in my life. I won’t lie, this terrified me! But I soon realised that His strength is perfect when my strength is gone, so I said to God that I would do my best but He would have to get me through it, and I managed. Now after so many experiences like this, it has become much easier to trust Him. Last night I was speaking at Erina Community Baptist Church and as it was coming time for me to speak, I felt God challenge me to not just tell people what *I* had done, but to tell them what He    had done through me. So my notes weren’t as helpful and it didn’t sound very practiced, but in the end God gave me the right words to encourage people that God doesn’t call the qualified, he qualifies the called – and also that He will reveal to us the next step at the right time, not sooner.

So after speaking at Erina and also at Green Point Christian College last Wednesday and at Grace Community Church two weeks ago, this completes my thanksgiving speaking tour. Early next year I will be visiting Churches to tell people what God has in store for me next at OMNIvision. I look forward to that.

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grace community, websites

Back to work

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Well, my holidays are over now and it’s time to get stuck into some work. This week I’ve been working on a number of projects side by side. There’s our church website www.gracecbc.com where you can find the upocoming events, duty roster and latest sermons – I’ve been fixing little problems with the site and adding some new features. For example, you can now comment on an event or a testimony if you are logged into facebook, and you can share it on your wall too! If you want to listen to Grace Wamberal sunday messages on your iphone then you can just hit the itunes button and the podcast will be added to itunes automatically! I’ve also been editing and uploading the messages myself to take a load off other people in the office. I’m in the process of re-designing the whole site so that it is future-ready and fun to visit, even from your mobile. Aside from that website I’ve been in the office fixing printers and hard drives installing software for people.

It sure has been fun working in the Central Coast Outreach Services office in Bateau Bay, seeing the great work that they do helping those who are down and out. John and Barbara are good company. It helps me to stay accountable to people if I’m working in an office, rather than working at home where I could just slack off. I haven’t been able to work full days at the moment though, because my wrist is still giving me trouble. I developed ‘intersection syndrome’ on the ship – it is similar to RSI – so I can’t use the computer for too long at a time while it is heaing, which is really a pain, because computers are what I do! I see that God is teaching me to be patient and not to try to fill my days with good works, rather to come to Him to learn.

As I plan to go to England next year and keep building the kingdom with the skills He has given me, I want to keep serving God here on the central coast. I will spend the most time with my home church, Grace Wamberal, but I’m looking to help out other local churches as well. I will visit Erina Baptist soon to do some simple Audio/Visual housekeeping, and I have some projects with OM in Melbourne. To do all this full time I rely on people to continue to support me financially, and for new people to partner with me in this work. My needs are very few at the moment since I stay with my parents – fuel, mobile phone, physio and the occasional meal out – but I will need more when I go to England. If you feel God leading you to partner with me, please do talk to me and I can share more.

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A week in London

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Following a month in Carlisle in the north of England volunteering with OMNIvision, this week I was able to relax and spend some time with my girlfriend Ruth in London. I also had the chance to catch up with four other friends from the UK and one from Norway at a Chinese restaurant in London. Sitting at a table with a lot of friends from the ship brought back good memories of all the times we spent together and the friendships that we forged.
I am looking forward to coming home on November and catching up with everyone.

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On the road

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This week I had the chance to help with lighting and song words with a big event in Manchester. The event was the Northern Women’s Convention and it had around a thousand delegates. We were to provide the lighting, the cameras and the song words while another company did the sound. OmniVision has a big bus that has been converted with lots of television equipment inside. We took this bus down to Manchester and set it up outside the hall. I have set up similar equipment in my time on the ship so I was able to jump right in and set up all the lighting equipment on the set up day. This took a lot of the pressure off the person in charge of set-up. We worked until late in the night finishing everything off. I also helped set up some TVs on the stage so the worship team could read the lyrics.
The event went for the whole day on Saturday. My job was to choose appropriate background video loops to put behind the song words and to put up slides. Someone else did the actual song words. I was really happy to be a part of the programme and to see what they do in the bus. During one of the breaks I was allowed to have a play with one of the cameras so the video director could see if I was any good. I think I did OK at it. Live Audio/Visual has always been a passion of mine, and it was a huge blessing first to be able to be a part of AV on the ship for two years, and before that in church for a long time and now to experience it on a larger scale here in England. I would really like to return here to do this some more.

Audio Visual, Countries, Observations

OmniVision

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“Wait, you seriously like doing this kind of thing – that’s amazing!” This and other statements have been a part of the discussions that I have had lately with people at OmniVision. Situated in the city of Carlisle in far North England, OmniVision makes videos about what God is doing around the world drawing people to himself. Through the videos created here, we are given an insight into ministries that we can be a part of – – by supporting, by praying, by sending, by going. They also do live video coverage (Image Manification – or iMag for short) of big Christian conferences in Europe. This is the most exciting feature for me. I love to be behind the quality technology that helps to bring people into the presence of God – rather than push them away as it sometimes does. I like to see young people giving their lives to Jesus and committing themselves to missions both local and abroad. For that reason I’ve extended my world travelling for just one more month to visit the ministry and to experience a little of what they do. Now it just so happens that I used to be a computer programmer (I write PHP for those interested) and I really enjoyed that job, but didn’t get to do any of that in the ship. When I mentioned that I like to do PHP work and maintenance, more than one person was excited. I’ve already got two small projects that I’m working on to improve existing websites. I really like where I am working and I’ve already learned a whole lot more about my job. Carlisle is also a very nice city – very small but very cool. There is also a very nice place called the Lake District not far to the south which is breathtakingly beautiful. I think I am really going to enjoy the month here.

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A week of ‘lasts’

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The last prayer night, the last work day, the last group outing, the last Sunday service and the last time down the gangway. Yes, it was indeed a week of ‘lasts’ for me and for many of my friends and colleges who were to leave the ship or say goodbye to others leaving on September the 19th. It’s time for many of us to finish our two year commitment and fresh new volunteers to take our place. And with this time comes sadness mixed with excitement – but when I trust in God there is also a peace ‘that surpasses all understanding’.
Last Monday I was able to stand in front of everyone and in five minutes tell what God has done in my life on Logos Hope. In short, he has taken a shy task oriented computer nerd and used him for His glory around the world, learning public speaking, drama, people skills, leadership skills and most importantly love – for ‘If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.’ There were many difficult times for me on board, but I feel that out of them I learned something and grew somehow spiritually. I am very thankful for the experience of visiting many beautiful and broken countries, meeting the real people, helping with their needs, helping others to share the love of Jesus with them, and working with amazing people.
On Sunday night we had something called the ‘last supper’. I have been a part of a very close circle of friends – friends who love each other and support each other, not always getting along perfectly, but always forgiving and coming back together. We ate together and celebrated what was likely the last time that we would all meet together at the one time. It was sad in a way, but it was joyous in the same moment. Some of us will see each other again – I will visit Ruth in England for a week on my way back from Carlisle.