National Training Event 2005 - Equipped, Rebuked, Challenged and Encouraged
The Australian Fellowship for Evangelical Students ran their annual National Training Event (NTE) over the last week or so, from December 3 - 11 in Canberra. The topic of the conference was on the Fellowship of the King, a play on the hobbits no less, talking about God’s church and the role we play in it. The training part of the conference also had seminars and strand groups where we learnt how to do various practical ministry things as well as teach from the Bible. There were also talks from Deuteronomy.
The training part of NTE was fantastic. This year, there were more than 1000 people from university campuses around Australia (including some Fijians), and seeing the diversity and concomitant unity of Christ’s people was greatly encouraging. Chatting to people from around Australia was great as you could get an insight into how other people did things and still be able to see that we were all one and the same in Christ. Seeing that many students gathered together in a hall signing together, learning together, and praying together was awesome too.
On the Wednesday of NTE, everyone farewelled Canberra to head off to their various mission locations, to help out a church somewhere in Australia. The training part of NTE was fantastic - the mission was even better! The two Sydney Uni mission teams went to churches in Belmore and Ashfield. The team that I was with went to St John’s Anglican Church in Ashfield, where the head EU staffworker, Andrew Katay, is the senior minister. Compared to last year’s NTE mission, the EU teams this year were huge, which was a great encouragement and a testament to God’s provision, meaning we were able to really help the church at Ashfield with its outreach and kids ministries. Our team did various things like running a kids club based on the Chronicles of Narnia, doorknocked the area, leafletted at Ashfield station, and helped with stalls at the local mall and markets. Building relationships between the church and the people of Ashfield was an important goal. I think both the congregation there, Katay’s family, and our whole team were greatly encouraged by each other to continue working for God’s people in his grace.
One post won’t do NTE justice, so I’ll do multiple posts of what I remember of each day, with photos of course. NTE is a fantastic practical ministry training opportunity that no one should miss. Next year’s NTE is in Canberra again from 2 - 10 December 2006 featuring talks by Phillip Jensen and Lindsay Brown - be there!