And you’ll never know it…

“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” –Hebrews 11:1

So begins our final week in Sydney, Australia. This month has literally flown by, and I’m sad to say good-bye so soon. God has revealed so much about His heart for the nations, His people, and His glory. I’m going to need at least another month of reflection time to truly soak in all His teaching. But for now, I’ll do my best to summarize.

Each semester the universities give their students a week off before exams start. It's called StuVac, or student vacation, and so the past two weeks have been really difficult to get around students. SOW meetings have ended for the semester and most students are studying at home now. In light of this, we started the second phase of our project. We have been working with Harbour City Church Plant doing city missions and mercy ministry this week—as well as still trying to meet up with students we’ve met on campus. Even with exam period going on, we’ve been able to connect for a few one on one’s, which has been really encouraging. Last week Kandice and I prayed over USyd with one of the SOW girls. She treated us to coffee and chiffon cake after and we had some great conversation. The SOW students especially have been so hospitable, so encouraging and just so incredibly sweet. I am going to miss them so much when we leave.

This past week we’ve been able to meet up with many of the SOWers down at Darling Harbour for soccer matches. (Sydney is one of only six other cities in the world that have what is called Fifa Fan Fest. It’s for the World Cup games being played in South Africa, and so they’ve set up big screens in Darling Harbour where you can watch a match with thousands of your closest friends (for free!). Our team has been going there almost nightly to watch matches between 9:30 pm and 4:30 am. It’s been exhausting, but so much fun!)

As I mentioned earlier, we started city missions this week at Newtown Mission’s Soup Kitchen. What an experience to say the very least! A staff of about six or seven volunteers work day in and day out to feed about 100 people who visit the mission for lunch. I think I can speak for our entire team that this is something we have really enjoyed. One of our favorite guys who visits is named Ross. He is covered in tattoos from head to toe and his dreads stretch down that far as well. In all honesty, if I saw Ross walking towards me on the street, I would probably cross over to avoid him. He used to hate God, hate life, and pretty much hate any and everyone he came in contact with. But after working alongside him this past week, I can truly tell he loves the Lord. Ross said he works in the soup kitchen as a way to give back for what God has done in his life! Just amazing really.

Since we’re getting down to our last week in Sydney, we took a team trip to the Blue Mountains last weekend. It was so beautiful to see God's creation. I felt so small as we hiked up and down the gorgeous mountains of Australia. Along the way we stopped at Featherdale Farm where we got to pet koala’s and feed kangaroos. Contrary to popular belief, these animals don’t run wild in the streets of Sydney—but they do roam around Featherdale, and so that was super fun to be able to feed and pet a kanga!

We also visited Hillsong Church last week as well. During orientation we had been told that Hillsong was a charismatic church catering to the younger generation. (If you’re not familiar with Hillsong, they are pretty famous for their worship music back in the States and all over the world). So last Sunday night we decided to check it out. We were all really excited to go, but the lights, camera angles, and jumping up and down, made Hillsong feel more like a concert then a church service. I’m glad we went, and it was good to witness so many young people who seemed to want to worship the Lord. But as we rode the bus back to Sydney, I couldn’t help but think: if that many people are so on fire for God, why has Australia not seen a revival? Why is church attendance at a staggering 3% in this country—and how can that change?

How can Australia become a nation under God instead of a nation under sport and leisure? I don’t want to lump all of Australia in to one completely secular category, there are Christians here who are laboring to see their country come to Christ, and Hillsong seems to be bringing in the masses. But I want to pray for a revival! I want to see this country—so diverse, so heavily populated—lifting up their hands in praise to the Almighty God.

And so I begin what I’d like to call the, “and you’ll never know it prayer requests.” Paddy Benn, head of the Evangelical Union at USyd, came and spoke with us yesterday. He mentioned praying for BIG THINGS that God could do when we leave…and we would never know if it happened or not (hence the, ‘and you’ll never know it’). I want to pray for these kinds of things. I want to see the city of Sydney on fire for Christ, for the state of New South Wales to be one filled with the Holy Spirit. I’m not at all sure how to go about it other than to pray to God to change this nation into one that desires Him. Please join me in praying for Australia. I have seen firsthand how God is working here. He is doing amazing things, but Australia is still only a nation of about 5% Christian.

We have less than a week left before we head back to the U.S. Monday and Tuesday we have city missions. Wednesday is our debriefing day, and Thursday is our last SOW event before we leave early Friday morning. If you could be praying that we would

1.) serve at Newtown Mission out of an overflow of love and grace
2.) be able to meet up with SOW students and encourage them in their walk
3.) Thursday night is Pancake/Café Night. It’s the last big event before we leave. Please pray that students will break away from studying for exams and come out for some food and fellowship
4.) Lastly, pray that our hearts would be forever changed by these past six weeks in Sydney and
5.) that God would continue to reveal His purpose for our lives and for His glory.


We were told from the beginning that we would have to be flexible. Unlike CCP’s in the past, we were going to be investigating Sydney, and so we didn’t really know what these six weeks were going to look like. Usually there’s one target campus, usually there’s a Campus Outreach to come alongside, and usually students live on campus. But in Sydney…there were three campuses! There was no Campus Outreach! And students commute on average 45 minutes to get to uni each day! Remember that advice to be flexible? This CCP, things were turned completely upside down—and all I can say is that I’ve loved every minute of it!