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News

Looking for SU’s Daily Bread Bible Reading Guides and other great resources for your Church community or at home? Visit the Resources for Ministry shop at www.rfmshop.com.au.

SU WA is making available FREE copies of the E100 Bible Reading Challenge. Contact the SU WA office to place your order.


For some great Bible reading apps, search for ‘Scripture Union Australia’ on the Apple App and Google Play stores.

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News

Over the past year, we have gone through a process of discerning God’s direction for the movement. A series of events, symposiums, discussions and reviews saw a vision emerge of “a vibrant movement of Christian people and churches, taking the Gospel to Australians in contemporary and life-changing ways.” This vision includes a heart for seeing people grow, develop and express their gifts in mission as we partner with churches to take the Gospel into new places where Australians are. It is underpinned by a focus on Jesus, strength in our programs, and a nimble, innovative approach to mission in modern Australia.

Key planks in achieving this will include reviewing and building our sustainability, training and developing young leaders, partnering with churches and keeping focused on Jesus at the core. For a full copy of the 2017-19 Strategic Plan or to explore it more deeply, contact Kent.

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News

We’ve had another great year of ministry – thanks so much to all of the staff, program directors and volunteers who have done the heavy lifting of putting these programs together!

And to all of those who have financially and prayerfully supported us, we are so grateful.  Thank you to those who have given to our recent appeal. We’re blessed by the great generosity of all donors, past and present.

What an organisation we have in SU.  I believe SU is uniquely positioned to bless people, bring churches together and be a fantastic vehicle for God’s work.  This is his precious ministry that we steward.

However I believe SU is in a time of transition. Older generations are moving on and younger ones are coming through – and they need our support.

We’d love you continue to be an integral part of SU, and to continue to prayerfully consider giving, leading, praying, mentoring and journeying with us.

SU Cabinet has recently completed a three-year strategic plan. A large part of this has been seeking where the call of God is and thinking about how we can deepen our connection with churches.  We would love you to consider how you might enhance the connection between your church and SU as part of this process.

I read an article recently from Michael Jensen of St Mark’s Darling Point in his regular column in the Bible Society’s Eternity magazine. In the latest issue he has written on the subject of Christian giving: “Christians learn how to give from the God who gives. And how does God give? He gives sacrificially. He gives freely and not from compulsion. And He gives cheerfully.” 

I love this quote, which represents the wonderful attitude of people who serve and give with SU.  It reflects the attitude of Jesus. “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich” 2 Corinthians 8:9.

My prayer for SU is that we continue to seek God. Let’s draw near to God, listen to his voice and follow his call.

We submit the movement to Him, and look forward to more stories where young people have life-defining and life-changing moments as they meet God on SU programs.

Dave Stephens

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News

As a Christian movement that depends on God’s great family to support, volunteer in and finance its ministry we are continually amazed at what is accomplished through His people. Through circumstances beyond our control SU WA found itself in an uncomfortable economic position heading toward the end of the 16/17 financial year. Consequently we openly shared with our family the situation and asked for special support: you responded in a generous way and gave, and that added to our SU family’s other support throughout the year allowed SU to finish the financial year in a healthier position than first thought.

A heartfelt thanks to all our family who respond to God’s prompting, whether as a volunteer, team supporter, ministry partner, giving to our special appeals, or with one-off donations; we really appreciate your love and commitment to helping impact the lives of children, young people and families across the state through SU WA.

Below, the financial breakdown shows that 85% of our expenditure during the last financial year was spent directly on ministry programs and staffing.

Lester Sutton

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News

“Why didn’t I think of that?”

That’s what long-term supporter Sarah* said to me when I met up with her recently to talk about leaving a bequest for Scripture Union WA. A bequest to SU WA enables you to leave a legacy that will help see children, young people and families come to know God’s good news. Sarah told me about her involvement in SU camps and beach missions when she was “just a young thing” and how she made a commitment to follow Jesus on an SU camp. That decision to serve the Lord led to her leading on beach mission teams for much of her young adulthood, and to supporting other gospel work in Western Australia and overseas. Now she volunteers for a local Bible College, helps fundraise for a theological college in Africa and is very involved in her local church. Sarah has written her Will so that it provides for her family but it also sets aside 10% for SU WA. She said it was easy to do and was pleased I had suggested it. Her first response to me was, “Why didn’t I think of that before now?” If, like Sarah, you haven’t thought about this but would like to discuss a bequest, please call SU on (08) 9371 9100 and ask for an information pack. Then you can say you did think of that! *name changed for privacy reasons Khim Harris, Business Development  
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News

A Note From the Director

As I sat with a cuppa reading Tammy Pitman’s testimony, I found myself in tears. You’d have read it with the June appeal. Her story of God working through SU and the volunteer camp leaders she met was an incredibly powerful encapsulation of the work of our SU movement. Leaders taking the time to invest in a young person over years and between camps, sharing the Gospel with them; programs that holistically facilitated this; and God working undeniably in people’s lives. Wow!

Tammy says…

“Canoemup was a camp that I just really loved. I met Ros Wadley (now Appleby), who is probably responsible for my faith. Ros kept in touch with me after camp and I remember being quite confused by that because I’d never met people like her before. It was a love that I didn’t know much about.

It took three years of me going on SU camps before I finally decided to give my life to God, and that was on Canoemup in 2003, on the 3rd of October. I gave my life to God with Ros. She was such a huge part of the journey because she walked with me the whole way, even between camps. The leaders I met just kept on investing in me and my faith. Once I became a Christian everything changed.”

It’s been a challenging few years for our movement. Cultural and community changes have affected ministry, some ministries have concluded resulting in flow-on financial impacts, there’s been significant redirection of ministry, a financial slowdown and drop in donor income, huge changes in the way people and churches volunteer, and we’ve had significant personal setbacks for staff and volunteers. All this has impacted on the work and ministry of the movement.

But God is so good! Testimonies like Tammy’s keep being told through SU ministry. It is this life-changing work of God that makes it all worthwhile.

God has also been good financially. At the start of June, we were staring at a $100,000 deficit and facing the need for significant change. Through your generous donations and the work of God, including an unexpected bequest, we finished the year close to neutral and are now able to focus on building longer term sustainability. Thank you for keeping SU a float and thriving.

Building long term sustainability is a slow process. It involves campaigns to reach new supporters, promoting the work of SU across the Christian community, looking for new income sources and prayerfully restructuring ministry and staffing. Please, join me in prayer for this.

Exciting new ministry opportunities are opening up too. Light Party is a new collection of resources and programs for churches and Christians to bring the light of Jesus to communities at Halloween. Veta is a school discipleship program for VET students. Holiday Camping continues to strengthen and be a powerful life-changing ministry, with new camps added to the long-term favourites. We are prayerfully rebuilding our schools ministry, and engaging in discussion to grow sports ministry within SU WA and Perth. We are doing this in deeper partnership with local churches and seeing great blessing for them and us in doing so.

Praise God for the way He is leading us to creatively share His Gospel with young Australians, so that they can know life in Jesus. Thank you for your part in it.

Thank you for your time, heart, passion and financial support – you all enable the ministry that changed Tammy and will change so many others into the future.

Kent Morgan

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News

If one area of SU WA’s core ministry has been the most uncertain and changing over the last five years, it’s our Schools Ministry. Change in priorities, resources and requirements of our Christian schools, along with curriculum changes and secularisation in government schools has made for interesting times!

SU WA has responded by exploring new opportunities and reshaping what we do in schools. The Christian Teachers Network has been an important part of this. Building slowly, we see supporting and equipping Christians teaching in the government sector as an important ministry in the future. A CTN retreat and other networking events were highlights in the last 12 months and we hope the CTN continues to grow.

As we reboot our schools ministry, alongside churches, to impact local schools, we pray God’s leading and purposes will be revealed.

Fine Edge lived on the edge in 2016, having increasing difficulties finding volunteers to perform. At one stage of the Christmas show, two of the team were struck down ill and it looked like the show would not go on just a week out. God worked his purposes though, with the movement getting behind the ministry: a great Christmas show was seen in over 30 primary schools around WA. This is a fabulous opportunity to share the story of Jesus, His birth and the reason for His life.

After one show in a government school, an 11 yr old student got up to thank the team and said: “Thank you for coming to our school and sharing your play about Christmas. I think most of us didn’t, at least I know I didn’t, know that Jesus was born because God loves us.”

Kent Morgan

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News

Training at SU is centred on up skilling and equipping people to share their faith in Jesus- both on SU programs and as the church collectively. Over the past year we’ve continued to offer training in a range of areas, including what it means to be an SU volunteer (Childsafe etc.); various practical courses that are essential for SU programs but also widely used externally, such as Bronze Medallion; and special training events specifically chosen to equip us to share our faith more effectively.

Earlier in the year Dan Paterson of Ravi Zacharias talked to us on sharing Jesus in contemporary Australia. More recently, Claremont Baptist Church and ISCAST partnered with us, as ISCAST Director, Rev. Dr Chris Mulherin, spoke on how we might address the issue of people writing off Christianity due to the belief that Christianity and science are mutually exclusive. Of this event, one long-time SU volunteer now teaching in a Christian school writes:“… thank you so much for tonight! I really enjoyed the talk and got practical answers and frameworks to talk to the kids about science and faith. I feel super encouraged from the event. How awesome God is to create such an intricate universe and to give us brains to think and reason with.”

El Holmes

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News

Over the past year our SU WA Community Mission programs have included eight family missions, the Cheers Neighbourhood Network in Banksia Grove and our Moora Youth Group. In partnership with TEAR Australia, we have run the AMUC camp and Just Community Day. The Roleystone community youth shed is waiting on a new venue before kicking off again.

At AMUC, our participants met a number of young men for whom the power of God was helping them to transform: from dangerous drug addictions to re-booting their lives on a better footing.

A Bridgetown family were able to show those at our Just Community weekend how using God’s stewardship model for producing organic food enabled them to have a holistic approach to caring for His creation.

Down in Denmark on New Year’s Eve, over 500 revellers at the caravan park were treated to a bush dance provided by the Beach Mission team there.

This year we hope to introduce a new community initiative to churches around WA – the concept of providing a Christian response to Halloween by holding a “Light Party”. This concept has grown immensely in the UK where it was started a few years ago and we’re praying it catches on well here too.

Paul Edwards

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SU WA leadership have recently confirmed it in our strategic plan: working with churches is a key part of how we at SU do God’s work. This is the major focus for us as Ministry Catalysts. Developing strong trusting relationships does take time, and Taylor and Sally have found perseverance, faithfulness and patience are essential! We are starting to see the fruit, thanks to God, of our regular connecting with and encouraging churches in their ministry with children and youth. One example is our strengthening partnership with Parkerville Baptist Church, who have a strong vision of growing the God’s Kingdom, and do so in partnership with others of the wider church. Their generosity of heart has led to one of our Spring primary camps, My Cooking Rules, being hosted at the church, which will bless the campers and the leaders with a wonderfully welcoming physical “home”, as we endeavour to show them God’s love through Jesus and how he brings abundant life to those who know and accept him. In turn, some PBC youth leaders attended LEAD, our leadership camp for young adults, including doing our small group leadership “Don’t Panic” training course. This mutually beneficial relationship serves to positively impact the young people we minister to as God’s “priesthood of believers” (from 1 Peter 2:5 and 9) Sally Howe
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