News
A Note From the Director
It’s a huge time in our SU movement. Not least, we are fast approaching the time for celebrating the birth of our Lord Jesus – such a pivotal and exciting time in our faith. I pray that it is a wonderful & blessed time for all of us as we draw close to Jesus.
SU’s summer camps were one of the hottest tickets in town this year with some filling in an hour and many in a day! We’re excited about the opportunity to build community and share Jesus with so many young people. It’s been a joy this year to have tools in place to evaluate our ministry and it’s such an encouragement to know that nearly 85% of campers encounter Jesus and move significantly closer to Him through camp. How great to see that happen again this summer. We’ll be gathering information from summer missions this year too and look forward to sharing it with you.
It’s full steam ahead in November on Leavers camps and camps with schools too, so more great ministry happening with Christians sharing their lives and faith with young people. We’ll have 7 camps with schools in term 4 and overall the ministry has grown 300% in the last 3 years. Schools ministry is winding down, but it has been a great time of beginning the Reel Change ministry. Over 2019, around 700 Christians from over 250 churches made Jesus known and were grown in their leadership through SU. Thank you for being part of it with time, financial support and prayer.
The national journey continues to progress with a number of state movements making the shift in legal status that will enable a merger, including us at the recent AGM. The deep hope is that this process will result in more effective and broader ministry opportunities across the country. We will be sharing more about this at the Info Night on the 28th of November. Members will vote on joining a national SU in mid 2020.
At the AGM we also welcomed Emily Fernandez and Emily Dickinson onto the SU WA Board; Tony Pine, Emma Shaw, Belinda Hotchkin, Bethany Cunningham and Dave Stephens were re-elected and Chris Dallin has replaced Phillipa Boldy as the Chair of SU WA. Thank you Philippa for your contribution and thanks to all those mentioned above for their service – I look forward to continuing working with you all.
In October, SU WA was added to the panel of school chaplaincy providers in WA. This came after a long period of prayer and discernment and a sense that God wanted to open up SU ministry opportunities amongst children and young people in WA. It’s an exciting and daunting opportunity and we want to build this through partnership and local vision with churches and across the SU network.
Like Paul in Ephesians, I continue to give thanks for all of you who serve and support the work of God through SU and will remember you in my prayers this Christmas.
Kent Morgan, State Director
