College Mission Teams
All full-time students at SMBC (and any part-time students who can) become part of an annual College mission team, led by a lecturer and co-leader. Mission teams travel to different parts of Australia as well as overseas.
Missions within Australia are usually for one week, while overseas missions are usually three weeks in duration. College Mission is an important part of preparation for mission and ministry. It provides opportunities to put classroom learning into practice, to work within a team environment, and to develop spiritual gifts and abilities. After mission, the teams continue to meet regularly during the year as College fellowship groups.
College Mission 2024
In 2024 we're excited to be taking College Mission Teams to: Gundagai Baptist Church (NSW), Wynyard Anglican Church (TAS), Moree Anglican Church (NSW), Church of the Risen King Jesus (Middleton Grange, NSW), Liverpool Cross-Cultural Outreach (NSW), Levin Baptist Church (NZ), as well as South Asia and West Asia locations. This year we're also offering the opportunity for students to elect to organise their own personalised mission or ministry experience (minimum 40 hours) to help prepare for their post college plans.
See reports and prayer points from our 2024 College Mission teams below:
CHURCH OF THE RISEN KING JESUS TEAM – 18 MARCH
Team Leaders – Mark Stephens and Steph Leung
We had a great first Sunday helping with the 10am service. Our team helped in children's and youth ministries, participated in the adult worship, and then joined the church membership class. There was an amazing morning tea (enough to feed a village), and warm hospitality was the order of the day.
Today we met with the whole staff team, reviewing the Sunday service, preparing for next week, and discussing how the church transitioned from an Anglican church plant to an FIEC church. And again, we were well fed!!
Prayer points:
- For continued growth is learning how to be a church that honours Christ and proclaims him faithfully
- For our participation in SRE and learning how to use this mission as an evangelistic opportunity
- For safety and energy with long drives to and from our host church
LEVIN BAPTIST CHURCH NZ – 18 MARCH
Team Leaders – Alan Thompson and Alayne Thompson
Our team arrived safely in New Zealand on Saturday afternoon after a smooth flight. The people of Levin have already shown themselves to be generous hosts in driving to meet us at the airport and getting all our gear back to their homes. We enjoyed some time on Saturday afternoon and evening getting to know our hosts at Levin Baptist, playing French cricket and enjoying homemade wood-fired pizza in the lead pastor’s backyard.
An early start on Sunday morning saw Grace and Kathleen milking cows on a dairy farm before joining the others at church. It was an encouraging time to attend Levin Baptist. Ollie preached on Philippians 2, and we were privileged to witness the baptism of six men and women (ranging from their teens years through to their eighties!) who each shared their stories of how the Lord has been at work in their lives. Our God is good and He is at work! It was great to get to mingle with the congregation afterwards and get to know more of the local church in Levin.
In the afternoon, we headed to Waikawa Beach for “Adventure Club” where Andrew retold the story of Luke 24 and challenged the kids to consider the resurrection of Jesus in the lead up to Easter. We then hit the water and did some kayaking up the river before retiring back to our billets for dinner with our lovely hosts.
Prayer points:
- Praise for safe and smooth travel for the team to get to New Zealand
- Praise for the encouraging stories of those who were baptised and for the way God has been at work through Levin Baptist Church
- Pray for the team as they set out for the week and engage in various ministries with the church and conversations about ministry life in New Zealand
WEST ASIA TEAM – 17 MARCH
Team Leaders – Ed Grudier and Alison R
The West Asia mission team will spend two weeks partnering with local believers in a city of around 1.3 million. Whilst this area has seen gospel growth in the last few years, there are still very few believers. Thank God for the work that he has done in this part of the world and for the perseverance of believers under difficult circumstances.
Please pray that the team will be an encouragement to our brothers and sisters in this city, and that we will be humble learners from them. We will spend most evenings participating in university ministry, so ask God to lead us to students who are open to the Gospel and who are eager to connect with the university ministry workers and the local church. Finally, join us in interceding for this city; that many more people will hear Christ proclaimed and be transferred from the domain of darkness to the kingdom of the Son.
SOUTH ASIAN MOUNTAINS TEAM – 17 MARCH
Team Leaders – Jonathan James and Barbara
Give thanks for the way God’s church has grown so rapidly over the past few decades in many parts of the nation we will be visiting, for the many harvest workers who God has sent, and for the team who will be hosting us.
Please pray God would:
- Grant good sleep, protection of health, and completion of all necessary tasks in the lead up to leaving on Saturday.
- Help us to learn and better understand the context as we meet long-term team members and hosts.
- Protect us from accidents, motion sickness, and blocked roads as we travel.
- Strengthen and energise us, grant us perseverance and protection as we walk into the lower mountains, and help us to build good relationships with local guides.
- Make us an encouragement to young believers and enthuse and embolden them to be disciples who make disciples by reaching out to the unreached people group living up the mountain.
- Use us to make connections with local people we meet along the way that long-term workers and local believers can deepen in coming months.
- Send more workers to this region and encourage future believers who face the prospect of ostracisation.
- Grant us close and healthy relationships among the team.
- Help us to discuss what we see and hear well.
- Provide opportunities in the capital for us to connect with mountain people visiting there, and learn from and be a blessing to long-term workers.
- Guide our thinking in our ongoing debriefing and help us to better discern how he would have each of us serve him in the future.
WYNYARD ANGLICAN CHURCH TEAM – 17 MARCH
Team Leaders – Ian Maddock and Jodi Crain
- Pray for safe travels to and from Northwest Tasmania.
- Pray for those delivering sermons and talks at St Stephen's Wynyard – that they would speak boldly, faithfully, and winsomely.
- Give thanks for those in Wynyard who are opening their homes and hosting the team this week, and that we would be an encouragement to them.
SYDNEY CROSS-CULTURAL TEAM – 17 MARCH
Team Leaders – Janson Condren and Carolyn Woods
Please pray for us as we ... learn and relate to Hindu culture, learn to give simple and relevant testimonies, learn and use Bible storytelling skills in church and non-church settings, have gospel conversations with unbelievers, and grow in our ability to love people very different from us.
CHURCH OF THE RISEN KING JESUS TEAM – 17 MARCH
Team Leaders – Mark Stephens and Steph Leung
Please pray for:
- Open hearts to listen and learn from a church plant.
- Adaptable spirits to adjust to whatever is required of us.
- For teaching SRE within Prairiewood High, Parkland High, and Fairvale High.
- For the café-hopping day on Friday, where casual conversations might be required.
- For safe travels for the team, to and from each day.
LEVIN BAPTIST CHURCH NZ – 17 MARCH
Team Leaders – Alan Thompson and Alayne Thompson
Please pray that:
- We'd be an encouragement to SMBC grads on staff there, Dave & Prue Catto and Andrew and Sophia Sinclair, and to the congregation.
- We'd learn a lot from their experience.
- We'd have good gospel conversations in the various events for all ages that we'll be a part of.
- Those giving talks and sharing testimonies would be clear and faithful.
- We'd raise up more gospel workers for needy NZ
GUNDAGAI BAPTIST CHURCH TEAM – 17 MARCH
Team Leaders – Matt Vander Heiden and Kiri Vander Heiden
Please pray:
- For the planning and preparation that still needs to happen.
- That God would be preparing the team our time away – that we’d look out for what he is trying to teach/reveal to us about himself and ourselves.
- That we would be an encouragement to the church in Gundagai.
- For team unity and opportunities for relationship building among the team.
PERSONALISED MISSION – 17 MARCH
Team Leaders – Karl Deenick and Kristen Young
The personalised mission team will be doing their mission at various points over the year. Give thanks for a wide array of opportunities for the students in the team, from Muslim ministry, to various opportunities for ministry to other cultural groups, one overseas mission, community chaplaincy and a few church-related missions. Pray that each student's mission would help them as they think about future possibilities for ministry. Ask God to use the mission to help equip the students for a lifetime of serving him wherever he takes them.
Pray that the work of the students would bear fruit in the lives of those to whom they ministry, in conversions to Christ among unbelievers and maturity among existing believers.
Some thoughts about College Mission
WITH ALAN THOMPSON
How many College Missions have you done and where have you been to on those Missions?
I think I've been on about 14 college missions. They've mostly been to NSW churches outside of Sydney, with an additional couple in Queensland, and Canberra. So far I've only led overseas missions to New Zealand and Tasmania. So, in total I think I've been to Evans Head, Scone, Townsville, Brisbane, Moree, Ballina, Mt Albert (in Auckland NZ), Tenterfield, Canberra (Gungahlin), Lismore (including Nimbin), Hobart, Canberra (Tuggeranong), Howick (in Auckland NZ), and Forster.
What have been some of the highlights of College Mission?
Hmm, so many to mention. Of course, it's always a delight to know that you've been an encouragement to a local church and their minister and staff, and to be a part of what God is doing through them there. Often college mission is with a graduate so as a faculty member it's also extra special to see them in their own ministry context and students enjoy hearing and learning from someone who's gone before them, so to speak.
Getting to know the variety of ways churches seek to build up their congregations and reach out to their wider communities is always fascinating. Many are under-resourced so they're grateful for any help we can bring for a week. Sometimes new programs are begun during the mission week and sometimes contacts that have grown cold are reconnected during the week. Sometimes we just join in with what normally happens in the church's life, and the feedback is often that having a team of keen SMBC students is like a "shot in the arm" for the church and spurs them on. Yet, we are the ones who are encouraged as we see faithful believers serving in whatever way they can. We aim to serve where we can and follow the lead of the local staff/leaders there, but we learn so much from them.
Our day off can also be interesting as you get to see some of the key local landmarks. One year we went to the military base (including the fitness course and firing range) and a Cowboys game in Townsville! But we also got to spend a couple of days on Palm Island (off the coast of Townsville) and had the privilege of seeing how ministry is done among the aboriginal communities there. Getting to know the hosts or family that you're staying with can also be a highlight. An extra special highlight of any college mission week though is also getting to know one another as a team much more than we expected to!
What have been some of the challenges?
Well not every event always goes as well as we'd like it to. Sometimes not as many turn up to something as the minister was hoping (once or twice no one turned up to an event!), and it can be a challenge preparing things for an audience that you don't know. Sometimes the minister has been facing difficulties from the congregation. These can be lessons in learning the regular ups and downs of ministry and lessons in trusting God to be at work and depending on him in prayer.
What sorts of things can we be praying for our hosts, our teams, ourselves and our leaders as we go on College Mission?
Pray that the team would be an encouragement to the pastoral staff or local missionaries and the local believers, and that time spent with billets and getting to know them in their homes would be an encouragement to them. Pray for those who have opportunities to speak in various ways that they'd speak faithfully, clearly, and engagingly and that there would be receptive hearts. Pray for harmony, enthusiasm, joy, patience, and perseverance (and good health) for the team, that they'd work together well. And pray that we'd share wisely in the conversations that come up with both local believers and those that don't know Christ; humbly, gently, and clearly pointing to Christ. Ultimately we pray that God would be glorified in all we do and say.