We are excited to announce that Summer Under The Son 2014 will be held at Crossway Baptist Church

in East Burwood. It will run from Monday 13 to Thursday 16 January.

Crossway has excellent facilities: an auditorium for 1000, including lighting, sound, media projection, hearing loops, wheelchair spots and disabled access. It will give us capacity to grow and to make the conference available to more people. The new venue and dates fit with Branch Council’s new strategy for SUTS (outlined by our Chair Pam Thyer on the next page).

There are purpose-built children’s ministry facilities for a few hundred kids and a number of other smaller rooms. A privately run café operates in a large foyer area, and we will have the capacity to offer morning and afternoon teas and lunch. There will be space to sit and chat. The Glen Waverley café, cinema, shops and swimming pool are all nearby, as are a number parks.

The biggest change is the move to a non-residential format in a Melbourne location. This means that many of our SUTS regulars will be able to sleep in their own beds and come in daily. It also means that many more people will be able to try a session or two before committing to a whole week. Invite all your friends!

There is ample car-parking and good access to public transport. Accommodation options will be developed for those coming from further afield. The suggestion of a CMS billeting scheme has also been floated – get in quick if you know someone living nearby!

The program is being developed to cater for the needs of young families with children, as well as for young adults. We are currently looking for a new SUTS children’s ministry coordinator – please pray! And let us know if you have any suggestions!

Our vision is for SUTS to become the premier missions conference in the state. I will have the privilege of taking us through Jonah examining the theme of Christian mission. David Williams, who heads up CMS training at St Andrew’s Hall, is one of Australia’s leading missiologists. David will address the challenges of mission towards 2020.

Bruce Dipple, missiologist from the Sydney Missionary and Bible College and author of the excellent book Becoming Global, and Dr Kang San Tan, Executive Director of Asia CMS, will also be speaking. Our missionaries on home assignment will include Ken and Ally Thompson, and Tavis and Kate Beer. We also expect to have new missionaries, including Marcus Campbell, to present to the CMS community.

SUTS has a long history, including many changes of venue and format. I’m excited by the new possibilities of SUTS14 – I hope you are too! Please pray for the staff team and all the work that lies before us. Please contact the office if you’d like to volunteer to help with SUTS in any way. Please pray most of all that God’s gospel mission would be increasingly well served by SUTS.

Branch Matters

July 2013Vol 7 No 6

SUTS venue decided

CMS VICTORIA9-13 QUEEN ST

BLACKBURN9894 4722

vic@cms.org.aucms.org.au/vic

SUTS strategy forward

Listen for 500 hours

Pentecost Appeal

Book Review

Diary

Victoria

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VB

Mu

ViVB

ViV

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Wei-Han Kuan speaking at SUTS13

Wei-Han Kuan

State Director

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Branch Council’s decision to move from Phillip Island was not taken lightly. We celebrate

the success of the family summer conference that SUTS grew into on the island and understand that some regular attenders may find the move difficult.

Branch Council has endorsed a new strategy focused on ensuring the financial viability of SUTS and expanding its ability to minister to a wider range of people. Three elements were considered non-negotiable:

• Excellent expository Bible studies and engaging missionary sessions

• A Jesus-centred, full-care children’s ministry program (that allows parents a whole morning off)

• Extensive opportunities for fellowship and catching up with CMS friends

We want a conference which will help us to engage better with first-timers and young adults, including non-Anglicans! SUTS has to fit into our wider strategy of providing points of engagement with CMS for persons at every stage of life. Branch Council considered that it was possible to deliver such a conference in a non-residential format, but with provision for those requiring accommodation options. SUTS will look and feel very different at Crossway. Join us in praying fervently for the staff team as they prepare. Please pray that SUTS will grow to serve more people and more effectively engage the wider church in the work of taking the gospel of Jesus Christ to all the world.

Looking to a world that knows Jesus

Praise God for his provision for CMS Victoria. Whilst it is still only mid-June, we praise God for raising up people and churches to give in partnership with CMS.

The generosity of CMS Victoria members and supporters who give faithfully both small and large gifts monthly, quarterly and annually is helping to change lives for the gospel.

This year the Pentecost Appeal, presents the way in which our finances are spent. Please go to the website below to look at this.

Please give and continue to support the work of CMS to see a world that knows Jesus.

cms.org.au/vic/2013partneringwww.give.cms.org.au

Our StrategyPentecost Appeal Branch Council

Pam Thyer,Chair of Branch Council

Summer Under The Son is proud of its high quality kids’ program and Youth Camp.

Summer Salt (the Summer Under The Son Kids’ program) will be of the same or even higher quality than before. Crossway has fantastic facilities for kids with great rooms for all ages. Kids Leaders are needed, so if you wish to volunteer, this year the conference will be free for leaders! This is possible as we don’t have to pay accomodation or site costs.

The Youth Camp will go ahead as it did last year. Stuart Asquith will direct the camp and the dates will be Friday 10 to Wednesday 15 January.

This gives parents a weekend free from their older kids.

The camp will start at Glen Waverley Anglican (GWAC) with campers catching the bus to CYC Cowes. They will be returned to Crossway on the Wednesday afternoon.

The cost of Youth Camp will increase slightly and include the cost of the buses.

Registrations will open 1 September.Please note there will be a cap on youth spots and kids spots, so please book early.

Youth and Kids

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Missionary People

Comings and GoingsChris and Grace Adams leave for Timor Leste (East Timor) on 6 July.

M&LM leaves on 30 June and L leave on 16 July for Indonesia.

Roy and Hilary Hoevenaars serving at SJUT, Dodoma, Tanzania will be returning in July.

CMS Tasmania State Director, David Boyd, is resigning effective 30 September and applying for missionary service. The branch has the exciting prospect of up to three new missionary units coming through the next two years.

This month, CMS Tasmania is writing to its members outlining their plans for the future. These include the decision to have a part-time staff member in Tasmania, and the consideration of a merger with CMS Victoria.

I can confirm that we have been in active discussion about a merger, and ask for your prayers for wisdom and discernment as these progress.

Do keep CMS Tasmania and David and Prue Boyd in your prayers – and us as well!

In Christ

Wei-Han Kuan

News from Tasmania

Listen for 500 hoursAndrew and Dominique have been ministering in Spain since 2007. They have learnt Spanish and now they are learning Catalan.

We like to think of ourselves as competent speakers of Australian English. It’s

something that we have been learning for a number of years and have managed to teach our own children.

Have you ever considered how children learn language? Their first stage of learning language is listening. If you’ve had the opportunity to watch a child grow in the early years, you may have noticed how you can give complex instructions that the child can follow (“Go to your bedroom and get your shoes from the cupboard”), even before they can speak.

During our time at St Andrew’s Hall we read one article that suggested before speaking a new language one should just listen for at least 500 hours. We have taken this approach to learning Catalan.

Our first goal is to understand. We have been very thankful to God for the help of a linguist who understands the need to hear before you speak. Her help in retraining our ears to hear sounds that we don’t use in English has greatly increased our capacity to listen with understanding.

The difficulty is that adults are not given the time to just listen. Wisdom in an instant society demands that you can speak at the level of your age. In reality we struggle to speak Catalan at the level of our 2 year old son Jordi. In English he tells us, “We go to park today.” We help him learn that it’s better to say, “Let’s go to the park today.” Again, there isn’t much patience for this kind of training when you’re not so cute and cuddly.

Why do we persevere? After all we could just focus on Spanish and forget Catalan. The answer is simple: love. When you watch a Catalan’s face light up because you have attempted to speak in their heart-language you realise that you’ve shown love in a practical way. We pray that this desire to show love will open doors to the good news of Jesus, even when our language fails.

Please pray for the Gifford Family as they share the love of Jesus in Barcelona. To receive their newsletter please contact the office on 9894 4722.

Former Summer Under The Son Bible Study leader Rev’d Dr Jo Bailey Wells, was recently appointed as chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, based at Lambeth Place.

Here at CMS Vic, we are sure that it was her time at Summer Under The Son that secured this role!

Andrew Grills, City on a Hill Geelong Pastor and former Army Chaplain, is our next speaker for the next Bendigo Autumn weekend: 23-25 May, 2014.

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1MPG (First Monday Prayer Group) meets on Monday 1 July at 12:30pm for a BYO lunch and prayer for God’s worldwide mission. Call Hugh Prentice on 9014 0968 for more information.

Missionary Care Fellowship (MCF) meets on Wednesday 10 July at 10:15am starting with morning tea. Wei-Han Kuan will be our guest speaker. Everyone is welcome, but please bring your own lunch. More details from Maurelle Thompson on 9850 6850.

Commissioning of Tim and Catherine Walker21 July @ 4:30pmVenue: CMS Centre, Queen St, Blackburn.

Young Adult Winter Dinnerat St Hilary’s, Kew on Saturday 20 July, 7:30pmCharlie Fletcher will be speaking.Tickets $20 online.

Meet the Sonneman familySaturday 27 July, 3-5pmSt Mark’s Forest Hill.

Diary

Effective Engagement in Short-Term Missions: Doing it Right!Robert J. Priest (Ed)., (2008). Evangelical Mission Society: Canada.

I am thankful for this book on short-term mission. It provides specific, practical suggestions for engaging in short-term mission. It has faith in the value of short-term mission itself.

Well-researched and comprehensive, it gives weight to church-to-church partnerships and focuses on the spiritual change in the individual who serves.

‘Effective Engagement’ starts with a review of short-term missions in the overall context of missions, before looking at how short-term can complement long-term missions.

Practical subjects like how to be a mindful missionary and how to select leaders are also dealt with.

Edited by anthropologist Robert J. Priest with contributions from a range of authors, I highly recommend this book for those training or leading short-term mission teams.

Review by Anna Hinkeesing, Mission Development, CMS Vic

Saturday 20 July, 2013 @ 7:30pmSt Hilary’s, John St, Kew

Charlie Fletcher, Dean of World Mission, Ridley MelbournePREPARING FOR A LIFETIME OF MISSION

How can I allow gospel priorities to shape my life for an effective lifetime of mission? No matter where you end up going, or what you

end up doing, Charlie Fletcher will help provide the answers.

Cost: $20 purchase tickets online at cms.org.au/vic/wd13

Contact: Iain Payne, ipayne@cms.org.au

Events Book Review

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