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Praying is a mussive part of what committee does in meetings, but we also talk alot. This week, the subject of committee roles, what we do as a committee and as individual parts of the group, was firmly on the agenda. How this panned out was that we looked at all of the different jobs that people on the team do, looked at which ones are currently filled, and which ones need someone to do it. The result of this was that all of the most important jobs now have people doing them, which is something that we can add to the list of things to be thankful for. We also decided that committee meetings will now be held on the wrong side of midday on Fridays.

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Much of the rest of the meeting was spent discussing social conventions on stationery, and the giving of said stationery, and as we do every week, enjoying Jen’s hospitality. This week, we’re looking forward to a committee field trip to Derby St, which looks like it’ll be pretty tops!

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Sweet as! (Committee in joke)

Ronas

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What we prayed about:

- Lots of new people to public meeting, and general contacts

- Returning NCS’ers stepping up to serve in and around O-Week

- The weather for all events

- Responses to, and work on the website

- Welcome dinners

- BDO attendance (particularly first years, already an improvement on Getaway)

- FOCUS

- People investigating Christianity

- Followup continuing to be done

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photo credit: jurvetson

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Now you can hear from him every week!

Wednesdays 4pm ~ Life Sciences Theatre

You may not know it, but NCS is not the only AFES group at Newcastle Uni…

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Down at the Ourimbah campus there’s another group of students who are seeking to make Jesus known at Uni. They’re known as the Ourimbah Christian Students.

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To my great excitement; I discovered this morning that they’ve just launched a new website! You can check it out here. I plan to keep checking it regularly to know to pray for them.

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OCS are partners with us in the gospel. They’re our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Please keep them in your prayers as the new year gets underway.

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Did you come to Big Day Out? Big Day Out of the car metaphors and amazing food? Big Day Out of the beautiful beach and NCS fellowship and games of psycho snap and general fun and frivolity? About 90 of us congregated at the Swansea/Belmont Surf Lifesaving club yesterday to enjoy exactly that.

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It was a beautiful day both literally and otherwise – the rain stayed away and the beach beckoned, the breeze blew and the sun shone. We met to get to know each other, but we also met to get to know Jesus, or at least understand what it is we at NCS believe about him. This is where the hubcaps come in – we learned that humans have one purpose, to belong to Jesus, much like hubcaps have one purpose – to make a car look sweet.

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We learned that in everything Jesus is supreme, that he owns everything and that only he who owns everything could save everything, by making peace between God and the entire universe which rebelled against him. If we don’t know Jesus, we are like hubcaps which have fallen off a car. Useless. Without a purpose. Unless you’re one of those weirdo’s who collects them and hangs them on walls, but that doesn’t really work for the analogy so lets leave them out..

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Moving on.. It wasn’t all manly car analogies and Cosmic disaster stories – we managed to have a lot of fun too. Personally, I chatted to some great students who are here on exchange and excited about serving Jesus in Newcastle, I stood on the beach with my feet in the water, was discriminated against due to my gender in the aforementioned game of psycho snap AND got really really excited about Nathan Gallagher almost winning an epic game of Scissors, Paper, Rock. So just another Saturday really..

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At night we heard from Martin about the amazing way that God relates to us. Instead of dealing with us according to merit, the way our world does in matters of education, commerce, fame etc, God extends grace to us. As Christians, our entry into God’s kingdom depends not on me or my merit – or on you and yours –  but the kindness and goodness of God. We, as Christians, are sponging off God’s grace. As we tried to wrap our heads around the wonder of God’s grace to us, we began to see how radically different God treats us, both compared to the way our world does and compared to how we deserve.

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All in all, it was a fantastic, BIG day out. I hope that if you came along you met some folk who can partner with you in friendship, in the new year at Newcastle Uni. I hope you feel like you know what NCS is about – if I remember correctly, just as a formula one car does one thing well (i.e go really fast), NCS is all about proclaiming Jesus on campus. (Yes there were an inordinate amount of car metaphors – pretty sure its a boy thing..)

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If you didn’t come to BDO, don’t despair! There’s plenty to be getting on with in NCS! Med and Miscellaneous faculty welcome dinners are on tomorrow night, Big NCS bible talk is on Wed at 4pm in the Life Sciences theatre and first year groups and mission teams are getting off the ground this week.

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So come along. Get to know us. Find out how to live in the purpose for which you were created, and join us in getting to know Jesus and proclaiming his name at Newcastle Uni. Be a functioning hubcap & get on the NCS formula one car!!

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Ok I’m off to look up some girly analogies for next time…

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Things can go by pretty fast this time of year

I’m not sure about everyone else, but for me getting started on something is always the hardest part. Whether that’s getting started on an assignment, starting out on cooking a meal (something that I’m really only starting to do this year), or simply getting out of bed in the morning. What I’m talking about at the moment however, is the monumental task of starting out in a new year.

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In NCS alone, we’re only halfway through week one and already we’ve had the NCS leaders conference, kickoff and O’Week. Still to come and indeed, coming up fast are the NCS Big Day Out,welcome dinners the entire programme of Bible talks, small groups, prayer breakfasts and TNT sessions. For myself added into this is the whole other factor of no longer being on campus, and instead living in beautiful Wallsend. This means that not only am I cooking for myself  (reason enough for crippling fear), but that also what used to be a 10 minute walk to class has now turned into a 20 minute bike trek.

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What gives me hope is that everything gets easier when the routine sets in. Before long I will be used to peddling into Uni every day. I’ll be used to having to make up time between classes rather than walking home. I’ll be used to cooking for myself and I’ll be used to my timetable as a whole. Not only will I be used to it, but I will enjoy it. I will enjoy it because when it all boils down to it, I really love being a student, I love living in Wallsend and I love being a part of this group we call Newcastle Christian Students.

It’s just the getting going part that I don’t love…

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Cheers,

Ronas

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Bible talks start today (Wednesday) at 4pm, and continue weekly at the Life Sciences Theatre on the Shortland side of the University.

photo credit: Thales

We need YOU!

NCS relies entirely upon God – in preaching the gospel, in welcoming and following up new students, in maturing in Christ. There is nothing we do which is not completely in the hands of the LORD Almighty (who we call ‘Dad’), and so we need YOU to be praying daily for His help with NCS; that He will work through our efforts to bring many to know Jesus personally.

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With NCS Big Day Out flying low over the horizon there is much we can joyously petition our Father for:

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So join us in the trenches – devote yourself to prayer because it is GOD who is at work!

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photo credit: The New Idiom

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What a great night!! – it was awesome to see so many new faces and heaps of new people come along to check out NCS. Top food from the chefs, awesome weather from God and uber welcoming all round! Almost a shame it has come and gone, but there is more on the horizon to be excited and prayerful about…

photo credit: JoshuaDavisPhotography.COM

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Man I’m excited about O’Week! I can’t stop thinking about all the people we’re going to meet this week. I can’t stop imagining all the new friendships that will begin. I can’t stop wondering about who will meet Jesus for the first time during O’Week.

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It’s going to be an exciting week; we’re running BBQ’s just outside the Maths Building @ Newcastle Uni on Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday. And then at the Nobby’s beach Train Sheds on Thursday evening. And all totally free!

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If you’re a new student I’m really looking forward to meeting you for the first time.

Please come down and say hi

photo credit: coconut wireless