T-Dogg & B-Fizzle in da house!!!

This one goes out to all those God peeps in the Big Go (Bendigo)

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Are you bored with trying to wake up the Dragon every year at Easter (if you don’t know what that means, ask a Bendigonian)? Want something with a bit of “that’s different”? Then  join us as we host Bendigo’s Easter Unconvention. The convention where we don’t wait for a chocolate egg laying feral animal on easter Sunday, but where we spend a quality opportunity to hear what God says about hot topics as we bask in the hope of the end of death in the person of Jesus. Details on the poster, this years speaker is all round cool guy Hans Kristensen, follow #Unconvention2012.

The Bendigo C.U has continues its blessed start to the year, recording their first ever hat-trick of 40+ attendees.

Over the first three weeks of the C.U season, the only recognized Christian group on campus has recorded an average of 44.3 people each for the first three weeks of Gospel Gatherings. At this stage however, staff are perplexed as to the origin of the extra one-third of a person. There has been speculation that the freakish height of James Cunning has led to him being counted as more than one full human. Another possible outcome is that several of the women folk have not been tall enough to register as full people, resulting in skewed numbers. However, the official statement from the leadership team is that it is merely a result of not being able to derive a whole number when you divide the total attendance by three meetings. We’ll let you read what you will into this.

In other news the C.U (short for Christian Union, because we love abbreviating things) have finally kicked into 5^th gear with our people work on campus. The one-to-one ministry has already reached the levels of previous years, seeing students reading the bible almost constantly through the week. The gospel groups are becoming a real hit, as well as the bleary eyed prayer meetings that are known as ‘C.U Devoted,’ meeting Monday to Thursday at 8am. FOCUS began this week with Luke Denness showing off his varied people-prowess, forming a group  that already has 3 nationalities represented. At this point the journalists here at the Weekly Wrap would like to apologise to president Rhys Thorbun for a quote appearing in last week’s report. Thorburn reportedly stated that he was looking forward to joining the international bible study group because of his Welsh heritage, but in fact this quote was taken slightly out of context, for the writer’s own agenda. When asked to comment on his alleged comments, Rhys commented the following. “While I don’t appreciate being quoted out of context, I cannot totally blame the writers for including this quote in last week’s Wrap. This quote was actually taken from a book that I wrote during my years as a Potato Farmer in sunny Wales, entitled ‘The Diary of a Fisherman’s Son.” This book is currently out of print, but we wish Thorburn all the best in his future Art’s Degree endeavors.

The lovelier gender of the C.U crew are having their first social night this week, on Friday 16^th March. ‘Di’s tie-dyeing tie-die Thai night’ is an event open to all females involved with the C.U, both regulars and visitors. It is purely a relaxed social night to meet people and make new friends, eating Thai food and Tie-dyeing various pieces of clothing, not necessarily Ties. Ring Aimee G for deets.

Come along next Wednesday for a continuation of Rusty’s preaching on Ecclesiastes, to learn about the vanity of vanities. As much as he tried not to, Russ still couldn’t escape the usual quirks of a C.U sermon (See weekly wrap one for a list of these weekly occurrences.) At this stage we will be meeting in the student Union floor (named after inventor of Iced Coffee, Professor Albert Student Union) at 6pm.

In His Majesty’s Service,

Joel

I am a licensed shooter, but I am not James Bond so I stick to rabbits. If my eye is in, the odd fox. I’m not always the best shooter, but I know a key element that everyone who has ever wanted to actually hit something knows. You need to aim straight. Simple I know, but critical. It’s the same for rebuking. We need to be accurate with our rebukes. They must be biblically loaded with love and grace, and given to the person in need of it (Luke 17:3-4). Too often in my circles I hear Christians speaking about someone they see in need of rebuke and they have two things wrong:

1. They don’t actually talk to the person in need of rebuke, actually to everyone but that person. This the Bible calls gossip, and you should stop because it’s bad for you.

2. They don’t aim accurately. Rebuke is meant to be aimed with love rather than to see who can be the last person standing after the smoke clears.

We must make sure the gospel shapes how we show love and rebuke to our fellow sinners. We cannot afford to shoot from the hip (or shoot off our mouth) to anyone but the person we care for in our rebuke. Anything else is like drive-by rebuking and in the end we hit no issue, just everyone else in the house.

The Bendigo Christian Union has made a terrific start to season 2012, easily eclipsing LARHC and THE MOB as the most active clubs on campus.

Things looked to begin in shaky fashion for the C.U, being given a stall in Market day right next to the erotic dancers of the Burlesque club, and across the path from the StarBar. However armed with Christ in their corner and the pulling power of a high powered fairy floss machine, the Christian Union ended the week with record signings. Approximately 67 people signed up which not only meant the most successful O’week in C.U history, it also was the best intake of all the Uni clubs; outscoring The Mob (approx 30,)the Burlesque club (0 signups,) and the esteemed rural health club LARHC.

With the emotional and numerical high of O’week however came the inevitable opposition from the University authorities. Because the C.U pride themselves on quality teaching and learning for their students, the faceless people of the University decided that we could no longer meet on the Student Union floor; It’s probably fair though, I mean what sort of proper Uni would want to be known as a place of discussion and education? But again, armed with the grace and sovereignty of God the CUers were able to negate this adversity; moving to the much coveted location of the Circular Lecture Theatre. The CLT (named after Clive Harbinger-Circular, the inventor of the tent peg) holds up to 300 eager learners, or roughly 120 University students. The first game of the season was a success for the C.U, with 45 people attending what looks like being a most successful year on campus.

Preaching of the word has long been a draw card for Christians and non-Christians alike on the campus, and so far this year has been no different. Linguist and scholar Russ Grinter has been expounding and pounding the word like it’s going out of fashion and last week even sported a bad case of gravel rash to appeal to the crowds. Amongst his clear explanation of how to best be a Christian at uni, there were many of the usual trademark moments of a Russ Grinter sermon. These include weekly occurrences such as the bizarre farming references that no one understands, as well as the subtle attacks aimed at a popular social networking website. Coupled with some funny stories and the clockwork-like interruptions from Bryce Hall, the bible talks are always a brilliant application of God’s word into the lives of students.

One of the great initiatives that the C.U has implemented this year has been the formation of bible studies known as Gospel Groups. These meet daily at around lunchtime as a tool so that people can meet Jesus in the scriptures. Mondays group is run by the Christian Union apprentice Joel, the really white guy with blonde dreadlocks. Tuesday’s see Rusty run a group by himself and then on Wednesday he doubles up with his lovely wife Aimee. Each group is definitely cost free and aims to be a chilled out way to study the bible at uni. As a result, at any given time through the week the astute observer may see different groups of Christians praying, reading the bible solo, one-to-one or in bible study groups. In the next two weeks the FOCUS group for international students will look to debut in Bendigo- run by Pakistani-raised Luke Denness. Current president of the C.U Rhys Thorburn had the following to say about the FOCUS group. “I honestly can’t wait for this group to kick-off. C.U is great but I think it will be really valuable for me to study the bible exclusively with other people who are not from Australia.” If you are interested in any of these study groups feel free to jump right in if you see them, or if you are a little bit more formal you can contact any of the C.U staff.

So, you’ve just received some insight into the world of the Christian Union at La Trobe Uni in Bendigo. We would love for you to join us Wednesday nights at 6pm for our Gospel Gatherings, we meet alternative weeks in the Circular Lecture Theatre and the Student Union- although it’s probably just safer to meet us at the S.U and we’ll walk/skip/carry you to our meeting point.

In His Majesty’s Service,

Joel

Sitting down over lunch with older Christians brings shared enjoyment and some perspective. We have never been through a war to end all wars, yet war is all around. We pride ourselves in knowing how to shuffle songs, yet we wouldn’t know how to make our own butter. Whilst the good old days seem remembered with sepia carefree memories the reality is our grandparent’s generation lived through troubling times and that is still real for us. One day we will sit with young punks and talk about those days back in the twenty teens. There is nothing new under the sun, just talking to some old saints shows us that.

I wonder though, will we be ready in a short time when we turn ninety to provide the same perspective, and share good news for any generation. This week at the Gospel Gathering we start our short series in Ecclesiastes. One for the new saints to remember our Creator in these days (Ecc 12:1).