Imagine living in a small village on the Southeast coast of Africa. You work in the fields every day, and you have to walk 3 miles from your house to get clean drinking water. One day out of nowhere gusting winds and flash floods begin, and you have to climb up into a tree and stay there for days to survive. You pray the tree you are resting on does not fall like many trees around you. Once the storm calms, you go to where your house once stood, but all that is left is a pile of debris. You go to get water from the well you always used, and you learn from another local that people who were drinking from that well were getting sick and dying of cholera. You are trying to have hope, but everything seems hopeless. This story was one told by many when the World Hope International relief team landed in Mozambique.

In mid-March, Mozambique was hit by cyclone Idai, causing devastation for the people destroying their houses, fields, and livelihoods. World Hope International had the opportunity to partner with three other organizations, Amazon, Katadyn, and Airlink, to bring relief to the people in Mozambique. Without relief from organizations and people around the world, disasters like cyclone Idai would be even more ruinous.

The task was daunting and the first impressions of the storm left the team saddened by the devastation. Joseph Phillippe, who grew up internationally and acted as a translator speaking Portuguese, described what they saw when they first arrived in Beira. He said, “I have personally seen the devastation done by tornados here in the US- this looked like tornado damage times 100. Everywhere you looked, houses, buildings, infrastructure, vegetation, were completely destroyed.”

Because in the case of a catastrophe like that, one of the greatest needs is to supply water, the cyclone destroys the existing water systems and contaminates even wells and that kind of thing. So immediately, there’s a huge danger of waterborne diseases, such as cholera.Having a resource like a connection with institutions that are able to supply the filters, gives just an immediate connection that was a great help in this case, as is in many other similar cases.”

Eric Jacobs, a retired fireman, was trained by World Hope to demonstrate to the villagers how to use the water filters. Eric believed they did not just provide water filters but also hope.He saw the hope in the resiliency of the people, noting, “they’ve always had what I saw was the ability to rebuild and start, new. As the days went on, you could see that life was coming back into the city and went from roads being blocked to the life of the city coming back. And one night, they had a big festival, and that was the first time that ever happened since the storm.”

The unique skills each individual brought to the team allowed for the trip to bring hopeto those who were in a hopeless situation. Partnerships are so important when it comes to providing relief after disasters.

Kingsley College- The 70^thAnniversary of Equipping Men and Women for Ministry
2019 marks a milestone in the life of the college. We can celebrate God’s blessing and work within the life of the college over 70 years of training.

The vision of a Wesleyan Methodist Bible College in Australia led to the first classes under the leadership of Kingsley Ridgway in 1949. We can thank God that men and women are still receiving training with a Wesleyan ethos in 2019. Thanks be to God!

An excellent 30-minute film that captures just a few of the early stories of Kingsley College is available on the College website. Enjoy the video yourself, and then share it with your home group and church. Go to http://kingsley.edu.au/Click on “Watch Film.”

The annual Kingsley College Update will focus on the 70^thAnniversary, with an Update in print (and pdf) available to all churches at District conference 2019.

Kingsley Community Training Centres
As a college, we connect in students to study at our two campuses (Mackenzie and Broadmeadows) and our training centres- in person and via web conference. Each week there are classes running that are providing excellent training that is both academically rigorous and practical. We have students who connect from overseas via web conference, as well as from across the country.
We are also able to offer training for international students who come to Australia on a student visa.
They are welcomed to the Broadmeadows campus for a full-time study program.
This is our Introduction to the Old Testament class at Townsville- with Lyndell Hall as trainer.

We Balance Both Spiritual Development and Ministry Formation
One subject running at the moment is an Advanced Diploma unit, Principles of Prayer. Our dual aim in all subjects is particularly evident in this one; that of encouraging the spiritual maturity of our students, while providing them with ministry training that will enable them to serve and lead well. This photo is of the Principles of Prayer class, with Susan Lee as trainer.
Please continue to pray for each Kingsley College student, asking that God will form and shape them into His image and equip them for service. Pray too that God will call many more women and men into study with the college- and then a lifetime of service for Him.

Kingsley College delivers training under the auspices of Unity College Australia RTO 6330 and CRICOS Code 02160A.

Congratulations to Some Kingsley Graduates
Every semester, more students graduate from our four awards. Three of those graduates were able to celebrate and be recognized for their achievement at the Pastor’s conference.
Congratulations Nathan Bell, Scott Lucas and Scott Griffith!
Two of our hard-working Kingsley Community Trainers, Gordon Kuss and Mal Moses, presented the awards and affirmed their support for these students.
For both Scott Lucas and Scott Griffith, this was an especially exciting achievement – the completion of their Graduate Certificate of Christian Ministry and Theology – the final award toward their ordination.
This was a milestone for these pastors, and an exciting moment for the college as we see students complete all expectations toward ordination.
If you see these three men (or other graduates) in your travels- please congratulate them!

Change of Staff at the Melbourne Campus
Many of you will have come to know and appreciate Paulini Torovugalei at the College office in Melbourne. Unfortunately for us, Paulini has moved back to Fiji for work. We wish Paulini God’s very best.
Gemma Brown was already working part-time at the college in the library and giving student support. She graciously stepped up to learn from Paulini and is now the administrative assistant at the Melbourne campus. Gemma has very big shoes to fill, but we are sure that she will be a blessing to the college students and trainers through her work.

What does it mean to empower the vulnerable?

Building on the principle of “leaving no one behind” the UN General Assembly adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in September 2015, which includes 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Achim Steiner, Administrator of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), stated at the Global Disability Summit in London, Summer 2018, that, “To realize the promise of the 2030 Agenda – and its core pledge to leave no one behind – it is essential that all peoples, particularly those facing discrimination and exclusion, have access and voice and can participate equally in every aspect of life.”

The SDGs specifically include and reference disability and persons with disabilities. “This is a matter of justice, and equal opportunity, as well as economic growth,” Steiner continued.

The 2030 Agenda declares that “People who are vulnerable must be empowered. Those whose needs are reflected in the Agenda include all children, youth, persons with disabilities (of whom more than 80 per cent live in poverty).”

At World Hope International (WHI), we believe that empowerment includes providing access to opportunity as well as reaffirming faith in the dignity and worth of every human person.

We believe that sometimes, empowerment looks like enabling: enabling those living with disabilities to develop fine motor skills so they can sit up, stand, walk, run, hold a pencil, write, command their place in society and not be left behind. 

Our Enable the Children (ETC) program in Sierra Leone is a multi-faceted project that provides home-based therapy for children living with disabilities in Freetown, promotes an understanding of disability issues within local communities and family units, and mobilizes support for people living with disability – a vulnerable group that actually consists of one billion people worldwide, or 15% of the world’s population, according to the World Bank.

The ETC program is directed by Anna Vines, a Physiotherapist from the UK who won a Point of Light Award from Prime Minister Theresa May and co-authored the Trauma Orthopaedics chapters in The Concise Guide to Physiotherapy – Volume 1: Assessment and Volume 2: Treatment by Tim Ainslie.

Every year, ETC celebrates not only the children in the program, but their families and caregivers as well, hosting a beach day outing in partnership with many other organizations and companies. This year, the event was held on February 16 and the Deputy Minister of Social Welfare, Gender, and Children’s Affairs; the President for the Sierra Leonean Union for Disability Issues; the Chairman for the Pastors Union in the east part of Freetown; the Chairman for the National Commission for Persons with Disabilities in Sierra Leone; and the President for the Union for the Blind in Sierra Leone all provided remarks that encouraged families and caregivers and emphasized seriously addressing the stigmatizing of or discriminating against people living with disabilities.

Click the graphic below to see 5 SDG Goals that disability is included in: 

At the Global Disability Summit last summer, Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed observed that women and girls living with disabilities suffer the “double discrimination” of sex and disability, and Henrietta Fore, Executive Director of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) pointed out that children with disabilities living through conflict or disaster also face a double disadvantage as, in addition to dangers of violence, hunger, or security, they have to deal with “lack of mobility because of shattered infrastructure, difficulty fleeing harm and the prejudices that keep them from accessing the urgent assistance they need.”

The time to work alongside communities and leaders to enable children with disabilities is now.

Moving forward, ETC is hoping to build rehabilitation services for children with disabilities in Freetown and across Sierra Leone. “We would like to empower families and communities to love and accept children with disabilities, helping them to achieve their full potential,” Anna Vines shared. “We would like to see community leaders advocating for the rights of children with disabilities and seeing them as a valuable part of the society.”

World Hope International

When Moses ascended Mount Sinai to receive the Law, he didn’t know what he was going to get was a revelation of the character and nature of God:

Exodus 34 ⁶And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, ⁷maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.”

This is a beautiful picture of the love and compassion and graciousness of God toward His children, contrasted against the truth of His justice and judgement of sin and rebellion.

We all deserve to be treated in the latter way, but because of the character of God, we get to be treated in the former way. God’s heart is for people. It is for people who are lost, for people who are seeking, for people in need. He is compassionate, gracious, patient, loving and forgiving.

The heart of God for all people is seen again and again throughout Scripture, and it’s particularly clear that His heart is for the weak and powerless (see James 1:27, Isaiah 1:17, Psalm 12:5, 146:7 just to name a few). The heart of Jesus’ ministry also focused on the weak, powerless and needy. And it’s particularly clear that we also are called to show compassion towards the powerless and down-trodden in our society.

We are called not to jump on the bandwagon of ‘us and them’, or of stepping on or over others to get ahead, or of pointing the finger or oppressing another people group. In fact we’re called to go out of our way to lift others up and in so doing, bring about some measure of equality. To exhibit the character of God in us by offering compassion and grace, when we’d rather withhold it. James says thisis true religion!

This… the extending of a hand of help or friendship to someone who – it’s easy to think – doesn’t deserve it, as God in Christ Jesus did for us. This…the hard but merciful act of forgiving a painful offence when it would be easier to hold a grudge. This…  the personally challenging gift of giving yourself (time) or your possessions (wealth) to benefit another person, who, we think, ought to take responsibility for their own lives.

Compassion is seeing the need in others and being moved to action, not just feeling bad, it’s actually doing something about it. That costs us, as it did our Lord. It’s the way of the cross and it’s the way for a Christian.

“In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: ⁶Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; ⁷rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. ⁸And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross! ⁹Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”  [Philippians 2:5-11]

Rev Rob Simpson
Sth Qld District Assistant District Superintendent

Recently the Wesleyan Methodist Church of New Zealand ran their National Conference, ConneXion. Rev. Rex Rigby was able to attend and preach at the opening worship service.

The Conference was a wonderful time of fellowship as well as a fruitful time of business. Richard Waugh was re-elected as National Superintendent.

Within Kingsley College our vision is to develop and equip people to work in and through their local church to shape their world. We do that work to develop and equip others by connecting students to training in a training centre in person or via web conference. Our 10433NAT Certificate IV in Christian Ministry and Theology* is an excellent platform for equipping lay people for their ministry, and it also works as the first year of study for ministerial candidates.

Beyond equipping lay people and ministerial candidates, we also endeavor to draw in others looking for non-accredited training- be that lay people or experienced leaders. This photo tells some of that story:

In this past semester Paul joined the Leading and Developing Othersclass as an experienced leader looking for professional development. Scott and Scott completed the subject as the final subject toward ordination in the *Graduate Certificate. Nuku and Elisiva studied as part of their journey toward ordination. Paul joined the trainer in person, while the rest of the class joined via web conference. All of the students were challenged to develop as leaders and equipped to lead others well.

Around the country men and women joined Kingsley Community classes and gained the training to equip them for the ministry God has for them. 2018 has been another good year of ministry training. We are exciting by what God will do in the life of the college in 2019.

Please be praying that God will call many more women into study in 2019.
Pray that word will spread to international students who are seeking study with a Methodist college in Australia.
Pray for Kingsley College trainers- as they seek to serve God with the teaching gifts He has given.
*Kingsley College delivers training under the auspice of Unity College Australia RTO 6330, CRICOS code 02160A.
Kevin Brown
Principle