Wesleyan Women (WW) have been planning for a number of years for a National Women’s Retreat. Our planning and prayers came to fruition in August this year with Rise Up Retreat. The enthusiasm for Rise Up was beyond what we could have anticipated. We were booked beyond capacity weeks before the event. Rise Up was a coordinated effort between the National WW Executive, and I’m thankful for the support, wisdom and efforts of this team, and the South Queensland Wesleyan Women’s committee. SQWW had a mammoth task to coordinate the details for the efficient and smooth running of the weekend but their attention to detail, their work ethic and passion was beyond measure. I continue to be overwhelmed by this team and my heart overflows with gratitude.

We were blessed with Dr JoAnne Lyon as our keynote speaker. She brought powerful messages from the front and exhibited a humble and down-to-earth manner in every interaction. What a blessing to have her with us. I am confident that her messages continue to resonate with each of us.

What we didn’t anticipate was the response from our sisters from the Solomon’s and PNG. We had nearly forty women present from our neighbouring countries. Our own women rose to the challenge to assist with the extra expenses with fundraising going towards bus hire, linen hire and helping with registration fees but we heard of the incredible and concerted efforts of women from SI and PNG to raise their own funds to join us. What an honour to have women from all over our nation and overseas.

One particular highlight for me was to have Gloria Philip, SI National Wesleyan Women Director, bring one of the messages. Over the years WW has provided speakers for the SI Women’s Conferences so inviting Gloria, a respected leader and teacher, to bring a message to us was a significant moment. Teaching and resourcing was also provided via workshops. Cheri Floyd spoke on cross cultural ministry, Julie Tyler taught on domestic violence and Ange Van Der Leeuw shared on hope and healing.

I could continue to elaborate on the many moments comprising the weekend but enough to say that it was evident to all that the Holy Spirit had brought us together and God’s work was achieved over the weekend. All glory to God.

Mrs Annette Dobson (National Director WW)

Church Planting Study Becoming a Reality
It has been almost two years since David Robertson completed study of Church Planting and Development with Kingsley College. His final project for the subject was to draft a proposal for a church plant. David’s pastor, Hugh Cameron, asked if this proposal could become a reality. But David said “No,” he was happy serving in the Capital Wesleyan church in Townsville. But God has had other ideas…

At the recent North Queensland conference David and Stacey Robertson and their team announced the plans to plant Hope Church in Elliot Springs, Townsville. The church plant will be supported by both existing Townsville churches and the North Qld district.
David said of the church plant, “Hope Church at Elliot Springs is gaining momentum. The church plant will be located 15kms south of Townsville in a new satellite city that is at present only made up of a handful of display homes. At its completion the 1,600 hectares will be home to over 26,000 people.”

David and Stacey are forming a team and working toward a launch for the church in February 2019.
At the college, we are excited to see students putting their study into practice. This is not the first time that a project in the Church Planting subject has led to an actual church plant. Nor is this the only example of how a Kingsley student has applied their study to practical ministry. But it is a recent, exciting example.

Please be praying for this particular church plant, and also for the many Kingsley College students across the country who are learning, growing in confidence, and applying what they have learned.

International Students Welcome at Kingsley College
Great news for 2019! International students can apply to study with Kingsley College at the Broadmeadows campus in 2019. Please pass on the news to your international contacts, and encourage them to contact the college and begin the visa application process.

Another option for people looking to study an Australian award is that they continue to live and minister in their country, but connect to Australian classes via web conference. Once again, if you have contacts overseas who would like to study Christian Ministry and Theology- then please put them in touch with the college office M: 0423 127 199 E: kingsley@kingsley.edu.au
These are exciting study opportunities for international students- they can come to Australian to study, or connect to classes via web conference. Please be praying as we follow up contacts and look to serve others through on-going contacts.

Kevin Brown
Principle

There are a lot of challenges that affect Cambodia’s food security.

Change in average temperature, timing of rainfall, and unpredictable weather mean that fisheries, livestock, and crop production struggle. Because there’s no national irrigation system, communities located just kilometres from the riverbed are water-stressed.

Cambodian women are particularly vulnerable to these losses.

Since they lack equal access to land, employment and education, women do not have a safety net to protect against food security stresses. This is why it is important to maximize available water and produce crops within the natural environment—to find climate-smart adaptive agriculture technologies, diversify the crops, and promote agriculture entrepreneurship.

Focusing on women is game-changing, as they’re often the critical care-givers of the family and children.

These realities shaped the Sisters Program, as World Hope International (WHI) works to better equip farmers to sustainably improve their family’s well-being.

Kong Kunthea, a mother of two from the Kompong Siem District, shares how she began a mushroom house:

“My family’s livelihood has depended on rice and mung beans farming. I have my own land—about half of hectare—and we rent one more hectare. Each time I start farming, I need to take loan to buy seedlings. My husband worked as a waiter, but the money we earned is not enough to feed everyone. After my aunt started growing mushrooms, her family situation improved and is far better than mine. So, my husband and I made the decision to start a mushroom house, too.

Every time we harvest mushrooms, we have enough money to feed our family. I can see our family situation gradually improving. I don’t need to take any more loans, and my husband’s behaviour has also changed. He helps with the mushroom growing and cares about improving our family condition. Now, we have plans to add another mushroom house this year.”

With your support, families like this are being transformed in Cambodia.

• WHI’s Sisters Program has grown to 98 families and 160 mushroom houses.
• In April, the community reached a production capacity of over 500 kilograms of mushrooms per month.
• Stopping violence against women and children continues to be a priority of the work. Two workshops were recently conducted on how to keep children safe from sexual violence. 49 girls and two teachers participated. One child responded, “I’m very happy to learn how to protect myself, especially choosing a safe person who can protect and help me when someone wants to mistreat me.”
• Five of the highest mushroom producing households received support to build toilets. Culverts, a septic tank, and a concrete slab for a toilet bowl were provided. The families built the toilet walls and roof with their own funds. Increasing the number of households with toilets improves health outcomes in the community.

Regards,

Ruth Thomas

www.worldhope.org.au

A Visit from Old Friends

Robert Mattke followed Leo Cox as Kingsley College principal in 1953. While Robert, Jeanette and their daughter Sharon lived and worked at the college their second daughter Beth was born.

This week at the College headquarters Beth (Mattke) and Jeff Long called in to see what God is doing in the life of the college all of these years later.

This visit is Beth’s first return to Australia since leaving when she was 7. Both Beth and Jeff were very excited to see the old college building, old photos, the current HQ, and to hear the stories of Kingsley College training centres active around Australia and students connected via web conference from across the country.

Jeff and Beth had not seen the video on the Kingsley College website that includes an interview with her Mum and Dad- as they remembered their ministry in Australia.

(See the Kingsley College webpage http://kingsley.edu.au/video-resources/)

Beth was struck by the legacy her father had instilled in her family, and also his impact upon the Australian church and Kingsley College. I am encouraged as I see the legacy left by our current Kingsley College trainers- as they follow in Robert Mattke’s footsteps and invest their lives into Kingsley students and the denomination.

Take time to thank God for families like the Mattkes who invested into the college and this church, and also pray for current Kingsley College trainers as they seek to serve their Saviour and equip the saints for ministry.

Kingsley Community Training in Semester Two, 2018

Kingsley classes of lay people and ministerial candidates, of Wesleyan Methodists and people from other denominations, are gathering each week this semester as part of their study with the college. Kingsley Community classes are being held in North Lakes, Mackenzie, Goodna, Zillmere, Townsville, Perth, Dandenong, Canberra, and Broadmeadows- with students connected to these training centres via web conference from many more locations. In this way we are seeking to fulfil the vision of the college: to prepare passionate people for ministry.

Men and women just like you are learning and growing in confidence and ability. Consider joining a Kingsley Community class near you, or by web conference, and please be praying for God’s work in the lives of each Kingsley student.

Kevin Brown

Over recent years my ministry mindset has shifted from addition to multiplication – has yours?  There is a lot to talk about in the Wesleyan Church concerning this shift we must be making now.  Let’s start the conversation now, not in 10 years.
Our new Heartbeat ‘vision’ statement is highlighting this priority focus.  It says we celebrate when ‘disciples make disciples’ and ‘churches multiply themselves’. That’s a nice statement isn’t it? I’m sure we all believe it, but it’s now time to translate that into actionable steps.  It begins with a conversation around multiplication.

As I’ve spent time learning more about multiplication, I’m now convinced it’s the only way we can achieve the Great Commission and reach our goal of experiencing the ‘transforming presence of Jesus Christ throughout our nation’.   If we embrace multiplication as a new measure of success in our lives and ministries we will begin to spark a movement, and we will leave a legacy for generations to follow in our footsteps.  The opposite is true too, if we continue on the path of ‘addition’ focused results as our measure of success, we may grow a few bigger churches in the short term (maybe), but we will miss out on the movement that we could have been a part of (what a shame that would be).

When it comes to church planting movements, Ralph Moore is someone we can learn a great deal from. Ralph is the founding pastor of the Hope Chapel movement, now numbering more than 2,300 churches worldwide. He currently serves on the Exponential team as their multiplication catalyst and specialist in resource development for multiplication.
Ralph says, “The church landscape is changing. Increasing numbers of leaders are awakening to the reality that we are losing ground in our addition- and growth-focused approaches. Many are beginning to wrestle with their personal measures of success and legacy.”
We all know the main focus of our ministry should be making disciples.  I want to introduce a change in thinking for us to consider. Let’s shift our focus from making disciples to making ‘disciple makers’.  To just make a disciple is about adding one person to the kingdom.  However, to make a disciple who makes disciples creates a larger kingdom impact through multiplication.

My focus in my ministry is now all about changing the mindset from addition to multiplication, and not through growing bigger churches, or mass media, or larger platforms.  I believe we need to shift to disciples who make disciples who make disciples, and we need to plant churches that multiply themselves.  In other words, in the DNA of every church is this purpose and passion to multiply.  Multiplication is not just a part of who we are or what we do, its actually ‘why’ we exist – to make disciple makers and churches that multiply.
With a multiplication mindset the limitations of the old ‘hold onto what I have and add to it’, the old ‘church growth’ mindset are lifted, and the possibilities become endless as the results can become exponential, and God focused.

Recently, I have had another in-depth look at our national church’s annual statistics.  I have looked at our 20-year history, but also narrowed down to our 5-year history to look for any trends emerging. Without going into the details of that research here, I’m convinced that we need to make a full shift into a multiplication model of ministry, and I believe that this would honour God, spark a movement, and leave a legacy for generations. This shift begins with your mindset – to add or multiply?
Our national leadership is making that mind-shift.  This is why over the past 12 months our national leadership have taken some big steps toward becoming a multiplication focused movement:

1. We released our new vision statement that is multiplication focused: “We celebrate every time a disciple makes a disciple, and a church multiplies itself, until there is the transforming presence of Jesus Christ in every community throughout Australia.”  I hope this vision statement becomes part of the DNA of every Wesleyan Church. If it does, it should translate into some big changes that need to be made.
2. We have developed a multiplication model for church planting called, “POD Church”. Check out www.podchurch.org.auThis is a simple strategy that enables every church, big and small, to be part of multiplying.  Who will be the first to plant a POD church?
3. We began training at National Pastor’s Conference on the importance of discipleship pathways that focus on disciples making disciple makers. These video sessions are now available when you login to the National Impulse website, and click on module #2.  Check out www.nationalimpulse.org.au

We must shift our focus from making disciples to making disciple makers. And, as Paul points out to his young apprentice Timothy, we have to make disciples that multiply churches that multiply churches to the fourth generation. In 2 Timothy, Paul writes: “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others” (2 Tim. 2:2) .
THREE STEPS TOWARD MULTIPLICATION 

1. Start reading about it.  God is moving around the world right now and its in this area of multiplication.  Learn about it, change your ministry mindset, and join what the Holy Spirit is doing. Check out these FREE e-books on discipleship and multiplication, available for free via https://exponential.org/resource-ebooks/
2. Start Talking about it.  Pastors and leadership teams need to ask these questions: “What’s our plan to multiply? How are we making disciple makers? When will our church multiply itself?”  Put these questions on your LBA agenda.  Ask these questions in strategic leadership meetings. If you don’t talk about it, nothing will happen. You don’t need to wait until you grow ‘bigger’ to begin talking about multiplication, if you do that you’ve missed the point. I pray that as pastors and leaders we begin talking about this together as our main priority, our focus, and measure of success.
3. Start taking steps toward it.  Don’t just talk about it, implement your disciplship pathway to start making disciple makers.  Take some radical steps of faith toward your church multiplying itself.  Dream together and set a plan in place.  Learn about the POD church model and contact us to talk about it.

In finishing up, ask yourself, “have I focused too much on addition instead of multiplication?”  This addition mindset is the mindset that says ‘bigger is better’ or ‘hold onto what I have’.  Our goal tends to be to add more to what we have, to see more bums on seats and bigger buildings to sit them in, and that can be how we gauge our success.  But if we’re honest, this approach doesn’t work and is impossible to fulfil the Great Commission.  We need to change our mindset.  Simply adding more to what we already have is not the answer and never was. God didn’t call us to add and hold on, he called us to disciple and send out, take the limits off and multiply.

Rev. Troy Beer

There is a well-known Chinese proverb “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.”

Investing in people or a community  and providing them with the means to be able to provide for their own basic needs like food, shelter etc.

At World Hope International we believe in providing those in need with opportunity, dignity and hope so they can possess the tools for change in themselves, their family and their community.

The needs present in today’s world are complex and deeply interconnected. Our program areas complement one another and act as a comprehensive response to poverty. Students who are drinking clean water stay in school longer. Further education leads to better job opportunities. Stable families are less vulnerable to traffickers’ lies. Children who are free from slavery grow up with opportunity, dignity and hope. Those with access to clean water live healthier, more productive lives. The upward cycle continues.

At World Hope International, we don’t claim to have the grand solution to ending poverty. But there are simple steps we can take to alleviate suffering and empower the poor to help themselves.

Our programs bring tangible and positive change to the individuals we work with, who then go on to transform their communities and their countries. We base what we do on long-term results: we offer much more than charity, we provide resources and knowledge to the poor, so they can ultimately become agents of change within their communities.

Mushroom Grow Houses – Cambodia

In Cambodia, 80% of the population lives in rural areas, where the primary occupation is rice farming. Rice farming only occurs from May to November, leaving farmers without a steady source of income for the remaining five months of the year. As a result, a high number of men migrate to Thailand for work, leaving women vulnerable as the head of their households.

WHI’s Solution

To ensure a year-round cash flow for rural farming families, World Hope International (WHI) works with farmers to create Mushroom Grow Houses out of waste from last season’s rice and mung bean harvests. Several crops of mushrooms can be grown in a single year and sold at local markets, with an average return on investmentof three and a half months.

Beginning with our Sisters Program in 2014, 128 female-led households were members of a savings group formed by WHI. WHI later expanded this program to explore mushroom production in five villages in Kampong Cham Province, Cambodia.

To bolster success of mushroom farmers, in 2016 WHI launched Thera Metrey. Meaning “Compassionate Earth,” Thera Metrey is a local cooperative enterprise for collective sorting, processing and delivery of mushrooms and other cash crops produced by farmer households. Through Thera Metrey, WHI is able to connect farmers to markets at competitive prices, ensuring production leads to income.

The Impact

Mushroom farming has had a large impact on the lives of rural Cambodians, adding over $2,000 to farmer incomes annually and enabling them to stop traveling to urban areas for work, save for larger purchases, and pay off existing loans. As husbands and wives no longer need to separate to earn a living, families work side-by-side to contribute to the success of their mushrooms farms.

Some mushroom growers have built water wells to increase their production and to expand into other cash crops like mung beans, which enhance soil in addition to serving as a food source, as well as higher value cultivars such as black and yellow ginger, rosella, cacao and avocado. Others have gone on to build even more mushroom houses and buy agricultural waste from neighboring farms to supply their mushroom operations.

Investing in communities in Cambodia and using the agricultural waste that is readily available to them, WHI has been able to “Teach a man to fish” so they can feed themselves and their children.

To support World Hope International in our efforts to ‘invest in people and communities’ go to www.worldhope.org.au

Thank you for your support.

Ruth Thomas
CEO
World Hope International (Australia)