Volume 1, Issue 5
News From Australia
June 11, 2010
Praises and Prayer:
 Praise for the 6 new lives in
Christ this semester and for
how God has worked here so
far.
 MYC: July 4-9. Pray for stu-
dents to come and lives to be
changed.
 Pray for the students during
their exams (they are spread
over 3 weeks until June 25)
 Praise for my decision to stay
in Australia.
 Ask God to continue to pro-
vide financially for my 2nd
year in Australia.
Aussie-isms
“Bloke”: Man, guy
“Esky”: Cooler, insulated food/drink
container
“Jelly”: Jell-O, if you want strawberry
jelly you would ask for jam
“Heaps”: A lot, “thanks heaps”
“Road Train”: Semi with 2 or more
trailers
Team celebration after the
marathon of meetings.
Contact Info
Address:
29 Compton Street
North Lambton NSW 2299
Australia
Email: grady.toews@gmail.com
grady.toews@uscm.org
Blog: www.gradyt.blogspot.com
Phone : 011 61 468 642 092
Grady Toews in the land of Oz
Semester 1 is Over
The first semester of 2010 at
the University of Newcastle has
ended. Students are busy in
exams, and the team is taking a
much needed break before Mid
-Year Conference (MYC) July 4.
We ended the first half of the
year in a marathon of meetings
preparing for MYC and next
semester. We end the semester
with about 35 students in-
volved with Student Life in
some way, whether that is in a
Core Group (Bible study), Real
Life (weekly meeting), Christi-
anity Explained course, or dis-
cipleship. Our marathon meet-
ings were mainly focused on
developing a plan on how to get
a higher level of commitment
and involvement from those 35.
We hope to challenge each of
the 35 to some sort of deeper
involvement in evangelism
Decisions Decided
My last Newsletter I asked you
to pray for me as I decided
whether or not to stay a 2nd
year here in Australia. I didn’t
lay out a fleece or see words
appear in Bible (this time at
least); nor did I sense a clear
direction this time. I honestly
don’t know if God wants me to
stay here or not. However, I
have decided to stay here a 2nd
year. This is a decision made on
faith. If God wants me else-
especially. We want students to
rely on Jesus to make disciples
rather than only being involved
in things like Core Groups or
Real Life. This was already a
focus of ours, but we want to
make sure it is a priority.
Please pray for us as we con-
tinue toward this goal of a
“Student Led” movement. Pray
for God to challenge the 35
students involved to be on
board with this vision, and for
God to raise up laborers for His
Kingdom on Newcastle Uni and
Australia.
Shawn and Ben leading worship at
Real Life
where He will need to close the
door here and send me else-
where. For now the door is
wide open here.
You are such a blessing! I asked
if you would to partner with me
in ministry here in Australia for
at least one year through prayer
and financial gifts. Now I
would like to ask you to commit
for at least one more year.
Thank you for everything so
Time for a Vacation
We finally get a time to do
some traveling throughout the
Land Down Under. Shawn and
Heather just returned from an
excursion up to Cairns
(pronounced Cans, makes no
sense I know) to the Great Bar-
rier Reef. Four of us (Nick,
Kara, Stacey, and me) are go-
ing on a 6000 km road trip to
the center of Australia and
back. Our destination is a rock
in the middle of a desert. Yep.
We are heading to a place
called Uluru, formerly known
as Ayers Rock. This adventure
will take us through 3 states
and 1 territory, past mines,
kangaroos, dingoes, snakes,
and lots of red sand. Please
pray for a safety and a good
relaxing break.
far. Please prayerfully consider
partnering with me again. I will
try to be in contact with each of
you in the next several months
to see what you have decided. If
you already know you would
like to continue giving, send me
an email saying so. (This would
save me a lot of time.) If I don’t
here from you I will try to call
you in the coming months.
Thank you all so much!