october’s observations
Thanks again for your partnership in the gospel! With your prayer and support I’ve had a fruitful October, and I’m in for a good November! I'm counting down the Sundays till the end of the year (eight!) As usual here’s some highlights from this month, and I’ve dropped some reflections and prayer points at the bottom.
Hello from us on our day off!
But I with the voice of thanksgiving
will sacrifice to you;
what I have vowed I will pay.
Salvation belongs to the LORD!”
I haven’t read Jonah in a long time and was a bit unsure about teaching the youth from chapter 2, but I’m now convinced that rather than a prayer of petition, it’s a prayer of thanksgiving from Jonah. He is thankful to God for saving him from the certain death of the sea by sending a fish to swallow him and acknowledges only God can save. My prayer is that we too can continue to be thankful to God for saving each of us by his grace into his family!
preaching at SOW
For the first time ever I preached two weeks in a row! Captivate is blessed with the opportunity to preach regularly at SOW macquarie, and this semester Radman took the lead in preparing a five series in 2 Timothy, and I was able to preach from 2 Tim 2:14-26, and 2 Tim 3:1-4:5. It was definitely testing to get the exegesis done and preach well two weeks in a row! My main points for each sermon were “Handle the word of truth carefully for your life and for the lives around you.” and “Remain in the word of God while we wait for Christ’s return”. I will endeavour to upload the sermons here soon!
preaching with one hand on the mic was a little more challenging than I expected
captivate youth
Thanks for praying for our youth! I’ve worked with two other leaders on our series in Jonah which we’re halfway through now. I’ve really enjoyed leading youth this year, and this term being part of the teaching has been both a great pleasure and learning experience. Praise God also for our combined youth event with Beecroft, Epping, and Macquarie Chapel Presbyterian churches. Rad gave an excellent talk on the 31st of October called “Fear no more” from Luke 24, on why we can fear no more because Jesus has defeated death and is by our side now and for forever!
the gospel was clearly preached, which included two kpop demon hunters illustrations!
a hundred days old
We celebrated 100 days since Emmeline’s birth! We hosted our extended families, almost all of who are non-Christians. We continue to be challenged by the opportunities that God has given us, and are so thankful that Emmeline has been a great opportunity for us to minister to not only families at church but also our extended family. Most of all we are thankful that God continues to grow and sustain her, and we pray that she would love our Lord for all of her life!
as Emme grows she has become very aware of the world around her and looks very intently at whatever she's fixed on.
norming on sundays
This past month was probably also the busiest for Sundays for me, I was able to serve twice on the welcoming team, service lead twice, and be on kid’s church where I lead the preschoolers. Praise God for having equipped me to juggle these tasks, as well as sustaining me through this time. I definitely feel that this year has been fruitful in God growing my capacity and competency such that I’m feeling quite comfortable with a broad range of tasks, and it all feels pretty routine and (almost) second nature.
what my desk looks like during the week
reflections
- - Being organised saves a lot of energy when things are busy—putting in the extra effort to be organised with my tasks early on has been paying off well as I handle lots of different responsibilities, I spend less time having to think about what to work on and it helps me stay grounded as I have a good idea of what I’m doing and how it serves the gospel.
- - Repeating the same task (even if hard) goes a long way for growing! Preaching twice in a row helped me with my confidence and delivery for the second time, likewise with service leading and kid’s church. In all of these things I have definitely felt that God has grown me through persevering in these ministries as he prepares me for a lifetime of ministry!
- - Keep loving the word even when it’s busy. It’s important for me (and for all of us) to spend time in God’s word no matter how busy it is. I’ve felt this in the busy-ness of getting stuff done it’s easy to just try to get work done, but as I preached on 2 Timothy I was challenged to keep letting the word shape me. Handling the word of truth carefully is not only exegeting and preaching well, but also letting that word of truth dwell in my heart and change me.
- - Leading well serves the gospel well! I have definitely benefitted in being led and trained well over many years, and I see this also across many ministry teams at captivate! I am thankful for the team leaders that I meet up with as God has been gracious in equipping these people well to serve him for his glory!
prayer points
- - Our church is starting our series in the Song of Solomon - pray for wisdom and faithfulness as I will be preaching one week and leading Bible studies throughout!
- - For our youth group in finishing up the book of Jonah, pray that they’d continue to be struck by the depth’s of God’s grace, and for our two evangelistic social events that we’re running at the end of the month!
- - Our church has Baptism and membership coming up this month! Praise God three people who have come to Christ through ministry at captivate including one youth who has grown up through the kids ministry and who is ready to profess God’s faithfulness to him!
- - Our welcoming team has our biannual rally this month which I am working on with the other welcoming team leaders! Pray for the team in faithfully cultivating a welcoming culture at church and what that looks like for many changes coming up in 2026.
- - Pray for the many other teams across captivate as we plan for 2026 as we approach big changes happening next year! In particular I'll be planning with the tech team, welcoming team, and production setup teams.
🙏 Thank you again for your partnership in the gospel! Shoot through a message when you've prayed (even if it's just a "hey!") and let me know how I can be praying for you also!
Emme's foot vs my big toe