Matt Short

Following the theme of my last post, this past week I met another man during our Friday night in Christchurch who was very open and willing to talk. Dave was a older gentleman who had grown up in Colorado, lived in Alaska for many years and now moved his family out to NZ. He said that he had been raised Catholic, born again but had recently renounced his faith. At first I went digging, finding out that he believed that he’d been wronged by leaders of a church and couldn’t believe in that faith anymore. However, soon I felt a check in my spirit that said, “SHUT UP and listen”. Everything I said and encouraged him with went in one ear and out the other so I shut up and listened. Quickly I learned that Dave was a very broken and sad man who lacked a healthy relationship with his father. At the conclusion of our conversation Dave admitted to me that he was honestly lost without his faith, and though still struggling, wanted to regain his faith in the Lord.

This became a cool testimony that I used to prove our speakers point this week. Our speaker, Mike Dodge spoke on Evangelism these past two days and outlined a few different ways we can evangelize and to some students surprise one of his points was “Being Silent”. That’s exactly what Dave needed that night, someone to be silent and lovingly listen to him as he processed why he’d given up his faith. So I shared that testimony and were able to encourage the students to be attentive to the Holy Spirit’s leading in evangelism. One day I may need to yell in someone’s face to get them to where God can speak with them, and may God give me grace on that day, but that wasn’t what Dave needed and the Lord knew that.
Last week we had Dean Sherman’s “Love, Sex and Relationships” video series for lectures which sorta dragged since there was no lecturer there to interact with, but I enjoyed facilitating and running discussion times. I was also able to liven things up with what I deemed our “Communication and Care Egg-xercise”. For the egg-xercise the students were paired off and given an egg to look after the entire week. The only stipulation was that one of the two must have their egg on them at ALL times. I wish I were a scientist because I feel like I would have recorded some very interestingly comical data about communication break downs within relationships.

The week before that Patrick Dodson taught on “Vision and Calling”. Even though I’ve heard his teaching before I feel like I’m finally in a place where I can begin to build longer term goals, where as before I don’t feel like I had the platform of experience as I do now. Patrick’s goal throughout the week is to help you discover the gifts God has created you with and then explore all the possibilities that could come from them. His lectures are INCREDIBLE and something I’d recommend anyone to look into. I’ve added his website to my blog role on the left. Click on the picture/link and it will take you to his website where you can find his materials, podcasts or get in touch with him.

The school is doing well. Outreach is approaching quickly and everyone’s getting excited. We have four teams: Thailand, Australia, and two NZ teams. One student has decided not to go on outreach which is a disappointment but I won’t burden a team with someone who doesn’t want to be there. So in the end, I’m left sad yet knowing it’s better for the sake of the team, even if it isn’t for him.

If you’ve read this far THANK YOU… this is the third time I’ve typed this update because twice my computer froze on me losing my work. God Bless and take care

-Matt Short

WOOOOOHOOOO!!! I figured out how to post pics on my blog!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Man, I wish I had more time to write these blogs! I feel like I’m HARDLY doing the Lord justice. He’s doing so many incredible things that he should be glorified for but I just can’t write them all out. My hope rests in some day sharing these stories with you all in person. But for the moment, one more:

Two Friday’s ago I was blessed to join the Friday night evangelism team that does their ministry in the Christchurch city square. It was great to be back in this setting seeing how this was the ministry I lead last year but wasn’t quite sure what to expect. The square in Christchurch is a pretty cool place. Tons of people just hang around and a couple churches come down every Friday night to do free sausage sizzles and play worship. In the Square Ministry we occasionally will have something planned such as skits, activities or other creative presentations that the students can use to share the Gospel. However, more commonly we just hang around the square and talk with people about faith, love, relationships, God, the Gospel or anything else as we feel lead. So that’s what I did.
I was just hanging out with a few of my students, throwing around a frisbee, when I noticed a kid sitting on a bench near me that had a similar bag as I do, so used that as my door and asked him about it. Nathan was a 20 year old Kiwi dude that had grown up in Auckland but had recently moved down to Christchurch because of some rough living situations at home.

And may I put the story on pause for a moment. The 2nd as well as 3rd comment he ever made to me was, “F’ off”. So let me use that as an example to say, “Don’t ever let someone’s demeanor put you off in evangelism”. By the time we were finished chatting he was glad that I had sat down with him and offered me a bear as a gesture of friendship (that I obviously couldn’t accept, but that’s beside the point).

Ok, sorry…. little bunny trail, but we’re back. Nathan was a bit hacked that I was the same age as him and traveling just as he really hoped to soon, but I was able to use that to encourage him. Referring to Nepal, where I got the bag previously mentioned, I told him that I had been seeking out God and that I’ve been blown away to discover how much he truly loves us. It was comical to hear him claim that he was “sort of an agnostic” while at the same time admit that, “there has to have been SOMETHING that created all this”. So I went on to share with him how much I was blown away by God’s love and my respect for the church members who come down every Friday night to simply love on people. And he could understand that.

Now this isn’t a salvation story but I want to encourage you all with this. Nathan would still be completely ignorant to the fact that there is a God out there who LOVES him unconditionally if it weren’t for that simple conversation. Just LOVE people, that’s what I charge you with today. LOVE is the route of EVERYONE’s calling in life. I’m terrible at it most of the time but I hope and pray that Nathan may have experienced a glimpse of God’s love for him that night.

Glory to God

Anyways, besides that things are going well. I’m SUPER busy now with Outreach teams chosen, but God is good and he’s helping me keep my head. Speaking of, two weeks ago I finalized Outreach teams. One’s going to Thailand, one to Australia and the other two are remaining in New Zealand. Sadly we don’t have an outreach coordinator at the base so that job falls on the staff members leading each team as well as myself so we’ve got quite a bit of work ahead of us. Please be praying things go smoothly and that planning is easy.

Well, I feel like that’s plenty for now. God Bless, and thank you for reading.

-Matt Short