Revival

Missionaries Encourage New Zealand Church

Lynley Smith of Challenge Weekly, New Zealand
Special to ASSIST News Service

CWNews.com – AUCKLAND NZ (ANS) -- The Church in New Zealand is out to make the Gospel relevant to our society and is at the forefront internationally of the emerging church.

Those were encouraging words of Ecuadorian missionary Josue Olmedo, who is visiting New Zealand for a four-month break with his wife and fellow missionary, New Zealander Ruth Hicks.

The couple have been seconded by Tertiary Student Christian Fellowship in New Zealand to work with Community of Christian Students in Ecuador, establishing new groups in universities and training leaders.

“New Zealand is right at the forefront of the emerging church looking for fresh ways to ‘do church’,” he said. “Last time we visited, in 2005, we went to Parachute music festival and I was surprised to see the country’s politicians had been invited there to talk about issues. In Ecuador that would be impossible.”

While New Zealanders watch with longing as large numbers of Asians turn to the Lord in mighty moves of the Spirit, clearly things are a lot better here than they are in some parts of South America.

In contrast to Ecuador, where many Christians are nominal at best, the couple have been inspired by the passion of some New Zealand Christians for their faith, social justice, the environment and quality teaching of the Bible.

Ruth Hicks headed off to Ecuador in 1999 to visit friends and to research for her masters degree in development studies on the way Ecuadorians conceptualise health.

Having been involved with TSCF New Zealand for five years, Ms Hicks signed up with its Ecuador office and met and married Mr Olmedo. For seven years the couple worked for TSCF in Guayaquil, the largest city in Ecuador with a population of more than two million.

“It was a pioneering role,” she said. “I had a heart for urban marginal areas and also for working with tertiary students.”

Ms Hicks said everyone on campus was willing to stop and listen, to have a chat. But it was much harder to get any interest in making a commitment to the Lord, and even harder still to find Christians willing to train as leaders.

“I think a lot of the students spend most of their time trying to survive,” she said. “A lot of them have to work during the day and study at night. There is also a high degree of nominalism in the evangelical church. If they attend a Christian function, that is enough.

“Our goal is to strengthen the student movement by strengthening the leadership,” said Ms Hicks. “When we have graduates with a strong faith who will go into society taking their values with them, we will be changing society.”

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