This is something my church is organising for students in Year 11 & 12 and their parents. It's not a Christian event (though all the presenters are Christians), but simply an opportunity to contribute something to the community.

Pray for the presenters that the seminars will be helpful to students who are anxious about their HSC. Pray also that this event will help raise the profile/awareness of our church in the community, and that in the midst of helping people with their earthly problems that there may be opportunities to deal with deeper spiritual problems.

One week to go! Registrations close this Sunday.

In my previous post, we saw that many Chinese people live in the South, particularly in Hurstville. In fact, there are more Chinese people living in suburb of Hurstville than anywhere else in Australia. Here is the breakdown of the top 10 suburbs populated by Chinese people in NSW (click the image for a larger version):


As you can see, Hurstville is way out on top by a large margin! And on top of that, Chinese people make up a staggering 44% (10,269 out of 23,333 people) of the population in Hurstville! - even higher than Haymarket.


And not only is Hurstville full of Chinese people who live there, but it is also the gathering place for Chinese people. I have no official statistics to prove this, but walk through the main road on any day of the week and you can see that's where lots of Chinese people of all ages gather. It's the real Chinatown of Australia!!

Hurstville also has good public transport (at least by Australian standards). On weekdays, there are trains to the City on average every 4 mins in peak hour and every 8 mins in off-peak time. Plus there are 18 bus routes that services this suburb.

Add all that together and you can see that Hurstville is a great place to do ministry!

Pray for the many Chinese people who live in this suburb and the surrounding areas that God may have mercy upon them. Pray that their hearts will be prepared to hear the gospel and that God may bring them into contact with Christians who will introduce them to Jesus.

PS Andrew Hong had already posted these same statistics a few months back. But I thought it'd be good to do it again since it's directly relevant to my ministry.

Had an "interesting" day at church yesterday.

UP: Found out one of my youth group girls became a Christian on Saturday night at the Yeah Show. Everyone was very happy to hear the news and welcomed her into the family.

Praise God for bringing her to a saving knowledge of his Son Jesus. Pray that she will crave spiritual milk as a newborn and that we as a church community will help her to grow and mature as she begins her new life.

DOWN: There has been a number of rumours in the Cantonese congregation stemming from money issues that has caused a division in the church and one family to leave us. There was a meeting yesterday and what I hope was the start of a peaceful resolution.

Pray for a spirit of unity amongst all the members such that the gates of Hades may not prevail against it. Pray that we will entrust our worries about money to God who richly provides us with everything we need. Pray also for the pastors and leaders as we seek to heal the hurt and find a way forward.

Here are some interesting statistics from the 2006 census that I found on the Australian Bureau of Statistics(ABS) website:

• There were 4 million people living in Sydney in 2006.
• 6.8% (281,305) of those were Chinese.
• 15.4% (33,568) of those live in the St. George Region (SGR) - what I call 'the South' (sorry Shire friends).

The ABS census collects data in 3 regions (technically called Statistical Local Areas): Hurstville, Kogarah and Rockdale. Don't confuse these regions with the suburbs. This is how many Chinese people live in each region (click for larger image):

Hurstville Region: 15,169	Kogarah Region: 9,221
Rockdale Region: 9,178

Here is a composite image:

As you can see, many of them live in the suburb of Hurstville. More on this later.

Pray for this rich harvest field that there would be more workers sent out to preach the good news.

Finally finished my prayer letter! Took me 2 months!

If you would like to receive it, but didn't, please let me know.

Just handed in my essay for the year - in fact, my last essay for my Bachelor degree! It was hard going right up to the end. Now I have 2 exams to go before I finally graduate. My 3 years here has gone by so quick. In many ways I'll miss this place. But I'm definitely looking forward to the end of essay writing! :)

Give thanks for 3 wonderful years of training at SMBC. Pray for me as I prepare for these final exams that I'll continue to learn heaps from the Bible. Pray also for next year as I look for work in an ABC church.