Volume 1, Issue 7
News From Australia
September 5, 2010
Praises and Prayer:
 Praise for Alex accepting
Christ!
 Pray for some of the non-
Christians that are still hang-
ing around us after the “Why
I don’t believe” series to
come to know Jesus. (Rob,
Matt, Tyler, Michelle, Brad,
Steve, Ben, and Bonnie)
 Praise God for our students
willingness to go sharing on
campus. Pray they would
develop a life-long heart to
spread the Gospel
 Ask God to continue to pro-
vide financially for my 2nd
year in Australia.
Aussie-isms
“Swimmers”: bathing suits
“Sheila”: A woman
“Tall Poppies”: successful people
“Tall Poppy Syndrome”: the tendency
to criticize successful people
“Thongs”: flip flops
Team photo on top of a hill over looking
the ocean after we went sand boarding
for a team fun day.
Contact Info
Address:
29 Compton Street
North Lambton NSW 2299
Australia
Email: grady.toews@gmail.com
Blog: www.gradyt.blogspot.com
Phone : 011 61 468 642 092 or
406-551-4744 (leave a message)
Grady Toews in the land of Oz
Why I Don’t Believe
We are already halfway
through the 2nd part of the
year here in Newcastle. The
first 3 weeks were chaotic.
During that time we had short
-term mission team of 18 stu-
dents and staff from the U.S.
helping us out (U.S. Summer
Project). We were so blessed
by their presence! They
helped us put on an outreach
called “Why I don’t believe.”
This was a series of events
held in place of our weekly
meeting on Thursdays. The
purpose of the events were to
invite students of all beliefs
(especially skeptics) to come
and discuss why they do or
don’t believe in God. We
wanted to communicate to
them that we realize there are
many reasons as to why peo-
ple don’t believe, and we are
Looking to the last half of the semester
We are currently promoting
our own Summer Project for
Australian students to go on at
the end of November for 2
weeks. The project is in Lorne
(west of Melbourne on the
Great Ocean Road). Please be
praying for students to go and
pray for them as they raise fi-
nancial support to go. Summer
Projects are incredible oppor-
tunities for students to be chal-
lenged in their faith and to
learn to share their faith. I re-
not ignorant to these reasons.
Each meeting started out with
a “Sausage Sizzle”, then pro-
gressed to a time of discus-
sion, and ended with a short
talk from someone about an
issue they had in their belief
in God and how it was re-
solved. The first week was
focused on emotional/social
reasons why people don’t be-
lieve followed by intellectual
and personal reasons for the
2nd and 3rd weeks. We were
blown away by the number of
people that came each week.
The room we were in on the
3rd week was packed full of
people. On that night, a guy
named Alex even gave his life
to Christ!
One of the main goals we had
for the Summer Project while
member how God challenged
me in my own Summer Project
in Croatia back in 2008. God
used that time in my life in
great ways, and I would not be
here in Australia if it weren’t
for the time I spent in Croatia.
We have moved our weekly
meeting back to my house on
Thursday nights. The move in
both locations and time has not
been helpful in maintaining the
momentum from the “Why I
they were here was to pair
them up with some of the Aus-
sie students involved in our
ministry to go do surveys on
campus. God used this to chal-
lenge the Aussie students to
share their faith on campus.
Since the Summer Project left,
we have continued to pair
students with students to
regularly share the Gospel
with others on campus. This
has been one of our goals for
the year, and it has been such
a privilege to see God taking
our movement in that direc-
tion. Our students are starting
to be “come and doers” rather
than “come and seers” as has
been the case in the past Pray
for our students hearts to be
broken for their campus while
they are sharing.
don’t believe” series. We have
been struggling to figure out
how to best handle this transi-
tion. Please pray for this time.
Stacey, Kara, Shawn, and I showing
our enthusiasm for sand boarding.