News From Across Western Victoria

What I love about SU is the way that it embraces and acknowledges the breadth of expressions of Christian faith. I love the heartbeat to have fun doing what we love. And what we love to do is give every young person and family a chance to have a transforming encounter with Jesus, really, what could be greater in terms of a mission. It doesn’t matter if you’re serving in church, doing it on your own, in your street or in a role like mine, helping young people have transforming experiences is a pretty exciting opportunity.

The Western Region runs for the South Australian border down the A8 through Nhill and Ballarat to Melbourne and along the Great Ocean Road to Portland. The region currently includes:

• 19 SUFMs, Theos and KidsGames
• 7 school chaplaincies
• 15 teams of schools volunteers
• 2 camps - Great Vic Bike Ride, Performing Arts Camp
• 1 Catalyst in Portland along with 8 Catalyst programs on the Bellarine Peninsula

Out in the West I’m seeing a real desire to explore doing things differently, whether that’s with SUFM, Theos or in schools. Our volunteers are sharing that they want God to have a greater impact through our schools and volunteer programs. I see really great SUFM, Theos, KidsGames and Camp directors, many of them quite young, leading teams, and it’s quite extraordinary. In the lead up to summer we’re working with our missions directors to reimage what mission could look like for their teams in this season. I’m also having great conversations with church communities about catalyst opportunities, including places like Colac, Timboon, Barwon Heads, Footscray and Geelong. There are so many ways we can support and help shape ministries to relationally connect people and set up structure for that to happen through catalyst programs. That’s really exciting.