Ourimbah Christian Students

Hi Everyone!

We are kicking off Semester 2 with a bang!

Join us for a coffee and dessert night at 7:30pm next Monday, August 2nd, at The Bakehouse Cafe Lisarow Plaza, Lisarow.

It’ll be a great opportunity to connect with the Christians on campus and hear about all the stuff going on for OCS this semester. With coffees and desserts only $1 each, I’m sure we will have a great time! You can rsvp on this Facebook page.

See you there!

A week later and my head still hurts! 15 Ourimbah Christian Students joined 140 Newcastle Christian Students for a hectic week of conference in Toukley, called WinterCon. The week was jam-packed with talks, bible studies, discussions and debates, centred around the topic of ‘Relationships’.

I have come away being stretched in my knowledge of the Word as I was pushed to consider and wrestle with big ideas, some for the first time. It has just blown me away to see the sacrificial love in the relationships in the Trinity. This love extends so far that Jesus would even glorify his Father by dying on the cross. Jesus’ love for the Father brought him to serve him, even at the cost of death. God has made us in his image, which means we are made to be relational also. But our sin damaged this relationship between us and God. I am in awe of the grace of God, as now the love the Father has for Jesus is in us (John 17:25-26). We are no longer in a destroyed relationship with God. Sin is completely dealt with. Jesus is the true love!

Grasping the love that God offers in his relationship with us has been encouraging as well as convicting and challenging. The love Jesus has for us should compel us to live for him. 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 says “For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.” We are called to live a life that brings glory to Him. Therefore my life should be centred around God, my thoughts should be fixed on Him so that I bring glory to the one who deserves my praise. This has challenged me to make every decision on asking this question: “What will lead me to love and glorify God most?” Living for God’s glory was shown at the cross and bringing him glory is what we now need to live for.

Spending a week with Christians all at the same stage of life as me has been so encouraging. It has been incredible meeting these people and reminded me of the bigger picture, that we are part of God’s great plan of reconciling the world to him. As we wrestled through the Bible and spend time in prayer together I was just so encouraged to see the passion in the lives of the uni students. It was so exciting to see and be part of the unity we have as brothers and sisters in Christ.

There was no better way to use that week of holidays, it was definitely the best use of my time.

So keen for WinterCon 2011!

See you there!
Stacey

Ourimbah Christian Students (OCS) is a student-led group on the Ourimbah Campus of the University of Newcastle.

We are a group of Reformed Evangelical Christians who have a passion to serve and glorify Jesus Christ by proclaiming the word of God. We do this on campus by giving students the opportunity to find out more about Jesus, and we connect with other Christians to help them to reach out to their network of friends with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Student Executive for 2010 is Lachlan Campbell and Stacey Owers. The Executive appoints Chaplains to assist them with OCS – the role of the Chaplains is that of Ephesians 4:12 – “to equip the saints for the work of ministry”. The Chaplains for 2010 are Adam Gregory and Telena Hogbin.

OCS is affiliated with AFES. We have adopted the doctrinal basis of AFES as described here.

We are also in partnership with Newcastle Christian Students.

Ourimbah Christian Students (OCS) is devoted to glorifying Jesus Christ on the Ourimbah Campus of the University of Newcastle.

We want to give every student on campus the opportunity to find out more about Jesus – who he was, what he did, and most importantly, an understanding of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Our prayer is that many will be brought to put their trust in Jesus, and in doing so, enter into a relationship with the True and Living God. We run a course designed to introduce people to the person and work of Jesus Christ – our next course will start in the next few weeks, so watch this space!

We also seek to connect with other Christians on campus. We do this so that we can train and equip them to serve Jesus with their lives. We run bible study groups, and training courses (for example, training people in Two Ways To Live) throughout the semester.

In partnership with The Lakes Church, we also run Church@5 – a church for uni/TAFE students and young workers that meets on Sundays at 5pm in the cafeteria.

Our first event for 2010 is our OCS KickOff dinner, which is on Thursday 4 March.

Come along to Ourimbah RSL for dinner and hear the plans of OCS for the year! Dinner is only $10 and starts at 7pm.

It will be a great night – we hope to see you there!

Church@5, our Sunday evening church has just moved.

We now meet at 5pm at the Berkeley Vale High School hall.

If you would like to contact us, please feel free to leave a comment here, email one of our chaplains Adam Gregory or call 0411 440 404.