Over the past weekend, I had the joy of taking nine young adult leaders from the Nelson Diocese to The Abbey, the annual Anglican conference for young leaders. This year was particularly special as it marked the first time in four years that the event was able to be held due to lockdowns and event restrictions. It was a great time of connecting as a group over in Wellington, drawing closer to Jesus, making new friends from across diocese and tikanga, and growing in ministry skills. The weekend theme was “Fill Your Cup”, and I encouraged each of our young leaders to take what they needed from the weekend, whether it was rest or connection or equipping. Here’s some feedback from a number of our team on how their cups were filled at The Abbey.
Throughout The Abbey, there were some amazing times of worship and prayer. Shara, youth worker at Hills Community Church, paints a vivid picture of her time at Saturday night worship.
Saturday night worship was an absolute highlight for me. After the main session ended, the band kept playing – they had cushions all laid out at the back of the auditorium, and anyone could go and receive prayer from the team. As I was sitting there, reflecting of God’s presence and love, something incredible happened. The Holy Spirit began to speak through the song lyrics and, what felt to be, directly to me. How deep the Father’s love for us! How vast beyond all measure! For about fifteen minutes I was just sitting there, lost in this beautiful moment of closeness and connection with God as he was literally filling my cup to the brim with renewed emotions and understanding of his word.
Rose, missions intern at St Stephens Tahunanui, shared how her cup was being filled unexpectedly through God providing healing for her.
Over the weekend I learned that God’s timing is perfect! On one evening I had to miss the main session because of a medical emergency I was having. It was physically one of the most painful times I have been through but one of the most spiritually and mentally uplifting. I’d been praying for God to show me someone in my life who understands what I go through, and he provided in my worst time. He found someone who was also at The Abbey, who was more spiritually mature than me, to speak into my life at the moment. I had been praying for healing and this was the emotional healing I needed. God uses every space whether planned by us or not.
One of the joys of the Anglican Church is our diversity, and it was so encouraging to see my team make new friendships and reconnect with old ones. Despite a broken coffee machine on the first morning, Shara made an unexpected connection.
One standout connection was with a youth worker from the Christchurch Diocese. We met while waiting for coffee that groggy first morning. She came up to me, and although we were both half asleep, we started chatting. We shared about our lives, studies, and experiences of non-Christian communities. Then we hung out together for the rest of The Abbey.
Mike, St Stephens Tahunanui missions intern (and Rose's fiancé), was thrilled to reconnect with an older couple who he had known from his time in Papua New Guinea.
I reconnected with a couple who I met over in Papua New Guinea five years ago, and they were part of the team who prayed for Rose and I.
Renata, intern at Victory Church, found the final speaker of The Abbey incredibly powerful.
A memorable speaker for me was our very own Alice Kinyua, who shared how God calls us in our weakness and empowers us with His Holy Spirit. She also shared some of her personal story of moving to New Zealand and the spiritual poverty that she encountered here with churches closing, compared to Kenya where people would be reading Bibles together at school or talking about Jesus on the street.
Ollie, All Saints youth leader, also mentioned that Alice’s talk was one of his highlights.
I think the most memorable speaker for me was Alice’s speaking, I really loved the message of although we are broken, we are still called to lead.
The Abbey was an awesome space where connections were deepened, spirits were refreshed and hearts were transformed by the love of Christ. It was exciting to see God move in a variety of ways throughout the weekend and seeing him fill the cups of our young leaders in the unique ways each of them needed.
Until next year's Abbey, let's continue to seek God in prayer, asking for his Holy Spirit to keep our cups full so that we may best love and serve the Lord, our communities and each other.
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We have invited these writers to share their experiences, ideas and opinions in the hope that these will provoke thought, challenge you to go deeper and inspire you to put your faith into action. These articles should not be taken as the official view of the Nelson Diocese on any particular matter.
Over the past weekend, I had the joy of taking nine young adult leaders from the Nelson Diocese to The Abbey, the annual Anglican conference for young leaders. This year was particularly special as it marked the first time in four years that the event was able to be held due to lockdowns and event restrictions. It was a great time of connecting as a group over in Wellington, drawing closer to Jesus, making new friends from across diocese and tikanga, and growing in ministry skills. The weekend theme was “Fill Your Cup”, and I encouraged each of our young leaders to take what they needed from the weekend, whether it was rest or connection or equipping. Here’s some feedback from a number of our team on how their cups were filled at The Abbey.
Throughout The Abbey, there were some amazing times of worship and prayer. Shara, youth worker at Hills Community Church, paints a vivid picture of her time at Saturday night worship.
Saturday night worship was an absolute highlight for me. After the main session ended, the band kept playing – they had cushions all laid out at the back of the auditorium, and anyone could go and receive prayer from the team. As I was sitting there, reflecting of God’s presence and love, something incredible happened. The Holy Spirit began to speak through the song lyrics and, what felt to be, directly to me. How deep the Father’s love for us! How vast beyond all measure! For about fifteen minutes I was just sitting there, lost in this beautiful moment of closeness and connection with God as he was literally filling my cup to the brim with renewed emotions and understanding of his word.
Rose, missions intern at St Stephens Tahunanui, shared how her cup was being filled unexpectedly through God providing healing for her.
Over the weekend I learned that God’s timing is perfect! On one evening I had to miss the main session because of a medical emergency I was having. It was physically one of the most painful times I have been through but one of the most spiritually and mentally uplifting. I’d been praying for God to show me someone in my life who understands what I go through, and he provided in my worst time. He found someone who was also at The Abbey, who was more spiritually mature than me, to speak into my life at the moment. I had been praying for healing and this was the emotional healing I needed. God uses every space whether planned by us or not.
One of the joys of the Anglican Church is our diversity, and it was so encouraging to see my team make new friendships and reconnect with old ones. Despite a broken coffee machine on the first morning, Shara made an unexpected connection.
One standout connection was with a youth worker from the Christchurch Diocese. We met while waiting for coffee that groggy first morning. She came up to me, and although we were both half asleep, we started chatting. We shared about our lives, studies, and experiences of non-Christian communities. Then we hung out together for the rest of The Abbey.
Mike, St Stephens Tahunanui missions intern (and Rose's fiancé), was thrilled to reconnect with an older couple who he had known from his time in Papua New Guinea.
I reconnected with a couple who I met over in Papua New Guinea five years ago, and they were part of the team who prayed for Rose and I.
Renata, intern at Victory Church, found the final speaker of The Abbey incredibly powerful.
A memorable speaker for me was our very own Alice Kinyua, who shared how God calls us in our weakness and empowers us with His Holy Spirit. She also shared some of her personal story of moving to New Zealand and the spiritual poverty that she encountered here with churches closing, compared to Kenya where people would be reading Bibles together at school or talking about Jesus on the street.
Ollie, All Saints youth leader, also mentioned that Alice’s talk was one of his highlights.
I think the most memorable speaker for me was Alice’s speaking, I really loved the message of although we are broken, we are still called to lead.
The Abbey was an awesome space where connections were deepened, spirits were refreshed and hearts were transformed by the love of Christ. It was exciting to see God move in a variety of ways throughout the weekend and seeing him fill the cups of our young leaders in the unique ways each of them needed.
Until next year's Abbey, let's continue to seek God in prayer, asking for his Holy Spirit to keep our cups full so that we may best love and serve the Lord, our communities and each other.
Check out other articles in the
series below.
More articles in the
series are to come.
