Melbourne University OCF
Reach Out, Build Up, Send Back

Scripture reading: Acts 2:42

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

The essentials of a living church are devotion to apostolic doctrine, loving fellowship, joyful worship, unceasing prayer and compassionate evangelism.

Cambodia

Population: 12,212,306 [42% are under 15 years old]
Religion: Buddhist 86%, Non-religious/other 7%, Muslim 3%, Christian 0.45%

Buddhism has been the national religion since the 15th century. The Khmer Rouge sought to eradicate all religion; 90 per cent of Christians and most Buddhist monks perished. Since 1979 there have been periods of greater tolerance. Christians have been allowed to worship openly only since 1990.

The terrible genocide perpetrated by the Khmer Rouge and subsequent civil wars have devastated the people. There are many widows and orphans and many families were decimated. The land is strewn with mines and many people are maimed physically and emotionally. Pray for a lasting peace with full political and religious freedom.

Pray that God may raise up honourable leaders for the nation, who will alleviate the sufferings of the people.

For centuries Cambodia has been in spiritual darkness. There is strong opposition towards any ideological rival to Buddhism, many spirit shrines and hatred generated by 20 years of war.

The Church needs prayer:

• For freedom from government manipulation and interference, and wisdom in knowing how to relate to the authorities.
• For trained and effective leaders. There is one interdenominational Bible school in Phnom Penh, plus several other small schools.
• For effective Christian families in a nation where family cohesion, trust and love have been severely impaired.
• For ministry to emotional and spiritual needs of both believers and non-Christians, and vision for evangelism.

Christian ministry to physical needs:

• Returning refugees from the Thai camps.
• Most Cambodians with skills or an education were killed during the war, so expatriate input has been essential.

The less reached:

• The Buddhist majority.
• The Vietnamese: some are coming to Christ in Cambodia.
• The Cham Muslims: several believers but no known churches.
• Tribal peoples: pray for church-planting work to begin.

Written teaching materials are desperately needed. False teachings and cults spread as the doors open wider; few of the believers have the background knowledge of Scripture to combat such error. Radio ministries are important.

OCF UQ

President: Jasmine Foo
Theme: -
Campus: University of Queensland, St Lucia campus

Attendance:

2003: 20-25
2004: 20-25
2005: 18-25
2006: 20-23
2007: 23-28
2008: 20

Description:

OCF UQ is made up of mainly Christians from both Singapore and Malaysia. As a relatively small group, we try to work on forging close bonds with each member in the centre. The usual attendance at meetings is approximately 18 people. We’re thankful that this semester, everyone in UQ has bonded closer, and there were noticeably fewer cliques. This year, we hope to reach out to more Christians and ‘pre-believers’ through an outreach event to be held in August. We thank God for His constant providence for OCF UQ and we pray that we’ll continue to grow and reach out to other students.

Praise God For:

• New members who have joined us this semester.
• Members who are willing to step up to serve God in OCF
• The opportunity to have social events and social netball club to reach out and share God’s love with non-OCFers.
• Bonding between members this semester

Please Pray For:

• The outreach event that is taking place in August.
• The leaders to be actively seeking God’s will and be sensitive to His guidance
• Spiritual growth of each member in OCF UQ
• Social events/social netball competition next semester that it’ll continue to be a platform to reach out to non-ocfers.
• Courage and Wisdom for each member of OCF to share the gospel with others.
• Increased membership