Melbourne University OCF
Reach Out, Build Up, Send Back

Scripture reading: Acts 6:4

“…and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.”

“I tried fitting my prayer time around my work and although I felt I was going somewhere in my prayer life, I learned that there was a better way. Now I fit my work around my prayer.”

Vietnam

Population: 78,773,873
Religion: Buddhist 52%, Non Religious/other 29.8%, Christian 9.8%, New Religions 5.2%

Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, has experienced warfare during most of this century. It is struggling to rebuild it’s economy, but faces acute obstacles. There are few Christians and many restrictions on worship.

Challenges for Prayer:

• Repression of religious, economic and political freedoms continues, but thank God that the Church has grown and continues to grow steadily, although it is still small.
• Pray that the government may give a free reign to pastors and believers in the registered churches to expand their Christian activities and lift the harsh restrictions on religious activities.
• Unregistered churches are harried by police, with meetings frequently broken up and leaders arrested. Pray for pastors and believers.
• Pray for unity between leaders of registered and unregistered churches.
• Leadership training is urgently needed. Many pastors are old, and younger churches are often led by those with little opportunity for theological study. They are therefore susceptible to error or bias in their teaching.
• Pray for more study materials, theological books and commentaries to be imported. Christian literature production is strictly monitored.
• Bibles are printed and available for purchase in Vietnam. Pray for increased production and distribution.
• Pray that suitable people will take up the opportunities to work in Vietnam in development and professional work.
• Many sections of the community and numerous ethnic groups remain scarcely touched by the gospel. Pray for:

• The Muslim Cham and Buddhist Khmer of the Mekong Delta.
• The northern ethnic minorities, which have been beyond the reach of missionaries for 50 years because of war and Communism. A few of these groups are now hearing and responding to the gospel in small numbers. The Hmong are particularly responsive. In 1975 there were no known believers. Today, thanks mainly to their response to Christian radio broadcasts, over 150,000 Hmong believe.
• Christian radio programmes have been remarkable in their scope and impact. Pray for the provision and preservation of staff and freedom to broadcast so that they might continue with these effective programmes.
• Government leaders and officials.

OCF Carlton

President: Doen Ming Ong
Theme: Reach out, Build up, Send back
Campus: RMIT

Attendance:

2004: 60
2005: 60
2006: 70
2007: 80
2008: 80

Description:

We are a group of international students and some locals, Christians and non-Christians. We aim to reach out to mainly students at RMIT. We aim to inform non-Christians the Gospel so that they might know the Lord Jesus Christ and we aim to teach Christians the Gospel/Bible so that we might know God more and more.  As students return to home country, we aim to help them settle in their home country and continue growing in Christ.

Praise God For:

• The newcomers (Christians and non-Christian) this year and the oldcomers who have been attending OCF.
• The guest speakers for being faithful to the Bible and clear in teaching the Bible.
• The activities which have happened, including Welcome/Orientation Night, Evangelistic Night, weekly Friday meetings (prayer meeting, song worship, sermon, bible study, supper), weekly campus outreach.
• The time of learning from the Bible together and helping one another apply what we learn.
• Members serving in OCF in their different/respective areas.

Please Pray For:

• Us to be faithful in teaching the Bible/Gospel and reaching out to students in RMIT.
• To depend on God as we do this Gospel work.
• International students in Melbourne to hear the Gospel.
• Provision of speakers who are clear and faithful in teaching the Bible.
• Christians to grow in Christ as we study the Bible and apply; Non-Christians to understand the Gospel and respond to what they learn.