Luke:
One of the ways that God humbles planners and schemers like me is to throw a spanner in the works. I grew up as a Christian in a country town in New Zealand, but when I moved to Christchurch to study Engineering I gave up on my faith. It wasn’t until my third year that I started investigating Christianity again and came across a Moore graduate who was planting a university church. After joining this church and being challenged with God’s Word, I came back to following Jesus. As I was discipled and trained by this Moore graduate I became convicted of the need for more workers in the harvest field. Two years of a ministry apprenticeship later, I packed my bags, moved to Australia and started at Moore College. My goal was to train to be a Bible teacher and return to New Zealand, where ministry workers are few.
Naomi:
I, on the other hand, came to Moore from the opposite end of the Pacific Ocean. I had spent two years working in Japan with the KGK, the university Christian group, and was pretty keen to return as a missionary. I came to College not knowing precisely what I would do at the other end, but wanted to focus on reaching Japanese people and encouraging as many of my fellow students to do the same.
Luke:
Both of us moved into the singles residences—me to John Chapman House and Naomi to Carillon House. I knew absolutely no-one but got to know people through shared mealtimes, playing pool in the common room and at casual games of cricket in the courtyard during thunderstorms.
Naomi:
Living at Carillon House was such a privilege. It’s great to learn doctrines and vocab lists and the structure of Biblical books in classes, but I also found that I learned so much from the casual conversations with other women training for ministry. Luke and I got married and are now spending our final year in a house off-campus, but the friendships we formed while living on campus we hope will last a lifetime.
For the future, we’re hoping to serve in both New Zealand and Japan, particularly since we both speak Japanese. We’re really grateful for the building blocks Moore College has provided us in understanding and teaching the Bible. And we remain in awe that God might use us in his great plan to bring salvation to the ends of the earth.
