Hi everyone, my name is Ellie and I am serving as a Howie for the Education faculty this year. I’ve put my nursing career in the backseat, left the picturesque (albeit LRLR – less reached, less resourced) Batemans Bay for the Big Smoke.

Having spent more than half my life in Malaysia, I can also speak a few languages including Mandarin and Cantonese, which has proven to be quite helpful already as I strike an instant connection to international students queueing for free bubble tea at our Welcome Week stall. Growing up in a Muslim nation surrounded by much superstition, it is only by God’s grace that I have become Christian! It wasn’t until moving to Australia and attending a local church with some family friends that “Christianity” moved past some Bible stories about Jesus into a relationship with my saviour. Jesus’ love and the grace and forgiveness I’ve experienced from God has been life-changing, to say the least. It has been a great comfort in my academic failings, given me much purpose as I weigh out big life decisions, and given me absolute, everlasting hope.

Having been spurred on to serve God in an LRLR setting 4.5 hours away from my home in Sydney for the last 3 years, I seek to inspire and challenge others to do the same, now that I am back in the EU. In the last 3 years as I’ve worked in a small rural hospital, my love and passion for mission has grown even more as my eyes are opened to the need for so many others to hear about the Gospel.

I hope that in my time as a howie with EU, I may use this time to explore what other options there are in ministry for a nurse such as myself, locally, regionally, or across the world. For now, I am so excited about working in partnership with the Education students! Having spent only a few weeks getting to know the faculty leaders, committee and Small Group leaders, I can already see a few similarities between them and I. We are all wary of overcommitment and mindful of the boundaries we put up when serving, which contrasts Jesus’ example of emptying Himself in Philippians 2:7. We tend to be people-people, which poses challenges in managing energy but such great encouragements to see the joy that students bring when serving others. 2 years tend to go by so quickly, and I am savouring every moment of it now. It’s already come with its challenges, but has been so rewarding already!