The vision of the EU Graduates Fund is to flood God’s church with lay and vocation Christian leaders. One way EUGF aims to achieve this vision is through training up ministry workers in the Howard Guiness Project.

Luke, Rani and Ruth, 3 graduates of the Project, are now serving in full time ministry. They shared with us their stories, as well as joys and challenges from their current roles. Please join us in praying with them!

Luke Graham

I’m a world class risk avoider. So, no-one was more surprised than me to find out I would be leaving my large church where I’d been for 18 years and was real comfortable, to move across the city to a small church that was in the early process of church ‘repotting’ – a risky move!

But God had been powerfully at work for years, preparing me for this move – especially through my time in the Howard Guinness Project. During my time as a Howie, God gave me opportunity after opportunity to do more than just develop skills or acquire knowledge, but build a heart that met risk with a deep trust in His goodness and power. The Howie program forces you to take risks and be constantly innovating. You learn quickly that nothing will happen outside of God’s power, and the best thing you can do is throw yourself on Him and trust that He’ll catch you.

Pray for St Pauls, Canterbury, where I currently serve and worship as we take risks and launch new Easy English ministries, that God might draw people to Himself and we trust in His goodness and power.

Rani 

I currently work with international students & trace my love for this ministry back to leading a FOCUS Bible study during my time as a Howie. It was probably my first experience of teaching the Bible across cultures, but God used it to spark a passion which He has sustained to this day.

HGP gave me a solid experience of the ‘bread and butter’ elements of student ministry, which enabled me to step into my current role as a senior staff-worker with a level of confidence that I don’t think I would have had otherwise.

God also used my time as a Howie to encourage me, especially when I was fresh out of college and still finding my feet at UTS. Those two years spent in community, testing my gifts and character, served as a clear reminder of His leading into vocational ministry. That gave me courage!

Along with my husband, I’m planning to head down to St Andrews Hall later this year, in preparation for serving overseas with CMS. Please pray that God would make a way for us & ready our hearts for the good work He has prepared for us to do (whatever that may be!).

Ruth Lukabyo

While I was at uni in the EU I discovered that I loved ministry. I loved leading bible studies, meeting up with people one to one to talk about how the gospel would transform their life. I loved talking about theology with Andrew Katay and Rob Forsyth and the other staff members. I loved thinking about how to teach theological truths and live them out in ministry decisions and daily life. It was a no-brainer when I finished my studies to be a staff worker (before they were called Howies). What an absolute privilege to be able to do this full time for 2 years. Being a staff worker was a great opportunity to try out ministry and it confirmed to me that this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I went straight from there to Moore College, intent on training more for vocational ministry.

I am still working with young adults in my role at Youthworks College and I still love this age group. Being a staff worker helped me become a better teacher, a better pastor of young adults, which is what I am still doing today. I think it shaped my theological foundation too through the teaching ministry of Rob Forsyth, the fingerprints of his teaching are still on mine.

I remain at Youthworks College. In the future I would like to write a text book on the history of youth ministry in Australia. If you could pray that God will raise up more people who are willing to be trained as youth or children’s ministers that would be great. We still get many calls from churches looking for ministers and we are not able to supply them. The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.