A Heart for Oceania

Image Credit: Oceania (centered orthographic projection) by M. Bitton, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. No changes were made.

An update from Riley Spring, Lead Pastor of Sovereign Grace Parramatta (Sydney, Australia) and National Leader for Sovereign Grace Churches Australia…

As we plant and strengthen churches all over the world for the glory of God, we long to see more joyful and healthy Sovereign Grace Churches in the Southern Hemisphere. With so much great work happening in Asia, the Lord has laid it on our hearts in Australia to look out to the vast array of island nations spread across what is called, Oceania, to see how we can partner, serve and strengthen one another for the cause of Christ.

What makes up Oceania is hard to definitively nail down but is commonly thought of as all the island nations between Asia and the Americas. Think: Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, Fiji, Vanuatu, Samoa, and even all the way up to Hawaii as the most northern part of what is called ‘Polynesia’. I guess we’ll have to fight it out with the US as to who gets to claim SG Hawaii ;). But you can see the region on the map below (source: Wikipedia).

There are over 44 million people across 14 nations (not to mention all the territories) in this sprawling geographic region and although nearly two thirds are listed as ‘Christian’, despite this, we are aware of the gospel need and the need for healthy gospel-centered churches.

As we are currently two churches in Sydney, we feel dwarfed by the task, but everyone starts somewhere and we are full of hope in our great sovereign God who rules over all the nations and peoples. We ask that you join us as we pray for this region of the world! Pray that God raises up more and more healthy, gospel centered pastors and churches, that the lost would be saved and transformed into the likeness of Christ, and that if God wants us to play a part, that he’d lead us to the right people that we can partner with and come alongside!

I would love to know if you have any contacts with Pastors, Missionaries or Churches in this region of the world. Please contact me here, I’d love to for us to begin exploring what God may have us here.

“Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples!” (Ps 96:3)

Image credit: Oceania - Map with Zones by Cruickshanks (derived from work by Tintazul), via Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. No changes were made.