TRAINEES BECOMING TRAINERS

Elissa Moran has returned. Since completing a ministry apprenticeship at the University of New South Wales in 2008, she moved on to Moore College, where she worked hard and graduated in 2011. Since 2012, she is back working with Campus Bible Study at UNSW, but this time in a different role.

Instead of being the trainee, Elissa now works as a ministry trainer and is currently training four apprentices. Campus Bible Study last year trained a total of 28 apprentices and are training 31 apprentices in 2013.

Elissa reflects on her time as a ministry apprentice, saying the training she received really equipped her to not only do ministry but also teach others to do it too.

“My time on campus [as an apprentice] taught me how to read the Bible one to one with women,” she shares. “I hadn’t done this very much before I started MTS, so the apprenticeship grew me in confidence in how to do this. I had the joy of seeing many women transformed by God’s word and brought into maturity in Christ.”

Not only was Elissa equipped in the basics, but she also had her own character tested and transformed. “The apprenticeship also trained me in my dependence on God,” she says. “I saw that there were so many opportunities on campus and not enough time! I found out about my own limitations and learnt how to rest in God and to pray for my students, rather than trying to do everything! And in all these things, a godly life was modeled to me by my trainer and other staff, so I learnt more and more how to follow Jesus.”

Once finishing her ministry apprenticeship, Elissa continued to be stretched and grow at Moore College as God prepared her to train others in teaching the Bible. “College gave me a solid foundation in God’s word, and helped me to think through a whole range of issues I hadn’t thought through before!” Elissa says. “I learnt how to engage with ethical issues in the world in a helpful and godly way. There is still a lot to continue to learn, but my three years of being immersed in the Bible really grew me in my love and knowledge of God.”