Staff
the AFES staffworkers working with Christian Union
Graeme Chiswell
Campus Director
I ‘grew up’ as a Christian through university ministry many years ago. Through the faithful teaching & training of campus staff, my scattered understanding of the gospel was put together in a coherent, explainable way. I learnt how the bible tells the story of God’s great plan to bring all things under Jesus Christ. I saw God bring good friends to know Jesus. My outlook was transformed so that I wanted to serve God with my life.
Over 25 years ago, God, by his grace, called me to make disciples of university students as a staffworker with AFES. I have seen God continue to do in hundreds of students what he did for me and my friends at university. I lead the staff team serving with the Christian Union here at Monash University, Clayton campus. I am married to Nicky and have two sons who are university-aged.
Ken Lim
I first came to Australia as an international student in 1982. I committed my life to Jesus in the second year of Uni. This caused a change of direction in my life, I gave up a career in computers to work with international students. I have been at Monash University since 2003.One of my responsibilities at Monash is to find and train workers for this work. International students work is a cross cultural ministry. It is important because the Gospel goes out to the nations through these students and it is a good training ground for overseas mission work. I am happy to talk to people who are keen on this kind of ministry and cross cultural work.
Karen Morris
I am employed as an evangelist and its great! My experience is that while students are seen as an 'anti-religious' group they are in fact searching for something bigger than themselves. They are at a stage when every major decision in their life needs to be made and at times the pressure is overwhelming. Consequently they are open to asking the big questions about meaning and identity. Of course, there are those who are patently NOT INTERESTED but there are many who are and I hope to be able to tell lots of them the gospel this year.
Dan King
Hi, my name is Dan. The three most important things about me are: I'm a Christian, I'm married to Helen, and I have a little boy named Nate. I love serving the students at Monash uni, particularly international students, and so I head up the FOCUS ministry with Ken. I've always got time to talk, so drop me a line :)
Stu White
I've been at Monash since half way through '05. Before that I worked as a valet parking attendant in Sydney for six months; I smashed two rear vision mirrors, one rear bumper, and scratched a couple as well. I decided preaching the gospel was a better vocation to pursue and that's my role at Monash. I particularly do so by helping with our God Talks, facilitating and doing evangelism, and hopefully in the future by getting into the Halls of residence.
Some random preferences: choc-mint Ice Magic over plain chocolate; going out for breakfast over dinner; BMW over Mercedes; NIV over ESV; beach over bushwalk; Melboure Comedy Festival over Opera; kick in the head over poke in the eye.
Amy Just
Hi, I'm Amy and I work with the students of Christian Union at Monash. I grew up knowing that God was there and that Jesus was his son who died for me...but I didn't really understand why, I thought I was a good person. While at Uni I got involved through a friend in the CU group and there I learnt about my need for God's grace and that it was free, but expensive too! Since then God has kindly grown me in my understanding and love of him through his word, the Bible and I am passionate that other students have that same opportunity to hear this great news also. So here I am at Monash, working with CU and happy to chat.
Kirrily Drew
Hi, I'm Kirrily. I am a second-year apprentice staffworker with Monash CU, and my main responsibilities are looking after the team in charge of our Tuesday Night Training (short courses in ministry skills), leading a growth group, and encouraging young women in Christ. The thing I enjoy most about my job is getting to read the Bible with young women, helping them think through whether Jesus' claims about himself are true, and what it looks like to follow Jesus as a Uni student in the teenies (the decade after the noughties apparently...not my idea!)
I love movies, music and murder mysteries. Actually I love all stories - no matter what format. The last book I read was "Dash and Lily's Book of Dares" (highly recommended by the way) and it took me about 3 hours. On the other hand, I have been trying to read "The Cross of Christ" for eight years and only just succeeded in 2010. I am really looking forward to 2011!
Sandra Joynt
Hi, I'm Sandra. In the past I've worked as a graphic designer, & I'm excited to be joining the team in 2011 to work especially with FOCUS. International student work is great - not just because it has the best food - but what a joy it is to see the gospel of Jesus Christ transform the lives and worldviews of students from all sorts of different backgrounds!
John Schoer
John is a first year apprentice staffworker. He is involved at both Clayton and Gippsland campuses.