Amidst a year of lockdowns and cancelled events it was an extra special occasion for Carey students and staff to celebrate our Ministry Training graduates and to ‘send’ them out at SENDing 2020. These students are completing our Carey Training Tracks: Pastoral Leadership, Youth Pastoral Leadership, Mission Track and Ethnic Ministry Training.
Two of our Pastoral Leadership graduates share their reflections on their three-year formational programme preparing them for ministry.
Grace Curtis
“2020, a year of challenge and adapting to the changing world around us. 2020, the year of completing my time at Carey. Three years of laughter and tears, of late-night assignments and games nights. 2020, a strange year in which to be graduating. Yet, a year that has reignited my call into ministry.
“As I reflect on my time at Carey, I see three years of growth, acknowledging that I still do not know everything! It is three years of seeing the faithfulness of God in the good and the bad. When I got a good grade or saw a young person commit their life to Jesus. But also, when life seemed too hard, trying to balance everything the world has to offer.
“It is three years that have culminated in hope for the future. In the hope that I will continue to remain on fire for our Lord, bringing the good news of Jesus to all those I encounter, wherever he calls me to!”
Vince Kilpatrick
“I’ve been ‘sent’ twice—four years ago from George Wieland’s Mission Track, and now presently from Pastoral Leadership. Neither have resulted in what I expected. I look a little different (beard, hair), but I don’t feel any different (unlike when I turned 30 and felt like an adult—true story), and I don’t have a particular destination that I’ve been ‘sent’ to (just out...).
“However, how Carey received me and how the world now does is different. I hope I can say that every year, actually. That I learn and grow in a way that is not stagnant, but that is in likeness to the growth in wisdom and stature of Jesus, to the point that any given year doesn’t send me how it received me. That’s a cool thought.”
Photography: Phil Botha
