Student Minister
I arrived in Sydney as an international student in 2013 to study my university degree. Having been raised in a Christian family back in Malaysia, I had always thought of myself as a believer, but my understanding of salvation and the assurance of forgiveness was dependent on my own deeds - whether I would behave like a typical good Christian, and whether I could cancel out my own sin by doing good works. Even though I loved Jesus and being part of church, I thought that there was no way I could be sure of God's love, because my own life was full of selfishness and poor decisions.
After coming to study at UNSW, God graciously helped me to find a church that showed me how to read the Bible for myself. As I continued (alongside other students) to find answers in God's Word, I was moved in discovering that Jesus had paid for all my sins - past, present and future, by dying on the cross. I did not have to prove that I was good enough to be saved, or confess enough to be forgiven. On the contrary, God knew that I could not save myself, and so he gave his Son to be our sacrifice, so that we can be reconciled and declared righteous before our loving Creator.
Near the end of university, I began to consider the way God had blessed me with strong Christian support and equipped me to read the Bible and teach others too. He also provided Amy to me as a wife, and we both were committed to serving his kingdom with our lives. We got married in 2022 and after a few years of me working in the legal/insurance industry, we became ministry apprentices at our university church, learning how to faithfully teach and train students and graduates with the gospel of Jesus. It is our hope that after I finish studying at Moore Theological College, we would be able to return to Malaysia to grow the church with the word of truth entrusted to us.
Amy and I love food (especially Malaysian), music, playing sports and napping with Zebra, our cat. Come say hi to us at Lugarno!
josh.chin@student.moore.edu.au
