Carolyn & Sue
Carpenter’s Cross Ministries (CCM) has a vision to impact children and children’s workers across all cultures, both in their own nations of Australia and the USA and in developing nations in particular. Within Australia, Southern Cross Kids Camp (SCKC) has been birthed from Carolyn’s involvement with CCM when ministering at a US camp with Sue Carpenter, a camp which became a a model for Southern Cross Kids Camp. Sue and Carolyn have also been key speakers in a number of children’s ministry conferences over the years, as well as being available to a number of churches to inspire and equip.
Cambodian boys
Cambodia has probably been one of the most challenging and fulfilling areas in which they have worked. To date, CCM has ministered with New Life Fellowship in Phnom Penh and surrounds some seven times. They were instrumental in establishing the children’s ministry there and return regularly to further input into workers and trainee leaders.
This year they had the privilege of taking a small team from CityLife Church (four from Manningham and two from Knox), to Cambodia and was excited to see how each person opened up to the Spirit of God and allowed themselves to be stretched. The schedule did not arrive until the morning they flew out, so ministry preparation had been for what might happen! However, the team stepped up to the mark, praying, teaching, sharing, testifying, preaching, helping with practical tasks such as showering street kids, and generally doing whatever was asked of them. For Carolyn it was a challenge to step back and allow others to do what she usually does – but there was an incredible excitement in her heart as she saw this happen. When the three-day training school for provincial workers came to an end, they had a prayer tunnel so that all 62 students could be prayed for. One thing the team hadn’t prepared for was that God might move outside their comfort zone. Carolyn and Sue will never forget the look on some of the team’s faces as people began to fall under the power and presence of God, and they know every member of that team came back changed.