MTS spends a lot of time building partnerships with ministries, denominations and organisations. MTS has been working alongside METRO NSW for about 10 years. METRO is the ministry apprentice training arm of the Presbyterian Church of NSW. Until recently METRO ran its own state based conference to achieve the following goals:

a) apprentice recruiting;

b) training the trainers;

c) development of future trainers

They continue to work at all of these goals but in closer partnership with MTS. METRO is now coming to the MTS G8 National Apprentice & Trainer Conference along with people from other denominations. The wider MTS movement benefits a great deal from rubbing shoulders with the 'Pressie' apprentices and trainers. METRO's involvement is a real blessing. METRO also holds a METRO dinner at the G8 Conference to discuss the 2 Timothy 2:2 work going on within PCNSW.

Russell Smidt of METRO says, "Attending the G8 Conference has been a blessing. We grow as apprentices and trainers yet don't have to organise the conference ourselves. That frees us up to do the personal work of recruiting apprentices.". 

Lisa grew up in Moree and after going to University in Newcastle, returned to rural areas to work. I first met Lisa when she came to serve on an Armidale Diocese Mission team to run the Next Gen conference in Uganda in 2015. We returned on the same trip in 2017, and it was here that we talked about MTS.

MTS Class of 2018 Graduation & Commissioning Service

"Brian Vaatstra's sermon at the MTS National Apprentice Graduation and Commissioning was one of the clearest expositions of God's Word I've heard. Trainers... it is worth every one of the 24 minutes' listening." - Ben Pfahlert

Thank God for:

• The MTS Graduation and Commissioning on 7 March 2019. Thank you for Brian Vaatstra's sermon, for the Village Church venue and for all the people who attended (apprentices plus friends and family).
• The very fruitful trip Ben Pfahlert and Eric Thurston had to Brisbane on 18 March 2019. Thank you Lord for the meetings with Stu Hoadley (Presbyterian Church of Queensland), 15 x pastors @ St Lucia Evangelical. And thank the Lord for the 20 people who came to the MTS Info Night and that it went smoothly.
• Thank you Lord for the hard working network trio in Tasmania - Dan Shepheard, Jess Prins and Andrew Maskell.

Please ask God to:

• Grow the number of potential apprentices, trainers and potential trainers going to the QLD SPUR Conference 6-9 September 2019. Dave Pitt, QLD Coordinator, is hoping that 150 people will attend in 2019.
• Work mightily within the Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students (AFES) to double the number of apprentices they train by 2022. Give Richard Chin, Tony Rowbotham, Tracey Gowing and Tim Thorburn wisdom as they set vision and motivate the troops.
• Give MTS Australia wisdom as we seek to service the many requests for help from around the world to grow the apprentice training movement. Lord give MTS the resources to help Chile, Argentina, Belgium, Peru, Costa Rica, New Zealand, and others.

​For more prayer points, please download our monthly Prayer Calendar off our website or subscribe to the Ministry Training Strategy Prayer Calendar on the PrayerMate app on your phone.

To sign up to PrayerMate:

Step 1: Download the PrayerMate app on iOS or Android

Step 2: Subscribe to Ministry Training Strategy

MTS has been conducting quality assurance surveys with apprentices twice a year since 2014. We have collected some excellent data. We want to share some of this with you each month.

In December 2018, 77% of apprentices met with their Trainer weekly for training + 17% met fortnightly. That means that 94% of apprentices meet regularly with their Trainer. What a wonderful 2 Timothy 2:2 investment these Trainers are making.