Q & A with Katherine Halliday
Let’s get to know Katherine Halliday, Ministry Apprentice at Macquarie University, Sydney.
What is your role with the Navigators?
I’m serving as a Ministry Apprentice with the Navigators at Macquarie University. I have committed at least 2022 and 2023 as an apprentice, and I am excited to see what the Lord has in store for me following this. Having graduated from Macquarie at the end of 2021, it has been a blessing to continue and grow the connections I made with students here.
Why did you choose to be an apprentice with the Navigators and how did God lead you to this?
I can see how God was planting seeds for me to take up this apprenticeship throughout my whole time at uni. As I spent more time reading the Word in community and being exposed to the way the gospel spoke into all areas of my mentors’ lives, God grew my heart for discipleship. He also gave me a passion for the broader Navigators through conferences and events both in Australia and the US. Mixed in with this was some more practical needs of the ministry, dealing with staff changes and a few covid-affected years on campus.
By putting other opportunities and hurdles in my path as I was considering the apprenticeship, God really prompted me to process my motivations for doing it. Was it my commitment to invest in students and devote myself to the calling to make disciple-making disciples? Or was it just because my degree left me with vague job prospects and the Macquarie Navs is where I felt comfortable? Ultimately, by the work of His Spirit through prayer and many conversations with godly friends and mentors, God helped me answer these questions and, in the process, grow a deeper conviction for His purposes in my life.
What are you praying for God to do during your time as an apprentice both now and in the future?
As has been the impact of the Navigators in my walk, it is my greatest prayer for my apprenticeship that I might model to and help people grow in two ways. Firstly, that they would see abiding in Christ and making disciples as worthwhile, beautiful, and indeed the logical response to who He is. And secondly, that they would see this as achievable and reproducible (“Even Kat can do it!”).
For my future, I am praying that this apprenticeship will be a wonderful intensive – growing in my knowledge and handling of the Word and my passion for and experience in discipleship and ministry, so that I may be equipped for a life spent serving God, whether or not I continue to do so vocationally. Walking closely with God and encouraging others to do the same will always be my life’s purpose, and I trust that the Lord will use this time to teach and prepare me for this.