Mission Team on Campus

February is mission week season for Christian Unions across the UK. Its an exciting time and also a challenging time. Who knows what God will do during that week, what seeds will be sown, what hearts will be changed. This week will be my 8th Mission week and so here are some of my thoughts/tips that will hopefully help you if you are student and about to have a mission week on campus...

1. Pray - pray for this week, pray for the weeks afterwards. Pray for your non christian friends and pray for yourself and energy and wisdom. Pray for the speaker and the CU guests, pray as a mission team...enjoy lifting up the week to our heavenly Father that hears our cries.

2. Sleep/Rest - Don't think you can function well without sleep. Get early nights and enjoy the sleep given to you. Find time to rest because you are not God and cannot do everything!

3. Eat well and together- Eat fruit and veg... don't live off popcorn and pot noodles... this is obvious, but eat well and invite your friends to dinner before an event so you can go to an event together... Share Jesus over a meal and enjoy eating well.

4. Invite by talking - Conversation is brilliant. So open your mouth and invite your friends to an event instead of shoving a flier in their face... talk and enjoy conversation. Chat about Jesus, hopes, dreams, desires and the Gospel...

5. Go to your lectures - Its tempting to skip lessons and go to everything that the CU is putting on. But that doesnt display a good witness to your friends. Go to your lectures and enjoy the truth that the CU event wont fall apart cos you are not there...

A good talk to listen to:
Why it's ok to stay in bed for the whole of mission week

Getting lost on a walk

Went for a walk on Saturday and got very lost with Tim... but managed to take some pictures of lovely Devon...

A slipper in ice and Gospel fellowship

This is why I love my job - I can go away for a weekend and get to know students, be encouraged by Gods word, see randomness happen around me and warm hearts to the Gospel and its a great joy to call that work!

The best prank over the weekend was the slipper frozen in ice... what a brilliant idea!
The whole weekend was an encouragement and Andy Croft really excited hearts about living for Jesus! Now today is a day off, so its about enjoying rest which means I get to read a novel, go for lunch with a friend, watch a film and make cards... good times.

Here is a view from the houseparty after morning prayer...

Looking into the sea...

On Saturday a few of us went for a walk near the sea in Plymouth. The view was lovely!

In the Garden Pt2

More pictures from the Garden!

 
For this first picture I played around with the contrast, but I didnt realise there were so many colours behind the web!

In the Garden

As I wander around my garden, I capture some interesting shots!

Colossians - Having the right Gospel (Pt1)

Within Small Groups at Plymouth we are going through Colossians, sinking our teeth into Gods word and warming our hearts with the Gospel. Its great fun and I am enjoying sharing ideas with the students and getting our hearts excited about telling our friends about Jesus.

But Colossians Chapter One poses an issue. Do we have the right Gospel? And does that make a difference? 

So many lies dressed up in religion can sneak into church and CU. Whats worse is that they appeal to our hearts! They say to us that "there is a better way to live, forget just having Jesus when you can have so much more"

Paul is so clear to the Colossians on what it means to be an authentic Christian. And having the right message is vital. If we have the wrong message or if we start adding to the Gospel we end up far from Christ. You know if you have the right Gospel if you look like Paul describes in 1v9-12, "filled with knowledge of his will, understanding, walking in a manner worthy of the Lord, bearing fruit, strengthened with power, endurance, patience with joy and being qualified because of Jesus"

We saw that at the heart of this was to ask - who or what qualifies you to be a Christian? Certainly not yourself, nor your degree but the Father because of His son. We know we have the right Gospel if we are  not resting in our works or our inner spirituality or adding on to what Jesus has done. Instead we rest in what Jesus has done and we are qualified because of Him and in Him. 

How does that encourage us to tell our friends about Jesus? 

If you have the right Gospel and you are an authentic Christian, then you can't hide that and you can be confident that the Gospel your telling your friends is the right one. If you find its not, then come back to the roots, come back to the cross and be transformed.