Let's be having you!

The title of the post echoes the infamous Delia Smith incident at Carrow Road a few years back. She wanted the Norwich fans to get behind their team and try to help motivate them to avoid relegation from the Premier League. I am hijacking it for a much more serious purpose and my motivation is not to guilt-trip anyone, but to stir our hearts, and maybe shake us up, as we think about living for Jesus.

I read the following quote from Howard Guiness in Marcus Honeysett's book "Fruitful Leaders" recently and was massively challenged by it.

Where are the young men and women of this generation who will hold their lives cheap and be faithful even unto death? Where are those who will lose their lives for Christ’s sake – flinging them away for love of Him? Where are those who will live dangerously, and be reckless in His service? Where are his lovers – those who will love Him and the souls of men more than their own reputations or comfort or very life?

Where are the men who say “no” to self, who take up Christ’s Cross to bear it after Him; who are willing to be nailed to it in college or office, home or mission field; who are willing, if need be, to bleed, to suffer and die on it?

Where are the men of vision today? Where are the men of enduring vision? Where are the men who have seen the King in His beauty, by whom from henceforth all else is counted but refuse that they may win Christ? Where are the adventurers, the explorers, the buccaneers for God who count one human soul of far greater value than the rise or fall of an Empire? Where are the men who glory in God-sent loneliness, difficulties, persecutions, misunderstandings, discipline, sacrifice, death?

Where are the men who are willing to pay the price of vision?

Where are the men of prayer? Where are the men who, like the Psalmist of old, count God’s Word of more importance to them than their daily food? Where are the men who, like Moses of old, commune with God face to face as a man speaks with his friend and unmistakably bear with them the fragrance of the meeting through the day?

Oh that we would hold Jesus as our treasure, have Him capture our hearts so fully that we can say with the Apostle Paul that "to live is Christ and to die is gain" or with the Psalmist declare that the love of God is "better than life". Then, and only then, will any of us be the men and women of vision who will be ready and willing to give everything for the sake of the gospel, ready to take up our cross and follow Jesus.

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you........

Following my post on my final working day with UCCF I thought I'd post, on my final day of official employment with UCCF, a list of thank yous!

Thank you Jo McKenzie, Peter Dray and Hamish Sneddon (and even for a couple of months Tim Rudge) for being fantastic supervisors; wise, caring, generous, challenging and encouraging, much like Paul was to Timothy. God has gifted you to lead and teach and train, use those gifts for His glory.

Thank you Mark Stone, Matt Graham, Tim Dennis, Lewis Green, Tom Thrower, Lensa Woodcock, Simon Oatridge, Ellie Cook and Paul Oatridge. You guys were a pleasure to work with, your support and banter was amazing. I may never work with a more godly or joyful group of people. May you continue to grow in love for the Lord.

Thank you James Adair, Emily Bacon, Joel Forster, James Meredith, Edwina Thorley, Chris Simons and last but not least, Emma Best. My wonderful Relay workers who have taught me more than I taught them. Stay strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

Thank you Queen's Campus, Sunderland and Teesside CUs for many memories, comedy stories, seemingly hopeless situations and faithfulness to Jesus despite varying trials. May you keep holding out the word of truth in love to the students on your campuses.

I could try and name every student I've worked with, but, although my memory is good, it's not that good! You know who you are - Thank you!!!

Thank you Forum conferences, CU Leaders' Training Weekends, Houseparties, Staff Conferences and Summer Schools for great teaching, deepening relationships, new friends and plentiful banter.

Thank you to the various Summer Team co-leaders, members and hosting brothers and sisters in Christ. You are all part of some of the most incredible experiences in my life.

Thank you to all my prayer and financial supporters. Your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now is a rich blessing from God, for which I am sincerely grateful.

Most of all, thank you to the One True Living God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit, for all of the above and much more beyond.

Father, please continue to bless all those associated with UCCF and their work with the students of the UK. Please keep them loving Jesus. Please continue to make them more Christ-like by the Spirit and help them to remain generous. Please use UCCF for your glory and the furthering of your Kindgom. In Jesus' sweet and strong name, Amen!

End of an Era

What a wonderful 5 years! I still can't quite believe it, but, I am leaving UCCF. Well, by that I mean I will no longer be employed by them from August 17th, but, as UCCF is a family of Christian Unions, their members, Relay Workers, Staff Workers and Supporters, I will always fall into that last category, having already fallen into each of the former.
I thought it fitting, on my final working day, to say a few words in the public arena of the world wide web about my experience over the last 5 years.

(The picture above looks ominous to say the least and almost apocalyptic in many ways. It will suffice to say, please don't read that into anything I'm about to say! Only the message of the sign has any relevance!)

During my time on staff I have learned so much about the gospel and about myself. There have been many ups and downs. There have even been times when I felt like giving up. But, by God's grace, and by understanding more of what Jesus has done for me, I have reached the end.

One lesson I have learned the hard way is, that no matter what happens, whether CUs grow or shrink numerically, whether the students you study the Bible with grow in Christ-likeness or decide to give up on Jesus, whether they all attend a training conference or none of them do, my standing in Christ before the Father does not change! The Father loves me as He loves His own Son no matter what! How that truth is beautifully liberating and wonderfully joy-giving. That is not to say I always remember this and live it out accordingly, but even grasping it initially changed my approach to my work, relieved the stress and kept me going.

The privilege of working with so many gospel-hearted, Jesus-loving and Spirit-filled people is beyond amazing. I am so grateful for the opportunity to have been part of the family in this role, but those thank yous I will save for another post.

No organisation is perfect. Not even UCCF. But, when an organisation is led by people who love Jesus, who are seeking to submit themselves and all they do to the Lord's will and are seeking to live by the Spirit, you can't get any better than that. I am sure that they would be the first to admit that they are not perfect, there have been mistakes made and there are still things to learn and change. But I can absolutely say that working for UCCF is excellent. They really care for you as an person. The study program is not just for you to gain head knowledge, but to warm your heart and develop your character. They model Christian generosity and make sure you have your priorities in place. For example, when you work overtime for a weekend, if you don't take time off in lieu, you're in trouble! Or, take the fact that I have been repeatedly told that my primary ministry is not my work with the students that I get paid by UCCF to do, but my wife and child. That, sadly, can be rare in Christian organizations I'm afraid to say.

There are many more things I could say, attempting to wax lyrical about the virtues and benefits of such a great organisation whose passion for the so called 'missing generation' is infectious. Their untold benefit to the church at large in the UK as well as to thousands of students and parents is enormous. But I think I have given enough of a flavour already and if not, their mission, vision and values speak for themselves.

Feel free to use the comments to ask any questions if you want to know more. Those who have had my prayer letters will know more specifically some of things I have learned and some of the experiences, good and bad, which have shaped me and my ministry in this area over the last few years.

Oh UCCF, how I will miss you, but long may your work continue!

Final Edition

Here is the final edition of Northern Letters, the prayer letter I have written for the past five years while working for UCCF:thechristianunions. For those of you who have read it and prayed for me initially, and then also my family as time has gone by, thank you, but not goodbye as the picture suggests. I will keep blogging here, my wife will keep blogging at thissideofthewardrobe and I am sure we will be posting family news and prayer letters as we settle into Doncaster and all that the Lord has in store for us there.

Northern Letters - July/August 2012

2nd Annual NE Cricket Match

After the roaring success of last years inaugural test match between Durham and Yorkshire, the final NE Team Days of 2012 saw the 2nd Annual test match take place.
With changes to both line-ups after Durham's rampant victory last year, Yorkshire, led by captain Simon Oatridge, were determined to avenge their defeat.

Once again the scheduled number of overs was 7 per innings with 2 innings for each side.

Durham opened the batting in ominous fashion as their star player and captain, Hamish Sneddon, slogged new boy, Paul Oatridge for 6 from the first ball. The match then settled into a steady rhythm with with the runs ticking over. In the 3rd over things took a turn for the worse for Durham, a lack of communication cost JJ Wyatt his wicket for no score and soon after, from the bowling of Zach Taylor, Sneddon surprisingly hit his stumps! Yorkshire sensed this was their big chance with an unexpected breakthrough and although there was some healthy resistance from Andy Barker, Durham were all out with 2 balls to spare for a modest total of 49. Mike Durant clearing up the tail.

Due to technological problems, the first innings from Yorkshire was not noted down and so apart from the excellent innings from captain Simon Oatridge, who reached his personal run limit of 25, it suffices to say that they survived their 7 overs and scored 67 in the process, giving Durham a mountain to climb in their second innings run chase. There was an incredibly controversial moment when the most stunning of catches was taken by JJ Wyatt behind the stumps, off the bowling of Sneddon, but the snick-o-meter didn't pick out an outside edge from Simon and he survived the review.

Durham began steadily once again, reaching 17 for 1 from 2 overs. In amongst that a boundary from Emma Best who, although her fielding left a lot to be desired, played her part admirably in the run chase. Sneddon once again was the main run scorer, but this time he was more the ably helped by JJ Wyatt who didn't make the same mistake as the first innings. By the end of the 5th over Durham were 42 for 2, Sneddon had gone due to a sliced 6 which went out of bounds. With nothing to lose Durham went all guns blazing attacking the bowling of Peter Dray and Mike Durant in the last 2 overs hitting 24 runs and losing 2 wickets. 66 for 4 from 7 overs left Yorkshire with a very manageable 49 to win.

Yorkshire opened in confident fashion reaching 15 with no lose of wicket. Lewis Green and Paul Oatridge doing most of the damage. Paul reached his maximum 25 and retired, but then Matt Oliver final made a meaningful contribution after dropping two catches and only scoring a couple of runs in the first innings by taking Green's middle stump. With two wickets down JP Wright the took out Dave Guy's middles stump as Durham sense the great escape may be possible. The biggest moment of the evening followed shortly after with Zach Taylor bowling brother Jonah in a moment which Simon Oatridge believes will be talked about for years to come at Outwood House. Simon then came in with Mike Durant, and with light fading fast, saw Yorkshire through to a dramatic and fully deserved win reaching their target with 9 balls to spare.

1-1 it now stands. I will be handing over the commentary mantle, but look out for next years test match, much rides on it!

Durham: Sneddon, Oliver, Wright, Wyatt, Barker, Best, J Taylor (with special guest E Taylor).
Yorkshire: S Oatridge, P Oatridge, Dray, Guy, Durant, Green, Z Taylor.

New Life

At the start of this academic year my team leader challenged us as a staff and relay team to try and study Uncover with someone seeking to find out more about Jesus.

I must admit that I was a little skeptical that I'd either a) have time to do it or b) be able to find someone to do it with.
Anyway, in freshers' week my relay worker Emma took the plunge and boldly invite a Macedonian student to look at it with her (see previous post). They began and as a met with Emma for supervision each week it was wonderful see how they were both learning about Jesus and growing in different ways.

A few weeks later, through the CU, I was introduced to Y from Malaysia. We had a bit of a chat and I asked if he wanted to meet up for coffee. He agreed. We met and got to know one another a little and decided to study Uncover together. As we progressed through the studies, straddling the Christmas break (we started in Nov and finished early March), it was clear that he was intellectually ascenting to the truth the Jesus is the Son of God, but he didn't think he had enough faith to step out and become a Christian.

His brother had become a Christian a few years ago and Y himself had been along to church a few times, and since moving to Teesside Uni for study had been attending the local Chinese Methodist Church where he was regularly hearing from the Bible and studying it.

At the end of the Uncover course I asked him where he thought he was in terms of becoming a Christian and he said he believed it all but wasn't ready to commit. So we decided we would keep meeting and as he read the Bible in his own time he would note down any questions and we would them chat about them when we next met up. By this time it was nearing the Easter break. We met a couple of times like this, but due to holidays and assignments for Y as well as holidays and busyness for me, we had a few weeks without meeting.

Just last week we met once again to chat. But this we mainly spoke about his course finishing, his plans between now and heading home to Malaysia, job prospects and the future. I finally asked him where he now thought he was in terms of trusting Jesus. He smiled and began to tell me that he had been challenged to commit to following Jesus a couple of weeks previous at his church and he had prayed with a friend.
I didn't quite catch what he said the first time, but had caught enough that I ask more directly whether he had prayed to trust Jesus and become a Christian. He had!

I was so excited, and told him that I was too!!! God had been working all along, in my weakness, in my skepticism, and while I wasn't even meeting up with Y. God has it all in His hands. New life is a work of the Spirit, not my efforts.

He worries that His parents think he is just trying to be like his elder brother. He believes they will be supportive of his decision, but wonders if they think he has just jumped on a bandwagon, to use a western phrase. He knows what he believes.

Pray for our new brother in Christ. Praise God for new life. Pray for deep roots to be put down into gospel truth and the character of God. Pray for Y to grow in love for Jesus and find a good church to be part of when he gets back to Malaysia.

Shocking Statistic

I have seen and heard an incredible statistic a couple of times in recent weeks.
The fact that 73% of students professing to be Christians before they head to University don't get plugged into a church or any other Christian group once they get there.
That is pretty shocking, even if some of those who make up that statistic were merely religious church attendees rather than followers of Jesus.

Hearing the statistic has made me more thankful for the work of UCCF. Not because I work for them but because without their work with students in Christian Unions, I fear the statistic would be much higher.
This is because UCCF as an organisation is committed to the local church, working in partnership, across denominations, to reach the universities of this land with the good news of Jesus. They seek to plug students in to churches as this is their primary place of life-long discipleship. (To find out more go to www.uccf.org.uk)

It has also reminded me of the challenges we face to love Jesus and love people in an increasingly hostile environment. Having a big Christian presence on campus is in Freshers' week is key to finding, engaging with, and encouraging these young believers to keep running the race of faith during their time at university.

Praise God for keeping UCCF going over the last 80 odd years. By His grace they have remained firmly evangelical, committed to the task of living and speak for Jesus, and training students to do just that.
Pray that the Lord would stir people by His Spirit over the coming months to really make a stand for Christ in this academic year, get plugged into a local church and join others in reaching their campuses with the love of Jesus.

If you know of a Christian student heading to university, why not get them linked up?
*image courtesy of Canterbury CU
*statistic from CUE project research in 2011

What's Next? May/June Prayer Update

Not long until I finish working with UCCF. Here is my penultimate prayer letter.

Plenty to be thankful for including: a mini-mission week, planning days, a new job (all being well), an exciting year ahead for CUs etc!

God is good.

Planning fun but serious thinking done

A quick post featuring some of the things Sunderland and Teesside got up to on our planning day at the end of April.

Gathering pictures and phrases from newspapers and magazines to build a profile of the type of students they are seeking to reach with the good news of Jesus on their campus. Also at the same time getting a feel for the university culture as a whole. You need to know who you are reaching in order to most effective relate to them.

One of the profiles, along with a map of the university campus with coloured dots indicating where students spend their time studying, hanging out in both the day and the night and also where most students live. The aim of this was to get them to think about where they run events, what time of day they run them as well as practical ways they can really care for those on their campus.

Honesty and humility was required for this section. The CU health-check. Not to make them feel proud or despairing, but in light of the gospel analyse where they feel their CU is doing well and other areas where work is needed. They also spent time praying, thanking God for His work in and through them and for the Spirit to help them change in the areas where they are weakest.

Here we have the stadium model which helps CUs to see where the balance of their outreach has been. It has 5 sections: 1.Hospitality tents where the aim is to introduce people to Christians to show that we are normal human beings and not weird! 2. Back of the Stands. This type of event is aimed at answering questions people may have which are really far back, may question like "Could thee even be a God?" or "Isn't Christianity totally irrelavant?" 3. Front of the Stands. These are events answering deeper questions which the gospel speaks into: "How could a loving God allow suffering?" "Is Jesus the only way to be saved?" 4. On the Track. At this point people believe the gospel is true, but need to be challenged to respond to Jesus and hear what is means to follow Him. 5. In the Race. Opportunities for people to begin studying the Bible, meeting with other Christians and getting support as they take the first steps in their walk with Jesus.
We don't emphasise events as the only ting to do, we wholeheartedly believe that evangelism is a way of life and that we must live distinctive and integrated lives building real friendships and loving people. But we do also know that events help people along the way and are key for reaching those without any Christian contact.

This is just a bit of fun. Post the planning and dinner together, a couple of the students were testing their logical skills using my daughter's toys! The concentration was etched all over their faces and provide much entertainment for the rest of us as we observed.









Suffice to say it was a very enjoyable and productive day. I pray the Lord will use is for the furthering of His Kingdom and that the Spirit would bring many to know Jesus through the CUs next year.

What is Love?

Not the Haddaway song from the early 90s, but one of the questions Teesside posed to their campus last week.
It is a very interesting question, as the range of answers they received proved.

The most popular answers, perhaps unsurprisingly, were along the lines of feelings and relationships, each of those received about 20 answers. They varied in complexity but the main thrust of the opinion was along the respective line.
But a couple of answers that you may not have expected to feature so prominently were:

Unconditional - 7
Don't Know - 15
Sex - 8
Chemicals - 6

I imagine some of the 'don't know' responses may have been due to the pressure of thinking of an answer on the spot, but it does show that love is something we speak about daily and yet find very difficult to define. It isn't a huge surprise that 'sex' featured, as many of the most popular TV shows and magazines lead us to believe that sex=love.

The other two answers I have featured lend themselves to a little more analysing.

Is love just a chemical reaction in our brains? Or as one student put it "my favourite chemical reaction". Is it possible that what I feel for my wife and daughter, for example, is merely down to chemicals? Well, if we live in universe without the God of the Bible, then that's exactly what I would have to conclude. There is no rhyme or reason behind love, everything is chance, time and processes. Can we really live like that? For example, I don't think any spouse would like to hear their partner say "I chemical reaction you!"

Unconditional is a totally different type of answer. It gives the sense of wanting someone who will accept you as you are, warts and all. Someone who will always be there for you, care for you, do what is best for you and never leave you. Someone who will love us at our best and our worst. This resonates with us doesn't it. But can we really find that in another human being?
We can make love into our God and our search for perfect love can be relentless and ultimately fruitless. In doing that we often place unreal expectations upon the people we seek to find this love in.
But there is a solution.

The answer the Bible gives to the question "What is love?" is staggering.

1 John 4:8-10 - "Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins."

God is love. Father, Son and Holy Spirit define what love is. Love is outward focussed. Love looks to the interests of other above self. The love of God is most clearly and wonderfully displayed at the cross as Jesus Christ lays down His life so that those who would trust in Him might come to know the living God, being found in Him and enjoy Him forever.

If yo know this love, you know it to be truly satisfying. If you don't know this love, look to Jesus, check Him out.

Think about Easter

Why not think about the claims of Jesus this Easter?
Here's a few things you could do:

1. Read a gospel. Mark is the shortest.
2. Ask a Christian friend to tell you what he/she believes about Jesus/Easter and why.
3. Sign up to a course. Christianity Explored is suggested on the video but churches also run Alpha, or maybe check out Identity.
4. Or if you are a student, why not ask a friend, or contact the CU, and look through Uncover (a set of 6 Bible studies designed specifically for those wanting to engage with the person and work of Jesus).

It's a win/win situation for you:
If Jesus really did die and rise again then that changes everything = WIN!
If He didn't, you can pity Christians above all men, as the apostle Paul himself states in 1 Corinthians = WIN!

What have you got to lose?

Gospel, Gospel, Gospel Care

Once again, a privilege bestowed upon me by my current job.
This time it was receiving some training on "Gospel Care" from Steve Timmis (Founder of the Crowded House in Sheffield and also Director of Acts29 Western Europe, amongst other things).

It was a wonderful reminder that the gospel really is the answer to all of life's problems, and just when you think a problem to hard, too big, too deep or too complicated has arisen, that tempts you to adopt worldly practices, or give up, the gospel remains the one true hope.

One of the main reasons for this is summed up in the following quote: "The heart of the human problem is the problem of the human heart."
One way to view the whole of the message of the Bible is God saying "Trust me!". Then what we see is that the essence of human sin is failure to trust God.

We spent the first of our two sessions unpacking Hebrews chapter 3 and 4. There we see that human hearts are hard, wandering, evil and unbelieving. This is terminal problem. It requires outside intervention, open heart surgery on a spiritual level.

We always do exactly what we want to do. The desires of our hearts control our wills.
The heart is the control centre of the person; affections, will and actions all flow from the heart. That's why the gospel is such good news because we are given a new heart, and that is what we so desperately need.

Our new heart is in dwelt by the Spirit and He changes us from the inside to see Christ as more beautiful and satisfying than anything this world has to offer. This in turn is the answer ultimately to all of the psychological issues that we have or situations we face. Jesus really is the answer for all of us, not just for Sunday school kids!

So, when we come to caring for others, dealing with pastoral issues and seeking to counsel people biblically, all we really need is the gospel. We need to know it well and be able to apply it. We need to be able to exegete people as well as we (hopefully!) exegete Scripture.

Alongside this teaching day we (as a staff team) are currently reading "How People Change" by Timothy Lane and Paul David Tripp. So far, an I am only about a third of the way through, it is excellent. It too advocates really applying the gospel to every situation. (why not check out the Christian Counselling and Education Foundation)

My thoughts on this, as my blog sub-heading suggests, are not fully formed and may seem a bit sketchy. There may well be another post on this as I think it through further and finish the book, but suffice it to say I find it liberating and challenging to truly trust that the gospel is really the answer to all of life's issues.

Saltshaker Day

We recently had the wonderful privilege of hosting Dick and Becky Manley-Pippert in the North East region of UCCF.
On the 10th of March, in Durham, Becky led a group of CU students through one of her Saltshaker training days (aptly named after her excellent book "Out of the Saltshaker" published by IVP).
It was great to hear stories of great boldness and wisdom from her vast experience but also very honest stories of God working in and through her weakness.
She is a gifted speaker and excellent evangelist.
It was also very encouraging and challenging to hear that Dick; seeing her gifting from the Lord as an evangelist, but also her ability to train others in evangelism, sold his business and used the money to enable them to travel around the world and train people.
God has been, and I'm sure will continue, to use them both to further the Kingdom and ignite a passion for Jesus in people's lives.

Here are a few quotes from Becky from the day. I hope they will be encouraging to you.

"It's not about new techniques or methonds, it's about knowing the message better....theology effects methodology"

"Humans are the only ones who resent their form. Why? Because it reminds us we are not God, that we are weak and dependent"

"Your inadequacy is your first qualification in evangelism"

"When you're on fire, people love to come and watch you burn" Wesley via RMP.

"Because God is love, evangelism is then about love....imaging God....God sends us, not tracts"

"Being relevant is important, but to be relevant all the time you have to say things which are eternal" I think this was Pascal via RMP.

Prayer Update March/April 2012

Once again, for anyone who prays for the work of the gospel among students.
Here is my latest prayer letter outlining the work with students in CUs in Sunderland, Teesside and the Queen's Campus of Durham University in Stockton.
Feel free to ask any questions or request further info in the comments.

Prayer News Jan/Feb 2012

Here is the latest prayer update for my work with CUs.
I hope that at least some of it will be an encouragement to you.

Look out for a fuller post about my Uncover study mentioned in the prayer points at the bottom of the update!

Read it here

Prayer News Nov/Dec 2011

Follow the link below to find the latest prayer news for work with students in Sunderland, Stockton and Teesside.

There has been loads going on and more to come.
God is good, people are getting to hear about Jesus. Some students are getting excited about sharing Him, some need to step out in faith and others need to fall in love with Jesus again.

Read all about it here.

The Crew in Crna Gora

After the last post becoming an overview of the 2011 UCCF Summer Team to Montenegro, I thought I'd write one with a few more specifics about some of the people we met.
(Note: the people mentioned are in no way my favourites, they just give you a bit of an insight into the situation and the task. Also, names have been removed for personal reasons)

Let's begin with Danijel.

Danijel was a staff worker in Serbia with EUS, but took on the task of pioneering the work in Montenegro (more info here). When I first met Danijel, in summer 2010, he was due to become a father for the first time at any moment! His wife, Martina, has since given birth to a wonderful and incredibly cute little girl. There are many things I could say about Danijel. He is great inspiration. He perseveres in a very difficult climate for the proclamation of the gospel, as mentioned in yesterday's post, but not only that, he does it with joy. He and Pete Stonelake, a British guy who originally lectured out in Niksic but now works freelance, regularly meet up with students, help them learn English, and generally build friendships to help break down barriers to the message of Jesus. They are both gifted with the ability to naturally get along with people. I am sure that many times they feel despondent and want to give up, but the conviction that people need a relationship with Jesus drives them on. They along with local church which has been established for 15 years are seeking to be a light in dark place, salt and light in their community. But it's tough work with very little obvious fruit. They are living, breathing examples of faithful gospel ministers. I'm sure they'd value your prayers.

Here are a few people we met on camp this year, but I am sure you could replicate very similar stories many times over across the country:

The first is A. A is a young girl who we met for the first time this year, but is good friends with a one of the girls from the church. Firstly, she nearly didn’t come to the camp. The, when on camp, nearly didn’t attend the evangelistic talk and Bible studies. Why? Because her father is a priest in an orthodox monestry and she didn’t want to upset him. Over the course of the camp a few people had some good conversations with her, we hope more opportunities will arise for her to hear about Jesus. She left camp saying she had loved it so much she didn’t want to go home!

The second is B. B is the brother of a girl we met last year in the local church called D. She is a believer, B isn’t and neither are their parents. But their parents love the influence the church has had on their kids so are happy for them to do anything with them. Please pray that B, who can be quite quiet, will have further conversations with Danijel. They are good friends and B has been thinking a lot about life after death, what happens and how a person can be sure of going to heaven.

The third is C. C lives in a coastal town which has no established evangelical church. It’s thought there may be up to 5 believers in the area. The camp was great for C, she really came out of her shell and we think the gospel content was a great foundation for her. As far as I know she doesn’t often get fellowship with other believers. Her parents are not keen on her being an evangelical Christian but allowed her to come to the camp because relatives of Martina (Danijel’s wife) live next door and they trust Martina.

Wonderful mission, lovely people, much to pray about!

Lessons from the Black Mountain country

What do you do when you get a chance to go and partner with brothers and sisters in Christ on mission in the least evangelised country in Europe?
You go of course!!!
That's exactly what I have had the privilege of doing for the past 2 summers.
My colleague, Lensa, and I have taken 6 students from the CUs belonging to the NE and Yorkshire region of the UK to a little town called Niksic in the beautiful, rugged mountains of Montenegro.

Our aim: to help reach students with the good news of Jesus.
Our plan: to run and English and Bible camp for 5 days as well as some little events in and around the city building relationships in the week prior to the camp.
Our partners: EUS Serbia/Montenegro and the local churches.

(Check out IFES, UCCF for more information on the work worldwide and in the UK)

Danijel and Pete are two guys who are plugging away with conversation classes and general relationship building to try to make Christ know to students. They are committed to the only local evangelical church in the city and their perseverance is a wonderful thing to witness and a challenge to my weak faith. It was a privilege to work alongside them. Danijel is the first and only staff worker in the country.

The country has only been independent for a short while and the history, both politically and religiously, makes it a tough place to be an evangelical Christian. Most people are nominally Orthodox from a religious point of view. They believe they have the history and tradition and therefore as Protestants, not only did we come out of the Catholic church, but we have less history and less tradition so why should they listen to anything we say. So they prevailing attitude is the evangelicals are a cult and so are treated with suspicion or apathy.

What we did this year was build on the work of the previous summer. Further relationship building, but also some sport on the university campus with anyone who happened to fancy a bit of football or basketball as well as an acoustic cafe in a local coffee shop took place in week 1.
This was really helpful and although none of the contacts made came to the camp, we really benefitted from meeting people and getting to know a bit about the culture.We sought to serve the local church wherever we could too through participating in Sunday services as well as through moving a whole load of gospels from storage into the church.

The camp was awesome. The students lead English lessons at 3 different levels, Lensa and I did evangelistic talks and the students followed those up by leading discussion groups. We also had plenty of fun playing sport, teaching the locals how to Ceilidh and learning some traditional Montenegrin dancing. There is also an hilarious video of our team and their tribute song at the talent evening, I'll try find a link for it!

A few encouragements and challenges:

1. The local student believers whom we met in 2010 had all grown in their faith and it was wonderful to see that God had been faithful in keeping them.

2. Some local believers really have no support day by day because their town or village doesn't have a church and they cant travel to 1 of the 3 evangelical churches in the country or because their parents are not happy about their new found faith in Jesus.

3. Students in Montenegro ask similar questions to students in the UK due to the world becoming a global city through the internet and other technological advancements.

4. The impact the camp had on a couple of individuals made it all worthwhile. One girl, not a follower of Jesus, said she didn't want to go because she had loved it so much.

There is so much more to say, but this post is already huge! I pray that the foundations of partnership laid, and contacts made, will bear fruit in the awesome plan of God to bring many people to know and love Jesus.

Bible Handling.......and your chance to do it!

What a privilege it is to be involved in Bible ministry on a regular basis.

Being a staff worker with uccf:thechristianunions gives me this privilege all the time.
One such example was last week, when my colleague, Hamish, and I spent a day training the Relay workers from out regional team.
We started after lunch with 2 sessions: One on basic Bible handling, looking at the author's purpose, context and structure tools (as they are described in Digging Deeper by Andrew Sach and Nigel Beynon). The other giving them time to put those skills into practice by working on some passages in teams of 3 then presenting their findings and an outline to the whole group. We purposely chose passages which studied in isolation from their context would not make complete sense, or lose their thrust.

The evening was then spent chilling out together with a little bit of healthy competition thrown in for good measure in the form of Cranium!

The following morning we embarked on a new set of sessions which Hamish and I had decided to introduce this year for the first time. We decided to specifically look at handling the Old Testament and how it is about Jesus. The format was the same, teaching of skills and helpful stuff about ways passages can point to Jesus. Then we gave them passages to go away and study and present their findings.
What was encouraging was that while some of the Relays had done a lot of Bible handling before, all of them seemed to really benefit from the concentrated time spent thinking and discussing together. The OT stuff stretched us as well as them, which is always a good thing. Hopefully we all will grow in love for Jesus and the word as we see it hanging together so wonderfully.

Final thing to say is, if you are a final year student, or you're wondering what to do when finishing university in a couple of years, why not think about Relay (see video below) and you too could enjoy some wonderful fellowship and excellent opportunities to sharpen one another through studying the Scriptures and discussing how best to understand it.

More excitement!

At the start of last week both Teesside and Queen's Campus CUs had welcome events for the christian freshers who signed up to join or declare interest in the CU.

On Monday evening, I joined Teesside for some food in a local pub. On arriving I was expecting one or two sitting in a corner around a table because I was on time and students are normally late!
But a I entered the pub I was surprised to see around 12 fresh faces around a table getting to know one another.
As the evening went on and we order and ate our food, I think about 25 different people joined us for some or all of the time.
This was a great encouragement to me and to the current CU members. This was followed by the first CU meeting of term, where along with some local church leaders getting to know students and advertising their churches, I was given the privilege of speaking to the 20 or so students gathered about the purpose of a CU and the exciting opportunity there is for them to be part of the mission team on campus.
We looked at the gospel and thought about Jesus' high priestly prayer. Praise God for all of this.

On the same Tuesday, earlier in the day, QCCU had their fresher's fair, and though they were the furthest table from the entrance, had a bumper crop of sign-ups to the CU. Around 40 people gave their email contact details, which for a campus containing only around 700-800 freshers is great. I hope that many will come to the first meeting tomorrow.

But, the highlight of those 2 days is the conversation I had with the CU evangelism secretary for QCCU. She had been speaking to a friend about Jesus in the past. They got together near then end of the summer holidays, not long before returning to Stockton, and her friend asked if she would read the Bible with her!!! Awesome stuff! They are going to look at Mark's gospel together, and this all happened just after a training day at her house on how to read the Bible with a non-Christian friend. Added to all of that, when the CU met some of the freshers for afternoon tea, a muslim girl, who had just come along to find out a little bit about the CU, also got chatting to the same girl and they are going to look at Uncover (see below for details on Uncover)! Praise God!
(names excluded for privacy reasons)