5 Weeks to go!

Sorry I've been so bad at keeping this up this term. There's been less going on because the students have been and some still are busy with deadlines and exams. I've still been keeping busy usually by doing more study. This week I've got my final study response to do. Its about heaven.

Had my last ever CU meeting last week. It was kinda sad because I have enjoyed this year and love my students to bits even if they can be slightly frustrating at times, usually cos they aren't as organised as I try to be! I'm really going to miss them. I don't know where the last year has gone.

Still don't have a clue what I'm doing when I finish relay. I am looking for a job I just don't have one yet. Same goes for somewhere to live that's not my mum's house. What I do know is that unless something unexpected happens I'll be living in Birmingham or Derby with Birmingham being my first choice.

My third and final term has really begun!

Work wise things haven't been that busy. Just trying to get back into the swing of things and working out how I can best support the students when they are busy and stressed so don't have much spare time. The summer houseparty they had begun planning is not happening anymore because the speaker fell through and people didn't seem to want to go away that close to exams. Hopefully the picnic day out in the sun type thing will happen instead and everybody will have a great time.

TEAM has started again after the Easter break. It was good to see people and get stuck into learning more about God. Today was pretty heavy going because we were looking at the Trinity the attributes of God and the Holy Spirit. all good stuff though!

Outside of work things have been much busier. I had a great time at Matt and Hannah's wedding in Birmingham last weekend and on Tuesday I was back in Birmingham for a job interview for a health records clerk job. I think it went ok and I'll know by the end of Friday if I got the job. This weekend I'm going to Bristol to see uni friends. After that things should get quieter!

NWA and things

I'm finally back in Cambridge after 3 weeks away. I had two reasonably relaxing weeks at home chilling out and looking for jobs followed by one week stewarding at New Word Alive (NWA for short). I had a great time at NWA catching up with friends and making new ones. Stewarding is definitely good fun when you are working with some great people, it is sunny for the whole week and you don't have to do any after hours stuff! I was based in the Great Marquee for most of the week so got to hear nearly all the bible readings from 1 Thessalonians and be at all apart from one of the evening celebrations. I think my highlight of the week was being amazed by God's grace at the final student celebration. I also really enjoyed hearing Rebecca Manley Pippert speak about evangelism. It was really encouraging to hear some of her amazing stories and advice.

I've now started my final term of Relay at ARU and because of the way things work here with semesters and exams there are only 3 more proper CU meetings before the end of the academic year! The students have 3 weeks of lecture and then a short break before a few weeks of exams and then they vanish for the summer holidays. I will still spend time with the students but it wont have the structure of weekly CU meetings. I'm hoping that lots of the girls will come to the weekly prayer breakfasts I am planning to have on campus until they go home for the summer. I'm expecting that there will be more time for study and stuff but I am still going to try to meet up regularly with as many of the girls as I can. It kind of depends on how busy and stressed they get with exams though.

Wow, less than 2 weeks till Easter Holidays!

I'm being really rubbish at this whole blogging thing this term! My excuse is I've been busy and have sent out far more short prayer updates instead!

It's now less than 2 weeks till the Easter holidays :) Can't quite believe how fast this year is going! Need to make sure I make the most of the time I have left! This term has gone well. Mission week at ARU went pretty well and there were plenty of encouragements even if it was hard work which was no surprise! New Leaders training weekend was also really encouraging to see the new exec committee excited about the Gospel and leading the CU. The teaching and training and study I'm doing is also going well, although I still can't write an essay to save my life! I know this is all pretty vague and short but it's that or write absolutely loads of stuff that you wont have time to read!

I'm trying to make progress with my plans for after Relay but I am finding it hard to really know what I want to do and how I can best serve God. I still want to move back to the midlands, ideally Birmingham. In terms of what I want to do job wise I'm struggling. I don't want to do more study or full time Christian work. For want of any better ideas I'm looking at admin and HR type stuff at the moment. God know what he's doing and has a plan even if I don't!

New term, time to get back into blogging!

Sorry its been so long since I updated my blog. the last few weeks of term and the first few back after Christmas have been very busy despite the students not being around! I've been busy with Team days, study, bible study prep, Relay 2, admin, then the students finally started semester 2 and then I was away for mission week in brum. So things have been pretty good if rather busy!

Birmingham CU mission week was called WhoWhatWhy? and the main speaker was Andy Croft from Soul Survivour Watford. There were lunchtime talks everyday where Andy was speaking about topics such as Who is Jesus?, What is Jesus like? and Why did Jesus die? In the evenings there was a quiz night, chocolate tasting evening combined with apologetics talks and a couple of straight talks. The talks were Why trust the Bible?, Why did God give us free will if he knew we'd mess up? and Why doesn't God make Himself more obvious? These questions were voted for online before the mission week by students at the uni. The talks were really good and numbers were pretty good throughout the week.

I was based with Pritchatts Hall group. They were a really friendly bunch of students to work with. The prayer meetings on campus every morning were rather early for me (8am start) but really encouraging to see so many people there praying and to here stories of what God was doing throughout the week. Was an exhausting week! Whilst I was in brum I also had a great time catching up with friends mostly at the weekends.

Got a couple of weeks of "normality" before ARCU have their mission week. Looking forward CU tomorrow night. Think that's enough writing for now!

A Conference and a Carol service

The Biblical Evangelism conference I went to at the weekend was really good. My talk went quite well and I got some constructive feedback. The teaching about the Doctrine of Scripture was also really good and complemented what I've been reading in my core study this month.

On Monday night it was the CICCU (Cambridge Inter-Collegiate Christian Union) carol service and my cu had mince pies and mulled wine first and then went along. It was a fun event, Rico Tice did a good job with his talk and lots of people came.

TEAM has finished for Christmas. I've really enjoyed it this term and am already looking forward to next term and continuing the teaching including the detailed Bible overview. If you want more details about what I'm learning ask me.

I'm really enjoying doing my one-to-one and chatting and studying Colossians together. It was good to have more time this week. Book club is going well. Reading Out of the Saltshaker was a good choice and changing the time means that we have more people coming. I think it's going to be helpful for all of us to read. I'm hosting a girly prayer breakfast on Tuesday so I'm hoping a lot of the CU girls will come and enjoy it. Can't believe there are only two CU meetings left this term!

Third month of Relay is nearly finished!

Time for a quick recap on what I've been doing. CAM went well as did my first one-to-one. Went to my first church homegroup meeting last night which was good.

On Friday I'm off on the Biblical Evangelism Conference. It's a UCCF conference and a big part of it is spending time in small groups giving a 10 minute evangelistic talk on a passage we given a few weeks in advance and getting feedback on it. I'm not looking forward to this and havent finished my talk yet. It should be a good weekend though.

Generally everything is still going well. Only got one more week of TEAM this term and another 2 weeks of term for my students! I still have till work for another week after the students finish for their holidays. Time has really flown!