Whats New?

Welcome to my prayer letter for October! Much has happened since the last one, which is why this one has been slightly delayed and I want to tell you about it in a personal way, but space may not allow me to do more than list whats happening! I have started meeting with a few guys in the CU each week to go through some bible studies. With most I am going through Lukes gospel, using UCCFs Uncover (explained later), and Im looking at philosophical reasons for belief with one student, particularly reading Francis Schaeffer with him. Off the back of these studies, Ive started playing badminton with some of the guys and we hope to put a team together to challenge the university badminton team! My team (staff worker & 2 relays in Reading) have started meeting up every Monday to study passages in Lukes gospel, as well as setting aside time to look at our core and elective study modules. For my elective study I have chosen to look at New Atheism (an organised anti-religious strand of atheism), looking first at Dawkins The God Delusion in order to understand some of their beliefs and respond to them. Im also finding reading it helpful because I have been able to respond to those who object to Christianity, after reading books like this, in a more understanding and helpful way. I have also now been accepted into membership at my church in Guildford; Chertsey Street Baptist Church, which is a real blessing! I am involved in a few ways, one of the main ways being helping to run Student Group, which meets every Wednesday evening. On the side, I have been learning to fly and have now flown solo after passing an Air Law exam!

October 2012

Relay Prayer Letter

Tim Clark

University of Surrey Christian Union 7 Saffron Platt Guildford Surrey GU2 9XX tm.clark@btinternet.com 07748905270

Christian Union
A lot has been happening at the CU this past month. Ive attended some of the committee meetings and been really encouraged by the wisdom and decisiveness that they have shown. A few things have changed this year; two of the main things being the structure of the CUs main meeting calendar, and the way that prayer works at Surrey. Firstly prayer: because there in no longer a chaplaincy that the CU can practically use there is no longer prayer breakfast on Tuesday mornings. Instead of this members of the CU, led by the committee, are being encouraged to form small prayer groups and support each other in prayer regularly. Secondly on Thursday evenings the committee have decided to adopt a model called 1, 2, 3, Go where the first three meetings will be focused on equipping people in evangelism, and the fourth is an evangelistic event in place of the normal main meeting. This is a very helpful model as it helps to focus the first three meetings on evangelism and then gives people a chance to actively put what theyve learnt into practice. The CU have had two Go events so far; the first was an acoustic night with Rory Malone and the second was a film night in the biggest lecture theatre on campus. The next Go event will be the Christmas carol service, which has been publicised in the official university events planner! Another regular fixture in my week with the CU is International Caf, which runs every Monday evening. For a time now we have simply been meeting, and getting to know, international students, often playing games. I have now started to run a short bible study with another student, looking at Lukes gospel.

contact

UCCF: The Christian Unions Blue Boar House, 5 Blue Boar Street, Oxford, OX1 4EE T 01865 253678 E email@uccf.org.uk www.uccf.org.uk
registered charity no. 306137

The South East Big CU Weekend Away

On the 2 4 of November we had our South East Big CU Weekend Away. This was a chance for CUs across the south east (Surrey, Reading, Bournemouth, Southampton etc.) to meet in Winchester for a weekend of teaching, fellowship and worship. In total about 360 people gathered (completely filling our venue, Christ Church Winchester) to listen to Lindsay Brown, Michael Green and Roger Carswell teach about Speaking for Jesus, Loving Jesus and Living for Jesus. The weekend away was also a time to launch UCCFs Uncover gospel project, encouraging students to pray for 5 friends, give a copy of Lukes gospel to 5 friends and to read it with those same 5 friends. The Uncover gospel
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Prayer & Support

- The CU committee, for continued wisdom and decisiveness. Pray that they would have a good relationship with the Students Union. - International Caf, that the number of internationals attending would increase so that we can share Jesus love with them. - The carol service, especially that lots of people would attend and hear the gospel explained clearly, and that God would work in their hearts. - Bex, who is a bouncer at the Students Union that I spoke to on Friday night, who has a lot of questions about the bible. - Myself, that I would be a useful member of the church. - We have had a few problems with our house, so pray that these issues are sorted quickly

project has two parts; the first is a hardback copy of Lukes gospel, with space for notes and scannable codes throughout, which link to videos that help explain the passage, and the second is an A5 book containing six bible studies in Luke, designed to take seekers through a few stories in Luke and help them to understand more about the character and work of Jesus. My role at the Big Weekend Away was to run all of the sound, which was a big task as the church has a large sound system and we had Olly Knight down with his band to lead the singing. I was worried about equipment not working, or not being able to run the sound smoothly, but God blessed me with a trouble-free weekend, so I could get on with listening to the talks!

Important Dates
- 15 Uncover launch at CU. th - 17 We have some Jehovahs Witnesses coming to our house in the morning to talk about Jesus. th th - 26 -30 Myself, the two relay workers in Reading and our staff worker are going to Cardiff CUs mission week as guests and helpers. Have you no words? Ah! Think again, words flow apace when you complain, and fill your fellow-creatures ear with the sad tale of all your care. Were half the breath thus vainly spent to heaven in supplication sent, your cheerful song would oftener be, Hear what the Lord has done for me! William Cowper
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Looking Forwards
Things to think about and look forward to are the carol service, and other Go events; especially that God would be with the committee as they seek to plan a carol service that will be helpful, appealing and share a strong gospel message. International Caf has been blessed with a good number of CU students attending, and initially a good number of international students, although it has become more of a struggle to encourage international students to attend. I am continuing to help lead lead the bible studies at student group on a Wednesday evening, and some of the students from my group have started to get involved in running them, which is encouraging. Our house continues to have a relationship with the Jehovahs Witnesses who visit our neighbourhood, and we hope that continuing to speak with them will at least sow seeds of truth about who Jesus really is. At the end of November I will be going, with my staff worker and the relays in Reading, to Cardiff as guests during their mission week.