During Week 1, Spring Term
I'm back in Reading now...three days into the new term! I came back on Sunday afternoon. I wanted to stay at my home church for the morning service because two of my friends: Peter and Melissa were getting baptised then!It was such a great encouragement and brilliant service to see them publicly declare their faith through baptism and to hear them give their testimony. Lovely to see the church absolutely packed as well, with lots of young people too! Dad and I had a good journey down to Reading in the sunny weather (we don't seem to be getting much of this at the moment) and then the rest of the day was spent rearranging my room and unpacking!
The first few days of term have gone well! Tuesday evening was a cell social...which turned in to pretty much a whole CU social in BOBs!Good to catch up with lots of people! Wednesday evening-Small World Cafe Welcome Event was fun and went well! Quite a lot of International Students turned up and there was lots of very good food Chinese food provided by Isaac, Ioan, Jonny and some people from the Chinese Christian Fellowship. It's amazing God's grace and answer to the team's prayers that evening---->We had more new people turn up who we got to know, just when all the food began to run out and there were people that hadn't eaten, the Chinese Christian fellowship guys turn up with LOADS of amazing food-it was such amazing timing! The guys from Chinese Christian fellowship were brilliant with their conversations too! So...Good chats, Good Fun, Good Times!
A New Year-and an attempt to start blogging again!
Hello! I have no excuses so I simply apologise now for the neglect of my blog in the past months! I think there is too much to write to update you all about what happened last term-but I can say it has been exciting! And I love sharing a house rather than being in halls!
Happy New Year! 2007-what will it bring, what will it hold? It will be an exciting adventure that I'm quite scared about too! So far, the New Year has been, admittedly, frustrating as I'm finding my essays ridiculously difficult to write! But I look forward to good times!
New Year's Resolutions?
There are loads of things I want to improve on some of which include: avoid by last minute rush to appointments/lectures/meetings, be more on top of my work, become a faster reader (I'm an English student, yet read at a painfully slow rate)!
But I sincerely over all the other things- want to know my Saviour more and trust in Him-whatever the circumstances: through frustrations, busy work schedules,when it's easy- I desire to have Jesus at the Centre of my life.
Hopefully I will post again soon!!!
Heading to Reading
Well the Summer has flown by while I've been back home!I feel like an old lady when I say such a thing but it's true! Unfortunately time goes much more quickly as you get older!
Talking of getting older...I went to Wales the weekend before last for my Nanna's 84th Birthday!We had a lovely family meal, which my Aunty made. It was great spending time with some of me Welsh relatives!Anyway that is probably what you would call a 'tangent'....
Tomorrow, bright and early, my parents are driving me down to Reading with all my stuff ready to move in!It'll be interesting tomorrow-there's a
lot to do, some of which include-taking old curtains down, putting new ones up and putting together a bedside cabinet!As well as me moving far too many things in...there will be two of my other housemates moving all their things in tomorrow as well!Hehehe it's going to be a mad start! Should be fun though! The first evening back is already planned out to be a 'Film and Pizza Night' which will be great-I'm really looking forward to seeing friends again!:)
Freshers Week is from the 1st October, which is quite nerve-racking but exciting stuff (CU and cell will be holding lots of events!) Term starts the following week.
I won't have internet for about a week, I believe, but will update on how everything is going as soon as possible! x
FORUM!
Forum-CU Leaders National Conference Week (a training week) was 4th-8th September.(See pictures from the week, above.-the Reading group were amongst the campers!!) As I mentioned earlier the week was brilliant!I survived camping too-it wasn't bad-twas fun!The whole week was fun!It was great spending more time getting to know the committee and others from Reading that week through relaxing and talking together. I also absolutely
loved being around so many other young Christians!Because it was a national event there were a lot of us!Approximately 600 of us in total! All there, sharing the same vision, same Hope, same message. It was amazing seeing vast variety and style yet such unity!That's the power of being in God's family!It was so great-a huge encouragement to me.
The teaching was excellent.I needed some time after the week was over,however, to reflect and process all I heard-as we had a lot of talks in one week!I've typed up my notes to the morning and evening talks so if anyone wants to take a look let me know and I can get them to you (haven't quite worked out how to put the file on here yet!) The morning talks were led by Graham Daniels on the book of Daniel. In the four talks we looked at how:
1)God Rules (God is ultimate King, Daniel acknowledges this,and shows it through both his tactful, polite manner and his drawing a line to what action he consents to,to King Nebuchadnezzar)
2)God Reveals (Daniel has the extraordinary gift of interpreting the King's dreams. However it is God who gives Daniel this gift; God reveals. It is only God who can answer our questions, reveal the light, truth; Himself, to us.
3)God Rescues (Here we see how God rescues His people- when Daniel and the others refuse to worship an idol of gold and are condemned to die, God protects them. Illustrative of how God ultimately resucues those He has chosen from eternal condemnation.)
4)God Saves (King Neb tells his story of how he came to believe, how God saved Him. Even the King who should have everything was challenged and had fears yet even He came to Believe and took great delight in sharing his story)
Everyone there that week were joined to a 'small group'where we met each day to talk, reflect and encourage each other about what we had learnt. This was brilliant and have met some really lovely people. The bottom picture shows my small group. (Any Reading CU people spot someone familiar though?!...yep Ceryn was our leader!Yay!:)
There were evening talks on aspects of Evangelism given by Director of UCCF and Rico Tice. There was a Prayer Evening for International Work which was really cool. Also there were seminars on many different topics which you could choose to go to during the day-really interesting and useful.
A fantastic week! :)
A brief blog
This is just a quick post to say there will be more posts coming soon! Last week was Forum and it was a great week :), but also rather busy! So once I've had some proper 'time out' to reflect on all that I heard and learnt last week and gather my thoughts together I will blog about it!
This is my last week of working at the cafe which, admittedly, I'm rather happy about! Plus I recently discovered that term begins later than I thought it did, meaning I gain an extra week of holiday! :)
It is now a month since I last blogged...oops! To be honest you would all be rather bored if I had done regular blogging recently because mainly I have just been working at the cafe or reading!
However I will try and record what things I have done otherwise and look at the positive!:) (Apologies for the random...'I did this... and I did this....' -i can't remember exact dates etc!)
I was able to meet up with school friends a few weeks ago for a meal (Chinese, yummm) and then more of us were all able to meet in Lichfield-nice to catch up! The following week we had a 'girlie-night' with us ordering pizza, indulging in chocolates, nibbles, and listening to cheesy music with lots of talking and laughs. It was a really enjoyable evening.
I have also met up with my friend from church, Katie, and spent the afternoon with her - helping her look after her adorable baby brother!Yay! For those of you who do not know me very well, please understand that i LOVE babies and children and tend to chatter on about them for too long, so I will apologise in advance for this! That was another nice day, with the evening spent at my church's 'summer supper'.
Two weekends ago I went to Wales and stayed with my Nanna for two days. Also went to my Aunty's (as she lives nearby in Wales). Lovely to see family again; I don't see them often so it's always great to visit them. And, I also love the welsh scenery:- mountains, rivers, sheep...and no, before you say it, there was
no rain!
Also went to my teacher's wedding reception party, which was held in an amazing marquee; twas great fun and beauuutiful!
Well I will report soon again, I always seem to be rushing off computers (it's because I have to share it, now at home!!!)-brother needs to use it!
Hope you are all enjoying the Summer! And thanks again for all you people who keep up-to-date with blogging, because they are a great encouragement to me during these hols!xxx
Challenges and Hope
Over the last few weeks I've been challenged. My friend's Mum passed away after a long battle with cancer. A man from my home church passed away, as a result of cancer and on Tuesday a lady my parents and I know well from church unexpectedly died as a result of a heart attack. It made me realise how we are dust, we
are mortal, and we all, sadly for friends and family who remain, are taken away from the world at some point.
The last week or so has taught me two things in particular.
Firstly I should never take my life or anyone else's life for granted. I should remember how our life on earth is precious. We do not know how long we are here for and so time should not be wasted on mindless things. I should be seeking to use every second of my life to honour and glorify God-to demonstrate the immense love he has shown us in all my actions, speech and work, to the world, and in the hope that others will also want to become followers of Christ. After all, this is the command Jesus left us with-'Go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit' (Matthew 28:19). Of course that is an absolutely huge challenge-to honour God and reflect his love in
everything you do! There is no doubt I will fail in this-because I'm a sinful human-being!I will muck-up and do often. But the great thing is God's grace is there; forgiveness. Finally God didn't just say 'Ok you try your hardest on your own'. By no means...the final and amazing reassuring verse of Matthew is Jesus' words: 'And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age'-what a promise!
That brings me onto the
Second reminder I've been given through the last week. Christian people have an
unbreakable Hope. It is indeed sad and very difficult when family and friends pass away, because we love them and are separated from them here-for all it will be hard. The three people I knew who passed away, however, were all Christians. And this is the amazing consolation I know my friend and her family have, and I had. -The Christian's life hasn't ended. Indeed they are beginning true, fulfilling, LIFE in eternity with their Lord and Saviour. And that will be real joy.
I just want to add what my friend, whose Mum passed away recently, said in an email- it sums up what I've been trying to share above-
"Mum's death is a loss to us but a great gain for her and Jesus."
