Sorry and Goodbye for now!

To the few people who read this blog regularly, we're sorry that we won't be blogging anymore. However please come and join us over on facebook - search for the group Cliff College Festival. Hopefully this idea will work much better over there, where people can interact with each other and everyone can post topics! Hope to see you soon!

Thanks for reading over the time this blog has been running - God bless you!

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=10160148153

Is there anyone there?!

Hi there!
Please could you drop a hello in the comments if you regularly (at least every couple of weeks) call in on this blog? We're trying to establish how many people read it. Could you also say if you are a member of any social networking sites like Facebook etc, as it may be more useful to set up a festival youth group there - much more interactive!
Thanks!

promises promises...

Hello to everyone who visits this blog, Happy New Year! As I sit here writing this article, I can't believe we have started another year. I wonder what God has in store for you? I have been looking at the Methodist Covenant Prayer and wonder how many of us really understand what we are saying when we say this prayer at the beginning of the year? Do we say it because we're told to, or do we really think about it?

It is an awesome prayer, I've added it at the end of this post. We say that we give up our right to decide what we do in our lives, and give everything to God. In Luke 9:23 Jesus says 'If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.' As Jesus' disciples we must be ready to do what he wants, what is HE asking YOU to do this year? Its not easy to follow him, but with the help of the Holy Spirit it is possible. God can use us all, we just need to remember that everything is possible through the one who strengthen us. (Phil.4:13)

Right at the end of the prayer, the words mean that hopefully the covenant we have spoken will be acceptable to the Almighty. So I pray that as you go through this year you will experience the power of the Lord, Father Son and Holy Spirit, as you rely on Him for everything you could possibly need. Have a read and see if you can say it and mean it?

God's Blessings, Brenda

I am no longer my own but yours.

Your will, not mine, be done in all things,

wherever you may place me,

in all that I do and in all that I may endure;

when there is work for me and when there is none;

when I am troubled and when I am at peace.

Your will be done when I am valued

and when I am disregarded;

when I find fulfillment

and when it is lacking;

when I have all things,

and when I have nothing.

I willingly offer all I have and am to serve you,

as and where you choose.

Glorious and blessed God,

Father, Son and Holy Spirit,

you are mine and I am yours.

May it be so for ever.

Let this covenant now made on earth

be fulfilled in heaven. Amen.

Pub crawl with a difference!

One evening in the final week of term before the Christmas break, around 15 staff, students and Cliff community members went carol singing in the local pubs in the neighbouring villages of Baslow and Calver. Although there weren't many people in some of the pubs, those who were there thoroughly enjoyed what we did; some clapping loudly and giving us requests!

Although sadly we would never have got through the first round of the X Factor, one person commented that she was thrilled at how good we all sounded after virtually no practice, particularly the spontaneous three part harmonies! One pub landlord asked if we could go back every night that week! It must be quite boring in his pub!

We sang a few carols in each pub, gave out free mince pies and collected over £80 for a local charity. For us at Cliff, this is one practical way of getting involved with our local community.

It sometimes feels as if the true message of Christmas is squeezed out more and more, as we focus on presents and even what's on TV, it was fantastic to bring something of the truth of the Gospel into the pubs around here. As we sang the most amazing words in many of the old carols, we truly sensed God at work.

Maybe this is something you could try next Christmas in your area?

Did you get up to anything in your area for Christmas? Drop us a note in the comments and let us know! Have a great 2008!

Sue

prayer...

Hi! Brenda here! I have just been on a weekend mission with a team of seven to Bangor in Wales. The mission was about doing evangelism in the ordinary places. Looking at the place where God has placed us and seeing the mission field around us. This is something most of God's people are trying to do, praying for the leading of the Holy Spirit to show them just how to be more effective. The one thing that is exciting for me is seeing how so many of God’s people really want to see God’s kingdom coming into people's lives.

At Bangor we were giving them encouragement in what they were already doing and then looking outside of the box at other ways of sharing the Gospel message. The people were very interested in taking the ideas and picking the ones that they could do. One thing we must all do is to ask God what are the God ideas and what are our ideas and discerning between the two.

One of the things that the church took up was doing a prayer walk. We arranged to prayer walk with them and just doing something practical was very good. They knew their area and pointed out land marks to pray for, and this was something they found very beneficial and actually they could do on a regular basis.

Have you ever considered your local area and the places that may be in need of prayer? I pray Gods’ Blessing on all that you are doing in His church.

mission, mission, mission!

Below you'll find some short accounts of our various mission weekends!

Bury St Edmunds - Sue Peat
I went with a very excited bunch of students all the way to Bury St. Edmonds….we definitely travelled the furthest! After a long journey involving many sweets (and a random pork pie…ask first year Matt Davies about this!) we finally arrived at the small Methodist church we were working at for the weekend. We did all sorts of things during the weekend, including workshops, an awesome labyrinth and church services. God challenged all of us – church members and Cliff team members alike. It was great to make some new friends and be part of what God is doing in Bury St. Edmonds.

Chesterfield: Heath and Holmewood - Lee Reddyhoff
The thing that was most impressive about this mission was the way that the team had a lot of fun. In this there was a real sense of pulling together and mutual support. This is what came accross to those within the church that we dealt with. One of the comments that came back was how much the team seemed to be friends as well as working together. We were able to have a number of good conversations with people from outside the church fellowship, which hopefully will lead to some people joining the Alpha Courses that the church is planning to run. Please pray that these people will come.

Hackenthorpe: Sheffield - Linda Egerton
The Bus on the Delves - 'Because You're Worth It'
The Cliff Team joined in with the Church Mission Team on their usual Friday visit to the Delves area of the local council estate. We accompanied members of Christ Church as they visited elderly folk, and those who were not so well, in their own homes for a chat and a cuppa. Some of us stayed on the bus, served drinks and chatted with passers-by. We prayer-walked the area, delivered 300 flyers (with information about the presence of the bus and the service to be held on the Sunday), and cleaned up all the litter and broken bottles around the take-always, the pub, the school and the flats around the 'village green'. On Sunday morning we joined with the early prayers (7.30 am - who says students can't get up early!) and enjoyed ourselves at the 9.00 am service at Christ Church, before making our way down to the Delves to lead an outdoor service. The team set out tables and chairs outside the derelict shops, offered drinks and biscuits to all those around, led prayer and a discussion about LOVE and finally played and sang worship songs.

The result of this weekend of relational mission was that the team made many new friends, not only amongst the Bus Mission Team but also the local folk. The local community is used to seeing young adults 'terrorising' the area after dark and they were attracted to the young people from Cliff, who looked like all other young people, but who cared, shared and served them. The weekend was such a success that not only the Christ Church Team asked the Cliff students to come back but also the local people, who have since told me they really enjoyed the outdoor Sunday 'service'. Hopefully, this is just the beginning of Cliff student teams joining in with the Christ Church Bus Mission on the Hackenthorpe Estate.

Lincoln - James Wallace
The mission that went to Lincoln was the biggest mission team that went out from Cliff College, there was seventeen of us in all. The mission was focussed on prayer most of all as we did a lot of prayer and detached work on the streets of Lincoln which included joining the Lincoln Street Pastors on the Saturday night which was a fantastic experience. One of students was even able to pray with a night clubber. Other detached work involved using a minibus called the God Pod on Saturday afternoon which was also a great success. There where many other activities including church breakfasts and church services which the team led. However, the great success story happened on Saturday moring when four of the students led a service at Lincoln Men's Prison and three of inmates made the decision to become Christians and get baptised. So please pray for contined work that is happening in Lincoln.

Rotherham: Swinton - Eva Walker
Our team of seven headed off on a convoy to our mission venue in Rotherham.
During the long journey (just over an hour) we kind of lost each other, but it was fun, because we got there almost at the same time. We had an amazing time on mission, because we saw God evident throughout the weekend, we saw God evident in the lives of the people from the churches (young and old) that we spent time with. We had a very busy programme starting with time of sharing with the church people, a drop in for the young people with lots of games, food and fun... (why is it that the youngsters are better than some of us at
buzz: big quiz?!) ...After that, believe it or not, we had a sleepover.... Again, I think we should change the name to awakeover, because nobody wants to sleep (apart from us oldies, ha!)
Then Saturday and Sunday were amazing throughout the different activities. We built amazing relationships with the people there and we look forward to see some of them again. All we can say is that God uses people no matter who they are if we allow him and offer ourselves to him. God is in the business of changing, transforming and saving lives. I love being part of his mission. What about you? Remember, he can use you in an amazing way!

Sheffield: Victory Assembly Conference - Brenda Emms
Cliff College team had been invited to lead a faith sharing weekend with the young people of Victory Assembly Church. Starting with a getting to know you event on the Friday Night, around thirty young people attended and the evening had many difficulties but God was definitely in it all. As the team reflected on the evening we turn to God for His inspiration. The whole of Saturday event was around looking at Moses and how God had called him to lead his people into the promised land. We encouraged the young people to look at God, maybe He was calling them to lead their friends into the promised land. The scripture verse which we used to encourage the young people was from Phil. 4 v 13’ I can do everything through CHRIST who gives me strength’. The group did many things, watching a clip of Prince of Egypt leading on to them doing a drama about what they had watched. But one of the moving things for me was when the team set up prayer stations, and encouraged the young people to use them. They did to great effect, they prayed to God and we prayed for them. They were also very eager to pray for us, which is very humbling. At the end of the day we had been asked to lead the youth group in the topics of sex before marriage and peer - pressure, the team members led this with sensitivity on two very difficult subjects. The whole team praise God for His faithfulness to us His children. A great time was had by all.

Telford: Wellington - Helen Edwards
Our weekend in Telford started with a great night with the youth of the church. We had a 'Battle of the Sexes' which I am sorry to report that the boys won! We had a good laugh seeing various people covered in flour, and chocolate covered flumps! On the Saturday morning we were involved in children's work, a big coffee morning, and a failed attempt at face-painting - only 3 kids were painted and all the old people refused! Saturday afternoon brought workshops and the evening a meal and student testimony afterwards - its always great to hear what God has been doing in people's lives. We led the service on Sunday morning, focussing on the story about Jesus walking on the water - and challenging the people in the church to not stay in the safety of the boat (the church) but to climb out and go and join Jesus on the waves (in the world) to see all the amazing things he's doing there.

Our next whole college mission time is just before Easter, from 7th - 16th March - and we have the opportunity for volunteers to join us for the mission. We're working with churches in Chesterfield, and the mission is part of Hope08. If you'd like to get involved get in touch!

All off on mission...

We're all heading out on mission this weekend (19th-21st Oct), for our normal faith-sharing weekends. We're sending a total of 9 teams out to a variety of places throughout the country - 3 teams to Lincoln, 2 to Sheffield, then Bury St Edmunds, Chesterfield, Rotherham, and Telford! All the students are busy doing last minute prep, packing and panicking!

Its quite a scary thing to do for lots of our new students who have never been involved in missions before - staying with people you've never met before, in a church you've never been to before, and being expected to talk about your faith which you may not have done all that much before coming to Cliff!

Every time we go on mission we come back with special stories of what God's been doing during the time we have been away - and all of those students who are a bit scared and worried are going to have a great time and realise that God is definitely big enough to look after them - and give them loads of great opportunities to share their faith too!

If you're reading this before we go, or while we're away please take a moment to pray for us and the work that God is doing in people's lives through the Cliff teams out on mission.

Hope you're all well, God bless you!