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!