‘Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.’ Hebrews 13:8
CONTENTS 01
KATH’s REPORT
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ONE YEAR AT COLLEGE
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ONE WEEK AT COLLEGE / LOOKING FORWARD
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THANKSGIVING
Festive Office: 16 Crugan Avenue Kinmel Bay RHYL LL18 5DG
Many students have lived with the ups and downs
Kath Cunningham (Chair of the Vision and Strategy Team)
01 FESTIVE NEWS KATH’s REPORT
t: 01745 350107 e: info@festive.org.uk w: www.festive.org.uk
Jesus Christ is the same, of CU life over the last yesterday, today and few months, they’ve seen forever. people come and go, they’ve been encouraged As we remember the past one week and discouraged 6 months and look to the the next. Through all these summer ahead these experiences, through all that are the words we long to is to come, it is deliciously hold out to the students good to know that Jesus we encounter as they Christ remains the same, he face massive change in doesn’t give up on helping their circumstances and his people, on pouring identities. out grace and mercy, he remains the constant These are powerful words. throughout the experiences Life changing words. and circumstances of our lives. He is the rock on which Exam season is over and we can fling our hope and the summer months bring build our confidence. time to reflect and look to what September will bring. As we look back in this issue Students usually have many of Festive News with reports questions and uncertainties from the colleges, and look circling around their minds forward to summer and at this time. September events, please pray for the students and Will there be people to staff in FE colleges to know carry on the CU? Will there the wonder that Jesus Christ be people to pray with, is the same yesterday, today to encourage and to talk and forever. about the reality of God with? What is the next stage of my life? How can I look to the future with confidence?
ONE YEAR AT COLLEGE The start Coming from a high school with a strong Christian Union, my friend and I were really keen to set one up when we started college. We found other Christians and together approached the chaplaincy who gave us half an hour every Wednesday as our slot. To advertise the CU we used the college emailing system and emailed the whole college. Early Days Not knowing what to expect, we planned our first CU meeting. With the resources of Festive we went through the book of Mark and 16 people turned up at our first meeting! Week after week they came back, and by Christmas we had a total of 26 people in the CU. It was so encouraging but at times difficult to get to know everyone and organize lots of people. Christmas We planned to have an outreach in December. Festive sent us 100 Mark’s gospels and we wrapped them all up in Christmas paper, and asked our es church families to bake Christmassy food for us to give out with them. When e it came to the day, not many of the CU came to help out, but we managed to give away all the gospels and food, in fact, the gospels even went before the food! New term After Christmas, the CU significantly dropped in numbers and we only had 10 regulars. I personally found this hard, particularly as the people from before had seemed so keen but I realize now that 10 is a good sized CU and I’m very thankful. Easter At Easter we invited a local youth worker and chaplain to do a short talk and Q
& A on, ‘Why does God allow evil and suffering’? We planned two talks, and despite the free food and various CU members running around college with a megaphone, just a teacher came to the first talk. For the second, a friendly Religious Studies teacher, who kindly lends us her room for CU, brought her whole A2 class into the talk, so in the end there was about 30 people, hearing a presentation of the gospel - a clear answer to panic prayer! Thanksgiving We haven’t seen anyone come to CU as a result of the outreaches, but have had a couple of 1 to 1’s with people, who seem really interested and love doing it. Looking back over the year, I feel like we could have done so much more but I am hugely thankful to God, as he has done so much through us little weak and timid year 12’s! Thanks to God that he has worked through us and has set up this CU, and that the college let us co have ha one! Thanks to our Th churches, ch families and fa Festive’s support Fe throughout th the th year, particularly with pa the th practicalities and provisions a for fo outreach events. ev Prayer Pr Pr Our O prayer Ou requests would be: That we can grow as a CU in number and grow together as we study the bible, that we can be more organised and arrange more outreaches. Also, that we can stay focused on telling people the gospel, remembering how short this life is, and not get totally swept away with college work and other things, and through that show people that we have security in Christ. Our main prayer is that we will see fruit and that the students at our college will come to know Jesus. Thank you for prayers.
02 FESTIVE NEWS ONE YEAR AT COLLEGE
Lizzie writes about the first year of CU at her college
ONE WEEK AT COLLEGE Christianity Awareness Week
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‘Fr ‘Friendshipville’, Frii a play on words of a popular social media game, was the ti titl title tle e of the event and inside the marquee students and staff could find a co collection of creative activities, numerous games, free food, gospels and bibles bib bi b as well as a team of UCCF staff and volunteers alongside Joseph (CU (C project worker) and the Christian Union all ready to initiate and answer any an questions. One O teacher brought their whole class to the tent and nearly all of o them took a copy of Mark’s gospel, students who took bibles at a the beginning of the week had read great chunks of it by the en and non-Christian students have now started to attend the end C CU. Please Pe Pl see se ee the ee eb back ack ac k page e ffor orr sp specifi pecififific pe c than thanksgivings nksg givi ving ng gs ffor or th tthis h event.
SUMMER
When Festive gets out and about
We’ll be manning stalls at Keswick and Soul Survivor this year. We love interacting with supporters, with families who are concerned to see their sons and daughters encouraged at college and with students, encouraging them to see God’s work in their place of study. Please do pray for us, for good contacts to be made and if you are around at any of these events do come and say hello!
SEPTEMBER CU TRAINING Equipped 28th-30th September One of the highlights of last year was ‘Equipped’: a weekend conference to equip and encourage any young person involved with a school or college Christian Union. The weekend gives us a chance to meet with young people from around the country and to provide a mix of bible teaching, practical seminars and individual advice. It was a joy and privilege to be a part of last year and our hope and prayer is that this year we will see even more young people come and we will hear more humbling stories of Gods goodness. Please join us in praying for this event and for the many preparations for it and if you know of young people who would like to attend do email info@festive.org.uk for more details.
FESTIVE NEWS ONE WEEK AT COLLEGE / LOOKING FORWARD
Amidst the North Wales rain of the beginning of May a marquee could be seen at Llandrillo College. It wasn’t jjust a shelter from the weather but instead the venue for this year’s ‘Christianity Awareness Week’. Week We ek’..
THANKSGIVING Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.
Llandrillo College Christianity Awareness Week
Let’s give thanks for: • The many gospels, New Testaments and Bibles given away and read! • ‘Divine appointments’ – many students not only saw the team at the marquee but also afterwards where conversations were able to continue. • The many questions that were asked and answered and the good conversations that were had. • The creativity of the team
EVENTS: Pray love Manchester - Toni had a fantastic time at this event, many prayers were prayed and answered! Christian Resources Exhibition - This map has all the people e on it who we met at CRE and for whose local college we agreed to pray! Bible by the Beach – The highlight of this event was connecting an FE lecturer with the Christian Union at his college. He is now going to partner with them in prayer.
STUDENTS
Praise God for new Christian Unions started at two colleges in Glasgow and one in Norwich and the partnership we have with UCCF in praying for them all. It’s unusual for young people to start CUs at this time in the year making these ones especially encouraging.
PRAYER EMAIL
We are so glad the monthly prayer email is up and running and that many of you are partnering with us in praying for the many Christians students and staff around the country in FE and sixth form colleges. If you don’t receive this and would like to please email Karen at info@festive.org.uk and she’ll sign you up.
FESTIVE NEWS THANKSGIVING
Psalm 118:1
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