Store House

Well I am having a far more relaxed week this week since the departure of the summer projects and I have to say that it has been very nice! I have had plenty of time to kick back and not do too much over the past few days whilst working away on my eschatology assignment. Its coming along quite nicely, I still have to do a fair bit of research and work on Revelation but I have been having a great time this past two days looking at Matthew 24 and some of the feedback I had when I surveyed friends on what they thought about the end of the world. Its been very interesting at the same time as being quite challenging and I am looking forward to the point where I get it finished!

I have also recently seen my house become a store room! Yesterday I filled most of the dining room with my friend Zac's stuff. He gets married in August and hasn't got access to his new house yet so most of his things have come here...I won't be having any dinner parties before I get back from America and nor will Pete when he gets back until its all gone!

Its been a bit strange as well since the departure of staff for summer projects, no one is around. Its certainly been strange without Pete around the house with him out in Siberia and not having many other people to pop round too. Still things are going well out on the summer projects, teams are settling in and getting used to being together in the countires. In Krasnoyarsk the English Camp is now over subscribed and the mayor of the city wants to come! In America the guys are having mixed times getting to know people but they do have some good contacts and in the Middle East they are having a great time building relationships and sharing the gospel, although they have received a little persecution from some people. For full stories check the website www.agape.org.uk/summerprojects.

I'm now just really eager to get out to the States and "get started" on my summer, things are already rolling in Colorado and I've been a bit frustrated still being here but it won't be long now!

Please continue to pray for my study (I'm hoping to finish the assignment this week and embark on some new Bible study) and of course for the summer teams around the world. Please pray too for all the work still going on in the UK this summer as people reach out in the communities they live in.

God Bless and thanks for all your prayers.
andy

Sent on their way...with a few tears!

Well five of the six summer project teams are either airborne or already in country ready to get strarted on their weeks of ministry. Only the guys heading off to Namibia are still in the UK as they aren't leaving for another couple of weeks.

We've had a great week down in High Wycombe preparing for the send off with some excellent training in cultural challenges and practical evangelism. All the teams had times together to get to know one another and prepare for working together and there was plenty of time to relax and spend time seeking God as well as pray, worship and study God's word.

Like I said in my last post I was in charge of all things finance and registration, it could have been a nightmare but by God's grace it was fantastic! God has provided in abundance for all the students (and staff!) with their financial needs (some of its still in the post!) and only one person managed to take their key home with them (thankfully he's off to Namibia so is still in Britain and not thousands of miles away!). I spent a lot of the time reconciling spreadhsheets and collecting money but it all balanced out and I drove home today with £27,000 in the car...I've managed to safely give it away to the accounts department in the office!

Please remember to continue to check out www.agape.org.uk/summerprojects over the next few weeks as teams will be sending home stories and prayer points as the projects continue.

I also think I am now officialy the High Wycombe Sainsbury's wierdest customer after buying a shopping basket filled with 12 packets of spaghetti, 15 bags of marshmallows and 2 cans of deoderant. For the record we ran a team building exercise of building structures from marshmallows and spaghetti, the sole reason for the odd shopping basket!

I shed a string of tears last night as the teams were commisioned, a mixture of longing to head back to Dartmouth and sadness and joy at sending home some close friends. As good as the week has been its been tough saying goodbye. Our STINTers who have been with us from the States for the year left us today headed for St Petersburg (and a couple of the Edinburgh guys to the Middle East). These guys are close friends of mine whom I will miss now they won't be in Britain, Brad, Ashley and Christy in particular have been with us here for two years and it seems strange that none of the original Liverpool STINT team will be here anymore. It was sad to see Aaron go too, it has been great to have him here, and of course Ryan, but he will be back with us next year. We are so blessed to have these guys come and labour with us to reach students in Liverpool, a place we wouldn't be able to work without them, having Ryan come back along with Brit and Sarah is great but Brad, Aaron, Ash, Christy and Sara, will be sadly missed, just like the others last year! None of the Edinburgh guys will be back unfortunately but they too have been so crucial in furthering ministry with students there this year. Despite the sadness I am really excited about what God will be doing in their lives back in the States and the way in which He will be using them there in fulfilling the Great Commission. Guys, if you are reading this, we love you and appreciate you!

I now have a couple of weeks to get on with some study and write my assignment before heading out to Colorado two weeks tomorrow! I will be reading into and writing about eschatology (light and fluffy!) so it will be challenging but rewarding in seeking God about it.

Please pray for my study and pray with me for the impact of the mission teams on summer projects all over the world.

God Bless one and all.
andy

All aboard for foreign locations

Well Project P.E.T.E is over for this year, we had a really successful week in Warwick. We ended yesterday with an evangelistic BBQ with a question answering panel and Martin giving his testimony. There were quite a lot of people milling around and some great questions, quite a few students were having good conversations afterwards! Praise God for the week as a whole, the one girl became a Christian last Monday and well over 100 people had conversations about Jesus in the course of the week. We also had around 30 different students attending training at some point, with many of them coming for the majority. We are very excited about the possibilities that are available next year and talks are at an advanced stage for an official partnership with UCCF in regard to the CU! Students are looking forward to getting back in September to get stuck in even more in making spiritual waves on campus! They are VERY excited at working with us.

While I have really enjoyed the end of this term I am very pleased that its over, I am worn out! I have done 4 talks in the past 11 days, they all went well but at least a partial rest is very welcome!

On Monday we head off to perpare for this years summer projects down at the Wycliffe Centre near High Wycombe. This time is usually fantastic, one of the best conferences we run at Agape and it gets people really stirred for travelling away on the mission trips, I can't wait even though I'm not going abroad afterward! Please pray for me this weke though as I am in charge of conference registration and this means tracking down remaining monies that are needed for students going on projects. In the past this has been very testing for those that have done it and can be quite painful, especially when students are short. We have a great info site for the summer projects, jump over and check it out at www.agape.org.uk/summerprojects.

I will be back at the end of the week to get cracking on some study before going to the States, I'll see you then.

God Bless, love
andy

Salvation at Warwick!

Hello everyone, the past week has been a bit hectic with Birmingham Project P.E.T.E and preparing for the Warwick version which kicked off yesterday, and what a great first day we had!

Sixteen students attended training and evangelism and we saw around ten really good conversations take place...not only that but Martin and I saw a girl pray to receive Christ! It really was quite amazing, we met a group of four Hindu students, all internationals from India. We went through a spirituality survey and were interested to learn a bit about Hinduism before sharing a bit about Christianity. After we shared the gospel we asked what they thought of it and if it interested them and while most said no one of them said that it did. We asked if she thought Jesus could be the truth and she said yes and she would like to receive Christ right then! She prayed and asked Jesus into her life sat on the steps with her friends, none of whom were interested! It was amazing to see God do that and she is going to be getting connected with the Christians on campus at the start of next term, we're also putting her in touch with a girl form the CU to help her over the summer! The students were really excited by this and it has fired their faith for evangelism and for the rest of the week, I am not there today but will be back on the ground tomorrow onwards! Please continue to pray for Project P.E.T.E at Warwick, particularly that students continue to get excited about evangelism and that God would continue to lead us to people ready to hear the Gospel!

The Project P.E.T.E weeks have also led me to have lots of speaking assignments. I spoke on "How you can be sure you're a Christian" last Monday in Birmingham, yesterday I did "Getting Right with God" in Warwick and then Thursday I'm doing "Prickly Questions" and Friday "To the ends of the Earth!", I still have plenty of prep to do, please pray for that, but it has been going well so far and a real blessing to get these opportunities.

Next week sees our summer project briefing at the Wycliffe Centre in High Wycombe, we have 114 people attending with 57 students then splitting up to go to Krasnojarsk (Siberia), St. Petersburg (Russia), the Middle East, Berlin (Germany), Namibia (Southern Africa) and Dartmouth College (USA). This briefing conference is usually a great time and the projects are brilliant for peoples development and for seeing God do great things in other parts of the world. As you know I will be flying to Colorado on July 9th to work at the US staff conference so I won't be going on project. Please pray that the time at the briefing and also the projects themselves are great times in the lives of both staff and students and that they see God do awesome things in them and also in others.

A newsletter is in the post to everyone on my mailing list (I finally got it finished) so I hope it arrives safely. Thanks for all your love and support!

andy

Project P.E.T.E's

Well things remain fun and fairly hectic as we head to the end of term and the conclusion of another academi year! I'm amazed at how quick the summer has come round again, it doesn't seem five minutes since I was gearing up to head to Dartmouth College for last years summer project...how time flies!

This week we began the week on Tuesday due to the Bank Holiday and it wasn't really the best of days! It started well, I led the Bible study in our team meetin on 1 John chapter 5 and we had a fantastic time together studying and praying for the campus. Unfortunately it all went downhill starting with a parking ticket and ended with me lying on the sofa completely wiped out at about 8pm!

The hard real stuff that day (and for the rest of this week) was more work on the tax nightmare left by last years short term international teams (not their fault I might add!). I think the Inland Revenue are a bit sick of hearing my voice but it feels like we are no nearer to sorting out the problem, the poor guys who have long since left us still have no idea how to wrap up their British taxes. Every person I speak to at the IR seems to need to speak to someone else...all I really need is someone to tell me how to treat these people for tax purposes, unfortunately it seems like no one knows!

Whilst that has taken up a lot of office time the time on campus has been great. Yesterday I hosted a visit from a contact from Nottingham Univeristy who is interested in working with us. It was excellent to have him here and working with the team. I headed off to Warwick after lunch yesterday and had a good time with Martin developing some of our relationships with students there and preparing for Project P.ET.E.

Over the next two weeks here in the West Midlands we are running Project P.E.T.E (Post Exam Training in Evangelism) at Birmingham University from 6th-10th June and at Warwick University from 13th-17th June. We will be running evangelism training in the mornings and going out doing practical outreach in the afternoon, meeting students and talking about the gospel. This has led me into a lot of writing of late as I have 4 talks to do. On Monday monring I am doing the first talk at PP Birmingham entitled "How you can be sure you are a Christian" so I've just finished that and during PP Warwick Martin, Luke and myself have 10 talks to do between us! Thankfully we are using a course for that so already have some outlines! Project P.E.T.E is a great time to get students some quality evangelism training as they have nothing to do after exams and pre summer, we are really excited about the training but also the opportunities to get out and share our faith with none Christians who also have nothing to do but relax...its a great time of year for gospel sharing, people tend to be very open. Please pray for the two weeks for final preperation and of course during the time we are running them to see people grow in their understanding of evangelism and most importantly that non believers come to know the Lord!

You will be pleased to hear that I have also found a church! It's called Oasis Church (www.theoasischurch.com) and is part of the New Frontier's group of churches. It's been a great blessing to me already and I went to cell group for the first time tonight, I am beginning to feel comfortable there (Praised the Lord!) and I am also off this weekend camping with the students from church!

Pleas pray for the weekend and for all the prep for the Project P.E.T.E's, also for continued growth of relationships at Warwick, organisation for the summer missions and that we might see the Lord do some amazing things in the lives of students on the campuses as we share Christ with them.

Thank you for all your love, support and prayers. God Bless, love
andy