Penny Dropping Moment

So this week I'm being a CU Guest at Lancaster University's CU Mission. It's been great, hard work and very tiring but really encouraging. It's now Thursday night and although I've felt entirely out of my depth all week, I am looking back over the week and just seeing what God has taught me about myself and about Himself.

You (I say that assuming someone reads my blog, I don't actually think anyone does...) may be a long term "I've done 25 mission weeks this last year" type but for newbees like me, who have just stumbled through 3 mission weeks while at Uni (one of which I hid away for out of fear that someone might hand me some flyers, one of which I was on placement for so not even around during the day, and one of which I was so stressed out sorting out CUGs and money and logisitics that I didn't do any evangelism...) this week was a very different story and a whole new thing for me.

Of course, I understand the Gospel and I understand evangelism and I have a really massive passion for student evangelism and I love the work of the CU and even of UCCF (oh, how people change...) and I love mission weeks and I know how effective they can be! Of course, I tick all the boxes. But there's always more to it than that. Nothing annoys me more than people who act as if they will never learn anything new. I hope I never get like that! So I got to Lancaster expecting to be pushed out of my comfort zone and expecting to learn new things about my glorious Saviour and about HIS mission strategy. And of course I have.

At the beginning of the week one of the other CUGs talked about loving seeing when CU students who previously haven't understood evangelism suddenly get it - "a penny dropping moment"... well, like I say, we can tick all the boxes and still have penny dropping moments, and I had one last night.

To skip all the boring parts, me and one of the CU members were talking to a Muslim guy about Christianity, he invited us over to his room in order that he could understand more about what we believed, in the hope this would help him to understand Judaism, which from what we can gather we think was related to trying to understand the situation in Gaza. So he basically said... tell me what you believe. I love that question! As we encouraged him to realise how sinful the world is and how we are all so in desperate need for a Saviour, we had the joy of being able to explain how Jesus can rescue us from that sin and make us acceptable in God's sight! It was clear he understood, whether he got passed the "I just want to know what you believe" to it challenging his heart, we don't know; but God's message is powerful and glorious and we can only pray.

But the amazing thing I went away from this conversation with, as well as an encouragement for both me and the guy I was with that we could explain the Gospel (which when you aren't constantly coming into contact with people who ask such blatent questions, doubt can creep in...) was this overwhelming thankfulness and joy that what I said was true and it applied for me! I am such a classic rule setter, and the type that beats myself up every time I fall into the same sinful things I struggle with time and time again... and yet just as I told the guy we spoke to, I am saved from that! I was practically dancing as I walked back, both out of excitement that God could use someone as unwilling and uncooperative and broken and bumbly as me, and also that this amazing message, that seems too good to be true sometimes when you say it out loud, IS true and IS applied to me!

I am a big fan of reminding myself how broken and dirty I am, and using the knowledge and joy of my salvation through Jesus as my encouragement and motivation for evanglism. You can keep your "you should do this and this...." guilt, and your deceptive methods and your "how many missions/gospels/conversations have you been on/handed out/had recently" competitiveness as a motivation. Joy is the only thing that is really going to make people want to tell people about their faith. it's probably the only thing that will make the penny drop!

having never written a talk in my life...

... i have 4 to write in the next 3 weeks.

first, a talk on 2 Kings 5 for Mini Kids (4-7 year olds) next Friday (21st)... i don't even know the story, must get on with this. I guess this one is slightly easier as it's just a case of getting the story and the point across, it's not like Justin Mote is watching over me to critique my theology and application. Praise God for that! (hehe) that said, I need to do it right.

second, my North West Partnership talk (Thurs 27th), which is on 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11. I'm systematically trying to work my way through the "tools" we've been given for working out what it's saying and also how to write the talk. I'm so glad we got all this teaching before we had to write the talks! I'd have completely had no idea. Anyway my current position is that I get what it's saying, but I'm not sure of the application and I can't think of any relavant illustrations. They'll come, we assume. On the same theme as before, I'm glad I'm not a boy and therefore Justin Mote isn't critiquing me. I'm not scared of him or anything, it's just his brain is BIG. I'm sure the lady who leads our group's brain is also big, but she's very smiley and says criticising in a very kind way. I can deal with that.

third, i'm doing a seminar at Liverpool City CU's houseparty (Sat 29th) on living with non-Christians. I'm a little happier about this, or at least the content. I just need to get that bizarre combination of Bible study and talk that a seminar requires. I've done some work on this, it just needs padding out. It's weird being asked to lead a seminar. I only "left" CU like 5 months ago.

and fourthly, i'm speaking briefly (10 mins or so) at the Widowers group at Bridge (3rd Dec). Haven't decided what to speak on yet, it's more of a thought for the day than a full on talk, but needs to be relevant and sensative. Considering something about God never leaving us... Dunno yet.

So... nothing like everything coming at once!