Focus Week (part 1)

Whew! What a week. God's been hard at work and so have we. I thought I'd best write about all the things we did, and all the ways in which we have seen God working this week! I'll talk about what went on in Wolves, and get someone from Walsall to follow with what went on there.

Beginning every morning in prayer was an absolutely brilliant reminder that we were reliant on God for everything that we did. Any other non-religious society who were planning a week of events would start each day (I'd imagine) with rushing around, buying things, setting things up... Not so the Christians. What a privilege (and a chance for respite) it is to be able to begin each day by talking to the creator of the universe - the one who gave us our very reason for evangelism!

I guess the week really kicked off with our ever-popular Acoustic Night on Monday. We were able to host some really talented people, all of whom would reference Jesus as a source of that talent, and from the song they sang and the testimonies they delivered, this was evident. It was brilliant for those unfamiliar with Christian ways of thinking to be introduced to it through song.

One of the highlights of the night though, was the drama some of the CU members took part in - a "cover" of the famous Lifehouse skit. Such a powerful message comes through in this drama (see below), and we offered people the chance to discuss it and ask their own questions about it.

Tuesday daytime was spent meeting people and engaging with them over free pancakes (we weren't about to let that opportunity pass us by!). A great team of people were around serving, cooking and chatting to people. We answered people's questions, and made them aware of our movements for the rest of the week - promoting the chance to learn more about why we do what we do... The evening was spent over in Walsall - I won't steal their thunder here...

We'd spent the first few days knowing that Wednesday and Thursday were our hardest days in terms of workload - room and speaker bookings were difficult, getting people onside seemed hard work... But God provided. We were given energy, bodies, money, rooms - thanks you to everyone who made all these things possible!

Some of the best bits over these two days were the conversations had in the mornings whilst promoting our lunchtime events. On Wednesday we promoted "Grill-a-Christian": "Why the gorilla?", "You're cooking Christians?!" "Nah, it's ok, I did Christianity in GCSE RE..."... and a host of more serious questions were asked of us. It was great being out on campus and making the opportunity to talk about Jesus with people. On Thursday we put on a free lunch and had a talk titled "Does God want to spoil our fun?" During the morning we asked people to write things they thought offered their life fullness onto a whiteboard.

This was a great tool in engaging with people, and helped us attract around 30 people to that particular event.

Both evenings were spent in local churches where we invited friends to come and eat with us and watch some bits of film together. We had two speakers who spoke challenging words on choosing either the red pill or the blue pill, and on holding onto the hope of the cross. The fellowship which occurred on these evenings was fantastic - conversations carried on at the pub afterwards, and in terms of making people feel welcome these were very successful.

But that's not just what this week was about, of course. Welcoming is great - it's exactly why Jesus ate with people and shared life with them. What was really exciting about this week was that those people we welcomed in also got to hear about the gospel, and learn that God loves them. And that's what we're all about as a CU - sharing God's love and his good news with the campus we're based on.

We often define success in terms of how many people come, how many turn to faith, how many feedback forms are filled out... But as long as at least one guest was present at every event, then that's success, because they've heard about Jesus! God knows what he's doing - in a small CU such as ours I find that very encouraging.

There's so much more I could say, but I'll leave it there. Thanks again to everyone who reads this and supports us in prayer.