The end is nye… For Tilsley College. Part one? Completed it mate.

Friday 28th February, I have officially finished the first part of my Firstserve programme. Many mixed emotions, Sad that I am leaving, Excited for the next part of the programme. The past few weeks since I have come back from Team Evangelism we finished off the Early church and moved onto other things. Intro X-Cultural Mission, World Religions, Wisdom & Poetry and Reaching our Communities. Such a short time but I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. World Religions was an interesting lecture. Looking into the Origins of Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and Sikhism. It was interesting to get a better insight into all these religions to see how they began, The goals, Their practices, Their ways, the similarities and dissimilarities with Christianity. The World still needs the Gospel so these lectures helped me with a better understanding when speaking with other people from different religions.

What I most enjoyed about Tilsley was just being able to spend time with other Christians, growing together and learning to Serve. The struggles of Tilsley I felt were trying to wake up on time which for years I have struggled with waking up early and also trying to retain information from the lectures. Especially from the first week, my brain was scrambled but after a few weeks in and getting back into the rhythm of student life, i was feeling more confident. I still struggle with trying to remember things from the top of my head but if someone was to mention something that we studied a few weeks ago I’ll remember parts of it. So I just pray the Lord will help me with retaining information, help me to focus more on his word and I pray that what I have learned from the lectures and Team Evangelism week I will be able to use on my Serving local placement.

A part of the Firstserve programme is to help promote it and to give an insight into what it’s like from our perspective being a Firstserve student. Me and Naomi were asked if we would like to be Radio stars for the day and we were interviewed by Revival FM which is a Christian based community radio station in Scotland. We were given the opportunity to talk about ourselves, chat about what we have been up to and our plans for our Firstserve future. You can listen to us on the following link http://podcast.canstream.co.uk/revivalfm/index.php?page=3

Dave Mitchell’s Morning hour Friday 28 February it starts off about 8 minutes in. enjoy! 🙂

The Tilsley Squad

I was planning to have this released before I headed off to Manchester for the next part of my placement, but due to timing, trying to get organised and saying farewells I haven’t had a chance to finish it. BUT now I am finally in Manchester!! Absolute nightmare trying to Navigate from Motherwell to Stockport carrying about 30 books I bought from the GLO book store and enough clothes to last me a few years in India!! I arrived Saturday evening and was shown to the house where I would be staying for the next 6 weeks by Wesley Downs who is my Mentor for my Serving Local placement. I am sharing with two other guys who work for Renewal North West, I have already met one of them the other is due to arrive on Monday. I believe that they have recently come to the Lord or still in the early stages, So Please pray that we will have good conversations through the next 6 weeks, Pray that what i have learned from Tilsley i can put some of it into practice and we can all encourage each other in our walk with the Lord.

The plan for my Local Placement is that i’ll be working mostly at Renewal North West. Renewal North West is a Christian Charity set up to help the long term unemployed break down barriers that keep them from working. These barriers include lack of education, skills and opportunity, addiction, homelessness to mention a few. Please pray that the Lord will use me to share his Good news while i am in Manchester. Pray that the Lord will give me Strength and Wisdom over the next 6 weeks and pray that not only will this help me with my relationship with the Lord but use me to encourage others too.

World Mission

Personal feelings and thoughts i would like to share with you

I remember I used to say “People who have never heard the word of God how can they be saved? Like people in the middle of the Amazon rain forest, how can they be saved if they have never heard about God?” Then after spending time at Tilsley and speaking with friends, You realise God is everywhere. Go outside and you will be surrounded by things created by our God. He is everywhere we go, The Beaches, The oceans, The valleys, The Mountains and The Jungles. To see HIS creation is to see a piece of Him. “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” – Roman 1:20. Not only can we feel His presence in His creation but there is more knowledge that He wants to share with us through it all. “People are without excuse” There is a creator and his name is YHWH but many people still reject him. I have struggled to understand why. I dont know if they are being just stubborn, would rather continue to live in sin or just the lack of understanding who our God is. Reading through the book of Romans made it clear for me. “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.” – Romans 1:18. We are ALL called to be disciples, Weather its in your town, Country or abroad we are all called be to disciples. We should be sharing the Good news everywhere we go but we don’t. We go to church on Sundays, join our home groups and then live the rest of the week as how the world lives. Maybe i am wrong, overthinking everything or just not making sense but please send me feedback or any guidance you have.

There are an estimated ‘7,710,000,000’ people in the world. 23% Nominal Adherents, 39% have heard but not responded, 28% have Virtually no exposure and only 10% would be followers of Christ. Thats billions of people who have not accepted Jesus into there lives. 75% of missionaries go to the reached world, 24% work with the unevangelized and less than 1% goes to those who have never heard the name of Jesus.

Mark 16:15 – “Go into all the World and preach the Gospel to all Creation”

Quote of the day –

“People say the cross is a sign of how much man is worth. That’s not true. The cross is a sign of how depraved we really are, that it took the death of God’s own Son. The only thing that could save a people like us was the death of God’s own Son under the wrath of His own Father paying the price, rising again from the dead. Powerful to say, this is the Gospel of Jesus. Now what are you called upon to do? You say you go through the narrow gate. How do you do that? Jesus said, The time is fulfilled. The Kingdom of God is at hand. What must you do? In Mark, He tells us . . . repent and believe the Gospel.” – Paul Washer

God is Great. it doesn’t get more Simpler than that.

Hello Brothers and Sisters, I’m sure most people reading this Blog will know me but if you don’t, you can read the ‘about me’ before you join me on this amazing journey in sharing the Goodnews!

I’ll be aiming to post at least once a week depending on how busy my schedule gets and so far it has been BUSY!!

After 6 and a half years of working with my family in a small but very successful Chinese restaurant, I decided to leave and do something I have always wanted to do and that it is to help others who truly need it.

It has been almost two weeks since I started at Tilsley College and to say it has been eventful would be an understatement. I arrived on Sunday the 1st of February as a First Server(You can check more about that on the main blog page) and on Monday I was sitting in a classroom with Year 1 Tilsley Students. Thankfully I already met a few of the students a few months before I joined Tilsley so it was easy to adjust and get to meet the rest of the students and staff/volunteers there. I joined Tilsley halfway through there year and it has been a while since I was last in School. The first day was an absolute blur, my brain was scrambled after about 2 hours of going through the book of Acts.

The rest of the week was full of lectures but I gradually started settling in and getting used to being a Student again. There was one lecture that I found very fascinating was the ‘Spiritual Development’ which is lead by my Mentor Seb Brandt(Monsieur Croissant) Though I struggled to understand fully what went on as my brain is still trying to get back into that student mentality but from what I remembered I found the lesson very intriguing. I’ve only known him for a few weeks and I felt I have known him for years we just get on so well. I got a chance to have a one to one chat with Seb and he asked me if my heart is in the right place. ‘Am I at Tilsley for my gain, or am I here with Jesus and the centre of my heart.’ After that, I prayed HARD! I am here and Jesus is the main Focus and he is at the centre of all I do. I hope more people on the journey will continue to keep me on my toes and make sure my heart continues to be in the right place. – Daily Reminder, Live for Jesus, not for own personal gain. There is no perfect Christian but I hope to do my best. (It’s only been 2 years!)

The second week was ‘Team Evangelism’ week which is where Tilsley students go off to other churches to work. My group was placed at a Local Church called ‘ Roman Road Church.’ We started on Sunday Were the group lead the Band Worship(Emma, Michael, and Nathaniel.) I gave my Testimony via Q&A from Michael which was interesting as its the first time I’ve ever given it to a large group that wasn’t at my church. Helgi(Year 2 Student) and our group leader, lead the Sermon which was very encouraging to see. The programme for the week was Kid’s club Monday – Thursday 10.30am – 12.30pm. A ladies night, Wednesday fellowship(Senior Citzien), GLO report, International Night and finally another Sunday Service to finish of the week. Each week one of the group would take turns to lead Devotion and Each student would take turn sharing the Word of the day/testimony for the Kids club. the theme for the week was Collossions 3:12 Compassion, Kindness, Humility, Gentleness and Patience.

Tuesday – Ladies Night. Our Group took over the church ladies’ night and it is where I got to talk about First Serve to Christians and non-Christians. Apart from some microphone issues and taking out my comfort zone, I got the opportunity to talk to a large crowd about the First Serve Programme and chat about what ill be doing during the next 9 months of my life. It turned out to be fairly goodnight! Every time I get a chance to speak in front of large crowds I feel more and more confident! Everything is all new to me so I’m very keen to put myself out there and get involved and share the journey God has put me on.

Wednesday – My First solo Devotion and talking about Humility – Leading a devotion is something that I have never done, I had no idea what to do, researched about 4 days before I had to do it hoping to get an idea on how to do a devotion. I was panicking, stressing, worrying and all sorts. I chose Psalm 23 as it is my favorite of the Psalms and it is what I usually read it anytime I have any fears, doubts or worries in my life. It stops me from overthinking. I just went for it and shared with the group about how we should bring all are worries and fears to God. The Lord is my Shepard, I lack nothing and he promises Love and Protection. This life is temporary and short so we should all be living for Jesus and doing all we can to bring Glorify to our father. – The Pain, Sorrow, Struggle, and Sacrifice are all worth it all.

Humility – It was my day to talk at the Kids Club. Without being Boastful I found this easier than giving a 10-minute devotion between the Group and a few from the church. I just hoped that I could get the point across that “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but it is thinking of yourself less” and “When we have humility, we are choosing to be like Jesus.” I know a few of the Kids were asking questions after yesterday’s Kids Club, I just pray that the Lord will continue to work and they’ll open up their hearts to are Great and amazing Lord.

It is currently Wednesday 12th and it has taken me about 3 days to organize, type and sort all this out. I am sure it will be worth it in the end. Even if it doesn’t do much it will at least be something great to look back on well into the future. I’ll hopefully bring some more updates in a week or so.

Quote – “The Lord is my strength and my song; he has given me victory. This is my God, and I will praise him—  my father’s God, and I will exalt him!” – Exodus 15:2

Song – Housefires – Build my Life

Lord Father, I am blessed that I have been given this opportunity to do First Serve and serve you Lord. I pray you’ll use the Holy Spirit and work through me to continue sharing Testimonies, Talking to others about First Serve and I Pray that you’ll use me to share the Gospel. In the Name of your son Jesus Christ, Amen.