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Relay Prayer Letter

Tim Clark

In the past months Surrey CU hasbeen operating on the 1, 2, 3, Gostructure (I explained it in my lastletter), and had its most recent Goevent in December; Carols atRubix. This was a time when theCU made use of the studentsunion night club to host an eventwhere people could come along,sing carols and hear about theChristmas story. The members ofhe CU were encouraged to get

individually involved by bringingheir friends to the event, and by

helping make all of the decorationshen putting them up in Rubix.

Local churches were involved too,providing essentials like mince piesand mulled wine. Our staff worker,Gareth Leaney, spoke at the event,sharing in bitesize chunks theprophecy about Jesus in Isaiah,Jesus birth and the good newsabout Jesus purpose on Earth.During the event we also had the

universitys Gospel Choir singsome fantastic arrangements ofChristmas carols and songs to us.

At Surrey we have alsolaunched the Uncover gospelproject, which is a resource for

students consisting of two books; acopy of Lukes gospel and a set ofsix bible studies written byRebecca Manley-Pippert. It is avery useful resource for thestudents as the bible studies arewritten in a way that provokespersonal questioning from thepassage, and allows the readers togo to whatever level of depth they

want to. Another reason why theyare so useful is because thestudies are already written! It hasbeen encouraging to see studentsake the resources and use them

with friends, going through anaccount of Jesus life andencouraging them to see foryourself.

We have just had a time ofexams, and so people have beenless able to come to the weeklymeetings during revision time, but

it has been encouraging to seemembers of the CU make it out ona Thursday, especially when therewas no meeting scheduled but

hey had one anyway!

University of SurreyChristian Union

7 Saffron PlattGuildford

Surrey

GU2 9XXtm.clark@btinternet.com

07748905270

January 2013

Christian Union

elcome to my first prayer letter of2013! Thank you for being sopatient in your support, and inwaiting for this letter to be sent.Much has happened in November,December and January, and I donthave the space to go into as muchdetail as Id like to.

November kicked off withhe South East Big Weekend Away,

which was a sort of big CUhouseparty for all of the CUs in theSouth East (see my October letterfor details). The rest of Novembercontinued with much study,meeting up with students to readhe bible, some badminton and to

cap it off a mission in Cardiff. ForCardiffs city-wide mission week(called Convinced?), I went with

my staff worker and the two relayworkers from Reading to help outfor the week as a guest of the CUsin Cardiff. We spent the week withCardiff Met during the day and athe central collective event in the

evenings, at which Lindsay Brown

spoke. I was particularly involved inrunning all of the visualechnologies during the evening,

which involved taking a lot ofphotos and video during the day tocreate a short film clip based on theheme of that evenings talk, to be

played during the evening meeting.December was a relatively

relaxed month (especially incomparison to November!), thankso having some time off over

Christmas. The Christian Union ranheir carol service at the Students

Union (Rubix), and estimate thatabout 400 students came thatevening to have some mince pies,drink mulled wine, sing carols andhear the gospel!

January brought the end of

he holidays and a chance to spenda week with the relay workers in theSouth East and London for a weekof study at Rora House in Devon.This study week prepared us forhe second Relay conference,

which came the following week.

Whats New?

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Relay 2In January we had our secondweeklong conference for all of therelay workers in the UK and theIFES Ireland workers. This cameafter a dedicated study week, andwas held at Cloverley Hall ChristianConference Centre.

During the conference eachof us presented a prepared 15-minute talk on a section of Malachi,with time for some discussionquestions at the end. I spoke onMalachi 1:6-14, about the outwardlyreligious practices of the recoveredremnant of Gods people. During theweek we looked at the whole ofMalachi, reflected on our first termas relay workers, remindedourselves of what the gospel is andwhy we should stand firm for it,

looked at good reasons for missionand what that looks like, andhought about the future,

motivations for what we may or maynot do and how to make a choice.

The week was excellent,and it was good to see other relayworkers again that I hadnt seen formonths. It was also encouraging tospeak to people who have been

doing the same job as me and havehad similar struggles andencouragements. I was able to putmy gifts to use straight away whenwe arrived by setting up the PAsystem for the week, and then Icontinued to use other gifts byplaying my cello during times ofsinging.

At the end of the week wehad some snow showers which cuthe week short as the final speakers

was unable to make it to CloverleyHall, but we were thankfully all ableo make it home safely.

Looking Forwards

Prayer & Support

February holds some exciting newchallenges for the CU, especiallywith the planning of our missionweek. There is another Christiansociety at Surrey called ChosenChristian Fellowship, and both

societies have existed along-sideeach other for a few years now.

As Chosens interest inevangelism has been growingduring this academic year, the callfor unity between the two societieshas become louder. In responseo this call to unity we have

decided to join together for ourmission week and run a jointmission. We have joined togetherbefore, but never on the same

scale as this.This marks an exciting

ime at Surrey as all of theChristians on campus seek tobecome more united in mission.There will be some obstacles to

be overcome, particularly inerms of style in outreach, and

both societies will need to learno listen, but this could be the

start of a more unified Christianpresence on campus at Surrey.In preparation for the mission weare holding twice-weeklyplanning meetings open to allmembers of both societies,hoping to get as manyindividuals involved as possible.

- 4-8 Feb. Reading mission week.

- Monday and Friday evenings.

Mission week planning meetings.

- 11-15th

Feb. Bournemouth

mission week (I may help for a day

as a guest).

- 4-8th

March. Surrey mission week.

Thine be the glory,Risen conquering SonEndless is the victory,

Thou oer death hast won.

Edmund Budry, tr. Richard Hoyle

Important Dates

- Pray for the committees of

the Christian Union and

Chosen as they work together.

Pray that they would be good

listeners and would be wise in

the decisions that they make

together.

- Pray for the mission week

planning sessions, that we

would not lose focus on the

mission, and especially seeing

people become Christians, for

the sake of unity between the

two societies.

- Pray for Reading CU and

Gareth (staff worker), Tom and

Esther (relay workers) as they

run their mission week this

week (4-8th Feb).

- Thank God for a good

Advisory Committee meeting

between the CU and local

church leaders, and pray that

they would continue to happen

and be helpful.

- Pray for strength for me in this

coming month, as my time is taken

up by making preparations for

mission week, helping students

leading Uncover bible studies,

meeting students and doing my

own personal admin and study.

Time always seems to run thin,and strength from the Lord is a

necessity.