It's been a while...

so I'm going to take a leaf out of Bish's blog and post a 7-days:

1. UCCF Staff Conference last week
Great to meet all the other staff whom I hadn't met before then or had only 'met' online before. The best bit had to be the theologising over (lovely) meals, real coffee or interesting tea, in between the training sessions. Runners up in the 'best bit' appreciation category were playing Settlers of Catan, being generously allowed to play in the band and participating in the Christian Persuaders track: hearing all the different styles of talk from various staff workers and receiving helpful feedback on my own. It was worth trawling through Dawkins in prep after all.

2. Hudson Taylor at Hillfields, Cov
A most enjoyable evening: John Newton-Webb - fellow member of the unofficial Warwick Maths Graduates Avoiding Using Mathematics in Work club - and founding member of the EverAfter Theatre company, performed his one-man show, Hudson Taylor, which rather rocks. Check out the website for bookings near you.

3. Midlands Gospel Partnership day on Growing Churches
With Graham Beynon on Eph.4 and Peter Jensen on, well, growing churches. Interesting stuff to think about, and lots of meeting of friends working in churches in Beeston, across Birmingham, Coventry, Derby, Duffield, Leamington Spa, Leicester and Warwick. Don't think I've missed anyone there! It did strike me that I've made my way round the Midlands a little!

4. UCCF Mighty Midlands Staff Day, Cov
Ahhh, time with the other Midlands staff is always a joy. Time spent together in Colossians 1, and reviewing, planning, encouraging one another in ministering the gospel of this superlative Christ.

5. Wolverhampton CU
Encouragement & challenge as we looked together at Colossians 4.2-6 and ideas & plans for evangelism on campus! W00t!!

6. Sitting in cafés drinking coffee /& tea.
It's with this that they say you really qualify as a CU staff worker, I gather. Encouraging & helpful late lunch meeting with a local church worker, hot chocolate with a CU committee member to chat about BUECU Focus week coming up (good 'ol Selly Sausage), lunch (EAT) & filter coffee (Druckers) supervision with my lovely boss, non-drinks meeting in Starbucks (should we not do that?) with the wonderful Aston CU president to plan a certain course on sex & relationships, caramel hot chocolate with the Wolverhampton CU leadership duo on a day of crazy train disruption (Borders' Starbucks - a winner, cos if someone doesn't have a Bible, you can borrow a Borders one!), & a cuppa tea in Cakes' CU meeting... I think all that café drinking & meeting means I'm a Real Live CUSW, doesn't it? Or at least a Real Tired But Caffeinated CUSW?

7. I'm going to IFES World Assembly!
It's in Canada, in July, and it's now official that I'm going: announced at Staff Conf and all that, so I can now let the excitement out a little: wooHOOO! Check it out on the World Assembly website.

And if you haven't read it yet, catch the vision for what God's doing all over the world through his students by reading Lindsay Brown's "Shining Like Stars". As I said in Staff Conf, Lindsay's retiring, so his firey Welsh tones will no longer be heard to resound as IFES Gen Sec preaching the word with many illustrations of mission, grace, hardship, joy, gospel unity, courageous evangelism and counter cultural living, in Christian students across the world. I doubt anyone could stop him doing that, really, but as IFES Gen Sec he's handing over to Daniel Bourdanné, who'll do a grand job albeit with a fab Chadian francophone accent rather than a Welsh anglophone one. (Incidentally, Daniel's a world expert on millipedes. Yes. He's that cool.) Anyway, irrespective of this change of IFES Gen Sec, you can have Lindsay Brown constantly to hand in book form to remind you of what God's doing with his gospel through Christ by his Spirit amongst students worldwide!