My Connect Year

Ok So I’m not the most prolific blogger….sigh…. Anyway here is an update which will hopefully spur me on to do some more posts! My Connect year is going well and I am enjoying my time very much. It’s sometimes odd spending the year as a missionary amongst students in Edinburgh, but it is also very cool and I am privileged to have this opportunity! Earlier this week Lorna and I attended the second set of ‘Connect Days’ at Lendrick Muir. All the Connect workers for the 07-08 year were present, although Susie had to rush off on Tuesday as she was graduating on Wednesday!

The days were amazing and I feel like I got so much out of all the sessions. Our guest speaker on the Tuesday morning was Ted Pilling (the National coordinator for International Ministries) who spoke to us first about the need to persevere in our journeys with God by looking at Hebrews. It was really encouraging to see someone really passionate about God and what God wants to do in his (and his wife’) life in the next 10 years! I can’t even think as far ahead as next week normally! Then Ted spoke to us about our summer missions trip. This is really exciting and an amazing part of the Connect year. I have no idea where I want to go or where God wants me to go. Am excited about finding out though!

In our sessions we also reviewed in groups the book we read which was ‘Evangelism Made Slightly Less Difficult’ by Nick Pollard. I will hopefully review the book soon for you to read on here! We also went through the epic Connect Bible studies we prepare beforehand. The study was focused on things such as Evangelism, the ‘Gospel’ and what it means to be ‘Good News’. One of the questions was to thoroughly go through the first 8 chapters of Romans, specifically noting statements that clarify the gospel. It was amazing to do this!

Ros Boydell did a session on the Wednesday morning on ‘listening’ which was really interesting and useful. I think in my head I thought listening to people was just an obvious thing to do naturally, but Ros’ session showed how it is important to really engage with the person you are listening to. This ultimately comes from your attitude to the person. If you really care and love the person you will want to listen to them and relationships benefit when people listen well!

All in all the connect days were brilliant! The only problem was the other Connect workers unwillingness to play signals and tension despite my most earnest attempts to encourage these group games! Ah well….

Dave