To my friends and family,
July 2009
People keep asking me "So what is it you'll actually be doing next year?" I guess mostpeople who will receive this letter already know that I have been a student at UCLan inPreston for the past two years, studying French and TESOL. I have to spend the thirdyear of this degree in the country of my target language. I was eager to find somethingto do that would not only be of use in terms of my degree, but also that could serve aneternal purpose, and I thank God that people in charge of the year abroad scheme atuniversity here were willing to allow me to pursue this.I believe that student ministry is a really vital and strategic work in proclaiming theGospel. Students are probably better placed than any others to reach other studentswith the Gospel, both in terms of physical location, and means of communication. It waswith this conviction from learning about the work, and seeing student-led mission teamsin action in Preston, that I applied for the IFES InterAction programme earlier this year.
“So what is InterAction?”
InterAction is a programme which places Christian graduates/year abroad students fromaround the world, with national student movements around Europe for periods of 1-3years in order to partner with local CUs and churches, to encourage and equip studentsaround Europe in living and speaking for Jesus. It will be as much of a learning andgrowing process for me, as for them. I will not be going to 'advise' or be put in charge of student groups, rather I'll be there to serve, equip and strengthen the nationalmovement in the ways that they choose to share the Gospel with others.So, I applied and had an interview and have now been accepted onto this programmeand will hopefully be leaving for Brussels, after a week of orientation and training, in thefirst week of September.
“What will you actually be DOING though?”
It's kind of hard to know exactly what I'll be doing until I actually get there as a lot of it isapparently down to your own initiative and seeing what needs and opportunities thereare once we're there. As in this country, CUs can change quite a lot from one year to thenext as students begin and move on from their time at university.In Brussels next year there will be two InterAction workers: myself and another girlcalled Lucy who is a language graduate and who had been on the Relay discipleshipprogramme with UCCF this past year. There are also two team leaders, Tim and EmilyHaye, who live in Brussels permanently with their three children, to work with IFES andthe national student movements of GBU (French-speaking) and Icthus (Dutch-speaking).Both Lucy and I will probably each be placed with two of the four CU groups in Brussels,and could become involved in: leading Bible studies and/or one to ones, helping to runevangelistic events, working with international students, flyering and manning street-side literature tables. Regular meetings to attend will include team meetings once perweek, one to ones with my supervisor (Emily), two regular central CU meetings (one foreach group), and fortnightly 'Focus' meetings. These meetings are put on by all 4 CUgroups together, on a variety of themes such as "Is Jesus' resurrection a historical
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