My most recent prayer letter

Where has time gone?  Since my last edition of “On the run…” so much has happened.  It’s been crazy (in a good way).  I have been blessed to be able to see God working in the lives of students and in my own life as well.

Let’s start back in February when I was part of a team supporting Durham Christian Union.  Durham is a very “red brick” university and operates on a college level so this was always going to be very different to my own university mission week experience.  We had lunchtime apologetic style talks, which were led by Andrew Sachs, on various hot topics such as God and Science, Suffering and Hell, while Rico Tice led the evening talks titled RESCUED?  This was a really awesome week seeing God work miracles in people’s lives and unveiling the glory and splendour of Jesus Christ and seeing how bigger CUs run their mission weeks.  A number of people have been coming along to find out more in a follow up course so please continue to pray that eyes will be opened to the Truth of the gospel.

Towards the end of February the North East region held Forum NE for new CU leaders.  This was a really cool time meeting all the new leaders from as far north as Newcastle and as far south as Sheffield.  During the weekend we studied the sweet gospel message found in Leviticus.  There are some people who actually think Leviticus is boring! Isn’t that weird? Of course it can’t be true, because what would that say about God whose Word it is? So we were shown how awesome Leviticus really is by Mike Reeves which has impacted so many new leaders and many staff as well. I was helping to lead a seminar for new secretaries which went well.  Please pray that all the new CU leaders will find their feet in Christ and be able to serve the CU they are part of in His strength and using his wisdom. 

As March came so did the slightly better weather which a lovely blessing.  Northumbria had their Mission Week during the first full week of March, which had been forecasted for snow.  Thankfully the weatherman got it wrong and we were blessed with beautiful sunny days, albeit with some gale force winds added into the mix. A lot of the day-time events were held outside under a gazebo which proved to be fun with the winds but the CU managed to have loads of good conversations with students about “Who do you think Jesus is?” and “What do you think happens after you die?”. The week was titled “Trying to be religious is POINTless” which was trying to get people to think about where their priorities lie and what influences them climaxing with the main point being Jesus dying for them.  The evening events were really well attended and some people have been attending Christianity Explored, which is brilliant – Praise God!  Please pray that as people find out more and count the cost that they will see Jesus as their Saviour and Lord and follow him.

Just a fortnight ago I was helping out Sheffield Hallam CU, which is a smallish CU much like Northumbria.  We were using Sheffield Hallam’s 4 favourite movies (The Lion King, Inception, Toy Story 3 and Shawshank Redemption) to show how Christianity engages with film.  Each night we set up a themed 3-course meal where students watched clips from the movie, discussed some of the themes and heard a talk about how Christianity deals with some of the key themes in the movie.  This was a new concept as a method of engaging evangelism, and it seemed to work really well.  The CU members were really great at inviting their friends along, so much so that we had to put out extra tables many of the nights.  As with all the mission weeks there are students who really began to see Jesus for who he really is, please join me in praying for these students and that God will open their eyes fully.

Over the past two months Jo and I have been running a film discussion night in our flat for some of the students at Sunderland CU.  Basically our view was to love the students by welcoming them into our home and to help them engage with the big themes of the film.  Our God is a creative God and therefore we are creative which means God can speak into film, music and art.  So our aim is to show how Christianity engages with the films that we watch and ultimately help our non-Christian friends see a bit more of Christ.  This has been really good fun as it has helped Jo and I get to know the students better as well as allowing us to watch movies and call it work! J The guys from Sunderland are now running a film discussion night in their own homes which is brilliant so pray that they will continue with the vision: to seek to love their friends and show them Jesus more and more.  In light of that, we are now hoping to start a night for the guys and gals at Northumbria.  Please pray that this will work out and in the last few months of doing Relay we can serve the CU members in this way as well as showing them a really easy method of evangelism.

As you may or may not know Jo and I got an unexpected email from our landlord saying that due to the earthquake in New Zealand, where he was living for the year, he would need to move back into his property in April.  He had expected to be in New Zealand working for a year however the earthquake destroyed his home and business so he came back home to the UK.  This has left us in a bit of trouble as we are now looking for a place to live again.  Please pray that we will be able to find somewhere in the next few weeks so that we will be able to move and settle into another property before the end of the Easter holidays.

Thank you for all your continued prayer and support.  It really is much appreciated.

Chris and Jo Simons

Interview with Rebecca Manley Pippert

Found a great interview done during New World Alive this year.  Nay Dawson a UCCF Team Leader from down south speaks with Rebecca Manley Pippert.  Rebecca is the person who wrote the amazingly helpful and encouraging book call "Out of the Salt Shaker".

Check out the video and see what you think.

Dads being Dads

It's been a while since I last posted something on my blog but I've been away on Mission at Sheffield Hallam with Sheffield Hallam CU and haven't worked out an easy way to blog from my phone.

Today I was really struck by how much I love seeing Dads being Dads.  I had just got off the Metro from my 1-2-1 with Mike, a student in Sunderland, and was walking home and in front of me was a Dad walking with his young daughter and talking with her and helping her to properly 'find her feet' along the pedestrian walkway.  When they got to the road he taught her to stop and to look and listen out for cars before crossing the road.  It was such a simple thing and something I imagine every parent will do but I was really encouraged to see a Dad being a good Dad with his young daughter.  I was reminded also of a similar time when I was walking home and a Dad had arrived home from work and his children ran out with such excitement to welcome him home.  That experience put a massive smile on my face and warmed my heart.

I don't know why I was particularly struck by these simple yet so moving experiences.  Today I realise it was down to a God moment.  In our 1-2-1 we have been studying the book of Colossians and today we were looking at Chapter 3 v 18 - 4 v 1.  The passage is titled in the ESV as "Rules for Christian Households" and talks much of husbands, wives, children, slaves and masters.  In my little faith I wondered how our study would go as Mike is neither married, nor living with parents, nor a slave or a master.  So it was extremely encouraging to find out that he has been reading a book about God's ideal for men called "Wild at Heart" by John Eldredge.  We were able to chat about the role of men in our society, on how even at the very beginning of time men had responsibility and yet refused to use it (i.e. at the fall Adam was with Eve when she took and ate of the fruit - he could have stopped her had he taken his responsibility seriously).  We also talked about how the roles of men and women have shifted over the centuries into modern living.  Admittedly some of our ideas may have been flawed but we were able to trace much of the problems with families today down to men not taking up their responsibility.

Let me try to explain some of our thought processes.

We often think that "Wives, submit to your husbands" sounds really harsh and very 1950's however when we looked at what the Bible was really saying we realised that if God created man to be at the head of the family and responsible for the family then wives will naturally submit to their husbands in a loving way.  However, it was also very clear that the statement to husbands ("Husbands, love your wives") was vital to this.  For example if a husband loves his wife, if he spends time with her, nourishes her, supports her and leads her then she will instinctively submit to him.  If however the man doesn't take responsibility in the family and doesn't love his wife as he should then she will have to take more responsibility over the family and therefore decrease how much she actually submits to him.  When we saw this we began understanding why much of our culture thinks this way about the roles of men and women (i.e. that men and women are equal in everything).  Thinking back to the beginnings of the feminist movement did it all start because men were not taking their responsibility seriously?  Where they spending much of their time at work and not being sensitive to the needs of their family?  Where men seeing the need to be the "bread winner" over the need to love and cherish?  Both Mike and I are not well versed in history but it gave us real food for thought.  We both remembered the verse in Genesis 3:16 where God declared to Eve "your desire shall be for [or against] your husband, and he shall rule over you".  God showed that husbands will rule over their wives however women will desire to take that responsibility.  I interpret this to mean that women desire this because husbands will not bear all the responsibility that they should bear - they will try to delegate some of the responsibility to their wives until ultimately their wives will be 'earning the bread' and they will be sitting at home playing the Playstation or the Xbox.  As a little disclaimer I am not saying that women should never work and should stay at home in the style of the 1950's housewife I am simply trying to put forward the idea that men need to step up and take hold of the responsibility that they have been given so that they can love their wives all the more.

Okay so this post is all about Dads being Dads and all I've really ranted about is the fact that husbands need to man up and take responsibility.  Well I believe there is a clear connection.  If fathers lead their family well, by taking the responsibility for the family, then his children will see that strong Biblical role model and will seek to model it in their lives.  I also believe that his children need to have their father around.  So fathers should provide for their family but that does not just mean by bringing home the money for food, clothes and shelter.  It also means that he should provide for them spiritually, emotionally and physically.  It means that he should physically be around his children and he wife, spending time with them, loving them and caring for them, it means that he should be leading his family by teaching them (like the father I met on my way home) and it also means that he should share the Gospel with them.  

On Sunday at church we had two baby dedications and our Pastor shared some bits around the Bible about how parents (and particularly fathers) should love and care for their children.  We looked at a passage in Deuteronomy 6:4-7 which says "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind.  And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.  You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise."  As men who are or may become fathers we should desire to teach our children the truths of the Gospel so that they may love the Lord with all their hearts, souls and minds.

If we love our children and lead the family well our children will desire to obey their parents - much in the same way as when we understand the Gospel and see Jesus as our loving Saviour and Lord we desire to obey Him out of an over pouring of joy in Him.

However, the passage in Colossians warns fathers not to provoke their children.  What does this mean?  Well I believe it is speaking to fathers who are harsh and critical of their children instead of encouraging them and equipping them for life.  I was blessed to have a father who encouraged me immensely and therefore I respect him and look up to him massively.  He has had an enormous impact on who I am today.  However, I know for some the opposite is true because their dad never told them he loved them, or was constantly critical or perhaps even mistreated them.  Paul is writing to encourage fathers to lead their family well.  Again if they lead well and encourage and equip their children then their children are more likely to obey them because their father is a role model to them.

So I guess that is why I love to see Dads being Dads.  I know that I want to be a loving husband to my wife and when God blesses us with children I know I want to be a father that leads by example.  A father of repentance and not one of religion (or rules) but one of grace, just like my father and my loving Heavenly Father.

Day 1 of "Pointless?" NCU Main Events Week

Well Main Events Week at Northumbria has well and truly started and I've just arrived back home from Day 1 of Main Events Week at Northumbria Christian Union (my former CU) where I have the privilege of being able to train, equip and support the students in the CU with the power of the Gospel and call it work. 

We started the day by "Talking to God before talking to people about God" (Gram Seed) which was a blessed time.  Getting excited about the Gospel and sharing it was so much fun.  The CU has bought a Gazebo which we put up in the wonderfully sunny but still rather cold Quad in the middle of the university.  We put up a few tables with gospels and a quote from Lady Gaga about love which people could come and assess whether they agreed with the quote or disagreed.  The quote was about love and we were asking whether people thought this was real love.  

"I want the deepest, darkest, sickest parts of you that your afraid to share with anyone because I love you so much"

Lady Gaga

This was a really easy way to get people thinking about what real love is and then talk to them about the theme of love that comes from the Gospel.  We had some really interesting responses to this quote - some largely because of how they viewed Lady Gaga :)

We had people playing acoustic music in order to draw attention and create a buzz which was an awesome idea.  Some of the CU members got stuck into questionnaires with students around the quad which brought about some exciting conversations and invitations to the rest of the weeks events.

The best part of the day had to be the conversations we were able to have with people when we invited them to write down on a massive roll of paper their answer to the question "What is your purpose in life? - Beer/Sex/Jesus/Something Else?"  There were some 'interesting' answers to say the least but I managed to butt into a conversation with one of the CU members and two Muslim guys.  We stood around shivering while having a really interesting conversation about what we believe and basically having the opportunity to give an answer for the hope that we have in Christ.

We estimated that we must have spent an hour chatting to these guys from topics ranging from Trinity, to authenticity of the Bible, to literal and figurative translations of things in the Bible, to what grace is all about and why we trust in Jesus Christ as our God and our Salvation.  Massive topics and much for me to come home and look into so that I may be able to answer some more of the questions that come my way from our new friends.  I pray that we may have knocked down some of the barriers that were preventing our friends from seeing the Truth.  I am thankful that it is by the power of the Holy Spirit that these sorts of miracles happen and I pray that massive miracles will happen on Northumbria Campus this week and into the future.

Throughout the week I'll try and write about what amazing things have been happening and any specific prayer requests.

But for now much praise for the ideas and planning that has come to fruition and the response we received today - Praise The Lord [ PTL for short apparently :) ]

Praise and Prayer Service to kick off the new PA system at church

At "The House" in Newcastle upon Tyne (my home church away from home) we have just installed a whole raft of new PA gear from mics, to a new Allan & Heath mixing console, to new amps and speakers and literally everything in between.  For me the technophile (that's someone who loves tech stuff) I am having a very pleasant morning worshipping through being able to use all this gear to facilitate corporate worship.

I am having a lot of fun with the FX unit and creating some awesome effects with the vocals on the system.  Admittedly it's not totally all perfected yet but I am extremely excited about how far we've come in just a few days.  Bring on the next couple of months :)