date: Wed, 31 Mar 2004 12:29:52 +0200 from: Tim Mitchell subject: Update from Tim and Suzanne to: Tim Mitchell Dear all, We have already been in Guildford for one month out of the six months. The time is flying by and the opportunities are there to be taken. Term (for the undergraduates) has finished, but many of the internationals are still here. Our Wednesday lunchtime Bible study course on John's Gospel finished last week, so in half an hour we will be gathering some of the regulars together to sit in the sunshine and talk. Perhaps the more informal structure will allow one or two of the students to open up to us? The Lod knows... On Sunday we have a Kenyan Christian (O.) and a Pakistani (H.) coming to us for lunch. In what direction will the conversation go? Will we have the opportunity to talk about religion? Will the Kenyan and Pakistani get on well together? The Lord knows... Please pray that these opportunities, and others like them (see the example below from Suzanne), will prove fruitful. Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labour in vain (Ps 127:2). Yours in Christ Tim and Suzanne _______________ Some weeks ago, members of the Familiesą Team saw an opportunity to reach more international ladies with the Gospel: a supporting church in an area of Guildford where many international students live with their families has excellent facilities which the church wants to use for the benefit of the local community. With much prayer and in faith (there were no obvious helpers available), the church hall was booked for the second and fourth Thursdays in the month during school term times for an international ladiesą get-together. The vision was to care for these ladies holistically, providing them with opportunities to meet other ladies (British and international), improve their English, to have somewhere they could bring their young children, and especially to come into contact with Christianity and to hear the Gospel. We met for the first time last Thursday. By this time Ruth (Familiesą Team leader) had recruited nine volunteers to help and publicity had been sent out to ladies we already knew in the area. In the event, only one (Greek) lady turned up with her daughter, and that as we were starting to think about packing up and going home! Although at first we were disappointed, on reflection it does seem as if last Thursday was a useful morning. Not all of us who were helping knew each other as we are all associated with different churches, and many of us had never been inside this particular church building and were not familiar with the facilities. Now we feel more of a team, rather than a group of individual volunteers, and we know the building! Because of the Easter holidays we will not meet again until 22nd April, but in the meantime we are praying that the resources we have (facilities and keen volunteers) may be used and that this group may be a means of bringing many internationals to hear the Gospel and to trust in Christ for themselves. ____________________________________ Dr. T. D. Mitchell --- 07906 922 489 tim.mitchell@surrey.ac.uk