It has been another weekend of serving with the cocm gospel team outside of Milton Keynes so I get a day of rest today (Monday). Here are some autumn goodies we made at the centre.
homemade apple cider
Monday, October 27, 2014
Autumn days
Sometimes I make simple things too complicated, even writing a blog post, which is why I haven't been sharing much. I often try to blog only when I can craft a detailed post about my life lately but because life has been so full and busy, I never get to it because I want to wait till I have a proper time to do it. Anyway, I have slowly learned that this "ideal" is not going to happen so it's better for me to just share some snapshots from these autumn days before winter comes again (it is actually already coming since we just adjusted our clock one hour back for the winter time).
Friday, October 10, 2014
What I've been up to
It has been three months since I came to live as a student volunteer at COCM (Chinese Overseas Christian Mission) and two months since the first outreach trip of this autumn so I just want to write a bit here and share about life here and what God has been teaching me.
Firstly, being a student volunteer here means living in a community with other student (actually we are all pending graduates who have just handed in our master's dissertations) volunteers (there are eight of us in total) and some other missionaries who also live in this building. Our daily tasks as volunteers include mainly cleaning, cooking, and other miscellaneous tasks that they assign us to do, to help with the upkeep of the missions centre. We get to have morning devotions together, eat together, pray together weekly and learn from a spiritual formation class. Life gets really busy here especially when there are camps and conferences being held here because we have to serve these campers and do lots of pre- and post-event cleaning.
Secondly, I am involved in the student outreach ministry team aka the COCM Gospel Team (one of the various ministry aspects of COCM). This means we go out to different university campuses in the UK (+France and Ireland) to hold 'gospel events' for Chinese students. Basically, Gordon and Maggie (two main missionaries who lead the teams) and around 10 student volunteers (who may be different people for each of the places we go, depending on their availability and place of living in the UK currently) set out to these places to have a themed outreach event for Chinese students who are willing to come. We would have dinner, music, games, a drama, sermon, conversation times with the Chinese students we meet and through the theme of the program (which is 'Renewing your heart' 从心开始 this year) share the good news of God's grace with them. It is eye-opening and heart-changing to meet these students, many of whom had never heard of the Gospel prior to coming to the UK, and see some of them responding to God's love, some being moved to think about the meaning of life while others not caring much. I learned a lot from the other team members in their examples of being prayerful, serving humbly, reaching out to strangers happily, and sharing their testimonies honestly. So far, we have been to more than ten places and we are halfway through.
Firstly, being a student volunteer here means living in a community with other student (actually we are all pending graduates who have just handed in our master's dissertations) volunteers (there are eight of us in total) and some other missionaries who also live in this building. Our daily tasks as volunteers include mainly cleaning, cooking, and other miscellaneous tasks that they assign us to do, to help with the upkeep of the missions centre. We get to have morning devotions together, eat together, pray together weekly and learn from a spiritual formation class. Life gets really busy here especially when there are camps and conferences being held here because we have to serve these campers and do lots of pre- and post-event cleaning.
Secondly, I am involved in the student outreach ministry team aka the COCM Gospel Team (one of the various ministry aspects of COCM). This means we go out to different university campuses in the UK (+France and Ireland) to hold 'gospel events' for Chinese students. Basically, Gordon and Maggie (two main missionaries who lead the teams) and around 10 student volunteers (who may be different people for each of the places we go, depending on their availability and place of living in the UK currently) set out to these places to have a themed outreach event for Chinese students who are willing to come. We would have dinner, music, games, a drama, sermon, conversation times with the Chinese students we meet and through the theme of the program (which is 'Renewing your heart' 从心开始 this year) share the good news of God's grace with them. It is eye-opening and heart-changing to meet these students, many of whom had never heard of the Gospel prior to coming to the UK, and see some of them responding to God's love, some being moved to think about the meaning of life while others not caring much. I learned a lot from the other team members in their examples of being prayerful, serving humbly, reaching out to strangers happily, and sharing their testimonies honestly. So far, we have been to more than ten places and we are halfway through.
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
Hola Barcelona! (Day 1)
I am taking a little study break right now to post some photos from my trip to Barcelona with two friends, Daisy and Patrice last month. I still need to upload some Bristol summer photos to this blog because I haven't even gotten to that yet. I am having a very full summer now and thankful for all the work, play, and learning I can do during this season of preparation and finishing up my Masters. Anyway, here are some photos from our first day in sunny Barcelona~
After dropping our stuffs at the host home we found through air BnB, we headed to La Boqueria market to find some late lunch.
On Casa Mila's rooftop
Gaudi's chimneys are all artworks
Lines and curves
Then we headed to the Olympic Port in the evening
After dropping our stuffs at the host home we found through air BnB, we headed to La Boqueria market to find some late lunch.
Monday, July 28, 2014
What we did and saw on that Saturday Lulu visited Bristol
It was truly a blessing to have a close friend visit me in my place and to be able to have conversations like old times, do things we both enjoy, and just be yourself. Here are some snippets of our day. Pancake breakfast + tea on a rainy Saturday morning at a Cuban themed restaurant.
Walking to Clifton Village to check out the art and vintage stores.
Going to the famous Suspension Bridge.
Taking a break in Boston Tea Party, watching the rain fall outside and the chimneys of houses against the gray sky as the backdrop. Walking down Park Row street and the Christmas Steps to the old town. Lunch at St Nicholas market, afternoon crepe on Prince Bridge by the Harbourside, and a visit to the M Shed (a museum about the people of and life in Bristol).
The Bristol Art gallery:
A yummy Middle Eastern lunch at the market and a sugar lemon crepe for dessert later.
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