A Personal Message from the Director
A little girl called Rose handed one of the team a picture she had drawn and alongside it was written this prayer:
‘Dear god, Please help cribs carry on with their job and let them tell lots more children. Amen.’
Our hope and expectation for this new school year is that Rose's heartfelt prayer will indeed be answered! Thanks for standing with us in this most amazing task of, in the words of Psalm 78, "telling the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power and the wonders he has done".
With love from all the team, Gordon
Under an Open Heaven
The UAOH ‘Imagine’ event on 10th September was well attended by friends and supporters and was a wonderful, Spirit filled evening. Worship was confidently led with music by a CU band from ‘Chis & Sid’ and very soon the room was filled with passionate, heartfelt worship.
Gordon was inspiring from the front, reminding us all that as Christians we do live ‘under an open heaven’ with open access to communicate with our Father through His precious Son. He said that as heirs with Christ we should not be prepared to accept what is wrong with our society and that we should claim our right as Christians together to call upon Him for change.
We spread around the room to pray for the things we would like to see happen in Bexley particularly focusing on students in secondary schools. The hall was kitted out to make space for creative spoken and written prayer and then at one point we all moved outside to the picnic tables set up as pray stations.
Back in the hall we heard some personal testimony and then everyone gathered to pray over and bless different groups. Firstly, all teachers and school workers, followed by all the CU students and finally the CRiBS team. For each group everyone recited a prayer, especially written by Nicola and Gordon, to commission them all for the challenges ahead in the new academic year.
All in all a truly inspirational event and almost certainly a blessing to all who attended.
Please make a note in your diary: Our next UNDER AN OPEN HEAVEN Prayer Event is on Monday 19th November from 6.00pm at Royal Park Primary School, Riverside Road, Sidcup. Our guest speaker will be Paul Weston from New Generation Church in Sidcup and, with a great band and creative prayer, it promises to be another great night.
50:50 Challenge
13 members of the team took part in a 50-mile sponsored walk in September along the South Downs Way. It was a great three days as we walked in warm sunshine enjoying the spectacular views. The great news was that 24 schools liked the idea of partnering with us.
Each child (over 9,000) received a sponsorship form with the challenge to collect as much money as possible and all the proceeds would be split 50:50 between the school and CRiBS.
The whole expedition was led by a wise and intrepid explorer called Bear Growls who made sure we ate all our breakfast up and kept to the route. The children loved Bear Growls and his regular reports back from the trail proved a great success. We hope that families and friends of the children are generous in their giving!
CUs AND SECONDARY
Look at the fervent look on the young boy’s face as he cries out to God in prayer.
Prayer has to be the centre of everything a Christian Union is and does. As we continue into the new academic year, please be praying that the heart-beat of our current CUs (Chis&Sid, Bexley Grammar, Blackfen, Townley and Beths) and our soon-to-be and potential CUs (Cleeve Park, Hurstmere, Trinity, Beaverwood and BA) would be prayer, as zealously as this child.
Speaking of Beths, what an answer to years of prayer! I remember writing in January this year that we were praying for some students who’d like to see and influence change in their school. Well, it happened, and the boys launched two weeks ago with 30 turning up. Please pray for the momentum to keep going, and for vision and ideas.
Blackfen are in the process of another part-leadership change, please pray for God’s will here. It feels like a constant battle ground, but I know we’re all determined to keep going!
Trinity school have a Youth Alpha starting as I write, for years 7-10, with the hope of a CU for years 11-13 in the near future.
In July we took 9 CU leaders to Coldharbour Meadows for a weekend of worship, fellowship, training and fun. I feel like these weekends are gaining momentum and are massively worthwhile for the students from different schools to meet each other and enable a network of support, encouragement and sharing of ideas.
Youth leaders ~ please look out for a TBY (Transform Bexley Youth) mailing which contains information about when and where each of the CUs meet (www.transformbexleyborough.com).
As I finish, please do spend a moment now praying for Christian teachers, staff and Chaplains as they seek to live out their faith in the school environment.
‘til next time!
Nicola
nicola@cribsonline.org Facebook: Nicola Foot-Cribs
IMAGINE WWW.SCHOOLSWORK.CO.UK
On 3rd September the CRiBS team headed for the London School of Theology, Northwood for a schools workers’ commissioning event. A valuable and enjoyable day led by Amy Stock of Schoolswork.co.uk and spent with 130 or so others doing similar work in the nation’s schools.
After some sung worship, Dr Nick Shepherd gave a talk on Bible and Mission. He told us that school was the largest unchurched church in the land! He said that school work has an ever changing dynamic which he described with an Action-Context-Purpose triangle, which was quite helpful. Ask one of the CRiBS team to elaborate. He spoke of the imperative of immersing ourselves in scripture so that it always informs our daily decisions, at work or play.
Then six different people, including Gordon, stood and shared with the room a ‘tension’ they had encountered in schoolswork. Some Topics covered were ‘Width or Depth – concentrate on a few or many schools?’, ‘Do I focus on all students or mentor the few christians?’, ‘Does pastoral work get in the way of the gospel?’ ‘Staff or students – who am I ministering to?’ ‘Abstinence or safe sex?’ Everyone then split into groups to discuss a topic of their choice.
Krish Kandiah finally summed up, citing Paul in 2 Corinthians 4, acknowledging that there was little thanks to be had, few pats on the back, in our chosen profession. However, as Paul said “since through God’s mercy we have this ministry we do not lose heart”. God knows and loves what we’re doing. We are to be ‘Grace fuelled’, and to remember it is Him we serve, and Him we seek to please.
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