An exciting week !

An exciting week ! On Sunday the Spanish student came to church for the first time and enjoyed it, and 7 young men from Kerala were also there, and really enjoyed the service too.
I did book my ticket to Loughborough and had a very interesting 8 hour journey there on Tuesday. A young man from Egypt sat next to me from Plymouth to Bristol. His name is Assad and he and I had a very long chat about life and about God, I was able to talk a lot about Jesus , His grace and forgiveness, the peace that that brings, the relationship of love and not fear that I have with Him. Assad told me he sometimes goes to the Mosque in Plymouth, he also confessed a lot to me of the things he feels guilty about. In the end I gave him a Gideon's New Testament (which I had taken with me, instead of carrying my large Bible with me for 2 days) He may come back to Plymouth and may come to the church one day.

I listened to my MP3 player and read a few things for the rest of the journey and then finally arrived in Loughborough after an 8 hour journey. Jen was there waiting for me , it was lovely to see her. She was drinking a glass of red wine, we went into the bar and had a hot chocolate together and chatted lots which was nice.We then got a taxi to her student halls - a really nice campus, quite green with modern buildings. She showed me to her room, in a flat of a few rooms with a nice spacious kitchen. It is a lovely bedroom with en suite bathroom.
I met some of her friends, including Chris from Germany and Joey from Walsall( the latest boyfriend ). We spent the evening catching up with Britain's Got Talent on her computer, and chatting, which was good. She is coming to the end of her Art foundation course, and her bedroom was a bit of an art project - with lots of ladders made with string stuck on the walls and ceiling. She told me that she really isn't that passionate about her art , as others on her course are, and that she doesn't think it will lead to a job.
The next day we got up late ( it was quite quiet in the night - lots of students are revising for exams at the moment ) and chatted alot, especially about her future plans. She had a vague idea that she would like to be a primary school teacher, but wasn't sure how to go about it. So we looked together at courses especially BEd courses and narrowed it down to 3 or 4 possible places, including Wolverhampton, which specialised in early years, but gave a qualification for teaching 3 - 11 year olds. We thought it would be too late to apply for this September , so talked about earning some money back in Leicester, volunteering at her brother's school etc , maybe taking her driving test etc, but she has since discovered that it is still possible to apply for September 2010 - which is great news, as she won't be spending a year amongst all her old Muslim friends in Leicester, which I'm pleased about. That evening we ordered pizza and watched the Book of Eli on her computer - a good film. Hardly any sleep that night as the students were going wild, and the activity in the bedroom next door went on and on too ! The next morning, I left early for the bus back to Plymouth and spent the first two hours sitting next to Bedir from Turkey - having a similar conversation about God until he got off in Birmingham. I then felt tired and switched on my MP3 player, wondering whether I really ought to chat to the new man who had come to sit next to me. Eventually I realized that he was reading a book about prayer !
Back at home all was well, Ollie had done a good job of holding the fort and looking after Sam, and I am really glad I went on what turned out to be a really productive trip !