FormWoodbridge Blog

This time last year we were preparing to welcome our first two new FORM students (Lizzy and Sylvan) They spent 2008 and 2009 at St John’s focusing on their character, areas of service, local and global mission. We had a great year and they will be missed. However, FORM does not end there! This year we welcome four new students to our church family - Bex, Kyle, Rob and Mark. It’s going to be another awesome year of being involved in God’s mission. To see, hear and watch what the guys get up to please check out our FORM webpage – www.stjohnswoodbridge.org.uk/form

Well, its been such a busy term that I have not been able to update the blog. But if you wish to hear what the guys have been up to this term, then I invite you to the FORM celebration:

FORM CELEBRATION - Sunday 28th June, 6pm at St John’s Church - BBQ, WORSHIP, INTERVIEW, PRAYERS and PRESENTATION 

I promise that I will update more often next year!

Ben

This Year is flying past! 

Busy, Busy, Busy is the theme of this coming term.

This terms teaching is based on ‘leadership values’ and ‘the work place’. We will be discovering Myers Briggs, SHAPE and meeting people who live their faith in the work place. 

The FORM guys will be serving at ALIVE 09 (Book NOW -http://www.alive09.org.uk/). The guys are also involved in the ‘Where Next?’ retreat for those doing A levels and AS - to spend some time searching God and discovering where God is calling them to.

Please continue to check our blog for updates, stories and events at FORM. 

Also, please come along to our churches CD launch - Sunday 17th May, 7pm at St John’s Church Woodbridge

Hey Guys!

Day 4 has been a busy day with lots of challenging times and exciting God moments.

After a great breakfast and our normal route to church we started the day with prayer and worship. We were then encouraged to prayer walk around the red light district in Zurich. Walking around I noticed many sex shops and prostitutes hanging around looking for business. It felt very strange being in this environment, it wasn’t my usual Friday morning walk around the beautiful sights of Woodbridge. It was a powerful and challenging experience. This walk wasn’t just a easy way of mission but it was in preparation for the afternoon when we would actually go into some of the brothels and shops to minister to these people. Scary!

After the prayer walk we went to a night club where the owner has recently given his life to Jesus. He shared his story, which was AMAZING! He also shared his vision for the night club. Over the past few years the club use to be a sex shop, a centre for drug use, and a building that is wanted by the big club owners because of it’s location (centre of the red light district). He believes God is calling him to create a safe place where people can come and meet God. He also wants to create a church on a Sunday morning. However, he is worried due to growing interest in the building from other club owners who have more money. He now has three weeks to find the money. PLEASE PRAY FOR THIS!

Lunch was fantastic! After lunch when where given cake and coffee to hand out round the red light district. The next few hours were incredible. I went with a team of half English and half Swiss (they really know how to do mission!). We went into shops and prayed for people. I went into three brothels with some guys from the swiss team. It felt so wrong walking into this place of sexual abuse but I remembered that Jesus would have gone into these places. Many of the prostitutes wanted prayer and we held their hands and prayed for them. Often we would see a customer come and head upstairs: this was SO strange to me and made my heart cry out for these women. It was a massive learning curve for me and I know the other guys experienced similar situations.

If there is anything that I have learnt it is that we NEED and MUST talk to people about JESUS not CHURCH. Church is awesome but people need JESUS. We a called to proclaim the name of Jesus. So why not? Are we proud? Are we worried what people might think? Are we scared that people might push us away?

I hope this blog will encourage you to step out in faith. Jesus gave His life for us so why don’t we give Him some credit and share His love and grace with our friends, strangers, shop owner, prostitutes, bank owners, the whole world.

There are SO many stories that I could share with you but I need to go now!

Thank to all that made this trip possible.

God Bless,

Ben

Watto this is the legend mark speaking. Today was an amazing day for us as we went out onto the streets of Zurich! We started the day meeting up at the church at 9. There were many of us today as the form team here in Zurich joined us.

Some of the guys - Stephan, Sylvan, Fabian, Dominic & Ben

During the morning session we split into small groups which gave us the opportunity to know each other and share our Christian backgrounds. After this we had about half an hour of worship followed by prayer for one another.

After lunch the Tim the leader of the church here explained to us the structure of the afternoon. Again we split into small groups for prayer to see what God was saying and calling us to do. We all shared the words and pictures we had been given. Time for mission was amazing. Everyone had some special experiences and was so great to see God working in so many situations.

The church we are based at for the mission work

For Me and Bugingo, it was a ridiculous scenario.  We had the pleasure of going out with Rita, who is a swiss lass and naturally speaks Swiss-German, but no English, which just made things a bit harder. Not for God though! We ventured into a nearby park where there were homeless people, drug addicts as well as working people who wanted to chill out after work with some beers. The first two people we spoke to spoke fairly good English. The amazing thing was, we were speaking in two different languages explaining our purpose, and they were then translating to us their thought and views! How amazing is God! We had some great talks with people and feel that many relationships have been created. We plan to go there again tomorrow and take down some food and have a bit of a picnic with them in the afternoon.

Every good missionary should take part in a bit of tea towel whipping fun!

The evening was rather pleasant. We had a delightful meal followed by a game of mafia. I wont explain the rules because i’ll be here all evening. Unfortunately the trogs killed me first so I had to watch from the sideline, so disgruntled!

Thanks for taking the time to read my small novel, peace out to all the brother and sister in Christ love to you all.

Mark E

Day One

We’ve arrived! After leaving at the stupidly early time of 11 we arrived at Luton (London’s 4th Airport) hmmmm. Benny was a little worse for wear after listening to Marks incessant ramblings on the 2 hour minibus ride. Thanks to Waldringfield Baptist Church for the transport!

Us at Luton Airport

The flight was great!

We arrived in Zurich!

We met Stephan (Im told im rambling and need to keep this short!)

After probably the most expensive pizza ever thanks to the awful value of the pound the girls split up and went off to the different hosts. The boys were kept together and were taken to our penthouse apartment in Zurich Heights! (The girls were jealous!)

Thus ends day one.

Rob

(Lizzy will now bore you with day two! Enjoy)

Day Two

After waking up in our various appartments, we all met up under the big clock in the train station (you couldn’t miss it- it was big!) We then wet on our epic tour around the city of zurich! Climbing up many hills and stairs (Ahhhhhh!!) We ended a church and climbed the stairs (all 292 of them) to the top of the spire, to see the beautiful cites of the city from above! Sylvan nearly fell off, but Ben managed to save him! (unfortunately) We then climbed back down again.

View for the top of Gross Munster Catherdral (bad spelling)

We saw many pretty buildings, posh cars, well dressed people, possessed pigeons and ducks!, trees, snow, trains, trams (nearly got run over by one), buses, pretty shoes, lakes, mountains etc !

We stopped for lunch at the coop (not sure if it’s the same in England) for an expensive lunch! We sat by the lake, feeding the swans and looking out over the water- it was beautiful!

Eating Lunch by the Zurich Sea

After lunch we took a train up the mountain- very steep, and then walked to the top! There was snow alongside the tracks, which was amazing as it was a fairly sunny day. We then climbed a tower (very high up) to see the beautiful view! You could see the mountains in the distance.

Us at the top of the highest mountain in Zurich

After a long day, we finished off at Stephans house with a lovely meal and chill out time.

Tomorrow we’re meeting the Zurich church- praying, spending time in worship and then in the afternoon we’re off to do mission!

Over and Out,

Plumface (Lizzy) and Co.

To see all the pictures go to the Form Facebook Page.

You can order FORM Adverts by emailing - form@stjohnswoodbridge.org.uk.

If you are interested in applying for FORM please download the 09-10 application form from our homepage or call Ben on 01394 383162 to arrange a meeting.

Happy New Year to all that read our blog!

This term at FORM we are plowing through Alister McGrath’s ‘Introduction to Theology’, Richard Foster’s ‘Celebration of Discipline’ and we are also traveling to Sheffield to share fellowship and engage in mission with our FORM Network. And that’s only the beginning of our term!

In March we are also heading off to Zurich for mission. Every year FORM offers an overseas mission trip. We believe it is important for young adults to experience a different culture and to build relationships with other Christians across the world. This year we head to Zurich with our friends from Sheffield. Zurich, even though being in the centre of one of the richest countries in world, is in need of God. With the guys from Sheffield and the vineyard church in Zurich we will be working with the homeless, drug addicts and hearing the stories of those caught up in prostitution.

The team from FORM WOODBRIDGE includes, Lizzy, Sylvan, Rob, Mark and me! Please pray for the team, our friends in Sheffield and Zurich as we prepare, fundraise, and seek to follow the Holy Spirit in our travels this term.

Keep an eye on our blog as we share our daily lives with you and others across the globe.

God Bless,

Ben 

Hey Guys, 

Happy Christmas to all of those who log on to read the FORM Blog.

I love Christmas! It’s one of those seasons where Christians feels comfortable to invite friends, family and the gold fish to church. It’s one of those seasons where Christians openly go out onto the streets and sing about God. It’s one of those seasons where cultural tradition meets Christian belief. I love Christmas!

So why don’t we do this all year round? Not carols or Christmas but openly discuss, worship, shout out our love for the AWESOME GOD?

I believe it’s because Christmas is such a success in terms of getting people into church (which is not the end product of discipleship but a clear demonstration that society are still interested). However, unlike Christmas many evangelistic events end in disappointment. Laurence Singlehurst writes, (1998, p. 9):

‘the experience of many churches looks like this. They put a great deal of effort into coming up with an idea for outreach into the community. They, as it were, climb a mountain (carry through the idea). But at the end of all their hard work climbing, they plunge into a valley of disappointment because their expectations were just not met.’

So often we are looking for the convert before we have even engaged in a person’s life. Sowing and reaping is mentioned in John 4. Christians often look for the reaping before the sowing has even taken shape.

Singlehurst offers many strategies and ideas for evangelism. I would recommend purchasing his book and seeing what you think: –

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sowing-Reaping-Keeping-People-sensitive-Evangelism/dp/1856840522/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1229443265&sr=8-1

Why not ask a friend what they think about God this Christmas. Don’t miss out on this great opportunity. But don’t let it be the only time you mention God.

Happy Christmas guys

Love,

Ben 

After a great days teaching from Dave Gardner on Luke the FORM team take an opportunity to chill in God’s creation. Check out the red sky!