13 Aug
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- Paul
Club Mission Wins Prestigious Award
Our Club Mission team, who have spent much of the last year demonstrating God's love to students in the union, has been voted the ‘Team of the Year’ at the Loughborough Experience awards. It was an incredible surprise for us, not least because there were only 3 other nominees, all of which are fantastic, well established committees; RAG (recently praised by David Cameron in the House of Commons for raising over £1 million this year), AU Exec (for winning BUSA again) and SOC FED (who organise and manage all 59 LSU clubs and societies).
"The Loughborough Experience Award was set up …to recognise, and reward the students who put a lot of effort into life at Loughborough".(1) It's an evening of publicly honouring people who have gone above and beyond to contribute to 'The Loughborough Experience’ which has, in turn, enabled Loughborough to win the prestigious Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) award for the Best Student Experience 4 years running.
03 Jun
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- Laura
Encounter Testimony: Laura
I went on my first Encounter Weekend a few weeks ago! I was really anxious before I went but God showed up in ways I never expected.
I guess my experience of Encounter starts this time last year. I was busy deciding where to live after I had graduated from Canterbury Uni and decided on Loughborough. At the time, Lizzie, who I had planned to move in with, was going on Encounter. I remember thinking that there was no way I was going to go the following year. I had no intention of talking about my ‘feelings’ or facing my ‘issues’. I remember God clearly telling me that I would be going ... I responded with a firm “no”.
16 May
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- Philip
Encounter Testimony: Phil
I went on the Encounter Weekend very aware of some of the scars in my life that I needed healing from – what I had no idea of was just how God would come through for me.
When I was 14, I went on a geography field trip, and was bullied by people who I thought were supposed to be my friends. They made up some stories about me, and twisted my words and misquoted me. I found myself unable to build normal friendship because I was so aware of what the bullies had said to me.
18 Jun
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- Gavin
Encounter Stories
I came to encounter desperate for help from God. I had slipped back into old ruts of lustful practices and thoughts and I was harbouring largely unresolved grief from my mother passing away less than a month ago. Coupled with that is a burden for people in China who are far away and all the headache of things necessary to return there well prepared. Also I feel heartache for May, my betrothed in China, who I haven’t seen for 9 months.
A friend said, ‘Take it easy this weekend’, but I was desperate to meet with God and for him to be my life, so instead I gave it everything. Over the weekend I let God search my soul and confessed every sin and weakness in my person that He brought to my attention. I and ‘the boys group’ bound, broke the hold of and banished various demonic influences from their ruined strongholds in my life. In a previous Encounter I had felt hard-hearted and somewhat sorted when it came to forgiveness, but this time I was ready to acknowledge lingering anger at some people, and not just release them but ask for God’s healing and resolution of the issues. So when it came to the Holy Spirit session Saturday evening, I was feeling loosened and ready to be filled. In almost 9 years as a Christian I haven’t experienced the Holy Spirit quite so powerfully (see poem below that I wrote that evening). All the ground gained and lost before was taken back and I moved forward to a position spiritually that I have never enjoyed before.
01 Jun
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- Owen
My Journey back to God
On Sunday 7th may, I went to my second Open Heaven meeting,
and I have to say how great it was. I would like to thank you for
helping me shed light on my relationship with God.
04 Jan
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- Naomi
Ali's Story
I haven’t been a Christian for long and I’ve only just set out along the path to God, but so far the journeys been very exciting and eventful.
Coming from a typical Church of England background with two devout parents, I went to church every Sunday as I grew up, but as I became a teenager I thought it didn’t mean anything to me. I didn’t respond well to the whole traditional church environment; the message went in one ear and out the other.
04 Jan
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- Naomi
04 Jan
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- Naomi
Ian's Story
In all honesty my life before I met God was pretty good, although I always knew there was more out there which I could feel but couldn’t quite get my head around it. I came to God through a friend called Hannah I met in Frisbee at Loughborough. She was the first Christian I had ever met and I was curious so I fired loads and loads of questions at her; questions about sex before marriage, drink and why she believed. It all made sense so I decided I would say I was a Christian although I didn’t really believe it.
In January 2005 I began attending Open Heaven. One thing scared me though, people were singing and jumping about as well as raising their hands in the air in jubilation to God. I didn’t really get it until the third time I came to a gathering. The singing started, the arms went up, and I felt a hugely overwhelming feeling rush through me, the tears flowed and then I knew that I had met God. Finding a real relationship with God has made me want to be a better person, to live life as it was intended and use my gifts and talents to make the world a better place. It’s very exciting. God Bless.
04 Jan
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- Naomi
Jo's Story
I've been a Christian since I was about 18, but I never led a Christian lifestyle. If anyone asked me if I was a Christian I would always say yes, but I would never bring up the subject myself and I would always be too embarrassed to talk about it. My family aren't Christians, and I knew they wouldn't approve, so it was always a very private thing for me and I kept it hidden. I went to church on and off at home with the only other Christian I knew, but it was anything but regular and I was far from dedicating my life to God.
At the start of this year, my 3rd year in Lufbra, I decided to find a church. After a lot of searching the internet I found the Open Heaven website, I sent them an email and went along to the first gathering. I got really mixed feelings as it was so different to the stereotypical church I’d been to, and it actually scared me quite a lot! After a couple of weeks I was really having doubts about whether I wanted to be a Christian or not. However, I started going to Alpha and one of the talks really made me think - I was either a Christian or I wasn’t, there was no room to waver in the middle.
12 Jul
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- Jez
Lisa and Neil
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