Blog

The other day I went for a paddle in my kayak, come rain or shine its one of my favourite things to do. As I was strapping it to the top of my car ready to head down to the river, it was raining. It was that annoying sort of light rain that doesn’t look bad but is pretty proficient at getting...

Leaving home for Uni is just as big a deal for your parents as it is for you. Truth. What must it feel like to watch your kids “fly the nest”, leaving to make their own way in the world? I can’t imagine how mum felt the day she dropped my little sister in Durham… the last of the three Swaffield children to...

Speaking to youth workers in Norwich this week really crystallized some key themes in relation to preparing young people for uni.  Three steps now seem impressed in my mind...  Challenge number 1:  Leave them to it.  Stop texting them, reminding them to turn up. Stop telling their parents when they need to be there. Stop making sure they do the things they say they'll...

I dragged myself through the nettles, propped my frame against a tree trunk, took aim and fired. Then in a calculated but ignorant fashion, I shot my own team mate right up his gluteus maximus. I am a counter-productive paint-baller. It is better for everyone if I don't paint-ball. Everyone else wins if I remain at home instead of paint-balling. I forgot...

Kat Thomas is a student in Bristol and goes to church at Pip N Jay. She writes here about their recent student weekend away. "If therefore there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same...

This week's Guest Blog is from Rachel Bevan, who works for Church For Students in Sheffield. Rachel emailed us to let us know what they've felt prompted to do, and wanted to know whether others from across the nation have been doing the same? On the 30th November 2011 we grasped hold of a vision: a vision to see revival spread...

Unique, cool, quirky, individual.  Four words to describe yourself? In Brighton, where I was on Tuesday, the streets are laced with the alternative. Student culture in that artistic, creative city is all about the “cool”, and being different is the aim not the fear. Little boutiques and one-off businesses thrive as 30,000 students pass through the lanes in search of hidden...