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If you walk into an Anglican church right now, your retinas would be instantly presented with the colour purple.  In certain Christian traditions, colour means an awful lot. At different times of year, churches are adorned with red, blue, white, green, gold, and at this time of year - purple.  The concept behind “liturgical colours” is to generate a specific mood or...

In retrospect, sausages and Yorkshire puddings for breakfast was a dreadful choice. Nevertheless, this is the situation I found myself in on a September morning in 2015. I was about to start life as a Politics student at the University of East Anglia, and the nerves had set in. I wasn’t feeling very well prepared.  Now, if you’re reading this and thinking...

  Hmmm. I’m aware I should be saying something. And yet - no sounds are emanating from my mouth.  I’ve been asked a question about Jesus. By someone who doesn’t know Jesus! How rude. I have no idea how to answer that. My brow stiffens. My hands are sweaty. Buttocks clenched. What next?  This may sound familiar. We’ve all had situations where our...

I think the best night out I ever had at university was the ‘Christmas Ball’ event at the end of my first term. Fake snow fell from the ceiling, the walls seemed to be more tinsel than concrete, and Mariah Carey was blasting out of the speakers. I was surrounded by the friends I had made in those first few months,...

In my mind, I am a seriously fantastic runner.  I stride around the town of Reading, my long limbs propelling me forward as I knock off kilometre after kilometre. Personal bests tumble, sweat pours from my brow, and the endorphin rush leaves me feeling sky-high.  Except that all of that is a lie.  I huff and I puff around the loop I’ve settled...

Practically speaking, the move to a new place is a headache. The car is jammed full of everything you think you might possibly need, and still there’s a feeling deep within that you have forgotten something.  And far beyond the bowls and bath towels lies a move that will insert you into accommodation with a group of people you have never...

A freezing cold January morning in a sleepy Norfolk market town seems like an unlikely setting for a Formula One Grand Prix, and yet, one engine would be pushed to the limit that day.  I was with my fellow church ministry interns, and as part of our Friday off-site activities, we had been dispatched to a nearby town to engage in...

"Have you got Cliff's left elbow over there?" I would like to think this is the kind of question repeated at  university fresher's weeks all over the country, but the pessimist in me suggests that is not the case.  I was a first-year Politics student at the University of East Anglia, and was badly out of fuel by the Thursday of my first...

"Yeah no worries Sir"  I beg your pardon? SIR!? I'd only asked him to collect up the footballs after the session. Sir!? Me? A Sir!? No chance. I was 21 years of age, fresh out of university, and had somehow found my way to a secondary school playing field and had now been referred to as "Sir" by one of the...

 "And you will be called priests of the Lord..." (Isaiah 61:6) All my mates who don’t know Jesus think that I am a priest. I’m not, but as soon as they hear I work for a church they can’t quite envision any other role than that of priest. It makes me laugh every time it comes up, because whilst they are in a practical...

"and release from darkness for the prisoners..." (Isaiah 61:1) One of my favourite films of all time is the 2000 Aardman animation classic ‘Chicken Run’. Chickens desperately trying to escape their pie-based fate on a farm that resembles a prisoner-of-war camp.  The tale of escape is as old as time itself. Other films like The Shawshank Redemption and The Great Escape manage to...

The shepherds went back to their flocks, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen. It was just as the angel had told them.  Luke 2:20  This could be a controversial statement this close to Christmas, but I’m gonna say it:  Christmas Day is generally overrated. ‘Twixmas’ is better.  Twixmas runs from the 26th of December to the 1st of January,...

“Thank God for this gift, too wonderful for words!”  2 Corinthians 9:15 What’s the best gift you’ve ever received? Perhaps your mind jumps to a recent present you were given that came with attached sentimental value. May I encourage you to think back to when you were really young?  I remember the all-encompassing anticipation that surrounded Christmas Day as a child. A full...

  One of the most unforgettable moments of British television so far this century has to be the Come Dine With Me episode that shudders to an electrifying, awe-inspiring halt at the reading of the results.  If you are unfamiliar with the concept of Come Dine With Me, four individuals take it in turn hosting dinner parties for the other contestants. The...

"DO. LITERALLY. ANYTHING." was the shriek that filled my university kitchen, bellowed by a heavily disgruntled Northern Irish medical student.  Her prized possession, a newly purchased 10-litre glass kilner drinks dispenser, had just imploded in frankly spectacular fashion.  We had invited a load of our friends over for a barbecue, and filled up the new kilner with cheap lemonade, bags of ice,...

If, like me, you were raised in a Christian household, it’s highly likely you don’t remember the first time you stepped into a church.  But for thousands of students across the UK, it is the case that the first time they set foot into one of our buildings will be the first time they have ever been in a place of...

It isn’t a feeling you really forget, is it? Walking into school in August (that should be a crime in itself) with your stomach through the floor, dreading what lies in wait inside that envelope.  We can attach all worldly importance to the marks of ink that will adorn the critical piece of A4. And not without reason - in the...

  I wonder if you've ever been fishing? I must confess at this point that I haven’t, and yet it seems like just the kind of activity that would frustrate me entirely.  Sitting around, line in the water, waiting for something to happen. For many of Britain’s anglers, the past-time is just that - a past-time. Yet for billions around the globe, now...

After a recent Preparation for University stream, a participant left us with the question “Do you have any relationship advice for during university from a Christian point of view?”. Yes, we do! Your time at university could be the place where your calling comes alive! As disciples, part of that calling is to let our light shine before others (Matthew 5:14)...

I arrived at the University of East Anglia for my first year of university way back in 2015. I had a horrific mop of hair, a head full of dreams, and a willingness to meet the kind of people I’d never before seen back home in Chesterfield.  I was so blessed to find those people quickly. Even more amazingly, there were some...

I love a deep conversation, me. Sitting in a car is usually my location of preference for a deep chat, but there’s one thing that all of them have in common - honesty.  Honesty is to a meaningful relationship as petrol is to a car. It just won’t work otherwise! You might by this point be thinking about those people you...

When I was in school, I had a history teacher called Mrs Bilby. Mrs Bilby had this thing she used to say about exams, that they were always “the elephant on the horizon”. She’d say this in January or February, and I would laugh it off as classic scaremongering. Fast forward to late-May and early-June however, and I was staring...

These are indeed very strange days. Toilet paper is short, pasta is but a memory, and millions and millions of people around the world are confined to their homes.  It’s curious - I’m told we are social distancing, and yet, this week I have had people from all over the UK pop up on my computer screen for a chat. I’ve...

I wonder if you have any things that you unknowingly do when you get a bit nervous. We only really realise them when other people point them out. I found out that one of the things I do when the butterflies to start is to keep saying the word “Marvellous!”.  This was pointed out to me by my Fusion Team Leader,...

It was a freezing Friday night, and the sound of a shrill whistle cut through the crisp February air with a deafening screech. It was time for football practice to start, and I had absolutely no idea what I was doing.  This story starts about 17 months earlier, when I ventured to Norwich to start university. I was looking forward to...

Gather round ladies and gentlemen, and prepare yourselves for my freshers week top tips! The first week of uni can be a whirlwind of fun, information, and new experiences, and it’s entirely possible that you’re excited to get going or dreading what might lay in store.  My prayer is that this post can make you genuinely excited about freshers week, and...

It, in many ways, will be the best summer of your life. You’ve wrapped up A-Levels, and now you’ve got three months stretching out ahead of you before you head to university in September. If you’re anything like me, you’re probably thinking “It’s so far away, it’s basically not happening”. I remember feeling like we were indestructible traveling around Europe with...