Anna's FirstServe Prayer Letter - September
Hello everyone!
Thank you so much for signing up for this prayer letter as I begin to serve the Lord with FirstServe this year. I really appreciate your interest and willingness to pray and come on this journey with me. I am really excited to see how the Lord will work this year and looking forward to sharing some of my experiences with you!
What is FirstServe?
FirstServe is a bespoke Christian gap year programme which is divided into 3 parts - learning to serve, serving locally and serving globally. The programme begins at Tilsley College in Motherwell, Scotland where we will spend 4 weeks delving into God’s word and exploring His character. During October we will move to UK church placements where we will get involved in the activities the church offers and meet other Christians. Finally, in January we are sent to overseas placements for 3-6 months where we will serve with missionaries and get involved in various activities and outreach.
Settling in at Tilsley College
I flew over to Tilsley from Belfast with Kara, a fellow FirstServer on Sunday 10th September and we received the warmest welcome! We had a welcome dinner on the first night which allowed us to meet the other students at Tilsley and get to know Rachel, who is also doing FirstServe. We had our official FirstServe induction on the Monday and then began our lectures and assignments on Tuesday. The first two weeks focused on building our own knowledge of the bible and looking at specific topics, so we studied through Romans and studied topics such as Hermeneutics (The study of translation of the Bible) and Pneumatology (The study of the Holy Spirit). For last week and this week, we are studying with a more practical mindset looking towards our placements, looking at subjects such as Acts and the Early Church, World Religions and how to reach our communities, to name a few. The lectures have been really intense with a lot of information to process in a short space of time, but they have been great preparation in deepening my own understanding of the Bible and preparing us for the mission aspect of our year.
Before lectures start each morning, we have a devotional time for all the staff and students, and get a chance to share our testimonies, sing and pray together. I have had the opportunity to play piano for some of the devotions which I have enjoyed, and will be sharing my testimony on Wednesday. Morning devotions have been a vital part of the day for me during this busy time to come before the Lord at the beginning of each day to be reminded of His goodness and faithfulness throughout our lives and commit the day and our learning all to Him.
The schedule has been intense but I have loved every aspect of our time so far. In a typical day, we have a lecture in the morning, a coffee break, a second lecture and then lunch. We have been given assignments for a few of our classes to help us think through what we’ve learnt that day, which have involved summaries of chapters of Romans, learning memory verses, quizzes and an overview of an epistle of our choice. We always have some free time in the afternoons and evenings which we spend watching a movie together or playing extreme uno or jungle speed! I have also had the opportunity to meet up with some family and friends living near Tilsley who I hadn’t seen in a long time, so it was lovely to be able to catch up and see some familiar faces!
We have also had plenty of time off to explore and have some fun during the weekends! Apart from taking in the very exciting sites Motherwell has to offer including charity shops, Poundland and Wilko, we were able to organise a group trip to Glasgow on our first Saturday and throughout our time have become exceptional at indoor rugby and Ceili dancing!
While we are at Tilsley, we are all assigned to various churches near the college to attend on Sundays. I was assigned to Calderwood Baptist Church with Kat, a second year student. They have been so welcoming and it has been lovely getting to know other Christians and worship the Lord together.
It was lovely to get the opportunity to come home this weekend to speak a bit about FirstServe at the Echoes Women Working for God NI conference, where I first heard about FirstServe last year, in hopes of encouraging other young people considering a gap year to dedicate it to serving the Lord. I was also able to catch up with some family and friends and visit my home church this morning which has been so nice!
My time at Tilsley so far has been so blessed, surrounded by other young people with the same mindset: A love for Christ, an excitement to grow in a relationship with Him, and a desire to share this with others!
What’s next?
I will be leaving Tilsley on Saturday morning and will be heading to my UK church placement. I’ll be moving to Newcastle Upon Tyne to serve at Regent Chapel Christian Fellowship, and will be involved in the many activities and events that the church has, such as the grandparent and toddler group, the pop up pantry, youth work, Sunday school and ladies prayer meetings. Regent Chapel also works with CAP (Christians against poverty), which I will be helping with and am really excited about!
Prayer Points
Please pray…
For the rest of our time at Tilsley, that God would continue to teach us through the lectures and assignments, that we would continue to grow in our understanding of Him and that He would give us the strength and focus to make the most out of our time of learning here.
As I leave Tilsley shortly and prepare to say goodbye to friends and staff and adjust to moving to Newcastle.
That as I begin serving at Regent Chapel, God would be preparing the hearts of those that we will be witnessing to and that they would be open to hearing the gospel.
Once again, thank you all so much for your prayers and interest in my year with FirstServe. God has been working so much already in these short few weeks at Tilsley and I am so excited to see what He has in store!
God Bless,
Anna Shanks