The International Open House team organized a weekend away at Bournemouth for students to help fill up their Easter vacation. In the end 13 took advantage of the offer, a mixture of Europeans and Chinese – Christians, Buddhists, Communist Party members and others of no particular religious or political commitment. They stayed on the premises of Moordown Baptist Church, Mark Fisher’s home church, together with members of the Open House team – hence the need for borrowed sleeping bags. (We had more than enough in the end, thanks to many people’s kindness!) Jean Hate and Kathleen Evans, and Andrew, offered their services as cooks for the weekend, with help from Charlotte, for the whole company of 21 people; this was extremely helpful because it freed up the team to spend all their time and energy with the students.
The programme mixed leisure with the serious business of studying God’s Word: Mark had organized three sessions with the topicsWhat is sin?, What is grace? andWhat is faith?. These were good times of teaching, study and discussion, and were followed up by an open time for questions at the end of our time together. That final question and answer session proved most important because that is how we discovered where people had ‘arrived’ in their study. It led directly to decisions to hold a special series of studies on who God is and what He is like, and to hold a meeting where people could tell how they had become Christians.
The weather was good, the food was excellent, the games were fun, the journeys went well, the people at Moordown were very welcoming, but the abiding memory was the serious
questioning and open-mindedness of the students, the clear explaining of the Gospel, and the sense of God using the weekend to His glory.
Many thanks for praying. Our labour in the Lord is never in vain.
