Oasis Life
13th April 2015
Sunday 19th April
County Cricket is back, which means some changes for our Sunday meetings. When you arrive (10:30am at Edgbaston) look for the members of the Welcome Team standing outside the white gate in orange t-shirts; they’ll give you a ticket which will get you into the ground. As a bonus, you can then use that ticket to stay and watch the cricket afterwards if that’s your cup of tea!
Sunday 26th April
We’ll be welcoming Jonathan and Helen Bell from ChurchCentral Birmingham to come and spend the morning with us. Jonathan will be speaking during our morning meeting and there will be time to hang out after the service too. The morning starts as usual at 10:30am.
Creative Worship Encounter: In the evening, there’s a night to connect with God through music and arts in a really relaxed style. There’ll be lots of different creative expressions and strands, all united by a common desire to encounter God’s presence through worship. It’s on from 5:30pm to 7:30pm at the Oasis Suite, and all are welcome!
General Election 2015
One of the ways in which we can seek to impact the city and country in which we live is through engaging politically, and a big part of doing that is voting in General Elections. If you’re not already on the system, you’ll need to register individually beforethe deadline of the 20th April. It only takes a couple of minutes to complete on www.gov.uk/register-to-vote. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to have your say in who represents you — both locally and in Parliament!
Each week, teams of people from Oasis head out to the streets of Birmingham to help those who are homeless — providing food, drinks, clothing and support. Here, one of our leaders, Corinne, shares a story of what happened when a few of her University friends expressed an interest in coming along.
So a bunch of friends from my course were doing a project on homelessness in Birmingham and asked if they could come out to do outreach with me. I was very excited but also hesitant because most of them were not Christians and a couple had said to me they just wanted to do outreach to get information for the presentation, rather than with any intention to show love or compassion. I prayed before briefly just that their hearts may be softened when they meet the real people on the streets.
I was quite nervous before the night as it was a different set up and wondered whether God could really be shown to the rough sleepers on this night. Surprisingly it ended up being the best night I’d ever had on Outreach — we met some incredible people. One man selling the big issue chatted to us for a while and when we left said “I’ll pray for you guys tonight”. This made one of my friends well-up; she was so taken aback by the fact he wanted to pray for us despite his situation. When later met a group of people outside Moor Street Station. One woman was talking to me and asked my for a bible and to pray for her. Some of my friends watched as I prayed for her and her crying afterwards as she was so moved. After the night all my friends said they felt their eyes had been opened and I really hope and pray that they saw God moving throughout the night and within the people on the streets.
