Marquee, Mark and the Funky Bunch! (a.k.a. RUCU Events Week 09) Day 0 - Launch Day

RUCU Events Week 2009 finally kicked off this evening. After a few moderately stressful (or humorous, depending on whether you're the student or the staff worker) teething problems, the marquee is finally put up, wired up and (periodically) warmed up and ready to go. We had our launch meeting this evening, which was a great opportunity to focus on why we're doing what we're doing this week.

It's a pleasure to have my friend Michael Ots around for the week as our speaker. He explained 2 Corinthians 5 for us, reminding us that we have a real, solid hope for the future, which should motivate us and reassure as as we head into Events Week.

People seem really up for it, which is great. The CU Guests seem like a fun lot (an essential criteria for CU Guests) too. I think I'm up for it too, although I'm really conscious of my need to depend completely on God this week. As I said last time, if praying's your thing, please do pray for us this week.

Here are a few pics to give you a taster of Day 0!


Lots of people! Woo!


Will attempts to unravel the song words...


Author and evangelist, Michael Ots!

Marquee, Mark and the Funky Bunch! *

FREE comes to RUCU starting tomorrow, and I'm excited.

This week, people showed up for three lunch times to think through how they can introduce their friends to Jesus via Mark's gospel. People have been praying lots, for the big stuff, but mostly for their friends who they really want to be able to share the gospel with. And, after a 24 hour delay, a huge marquee went up today. It was looking a bit iffy yesterday morning, but after the heroic efforts of a few RUCU peeps, some help from the SU and a lot of praying, it finally went up to day. We'll be practically living in the marquee (although we aren't allowed to sleep there, praise the Lord) as we put on a shed-load of events to help students meet Jesus for themselves. Bring it on!

I'll try to update the blog throughout the week, so do check back to find out how things are going. And I guess Motsy, our speaker for the week, will be doing the same. And if praying's your thing, please do remember us this week!





* In case you aren't as engaged with popular culture as some of us are, Marquee, Mark and the Funky Bunch is a play on name of the rap outfit which featured Marky-Mark, the alter-ego of actor Mark Wahlberg. We've got a marquee, and we're using it to explain Mark. Get it? That would make RUCU the Funky Bunch. I probably should have saved it for a weightier post, but it occurred to me today and I thought I should use it before anyone else thought of it.

Here we go...

The RUCU video geeks have been at it again...



Events Week starts Monday!

Share Mark

In preparation for Events Week at the University of Reading, I'm running 3 sessions for RUCU to help them prepare. I finished provisional versions of the handouts today, so I thought I'd stick them on the website. Keenos might look at them beforehand, but I doubt it. Feel free to nick anything useful, although bear in mind they are handouts for seminars I'm going to be giving (the overview in particular might be a bit confusing without a white shirt and a marker pen...)!

Wednesay: Mark in Minutes - an overview of Mark's gospel.
Thursday: Mark and Your Mates - looking at the FREE gospels with your mates. Some easy tools and top tips.
Friday: Making the Most of Events Week - what to do (and what not to do) during Events Week.

And to help people to make the most events week, this is a (nearly) fool-proof guide to hosting a meal-with-a-message (recipe included): Meal with a Message

Surrey vs Reading: Round 1!

The CUs I work with are a talented bunch. A few weeks ago I posted RUCU's FREE week promo video. Now Surrey have followed suit, and have produced their own. In a characteristically diplomatic manner, I think both are great.

So first, hot off the press, here's Surrey's sterling effort...



And here's Reading's...



In the interests of healthy competition I thought I'd make things interesting - there's a poll on the right-hand side of my blog >>>. Watch both, and see which is your favourite! (You can vote for more than one, which I obviously have because I think they are different but equally good in different ways).

[Update: I felt a bit mean having the poll, so I removed it. I think I have a lot more FaceBook friends from Reading than Surrey, so it wasn't exactly fair. Let's call it a draw...]

Seriously though, if praying is your thing, then pray for both CUs. The FREE project is going to be a massive opportunity for people to find out for themselves who Jesus is. As the videos explain, we're going to be giving away copied of Mark's gospel, and giving people the chance to explore what it has to say. So please do be praying for us if you can.

Introducing... FREE @ Reading

I am very excited about this! These guys possibly have too much time on their hands, but you have to admit they make a classy video!



Bring it on!