Nicole Lewis – February Update

Hello Friends,

Greetings from the Snowy City of London. The snowman photo “Frosty the Snowman’s lesser known cousin Frank,” I took two weeks ago, but the Beast from the East arrived yesterday and the snow is back. It is nice to see London under a blanket of snow, but it is pretty cold outside, so I am hunkered down inside with some warm coffee watching the snow fall.

February is going to be a pretty full month for us, so I wanted to invite you to pray for a few things we have coming up:

Fireseeds 2021
This coming weekend, Friday to Saturday, we are having our National Student Conference. Sadly because we are still in a strict lockdown, Fireseeds will be virtual but we have some fun surprises planned throughout our time and a cool games night on Friday. Below are some ways you can join us in praying each day for the conference.
MONDAY: (today): Pray for us all as we (staff & students) prepare for the weekend- for our hearts to be open, for us to be energized, and a willingness to hear what God wants to say.
TUESDAY: For Andy, Lauren, Sean & Nicole who are leading our global evening on Saturday night. Pray for Nicole as she prepares and delivers the talk.
WEDNESDAY: Phil Knox who is speaking to us on Saturday morning. Pray that he will be well rested.
THURSDAY: Pray for the conference packs to all be delivered and received well. Pray there aren’t any delays!
FRIDAY: Pray for technology/internet to work. Pray against any sort of tech problems/distractions.

Anxiety, Stress and Better Sleep Strategies” Workshop: 
The week of February 22nd we are excited to host an online sleep workshop with Dr. Phil Gehrman, who is a Professor from the University of Pennsylvania and also a Fellows at Oxford University. Dr. Gehrman is a leading expert in the field of sleep disorders and is also deeply committed Christian who enjoys living out faith in his academic work, in his research and teaching, and all that he does. During the session he will touch on the importance of sleep to our overall well-being, both physically, mentally and spiritually.

Dr. Gehrman has done this workshop for us in the past at Oxford University and we were really glad he was up for joining us again online this year. I have mentioned this before, but one of the things we are seeing in this season are opportunities for us to be able to have events online that we can do together as a National Student Ministry.We can see where there is great benefit in us collaborating. There is a deep sense that we are really all in this together and in light of some of the challenges we are facing because of Covid, that is really significant. We really believe that this workshop will be of great value to students, especially in light of the realities students are facing during Covid, so please pray students would come. And also pray that as  Dr. Gehrman shares about the importance of sleep to our overall well-being, mentally, physically and spiritually and shares part of his faith story, that it would evoke curiosity in the hearts of students to want to consider faith in Jesus. And finally, pray for myself and for Jonny, one of our interns, because we are giving leadership to this and pray that all the details we need to come together would work well.

Women’s Speak Out
You may remember that in the past we have run a photo campaign for International Women’s Day on March 8th called “Speak Out.” One of the things we have loved about this campaign is that it engages students in a creative way, it gives women a platform to share a message to other women on International Women’s Day, and it has given us an incredibly broad reach with students.  Well, in light of this theme of trying more things together, we will be running this as a joint online campaign this year with our different student teams. So please pray also for Speak Out that we would creatively think about how we can have a similar experience for students online as we have in the past when we were in person. The team that is working on this has some great ideas and I think it could be really good.

In the Fall, I was on a call and met a woman named Minister Madge Obaseki who has a podcast she started called “The Healthy Church Growth Podcast ” I had seen Madge on another call that I had been on in June and had wanted to meet her, so I was glad she and I finally connected. After we met, she asked me if I would consider recording an episode for her Podcast to talk about working with Students and Discipleship. She told me, “When I found out you have been doing student work for 24 years and in three different countries, I knew I wanted to have you on my podcast.” I feel really honored that she would invite me onto her podcast. If you would like to listen to the episode you can click on the link below. What I share is a testament to and the fruit of our partnership in the gospel, for which I am and always will be incredible grateful.

Love,
Nicole