Ten8: What Is Happening Up North?

Last week myself and Quincy from Kings Church Oxted flew up north for a conference called Ten8. What is Ten8 I hear you ask? Well Ten8 is a conference where all the students in Edinburgh from a bunch of churches come together and serve together. Your next question might be…why is it called Ten8? The name comes from Matthew10:8

“Freely you have received so freely give”

And that’s what the week was about. We have freely received Gods love so lets freely give it. I had the massive privilege of helping leading the ‘Go Team’ where we went onto the streets of Edinburgh and just loved the city.

Before we went out all the teams together worshipped God and had some teaching from the Bible. The focus of the teaching was about unity. The part that stood out for me was about although churches have different flavours and styles we all worship the same God and the same Jesus so we should celebrate with other churches when they are going through great seasons with God. After that we got in our teams and went our ways. The Go Team hung back as Quincy, myself and a couple of others lead the team through teaching on street ministry and equipping them so they can continue to a Go Team outside of Ten8. Whether that be with just having conversations, random acts of kindness, treasure hunting or even telling the Gospel in 90 seconds.

I had some amazing encounters on the streets including with a homeless man called Glenn. Glenn was on the streets since September last year. I met him on the Monday and got to hear his story and if I am honest didn’t think I would meet him again. Then on the final day, I bumped into Glenn. I brought him a coffee to warm him up (it was rather cold that day) and asked him how his week was. This ultimately led to me telling him the gospel in 90 seconds. It’s amazing what God can and will do when we have no agenda just love.

Another story was with a lady called Helli. Helli was trying to get me and my partner Laura to sign up to TalkTalk. I had a sense from God that she had injured her arm, and so I went for it. I asked Helli if she had damaged her arm and she said yes. I explained what I felt God was saying to me, which ultimately led to me praying for her and seeing her get better! Praise God!

I was able to have conversations with the homeless about if prayer really works and with students about why I believe what I believe. I got to have fun with a charity team laughing about pretty much everything and anything. I got to really listen to thick Scottish accents as well as Northern Irish accents. I got to make loads of new friends too! What a week it was!