Nurturing a team constist of Bible study, prayer, sharing, planning, training, and doing the task.

Bible study

Bible Study together gives vision for the work. It encourages our growth in Christ as His disciples, and increases our commitment to the work, helping us with our own priorities.

Prayer

We need to spend time in prayer as individuals - for ourselves, as well as for our international friends. Pray also as a team. Team prayer is a time to pray for each other, for the work, and for our international friends. Be faithful over the years in praying for them. The whole group can pray for new contacts, for specific countries, for international friends, and for your international outreach team. Prayer in our churches, during worship.

Do you find it difficult to pray or to know what to pray for?

A Christian international student could share in the large group meeting or at church about his country, what Christians there are doing, and give specific requests for prayer.

UCCF and FI produce a termly prayer diary for IS around the UK called International student prayer diary (ISPD).

IFES has regular prayer updates from around the world, use this to help you pray for different nations.

Operation World is a comprehensive guide to the world, enabling you to pray informatively about every country contact.

Hold a round the world prayer night at CU, make it fun by bringing along food from other countries or maybe having some national dress displayed. Then, using these prayer tools, pray around the world.

Sharing

We need to be open with one another in the team about our lives, needs, joys, frustrations and experiences. Take time to share experiences of how your friendships with internationals are going. Learn to learn from one another and care for each other. It's important to grow in love together (John 13:35).

Planning

Have a year strategy. Try to plan a year at a time. By doing this you can make sure that your café lives up to its aims and objectives. Make the most of festivals in the year, enjoy participating in them, explaining to IS why we have festivals and if possible see them as opportunities to share the gospel.

Training

Team members and other group members need help in how to have a biblical base for international student work. Build bridges to people of other faiths, initiate and build a real friendship with one or two internationals, know what to say in conversation, overcome language difficulties, be culturally sensitive, share Christ in a way that's clear and understandable, lead evangelistic Bible studies with internationals, disciple new believers, prepare internationals to return home, get ideas for international student events, weekends, outings, conferences, meetings, share a vision for the work with churches.

Some practical ideas for training your team……

Weekly training Plan a training schedule for 45 minutes a week, either during a lunch break or before the café. Find a local UCCF or FI worker or someone within a local church to train you. Here are some ideas; What is culture? How to Lead Evangelistic Bible studies, What is the Gospel? Sharing your testimony, What is a Worldview?  Sin / Salvation in Different Religions, Suffering in Christianity and Different Religions, Understanding Islam, Understanding Buddhism, The Eastern Mindset.  These meetings are also good for prayer, planning and preparing for the week ahead.

Houseparties – Use the seminar part of the houseparty to train the whole CU in reaching out effectively to IS.

Summer teams are a brilliant opportunity to get trained yourself and to be involved in outreach to IS for two-four weeks. They teach you lots of skills that you can take home to your CU café. Many cities including Cambridge, Bournemouth, London and Oxford host an International student outreach.

What happens on a summer team? International Student Outreach will take place primarily through evening International Cafes, where there will be the opportunity for one-to-one conversations, Bible studies and even some drama. As part of a summer mission team, you could be offering international students friendship, opportunities for English language practice and the chance to talk about the living God ... having had some careful cross-cultural training yourself. You will almost certainly receive more than you give - though it will be hard work too.

I would suggest getting rid of exclamation marks – it’s not usual to have them in printed documents, unless they are in reported speech….

Being on Bournemouth International outreach has been really useful, I have so many ideas to take back to my CU now!"
Marlene, Edinburgh University

How do I get information about a summer team?Let your staff worker know that you're interested and check back on this website each February for details of which will be running.

The Task: This last element of team growth is the real part of the ministry together. The work the Lord has entrusted to us as His faithful servants. This, of course, is why we're a team.