Hi There! I’m Dave Cornes. I’m 20 years old and I’m currently at Moorlands College studying for a BA(Hons) in Applied Theology.

Although you may not see me each Sunday, I attend New Church whenever I am back in Suffolk!

I hope this page will give you a bit of an overview about me and what I’ve been doing since September 09!

Moorlands College is a Theology college in Sopley, Dorset (very close to Bournemouth) and they offer courses in Applied Theology with various specialisations such as; Youth and Community work, Children and Family, and Cross Cultural Mission.

My Course is the BA(Hons) in Applied theology and although I’ve chosen not to enrol on a specialised course, my modules are very heavily geared towards Church leadership and include; Church Leadership (Duh!), Pastoral Care and Effective Preaching and Communication. I’ll be here at Moorlands for a further two years!

If you’d like to suppose me whilst I’m at Moorlands I’m always looking for new sponsors. Sponsorship not only helps with tuition fees, housing costs and general day to day living, but is always useful when it comes to buying new books to help with my studies!

To sponsor me, you could contact any of the Elders at New Church, or download a Stewardship form here.

Term one

With only having attended an interview the week before term one began at Moorlands, I arrived not really knowing what I’d be doing. But lukcily the first week was designed to settle us into college life and to inform us about the year to come.

This term really was one of the best. I’m in a year group of around 38 people which can number around 50 on tuesdays which is when the placement based students attend for some of their lectures. As a year group we get on really well and there are alot of strong relationships and friendship groups in the year, I myself settled in with a great group of people, who will hopefully be dropping into suffolk as I go through the degree. 

This term however was also the most intensive in terms of lectures per week. We where studying; New Testament, Communication, Preaching, Mission Today, Church and Community, New Testament Greek, Hermaneutics, and Doctrine. Each of these modules came with its own assignment of in some cases two or three.

Towards the end of this Term I became quite ill with various stomach infections and gastritus (which I still have now), this however is where God really blessed with with the knowledge that I had some great friends here, who collected handouts from lectures I had missed and popped in to see my throughout the day. He blessed me with great doctors who arranged appointments I could make easily and gave perscriptions for larger quantities of drugs so I had to pay for them less often. God was good!

One of the highlights of this term was the Christmas holiday, in which I was able to attend the New Church for the first time, having left for Moorlands a week before it was founded! I was able to spend Christmas day with the Millard and New Years with my friends, I had a great holiday but was ready to get back to Moorlands by the end of it!

Term Two

It was great to return for the second term, which from the outset seemed to be the longest. During this term the second and third years left for 5 weeks to fufill a block placement away from college and this changed the dynamics of the place a lot. We suddenly found that alot of our time was spent in the more ‘social’ rooms and that we wrote our assignments in the TV loung with repeats of Sky News on. Moorlands really is a bubble so the News was a great way to hear about the outside world!

Our lectures and their assingments increased in difficulty during this term also! Whilst we continued to study Mission Today, church history, Communication and New Testament Greek, we took on; Old Testament, Dynamics of Dicipleship, Dynamics of inter-personal relationships, Church History, World Religions and Cults. It was also our turn to preach to our classmates instead of reading about good ways to preach! Dispite the extra lectures we had more free sessions in the morning espcially which where great for lieins! Though they where prehaps intended for studying!!

During this term the module ‘Baptist Principles and History’ became avalible to students within the college and after talking with Sudburys own Nigel Ford and praying about it I decided to enrol on this extra module. – a great decicison it has been!

My tutor group began to plan for the Mission trip which was set for the third term and we seemed to become a closer knitt group during this time also! Tutor groups are small groups headed by a member of staff which blend all four year groups together, so they are really diverse times of the week, where you speak to and learn from people you wouldnt neccissarily choose to. These groups are a real blessing as they offer you with a place to relax and have fun, whilst being able to seek prayer and support from people who are more experienced than you! An essential tool for any first year here at Moorlands!

Despite being a little homesick at the beginning of the Second term, it was a real shame to leave Moorlands for the April holidays, but they passed as all holidays do; too quickly!

I spent two weeks of my holiday with my parents in Germany and returned to Chris and Lou Ryalls for the second two weeks of the holiday. Chris and Lou have been yet another blessing to me and a real gift from God. Without their support and their spare room, there is no doubt that my holidays would have been far more stressful and far less enjoyable! Thank you Chris and Lou!!

Term Three

Well term three isn’t over yet. But it has been by far the fastest of them! I’m not sure where all the time so far has gone. It’s only a week untill we embark as a Tutor group on our yearly Mission and only six weeks untill I return to Suffolk and you folks at New Church for the summer!

So far this term, there have been bonfires, trips to Northhampton, Free Mac Book Pro’s, a Crazy amount of pranks and generally some really great times! The college is now reunited with the second and third years having returned from their block placements and we have really come into our own!

In terms one and two I found out that I was dyslexic and in this term it has really paid off! I’ve been given a whole load of new equiptment to help me with my studies including a brand new Mac Book Pro! God is definately good!!! (He’d have been just as good if it was a PC!)

Heres some more practical stuff for you! I need prayers! Lots of it!

I still have alot of health issues. My gastritus is back after giving me a little break and it seems to be worse than ever. I’m on some stronger medication but it works speradically at best! So please pray that my health will improve dramatically over the remainder of this term.

Please pray for myself and my Tutor group as we head to southhampton to help run a Children’s holiday club there in a weeks time.

Please pray for my finances; that God will continue to bless them and provide for them as he has done in the past.

Please pray for the house I’ll be moving into next year, and for the four guys I’ll be moving in with (James, James, Dan and Dave).

Please pray that I’ll be able to find a Job over the summer to help support me next year and throughout the holiday.

A please pray for the remainder of this term and the college community as we say goodbye to the third years and go our seperate ways for the Holidays.

Thanks for reading this far!

Every Blessing!

Dave Cornes

Psalm 128

Visit my personal site to find out more at www.cornes.info, you can read my current and past assignments here too!