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 PrintableVersion Monthly column on student workHighs and lows in SpainTucked away in a quiet street away from the bustle of Salamanca's 'Plaza Mayor' I'm soaking up the remnants of the day. The sunlight is still catching the intricate engravings on the sandstone university buildings that have welcomed students for over eight centuries. As much as my enthusiasm for the tourist attractions and academic prowess of this spectacular city could quite easily fill this space, my reason for writing about Salamanca is quite different: I've travelled to Spain to be part of an evangelistic outreach to the thousands of foreign language students that throng to Salamanca each summer. Earlier this year I heard Lindsay Brown of IFES say that in the worldwide student mission field, it is Western Europe that most needs workers. So, as our team of students and UCCF workers left from London last week, I noted the main purpose of our trip as responding to that need. In the space of six days a far wider vision has been revealed. Seeing God work in the lives of individual students on the team has been evidence to the fact that the business of sharing Christ with others can have a transforming effect on the evangelist as well as the evangelised. Each day team members have testified to God working in their life - teaching, challenging and encouraging them as they looked to tell others about Christ. Naomi, who is currently President of King's College CU said: 'The emphasis on God's grace has been great over the past week: grace that saves us, that chooses to use us, that sheds light into the sinner's soul.' Re-turning from a morning of street evangelism, she told the group: 'I was given the privilege of seeing God's grace in action! As I chatted with an American guy, Charlie, I saw how God gradually opened doors which had been closed, providing me with the right words, and pouring his joy and love into my heart so that Charlie couldn't help but be infected by that joy he saw in me.' She challenged the group: 'Let's pray that God's grace will continue to pursue Charlie, and we will continue to be graced with a sense of love and joy from Christ.' Catholic blindfoldThe 'highs' have been plenteous, but these can easily be overshadowed by the discouragements that may even raise questions as to the usefulness of the work. For us, we have been constantly up against the blindness of Catholicism, the suspicion of evangelicals, and preference of many for a personal 'religion'. Great conversations there have been (which, like the travel piece on Salamanca, will have to be filed for another time), but long hours have passed where rebuttals and hardened hearts have dominated. Toyin Sulaiman, is studying medicine at Guy's Hospital in London. After a particularly tough conversation with two German students her enthusiasm was somewhat dampened: 'I couldn't get past the feeling that people were completely dazed towards hearing the gospel and I couldn't do anything about it. People weren't even willing to stop or take a leaflet from me. I was really frustrated and downhearted.' Keen for her not to lose heart for evangelism, I suggested we pray that God would open up an opportunity for us before lunch; and that we would still persevere, even if doors continued to be slammed in our face. Toyin was as amazed as I was when: 'Literally as soon as we stood up from praying, a couple of young people came along and were willing to chat and fill in a questionnaire. I spent almost an hour and a half talking to them about Jesus and the gospel message. I was able to share my testimony and watch their attitudes change and become more open.' Time and again the team has been driven to a greater dependence on God and we've been privileged to see some dramatic results. In Toyin's words: 'God's quick response to our prayers was overwhelming. It is so encouraging to know that even when we are totally weak, when we depend on God he is always faithful.' As Naomi, Toyin, and many other Christian students return from summer teams to the mission fields of their university and college campuses, please will you pray that God will continue to use these experiences to grow their faith and deepen their knowledge and love for Christ and his gospel, that they won't go home with the sights of Salamanca at the forefront of their minds, but what God did in and through them as they shared him with others. Emma Carswell
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