The Third Degree

For many UCCF Christian Unions (CUs) around the country, February means missions.

Missions are incredibly exciting times for Christian students, as they execute a week of intensive evangelism on their campuses. This activity often takes the shape of daily lunch bars with apologetic talks, musical or film evenings with discussion, events aimed at faculty groups, individual halls or international students, academic lectures, sporting events, and more. There’s a huge amount of time, effort, and finance in these weeks; from the students themselves, from UCCF staff, from supporters, and from missioners who come from the outside to assist the CU for the week.

Gruelling

Whether it’s preparing food or preparing accounts, giving a talk or giving away a gospel, every member of the CU is called on; and often local churches are generous enough to offer their time and money to the project too. Any missioner, or indeed any student who has been involved with missions, will tell of how the week is invariably a gruelling one. Early mornings, long days, and late nights invariably mark missions. Five days on this kind of timetable is not for the fainthearted, and the outlay in terms of finance and time is considerable. In fact, some will no doubt want to know if all the fuss can really be worthwhile. Can 90+ missions of this intensity and cost really be justified every year by UCCF CUs?

The answer comes in some of the stories from missions that have gone on so far. At a jazz night, a UCCF staff worker met ‘L’ and got into a deep discussion about sin, but they were then interrupted by two other non-Christians, who seemed to take the conversation in a different direction. But when one of the newcomers said that he didn’t believe in religion but in himself, L laughed. After some debate the newcomers teased L that she may as well become a Christian. L fell silent and stayed for the whole evening, resulting in further conversation and a commitment to attend a seeker course.

Bringing friends

In Cambridge, one girl, who became a Christian through a seeker course in her college last term, was especially courageous in bringing her friends along to the mission week events.

While queuing, one staff worker heard rude and hostile comments about the CU posters advertising events. Yet by the end of the week, one of the students who had seemed most hostile was sitting down with a group of Christians, asking questions, and expressing interest in the answers that Christianity had to offer.

In London, one CU member was asked by a friend, ‘H’, to teach the Bible to him. Aware that his friend had been reading through the gospels over the Christmas break, he was surprised to find H close to accepting Christ. The next day, the two met up again and he was even more surprised when H gave him a 90-second summary of the gospel that could have come from a preacher.

Prayer needed

Praise God for the fruit that is already being harvested from the efforts of missions. Please pray with us that these new Christians will continue to grow and put down deep roots into Christ. Pray also for Christian students as they plan follow-up courses, come alongside new converts, and guide them towards local churches. CUs need your prayers as they do this exciting work.

For more information on the activities of CUs in your area, email Jema Ball in the office, jmb@uccf.org.uk.

February missions

Gruelling

Bringing friends

Prayer needed

Daniel Hames, UCCF

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