The Third Degree

Students are not lacking in imagination. Take a recent CU house party. What would you do with the leftover food from your church weekend away? Distribute it throughout the church? Donate it to a local hostel? Freeze it for the next weekend away? Not these students. Following the example of Aberdeen CU, Durham decided to auction off everything that was unused, with proceeds going to their forthcoming 'life' mission.

Ranging from bread to pasta, a signed copy of The Blurb (signed by the CU's vendor) to A Call to Spiritual Reformation by Don Carson, the items were put up for auction. With the treasurer looking on eagerly, the bidding got underway.

The two auctioneers, Mike and Jonathan, cautiously started with 100 teabags for £2 - they were sold a few bids later for £20. Next up was a birthday card from ... Billy Graham! Not the American evangelist, but a first-year student with the same name. Lot 2 was sold to Jean Ross for £35. It would have been good to have seen her mum's face when she opened it on her birthday just after the house party! Stockton CU, who joined Durham CU for the weekend, were not to be outdone - Exec member Rob even outbid himself to buy a box of crisps for a tenner.

Lewis Green, viewed by some as 'the most eligible bachelor in Durham CU', offered himself and a meal for two at Durham's elegant restaurant Brown Sugar. Unfortunately for Lewis, the ladies were a little slow to bid, eventually being sold to lunch bar co-ordinator, Stuart Farrell. The bid of the day, though, must have been for the game of Twister accompanied by a personal first-aid kit, which sold for a crazy £80. Mike and Jonathan, who jokingly teased the punters to raise the stakes 'for the sake of the gospel', said they were staggered at the total amount raised. Once all the money was gathered in and counted, it was an incredible £737.25.

Who'd have thought that Christian Unions would be a good training ground for a career at Christie's?

For news of other imaginative ideas and stories from university and college missions this term, please contact Alan Hewerdine (email agh@uccf.org.uk, tel. 0116 204 7691) and ask for the 'news on life update', or view it at www.uccf.org.uk/news.

Sold out for Christ

Emma Balch