The Third Degree

I went to talk to Josh who was a student at Loughborough University and is now a UCCF Relay worker there. I wanted to find out a bit more about the Relay programme from a Relay worker’s point of view.

CP: What is Relay?

Josh: Relay is a year of discipleship training in a student context. There’s a lot of training, input from Staff Workers and others involved in UCCF. It involves a lot of study, but also you get to learn by doing and you get chucked in at the deep end. At the same time you’re really supported as well, there’s great teaching and it’s a lot of fun.

CP: What made you decide to do Relay?

Josh: I was quite heavily involved with the CU while at Loughborough. I was on the committee and I really appreciated and enjoyed what the CU did. I felt it was really vital and saw a lot of fruit from it.

I was trying to think about what to do next and I was considering doing full-time Christian work. I thought that as Relay is only a year long it would be a good way to find out if that was something that I wanted and that God wanted me to do. I was confident that it would be helpful in whatever I ended up doing.

CP: How have you seen God’s provision this year?

Josh: There are many, many ways. Money is the obvious one. Initially there was a time when I was worried about money just before starting and I wasn’t sure how I was going to eat, but loads of people were cooking for me which was great and then money started coming in. It’s been challenging to not see money as my own but think about using it in ways that glorify God.

I have also seen God’s provision when I’ve been asked to do things that I haven’t done before. God provides what is needed to do what he wants me to do. This is clear in doing Bible studies, talks and those types of things.

CP: What has been the biggest challenge for you so far?

Josh: Relying on grace. It’s very liberating as you think more about how God loves you so completely that what you’re doing doesn’t change God’s view of you so you just do the best you can and know that God will handle the rest. It’s a real challenge, doing something like this where what you’re doing as a Christian is slightly more visible than if you were a Christian in the workplace, not doing things to impress people, but wanting things to go well so that God will get the glory and so that people get to know him better.

CP: What has been the biggest highlight?

Josh: Freshers’ week; seeing everyone’s passion to give people Gospels, get to know freshers and their enthusiasm for reaching freshers who weren’t Christians. I guess a highlight has been discovering how much more powerful the Bible was than I thought and how accessibly powerful it is. You don’t need to be really clever you just need to spend time looking at it.

Another highlight is that, when talking to people who aren’t Christians, the conversation very easily and naturally turns to Christianity when you explain to people what you’re doing.

CP: What would you say to people who are thinking about doing Relay?

Josh: Keep thinking about it, talk to someone who has done Relay, talk to your Staff Worker and apply. If you apply, you’re not obliged to do it, so you can keep thinking about doing it. The next round of applications is in February.

Looking at those on the receiving end of the Relay ministry, I also spoke to Pete, who is studying sport science and is the president of Loughborough CU.

CP: What effect has having a Relay worker had on the mission of the CU?

Pete: It basically means that we’re able to do more, it increases our capacity. He’s been trying to do a regular slot of first contact with a small group of people and without him we wouldn’t have time to do that.

He frees up other people and enables us to do more on campus. I think that he has helped people to get involved that otherwise might not be, he’s really proactive in chatting to people about their friends, asking people if they have managed to invite others along to events and encouraging them with the gospel.

To find out more about the Relay programme visit http://www.uccf.org.uk/relay/

Charlotte Petra

© Evangelicals Now - January 2010
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