In Depth:  UCCF

With over 2,000,000 students in this country, Christians with a passion for evangelism have to be a good thing. The Life Gospel Project last year fuelled a new enthusiasm among students for sharing the good news of Jesus with their peers - and the momentum is growing.

During the last term, three major regional student events have focused on the importance of evangelism. Each aimed to encourage students to live out their university and college years for Christ, sharing him with others with relevance, creativity and faithfulness to the gospel message. In Exeter, students from across the South West soaked up a day of evangelism training. This was followed by a practical session doing questionnaires in the city centre.

Eleven new CU Staff Workers joined UCCF this summer. They play a vital role in co-ordinating the support of Christian Unions, as well as encouraging, advising, teaching and training students. Please pray for them as they begin this new stage of ministry.

Naomi Pilgrem (London) comes from France, and chose to study at King's College, London, because she had heard of CUs, and wanted to be part of one. After a year on Relay she moves to the east end of London to support smaller CUs in postmodern and multicultural universities.

It's that time again: A level results are out and preparations for university have begun. For some that may mean searching through the Clearing places, and for others heading off to IKEA to buy kit for their room and imagining life in their chosen destination.

Thousands of parents and students-to-be are about to embark on a new life, the thought of which can generate a heady mix of excitement and apprehension. For Christians, there is the added spiritual dimension: 'Will my son survive as a Christian at uni?' 'Will the girl in my youth group find any Christian friends?' 'What will people on my corridor say when I tell them I'm a Christian?'.

While you might be kicking your heels waiting for your fortnight in the sun, most students are already two months into their summer break. The encouraging news is that many Christian students are giving weeks or months this summer to be part of what God is doing worldwide.

Serb and Croat, Israeli and Palestinian students were among the 2,000 who spent Easter morning sharing in communion, praising God, and celebrating salvation through Jesus Christ.

It felt like a small taster of heaven. There may not have been palm branches, but we were each given a daffodil, which we waved as we sang together 'Up from the grave he arose'. The sea of bright yellow, intermingled with national flags from Sweden to Spain, Germany to Georgia, demonstrated our unity in Jesus. Political, economic and social divides were put aside as our Lord was praised.

Evangelism was obviously top of the agenda of Christian Unions last term: over 50 mission weeks took place across the country, tens of thousands of copies of John's Gospel were given out, many students put their trust in Christ, and enquirer courses were well attended.

A month or so later, has evangelism slowed down? Have students done their bit, storing up their evangelistic zeal for next year's drive?

A string of lively bars, rooms to let by the hour, drug dealers and a distinct whiff of marijuana mark the entrance to the University of Costa Rica in San Jose. Known to locals as 'the street of desperation', it is also home to various strange philosophical groups and lesbian and gay societies. As we drive through the entrance to the university, our host explains that this street represents one of the big issues among students in this lush green country of Central America.

Fernando Montera, General Secretary of the Costa Rican CU movement, the Estudiantes Cristianos Uniodos (ECU), has brought us to his alma mater, where he also lectured for four years, to share some of the needs and encouragements from his involvement in the ECU. He explained about the desperation and hopelessness which characterise so many university students in Costa Rica: 'They feel hopeless, when they see a world that doesn't satisfy. They feel disorientated, because they are guided by a generation who themselves are disorientated. They are superficial, because they are not going deep into anything. They are individualistic, because they have no causes to follow. They are indifferent to everything, whether it be politics, religion, society or ecology, and put their energy into amusing themselves.' The result of this is seen in 'the street of desperation'.

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.

Paul, a student a Reading University, stood up at the CU house party to deliver a simple message: 'Talk to your friends about Jesus like Sam and Rosie did for me, and support this mission week. If it wasn't for last year's mission I wouldn't be a Christian.'

At UCCF we are so thankful to readers of EN for your prayers during the CU mission weeks last year. Paul and numerous others around the country put their trust in Christ last spring and we praise God for that. We thank God too for the students who have been converted throughout the year.

How's your personal evangelism going? - I'm not just asking if you've been leading on Christianity Explored course or even speaking at guest events. I'm wondering how we're all doing in making opportunities to explain the gospel to people, talking about Jesus with our work colleagues, or unbelieving family members, and finding ways of being a witness in the community in which we live?

I'm asking, not because I'm in a position to make such a challenge, but because I have been deeply challenged. And by a surprising group of people: students in Christian Unions.

Admin is like Marmite: you either love it or hate it. For me, when it comes to hot buttered toast, I can't resist adding a dollop of the brown sticky stuff, but for all things administrative I am more than happy to put them off until another day.

So, after a recent bout of filing, I was surprised to find myself feeling encouraged and full of thankfulness to God. For one, my desk now looked respectable beside the desk of the girl I share an office with (who barely allows a piece of paper to stay on her desk for two minutes). More significantly though, I created a file labelled 'EN' and, as I inserted cuttings of this column from the last 18 months, saw how God has been working.

Footballing twins, Beth and Naomi Cutting, know what it means to put their faith into action on the football pitch. Both were given the opportunity to play for Leeds, Middlesborough and York.

They are now members of the university football teams at Loughborough and East Anglia (UEA) respectively. They are also involved in Christians in Sport (CIS) where they have found invaluable Christian support, and a base from which to reach out to their non-Christian team-mates. 'We both know that God has given us this gift of football. He could easily take it away, and so we need to use it for his glory and we are seeking to do that.'

As UCCF gives thanks for 75 years of witness to Christ in the student world EN asked Dr. Oliver Barclay, a staff member of UCCF from 1945 and General Secretary 1964-1980, to reflect on his involvement with the Christian Union movement.

EB: What was your experience as a Christian student?

It's been a scorcher of a summer. As I write, temperatures are climbing towards a record 100 degrees. So as Britain basked in the hottest summer and students dispersed to go on mission teams, family holidays, or to earn some cash, what have I been up to? Did I stop work in the absence of any student activity on campus? Have I spent the summer months topping up my tan and perfecting my barbecuing techniques?

I may have been tempted to, but instead a sweltering office in Victoria has been my home. But I'm not complaining, because I was given the exciting task of working with a team of students and UCCF staff around the country to prepare three new projects for launch in September.

I recently went to see a friend's degree work at the Royal College of Art. Another student, George, joined us for coffee and proceeded to show me some examples of his work.

He describes his art as 'an exploration of the "self" that constructs and deconstructs the notions of gender, sexuality and identity'. It was shocking, to say the least; certainly not suitable for publication in Evangelicals Now. I discovered that George was brought up a Catholic in New Delhi, India, but absorbed Hindu and Buddhist philosophies through family ties. He now feels 'filled with a complex, multi-cultural trinity of deities, icons and beliefs criss-crossed inside.'

If you want a long history of Christian work at university, and a wide variety of local churches to choose from, then Queen's campus in Stockton is not the place to go.

However, in the last five years the Christian Union has grown from non-existence to one of the fastest growing groups in the country. Their aim is simple: to proclaim the gospel to as many students as possible. God has honoured their work and people are sitting up and taking notice; not just their fellow students, but other CUs in the North East too.

I'm sure you've been there. You're trying to explain the gospel to someone, but they just aren't hearing you. They're listening to the words, but you've some huge hurdles to get through before they'll really hear, let alone respond. Christian students in Wales face this problem every day. The fact is, they are speaking the wrong language. No matter how well they present their message, or how appealing an event they put on, if it's in English, many Welsh-speakers will have closed ears.

It was back in the 1970s, when Welsh national pride was first on the rise that the Christian Unions realised they needed to start sharing the gospel in Welsh, if they were to reach the Welsh-speaking community. As the Christian students prayed for opportunities and began to present Christ in the Welsh language, they saw large numbers converted.

'My name is Kathy. I'm from China, and I'm wanting to find out about God.' What an introduction! As we began to chat, after a lunch bar event at Leicester University, I saw she was like so many international students in the UK. Kathy hadn't been to a Christian meeting before, or even seen a Bible. However, she was curious to know about the nature of God, and fascinated by the person of Jesus.

In London alone there are a quarter of a million international students. Higher Education is bringing the 'nations' to our doorstep, so we can think globally, yet act locally. At an international evening in the Midlands, the Christian Union welcomed students from literally around the globe. From Brazil to Malaysia, Albania to China, Kazakhstan to the Maldives, Japan to Cyprus, they enjoyed food and friendship, as well as hearing something of Jesus. Many churches and CUs are committed to such work, yet 80% of international students in the UK return to their countries without ever having made a British friend, let alone one who is a Christian.