In its first four years Touchpoint has reached 700 students and young people in five of Norway’s university cities and towns. Caroline Harmon caught up with Roy Elling back in May to find out more.
Roy Elling Foss is employed by the Missionary Federation to build Touchpoint Norway. Roy lives in Kristiansand, and leads Touchpoint Kristiansand and Touchpoint Norway.
Tell us a bit about your work?
Our mission is to reach people who are away from church and God and make them disciples of Christ. Our vision is to be in 10 towns in Norway, covering every bigger student town and some of the smaller ones. We also want to work in key areas where there are young people aged 18-30 who are working rather than studying. We started in Kristiansand and we’re now in five towns. It’s all student-led and we hope to launch in a fifth town in the autumn.
What has God being doing recently?
We have had this dream about seeing people saved every week. In Kristiansand alone, since January we've seen nine people saved and we’ve heard similar stories from other campuses. So we are now experiencing this on a weekly basis. I know it’s happening but I almost don’t believe it; it doesn’t feel normal but God is doing it!
One student brought two of his friends to church. They hadn’t been to church in their life and at their first meeting they said yes to Christ. He was totally blown away and now wants to serve in Touchpoint because it changes lives.
One girl came to her first ever church meeting; she was 19 at the time. God spoke to her immediately and she accepted Christ. Within a year she’d started Bible School and next year she will train to be a missionary. Just one meeting and – boom – her life changed. It’s amazing.
Another person who wasn't a Christian came along to help with the sound and lighting as he just loves that sort of thing. For almost a year his friends tried to evangelise him. He gave his life to Christ at a meeting I spoke at.
What advice would you offer to others looking to do similar work?
Don’t let money be an issue. We partner with a church in the US. Their building is too small to hold all of the people they have but they’ve said they won’t ever let a building stop them doing what they need to do. They will find ways to do their work. We heard this story and decided we wouldn’t let a lack of money stop us. We don’t have much money as students often have nothing to tithe with but we just make plans to do what we need to do. We have seen the Lord just bless us; people have given us money time and again. They’re not rich – they’re just normal families that want to bless what we do and we’re like ‘wow, that’s a month’s salary from someone.’
Let young people lead. We’re planning to start Escape and Pray in Norway and it will be led by a 23 year old. The old ones like me, we’re just standing behind them coaching them, but they are the leaders. We need to raise up new leaders and the only way to do it is to give them responsibility.
Get good people with the right heart and right focus. There aren’t that many people who are focused on students.
Looking beyond Norway, what are your dreams for Europe?
Having met with some of the Fusion Team we’re now planning a pilot of Escape and Pray here in Norway. Norwegians like to travel a lot so I think we will have lots of people who want to take part. We intend to work with other denominations and ministries. We hope that two or three years from now the whole of Europe will be covered by young people travelling and praying. I think it’s a great tool for raising up new missionaries to take what God is doing to Europe. We want to be a part of reaching young people for Christ all over Europe.
