“I had a dream...”
This isn’t my attempt at a Martin Luther King Jr speech, it’s the start of how Serving Score, a uni club outreach night was born.
During my first two years of university, I wasn’t Christian and the only things I worshipped was football and Score, the uni’s sports night out. Whilst on placement in third year, I had a radical encounter with the Holy Spirit and my life was totally flipped upside down. I came back to Bath for my final year and though I had stopped playing football, I stayed in contact with the team and on the odd occasion, made an appearance at Score. Though I was no longer an avid Score-goer, I still absolutely loved it and had a huge passion for the people going.
I decided to stick around in Bath after graduating and dedicate some time to the church as a student intern.
The week before Freshers, I had a dream.
It was an incredibly vivid dream of myself outside Score, with a trolley full of supplies, handing them out to people. I had never experienced any nightclub outreach and so didn’t really know how it worked or where to start with the dream. After a few days, I couldn’t stop thinking about it and so took it to the guy who oversees the student ministry at church. I’m not sure what I was expecting, maybe at least a few weeks of planning, but I certainly wasn’t anticipating what immediately followed. The church totally released me into seeing this happen, there and then, backed with prayer, support, wisdom and finances.
The next week, I gathered together a few friends, packed my car full of water, biscuits, lollies, crisps and ‘Why Jesus?’ booklets and went to Score.
A small group of friends soon multiplied into a team of up to 15, and relationships with both students and door staff soon formed. Now we’re there every week, spending time together in prayer, worship, sharing stories and encouraging one another before going out and serving Score. Interactions vary from simply handing out the supplies, to helping people get home, being there for people to talk to, answering questions, praying for people and sharing the good news.
A huge amount of fruit has been seen by continuing to be a presence there each week.
We’ve seen people consider whether God is who he says he is, pray for the first time, come to Alpha and visit church. Whilst all of this is really cool, one of my favourite things to witness has been the growth in the team. Students who may never have spoken about their faith with friends or shared the gospel are stepping out of their comfort zone and totally relying on Jesus to love and share just like He did.
One of my biggest worries before the first week was “what if it doesn’t work?” I think the biggest lesson I’ve learnt throughout this is that if you’re going into this kind of thing simply wanting to serve God and His people, there is very little that can go wrong.
I’d encourage anyone to just go, and watch what God can do with a few bourbons and a handful of willing servants.
Jodie Lintern is the student intern at Bath and Avon Vineyard, she studied Sport & Exercise Science at Bath uni and can now do the shop for “Serve Score” in under 15 minutes without a shopping list.
