One morning, during the Bristol Uni freshers week, I found myself praying for international students. I didn’t really know what to pray for but I felt led to ask God that international students would find church communities and settle well into university life. While this was happening, a random bakery came to mind that was in the main ‘student area’ of Bristol. I thought this might be a prompt from the Spirit so decided to work there that morning and see what might happen.
I spent the morning in the bakery but nothing special seemed to be happening so I decided to move on. While I was leaving, a number of international students walked in. I thought I could at least ask them to do the Fusion Worldview Survey on my way out. They were happy to answer the questions and told me they had just moved to Bristol three days ago from China.
One student asked me if I was a Christian (probably because the last few questions in the survey are about Jesus/church/prayer). I said yes and she told me that she was raised Buddhist but a teacher from her school had told her all about Jesus. Since then, she has always wanted to know more but didn’t know how to find a church or meet a Christian in the UK. I asked if she would want to come to church on Sunday to find out more about Jesus and she said, ‘Yes, definitely!’.
She came to church and said ‘it was more than I could have imagined’. She felt peace in the worship, and when she was prayed for. She left with her own Bible and said that she couldn’t wait to come back again.
There are so many students who want to have the opportunity to meet Jesus but don’t know where to begin. We, the local church, can invite them to come on that journey. What does that look like for you today? Can you be trained in how to use the Fusion Survey or even start praying regularly for students in your area? Why not get in touch with us and see how you can play your part in reaching students.
