Across the UK we are seeing story after story of students walking through doors of church and coming to know Jesus. We are seeing young people dreaming dreams and being led to pick up the bible and believe, but we are also seeing the immense power of invitation. One story I would love to share with you is from a church cinema club in Newcastle.
One student had the courage to invite their friend to his church's brand new cinema club. This was a friend who hadn't been to church before and the cinema club appealed to him. As he went, and continued to come in over the following weeks, he began to make some friends and started to feel part of the community. So much so that he started moving beyond the cinema club and began coming to Sunday gatherings and the Tuesday student night. He felt led to lean in deeper and asked for a Bible.
A few weeks passed and he continues to read his new bible but had still not fully met Jesus. Soon Easter weekend came around, and this year Easter Sunday fell on the 20th of the 4th (420 to his friends), which was a day when previously he would go to the beach to smoke weed with his friends. But instead he woke up in the night, having had a dream where he decided he needed to go to church that morning instead.
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A few weeks later, having been attending church regularly, he invited one of his friends to come along to a Tuesday student night. The same confidence and compassion that his friend had to invite him was now multiplying. At that student night the group decided that it would be a great idea to shave someone's head. As you can see it did not go well!
However, his friend who was present that week happened to work part-time as a barber and so was present to fix the mess. The Lord provides in mysterious ways... This new barber friend began to come to Sunday gatherings and he also in time got himself a Bible too.
All this year, we have seen students across the nation invite their friends, non-Christian family, and people they know to try church in all its different forms. This story is yet another amazing example of the power of invitation!
Do you know any students who are hungry for the word of God? Did you know that we are sending out free Bibles to students keen to explore the Bible and faith for themselves?
