Hungry for pizza or God?
Freshers poured into a tent that definitely wasn’t big enough for the vast volume of them. Endlessly they came, shuffling around stall to stall to squeeze every freebie they could out of this freshers fair. There were thousands, and the conversations I’d had in the first hour of the fair hadn’t been all that fruitful - no one seemed to want to chat about Jesus, or chat about anything really - they just wanted free stuff. I knew that there’d be some here though who were hungry, in Birmingham on that day, shuffling through that tent with thousands of other 18 year olds - some who were hungry to ask deep spiritual questions, hungry to read the Bible, hungry to try church. Most of these freshers just seemed hungry for Dominoes Pizza.
I stood there, a banner saying “Will you try church at Uni?” behind me - praying that God would send the right people to me. I knew that the student generation was more spiritually open than ever, but it didn’t seem that way in Birmingham so far.
Then something shifted.
I started to have more interesting conversations. Students started to ask me questions about church, about religion and faith. I was doing the Student Worldview survey with people, and when asked if they wanted a Bible for free - they kept saying yes! I lost track of how many Bibles were gifted.
One Chinese student came over and answered the survey questions. When asked if he wanted a free Bible - he said yes but someone had already given him one the day before. That Bible was in English though, and he said he’d like a Mandarin copy too! He said his grandmother believed in Jesus and he’d like to understand more - and wanted to hear about the story of Jesus.
Another student came up to me and started asking questions about Christianity. She said she’d only really been interested in Christianity for two weeks but was now fascinated by church, by the Bible and by prayer. She’d read maybe a chapter of Genesis but had found it difficult. I explained that maybe the gospels were the best place to start as they were about Jesus, and maybe she could start there with the new physical Bible being sent to her. She also wanted to hear the story of Jesus, and was nodding along to what I told her - processing it all. I told her about the Student Linkup app so she could try out a few churches in Birmingham. Then we chatted about prayer. She said she wanted to pray but didn’t know where to start. I said it’s just like a conversation - that she could just chat to God, that she could ask him to help her understand the Bible she was reading. She seemed to take it in, but looked unsure. She was nervous about how little she knew, nervous about not being accepted in church. I felt the prompting of the Spirit to ask if I could pray with her there and then. She agreed and I prayed, by my little stand in the freshers fair with thousands of students noisily filing past to get their freebies. I’m still praying that as she searches and reads her Bible, that God would show himself to her, and that whatever church she walks into will welcome her - that she’ll find her ultimate hope in Jesus and a home in the local church for her time at Uni.
God was already working in this girl’s heart, long before she met me - and he was working in the hearts of all the other people I talked to, all the others who said yes to a Bible. It’s amazing to think what will happen as they start to read. All I had to do was show up, and pray that God would lead the right people to me, knowing he was already working.
How could you show up in your town or city, and make yourself available to have conversations with people who are already seeking God - the people he is already drawing to himself? God is at work among the student generation, how can we play our part?
