Miriam Swaffield’s on a road trip. She’s visiting every university location in the UK in a camper van.
I’m sat in a coffee shop by the River Tyne in Newcastle. This is the 44th uni location I’ve visited in Benedict the camper van. Only 25 more stops to go and I can’t believe how far we’ve come.
In just over a year we have seen the local churches of the nation catch the vision for student mission, flag down the VW and get on board with the road trip. People are wanting to be part of this crazy, prayer-fuelled story of connecting up the student church of the UK and seeing us together as a family, go invite our universities to know more of Jesus.
In Scotland, we visited nine uni locations in nine days straight… let me tell you, driving to Aberdeen in a 40 year old VW and not having a single break-down is nothing short of miraculous! We actually did the biggest club outreach I’d ever done on Halloween in Aberdeen with City Church. There were literally thousands of fake-blood-covered students on the streets and the local church was right there in the thick of it. Many of the churches’ students had never done that before. Awesome courage.
In Worcester we invited freshers on campus to church and the cocktail party that happened afterwards. In Birmingham we threw a party for the private halls of residence just down the road from the local church and saw some students come to church for the first time from the relationships that were formed. In Coventry, the church hosted a mini student mission conference then we went praying for people on the streets, exercising our boldness in sharing our faith. In Manchester, five local churches gathered together to worship, pray for their city and be equipped for student mission… stunning unity!
The van may have no working heating, the windscreen wipers may be appalling in bad conditions, and it is still a faith goal to make it all the way to Falmouth, but I cannot deny how encouraging it has been to serve so many different expressions of local church in loving students. I’ve met students who have got saved just because they became friends with Christians. I have met others who only found church because Jesus-followers left the building and took to the dance floors and sports teams. I believe we’ve still barely scraped the surface when it comes to seeing a move of God amongst students. We know this mission is still a big one, an impossible one without Jesus but, therefore, exactly the mission I want to be part of. See you on the road.
Join the Road Trip
1. Pray. Check out our prayer updates on Twitter (@loveyouruni) and Facebook (facebook.com/loveyouruni)
2. Join us. Check out our itinery or book Miriam to come to your town or city: www.fusion.uk.com/roadtrip
3. Fuel the Mission. No petrol, no road trip. Donate a couple of quid a month: www.fusion.uk.com/roadtrip
This article is taken from our new edition of Fuse Magazine; for more content like this order a copy of Fuse here.
