A roasting hot, sweaty, packed room full of freshers normally means one thing. Freshers fair. Today 6 church leaders from different churches around York joined forces to run Student Linkup stand at York St John’s freshers fair to help students find churches.

Our prayer at the beginning of the day was that the stand would be a place of peace and that we would have brilliant God encounters. We set up the stand bright and early in the morning and were right in the middle of stands advertising gyms, driving schools, loads of sports and societies and the legendary Domino’s pizza. 

We didn’t really know what to expect but we were excited to see what God would do. What we didn't expect was the sheer amount of freshers that we chatted to that needed help in finding a church community for them. We had story after story of students travelling to York and on the look out for community and church but struggling. We were able to chat to Christian freshers friends about faith, linked up students who weren’t Christians but wanted to find out more about church community and encourage those who were finding the start of uni a bit of a whirlwind. 

It has been such an exciting day. We are tired but full of joy and hope for all of those freshers who are starting their university adventure pursuing God and being supported by the best community possible: the church.