Mission Sunday - UCCF
Sunday 19th February was our Mission Sunday. The service was led by Pastor Julie and the speaker was Eva who has attended our Church regularly for many years.
Eva spoke about the work of UCCF, who she worked with as a relay worker in York last year.
UCCF is the Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship (UCCF) and is a Registered Charity number 306137 (England & Wales) and SC038499 (Scotland).
Christian Unions are mission teams that operate at the heart of university and college campuses. They are led by students, resourced by Christian Union Staff Workers and supported by the local church. Together, we are reaching students for Jesus.
Christian Union Staff Workers are paid to look after a geographical area and are supported by volunteer relay workers (usually one per University or City). Relay workers have to raise funds to support themselves during the year and Eva was financially supported by her family, Blaby Congregational Church and others during the year as well as being supported in prayer.
Eva's PowerPoint showed Christian Union groups in several universities in the North of England and she spoke about the impact they are having in reaching young people who are giving their lives to God.
The PowerPoint can be viewed by downloading the link here: -
Eva has included her words on the notes page alongside each slide and I have also included them below:
Slide 1: UCCF is the universities and colleges Christian fellowship
Slide 2: A Christian Union is a groups of students, from a range of local churches, who join together to help everyone at university engage with the life changing message of Jesus.’
UCCF’s role in this is to help resource Christian Unions. They do this through meeting up with students, giving training and generally encouraging Christian students in their faith.
Slide 3: In most universities around the country, the students will be supported by a staff worker. This is someone who works for UCCF and will support the Christian Unions in there area. Here is a photo of everyone who is working in UCCF this year. There are loads of people, some living in Scotland, some in Plymouth and some in Ireland.
As well as staff workers there are relay workers, and that is what I did last year
Slide 4: Relay is a 10 month program that UCCF run and it involves supporting the Christian unions in a local area, supporting Christian students, and receiving theological teaching.
Here are some photos from my year.
Slide 5: I’ve already spoken a lot about my time on relay at church so when I was asked to do this, I wasn’t too sure what to talk about. And then somebody from my church in York said this to me. ‘Our joy isn’t truly complete until we share it.’ When I heard this, I was a bit confused surely our joy is complete in Christ. And yes, our joy is complete in Christ. But he said that there is so much joy when you share about Jesus.
It’s like when there’s a band you love or you have just tried one of the best meals. When you share that with someone and they experience that joy that you felt, it’s like something that you can’t really explain. Yes the joy was there before, but now it is even greater as you’re able to share it with someone. And just hearing that reminded me of my year on relay.
That that is why everyone in UCCF does what they do, whether they are doing admin or being a staff worker. They want to share the joy of knowing Jesus and encourage others to do the same. Now its not always easy, well most of the time it isn’t its actually quite hard but its always worth it. So I thought I could share some of the joys and encouragements that the staff workers in the North East region have received over this past year. I contacted a few of them and these are some of the stories they have replied with and some prayer points.
Slide 6: The University of York have just finished their events week. They put on a week of events in a massive gazebo and had different speakers at lunch time, international and evening events. Here are some of the stories from the week:
One student said: ‘2 people gave their lives to Jesus tonight at the event! Also a guy called Tom (name changed) who was just given a flyer two weeks ago for the events day and went to it came along tonight! He is coming to alpha with me next week too!‘
Joe the staff worker said: 'It's been a remarkable week. Not sure we've been part of a week with that many highly engaged chats with non-Christians about God before, so much fun! Quite a number have said they're coming to Hope Explored starting on Tuesday.
Slide 7: ‘The staff worker in Leeds said: Leeds Trinity started the year with one student but we gave out donuts at their freshers fair, invited others along to a pizza picnic and to CU, and now there is a group of 4-8 who meet each week to read the bible together. They hosted a Christmas meal (see presentation for quote) and are planning another evangelistic event for later in March’
Slide 8: Huddersfield have just finished their events week. Here are some stories from the week:
‘Michael came to the first 2 events, planning on attending a local church this weekend with one of the local CUGs. Please pray he comes and this spurs him to continue looking at Jesus!
Zach came to everything, keen to keep coming to CU things (was gutted every week isn’t like this!). Please pray for him. I think he’s keen on being part of Christian community. Please pray this opens a door to real faith.
Slide 9: Update from staff worker: 'We got an update on the Chinese student who professed faith at our event last year. She is now a Christian and at a Chinese church in Middlesbrough - praise God!;
Slide 10: Durham “I've got a friend from college I've been praying for for the last few years. I've invited him to things like the carol service and Events Week and he's always said no - he's not against faith, he's just apathetic. A couple of weeks ago, he sent me a message saying 'Are you going to church this evening? I'd quite like to come along.' I was struck that after all this time, God is faithful, he's still working in ways we can't imagine! He came along, he still has lots of questions, but pray for his heart to be softened. Be encouraged that if you've been praying for friends for a long time, God is at work and no one is too far to be saved.” – Benji, 4th Year
“I've noticed the hunger in international students. Around Halloween time, I stopped to chat to these three girls from Japan. It turned into this most amazing conversation, I was able to share the gospel with them and then they just went on their way. I later got paired up with my Language Conversation Partner and it's one of the girls!” – Olivia, 1st Year
Slide 11: Pray for follow up after events week
• Pray for boldness as Christian Unions have their events weeks coming up
• Pray for Forum North East- this is a big training conference for new committee members
• Pray for new committee members stepping into their new roles
• Pray that more students would be truly impacted by God’s word and Jesus and come to know him
• Praise God for all that he is doing and all that he has already done
The service was followed by lunch so that everyone would have a chance to speak to Eva and share together. 20 people stayed for lunch which was Jacket potatoes, cheese, ham and salad followed by cake and hot drinks. A donation from a member of the congregation covered the cost of the food and so all donations received could be passed directly to UCCF. We are also collecting donations for UCCF during February in our charity box so that their work can be continued next year.
