This week we’re out and about in different locations in Brighton looking for opportunities to share the good news about Jesus. On Thursday we were at the University of Brighton.
What did we do?
We kept to the same strategy from Monday – simply setting up a chalk board with a question alongside a basket of books, Bibles and flyers. We chose a location just outside Elm House close to a new pedestrian bridge over the Lewes Road.
Julian, Simon and I wandered around with flyers and invitations to this weekend’s God for Sceptics events and to Grace Church. If someone lingered at the book basket we took the chance to say introduce ourselves.
How did we get on?
Due to various reasons I was on my own for the first half an hour or so. I felt like a bit of a lemon and all I seemed to do was hand out a few flyers to passers by. To be honest it was a bit of a battle and I felt like giving up.
Then Julian arrived (and Simon soon after that)…
I was in the middle of moaning to Julian about how difficult things had been and that we should probably move on when a voice cut in: “Excuse me, can I take one of your flyers?” It turns out that the student had just been in the building searching on Google for Brighton churches only to find us as soon as he walked outside!
A bit later another lad walked past, took a flyer, then turned back – “Do you have any Bibles?” I took him to the chalkboard and basket where we found a New Testament.
“Can I take another one for my housemate? We’re both talking about all this at the moment.”
We enjoyed good chats with both lads and invited them to the God for Sceptics event on Saturday and Grace Church on Sunday
The other highlight was seeing another student rummage through the books in the basket for quite a while. When I introduced myself we have a good conversation and they ended up taking a copy of everything.
Julian had a couple of challenging encounters but at the end of our time we all felt this had been a worthwhile time. Simon commented that he wouldn’t have seen such openness 10 years ago.
Next time I will not despair but keep my eyes open as to what the Holy Spirit is doing around me. Please pray for this new generation of students – for wind of the Spirit to blow through them and for many to be brought into the kingdom of heaven (John 3)