A few weeks ago the Fusion Student Evangelist Network hosted a mission weekend in Glasgow! Students from the network and local churches were invited to come together to share the gospel on campus for 24 hours.
In the afternoon, as we gave out free drinks, we were struck by the number of people who approached us with an open and curious attitude. Previously in Glasgow, people have been open to spirituality, but this weekend the spiritual climate felt a little hotter, and it was easier to speak about Jesus than we’ve been used to.
During the afternoon, we invited people to a ‘DMC dinner’, continuing the conversations we’d started on the street that afternoon. We figured we’d be eating dinner together, so we may as well invite any new friends to join us! We had no idea whether anyone would be free later that same day, but it felt right to extend the invitation. Incredibly, seven people who we’d met on campus joined us for dinner, and we were able to get to know them better, and stay in touch with them.
As evening rolled around, we spent time praying and worshipping before preparing to go out and share the gospel again by making 16 litres of hot chocolate.
When we arrived, the streets were strangely empty. One student prayed, asking God to provide us with people to give out all of our hot chocolate to by the end of the night, with opportunities to pray for them and chat to them too. It didn’t seem hopeful…
However, as we rounded the corner, we began to meet people. Here’s a story of just one interaction:
‘We approached Ben* and his friends, and after handing out hot chocolate to them, we told them we were doing this to spread the love of Jesus. He told us he had a Muslim upbringing and asked us why we believed Jesus was the Son of God. We spoke to him about personal experience, and how his encounters with Jesus gave him confidence that Jesus was real, and that God was relevant today rather than only 2000 years ago. Ben was super open to praying with us, and we prayed for him to have a personal experience of Jesus and to meet him in a powerful way! We were so blessed to talk with him and he seemed to really enjoy our conversation.’
The night was marked by joy and unity. As we chatted with and prayed for so many different people on the streets of Glasgow, we found ourselves radiating joy that could only be from the holy spirit, and being totally united in mission, even though most of us had only met each other that day. And, by about 1am, we drained the final cup of hot chocolate!
On Saturday morning, we reconvened to pray for everyone we’d met the day before. From each individual’s perspective, we’d had a couple of conversations with curious people, and prayed for a few. However, although we were only a small group, once we shared and wrote down the names of everyone we’d prayed for and interacted with, the list of names filled a page. We were so grateful and encouraged by the weekend and also the perspective gained as we prayed that morning: God had actually been doing far more that we’d even realised, and he’s on the move within so many hearts in Glasgow.
As we wrapped up the weekend, we were filled with faith, had more experience sharing the gospel and were fired-up to continue. Students were excited to take what we’d experienced back to their local churches to lead others in evangelism in similar ways.
*name changed to protect identity
