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St Mike’s Summer Outreach

Nick Harris dons his Adidas gear and ventures into the world of student mission

The first fortnight of the summer holidays, twenty or so York students took part in the St. Mike’s Mission, called by God, Tim Sargeant and Joel Payne alike. I felt that it was a really good opportunity to get involved in summer mission work and to get to see God touching people’s lives.

For the first two days we were trained — lots of prayer, lots of worship, some of David White and even drama coaching from the Riding Lights — learning how to throw our voices and express ourselves. Most people would have liked more preparation but it was better to learn by doing — just get out and practise it rather than all prayer and worry with no action.

The two weeks were split into servant evangelism and asking people questionnaires, with plenty of time for evangelising by our own methods. For the servant evangelism we washed shop windows and cleaned shop toilets, which, on the whole, went down really well. There were some interesting responses — most people were quiet taken aback and somewhat curious as to why we were offering to clean their toilets for free: “What’s wrong with you?” So we told them that we were showing God’s love in a practical way and left it to them to ask more.

The questionnaires were a great success, because in York there are a lot of people just sitting around, apart from students! It was surprising to see how many people were willing to chat or give us two minutes of their time which quickly became three quarters of an hour. The responses were very encouraging and it was obvious in many cases that God had led us specifically to those people.

Although it was scary initially, once we realised how open people were and felt God’s presence and help with us so evidently, it became more exciting than worrying. People were much more interested in Jesus than you’d imagine — it tends to be the church that they have a problem with.

Personally the most encouraging point was, while out sunbathing in the Minster Gardens we felt that God was calling us to witness to a group of German students — a scary prospect. Once we’d prayed and plucked up the courage it was really good. While some were negative, lots of them were really listening and there was one who was very interested — we ended up talking for an hour!

There are so many stories to tell from the street work and the responses to the lunchtime services that we put on in the second week. Several became Christians in one day — although I wouldn’t count this as being a benchmark of our success — it was our job to sow the seeds and God will be working on the rest.

I’d certainly recommend it for anyone next year. It builds your confidence, it encourages you in what you believe and helps you to remember what God’s done for you.

Nick Harris

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Last modified: 25th November 2005