Revealed: untold story of students in Covid

Many of us are aware of the difficulties that students have faced this year; Covid outbreaks on campus, intense loneliness and even protests against extreme restrictions – it is becoming a sadly familiar story. But underneath and alongside this, runs another, lesser-known story of the innovation and passion shown by the Christian Unions.

Faced with a tough and completely different context, the CUs courageously rose to the challenge and tried exciting new ways of sharing the hope of Jesus within the universities.

Pioneering events

With many universities running 100% of their teaching online, and the novelty of Zoom wearing thin, it quickly became a challenge to make Jesus known virtually – but rather than dampening the CUs’ mission, this simply yielded fresh ideas.

Cambridge Inter-Collegiate CU, for example, decided to get a copy of Luke’s Gospel to every undergraduate in the university, and so published their own special Cambridge edition and put one in each college pigeonhole! As a result, they connected with one Muslim student who had become curious about Jesus, reached out to the CU and began reading the Bible.

The CUs even put a twist on traditional Christmas events. Online CU carol services became ‘Carols-in-a-Box’, with members taking home festive packages, including treats, decorations and a Gospel, to have a ‘night in’ while watching the service on a laptop with their flatmates.

Lifeline communities

As well as alternative campus outreach, many CUs also fundamentally rethought how they equipped and supported members – deciding to run Impact Groups (in an Impact Group, around six CU members meet regularly for Bible study, fellowship and encouragement in evangelism). There was overwhelming enthusiasm for this initiative, with 110 CUs across the country beginning groups and over 5,000 students taking part. On a broad level, this brought growth, with some traditionally smaller CUs tripling in size. On an individual level, it often made the difference between students dropping out and going home, or thriving.

‘Being in an Impact Group transformed my start to university,’ says Amy, a first-year student at Imperial College in London. ‘Connecting with like-minded people, being a support for each other and studying God’s word is something I’ve never had before.’

Excitingly, this also gave unbelieving students space to explore the gospel. Attracted by the community, and with many questions about the struggles they were experiencing, around 200 who wouldn’t call themselves Christians joined an Impact Group in the autumn. In some cases, this has already led to them finding faith – one unbelieving first-year student at Abertay University put his trust in the Lord this term. He consistently attended an Impact Group and read the Bible with Relay Worker Matty. CU Staff Worker David says: ‘He’s since come alive in our sessions!’.