How to support students spiritually as they head off to University
Months of revision and exam prep may seem like a distant memory, the emotional rollercoaster of results day may have subsided, and now university freshers week is on the horizon.
Perhaps you’re a family member of someone going off to university for the first time. You may be a family friend or youth leader with a keen interest in someone heading off in just a few weeks.
How are they feeling? Excited? Apprehensive? A mixture? What about you?
Whether our young people know Christ personally or not, how can we be supporting them spiritually as they enter this next chapter?
We asked Claire Povey, author of Beyond Beans on Toast and Resources lead at student charity Festive, her top tips:
Praying
It can be a new challenge for us parents/adults/youth workers to 'let go' and see our young person start a new season of greater independence. But unlike those in the same boat who don't know God yet, we can commit our young person into the hands of the LORD - who is not bound by geographical distance! Any hope/worry we may feel we can turn into prayer, lifting everything to our Heavenly Father. We can pray for everything from our young person nailing the washing machine set up, to them growing a deep and personal walk with the LORD Jesus. We can be a very real part of their adventure - as we cover our young people in prayer.
Practical Support
Whether you are a parent, grandparent or member of the same church family - there are lots of ways you could bless your outgoing student so that they're well prepared and feel supported. A supermarket voucher slipped into a farewell card? A kitchen gadget that you've found to be a game changer? A radiator clothes airer? Our student niece recently confessed to using the birthday money we had sent for some 'Lenor scent-booster beads'! (You can't get more rock and roll than that!)
Point them to Jesus
When I was a student, one of my housemates used to receive a handwritten letter from her Grandfather every few months in the post. He would talk about general things, updates on life back home and share some encouragement from Scripture that he had been meditating on. This was clearly some of the most precious mail she received - and it pointed her to Jesus amidst the trials and joys of university life. Knowing Jesus is by far the greatest pearl any one of us could have - over grades, degrees or doctorates. Some of our young people are hungry for the things of God and want to see His kingdom come in their lives and their universities. Some of our young people may be currently distant from Him or be seeking their joy, hope or fulfillment in other places. In prayer and in wisdom - let's point our students to the One who knows them to the very core yet died and rose so that they could be His.
Check out our interview with Claire about what prompted her to write Beyond Beans on Toast.
Other ways to point them to Jesus:
Sit down together and look at some local churches online, short-listing some to visit in the first few weeks.
Encourage them to start following the university CU on social media to help make sure they don’t miss any of the Freshers activities.
Send them off with a daily devotional to encourage them in their private time in the Bible - you could even get a copy to read-along.
Share this podcast where Jonathan Carswell and Rob Baggaley talk about living for Christ and university life.
More helpful suggestions can be found over on the UCCF and Festive websites.
“I do look back fondly on university, it’s a great opportunity to learn and to grow in experience. You’ll have more time at university than you’ll ever have had before. Redeem the time, use it to read, to talk to people, get involved in the CU, because you’ll never have time like that again!”
Jonathan Carswell, 10ofthose CEO
Top book suggestions for someone going to university:
First, Do Not Be True to Yourself, Abide, and Beyond Beans on Toast are great choices to give to students heading off to university.
Have you seen the UCCF student welcome box? It’s designed to help students make the best start to university life as possible. This is wonderful to wrap up and give to those heading off to university, or why not send one direct to their accommodation?
Full of hand-picked books to help equip students for a life of ministry at University & beyond, a Student subscription pack is a brilliant way to encourage someone you know with Christian reading & help them start a library for life..
The Hole in our Holiness,Holiness,Have No Fear, and ….. would also be a helpful read.
