Aber CU

I spent several hours on trains last Friday and Saturday travelling to and from Aberystwyth, The main purpose of my visit was to speak at the Friday night Christian Union meeting. It also meant, however, that I was able to  catch up with my son Rhodri and his wife Sibyl, who live round the corner from my parents-in-law Geoff and Iola, where I stayed. Ironically, Rhodri was unable to be at the CU as he was busy with the (even more) ironically named Spread the Word project in the theatre.

Anyway I went along with Sibyl to the Real Food group meeting with about 10 of her fellow scientists in a house on Vaenor Street. From there we went on to the main meeting in St Paul's Methodist Centre, where over  a hundred were present. We began with songs containing a series of orthodox but (it seemed to me) rather banal sentiments. This was followed by the inevitable announcements and an enthusiastic promotion by a former student of CAP. The Scripture passage was read then I was briefly interviewed (I'd forgotten this element and was ill prepared to say anything funny I'm afraid) before launching into my message on the given passage - Luke 19:11-27. They seemed to listen well and I enjoyed talking with people after, especially one student who appears to have been converted recently.

I don't do much student work and so I am thrown by how young they all look, the diversity of their backgrounds, the subjects they study, their ambitions, their seriousness and silliness Despite some quibbles I may have, UCCF is a great movement really and I really benefited from the CU when I was a student all those years ago. It is probably the best way to reach out to unconverted students. It's a reminder to pray for these gifted people and their witness.