Autumn 2024: a term of joy and new beginnings!

Where has the time gone? One term into the new academic year, and so much has happened! It has been such a wonderful term for us at RUCU, with plenty of things going on, including SEBWA (The South East Big Weekend Away), the arrival of freshers, and welcoming our amazing staff worker, Rebecca!

After our summer break, which included our trip to Forum at Quinta Hall in the Welsh borders, we welcomed one of the largest intakes of freshers we've seen in recent years, and had an amazing freshers week filled with activities! This included a scavenger hunt round campus, an indoor freshers picnic, as well as our first CU Central meeting of the year. We ran a fresher buddy system, where a returner would be paired with a fresher, and that has been a great success in welcoming new students into university life. Thank you for all your prayers in the time before and during freshers week, the Lord has been moving campus, and it has been so encouraging to see.

Our theme for this term's Central meetings, 'Bible Bites', focused on different areas of life such as anxiety, not being governed by our studies, being able to trust in God, to name a few. We had a mix of group discussions and talks throughout the term, which allowed freshers to integrate with returners and helping them to settle in.

We also had our annual trip to Winchester for SEBWA, which was a great success all round! We had just 50 members of RUCU attend, and spent the weekend sleeping in a church, as well as spending time in fellowship with other CUs from the south east region. It was such a joy to see our freshers interacting with returners and creating lots of amazing memories!

Our annual carol service at St. Luke's rounded up our first term, and we almost filled the church, with lots of students attending from outside CU. It was a wonderful evening, with traditional carols led by a choir and orchestra made up from our CU members, and a talk from Naomi Sherwood on peace. This was followed by refreshments and socialising, with no less than 475 gingerbread biscuits made for the occasion! We are praying that this evening was a poignant moment for both regular attendees, and a chance for seeds to be planted for those who haven't heard God's word before.

In a season of new beginnings, we had lots of new activities and groups start up within our CU community. This included the return of prayer breakfast, the introduction of CU five-a-side (which immediately surpassed five-a-side and is now simply CU football!), the creation of a 4th impact Bible study group, our CU Café (a chance to socialise with other CU members in the Library Café), our Hydrate outreach outside Union (giving water to students leaving the nightclub on campus every other Wednesday) which has been a major success, and our weekend social events (including a karaoke night!). As you can tell, it's been a busy term!

We were also delighted to welcome Rebecca Giddens to RUCU in September. Rebecca works for UCCF as our staff worker. Her role involves working alongside our committee, as well as Winchester CU, in guiding us and supporting our work on campus. She has been a wonderful addition to our CU family, and we are so grateful to God for bringing Rebecca to us in this season!

As we prepare to come back from the Christmas break, we are getting ready for our annual events week! The theme, 'Tell Me Why', will be focusing on the topics that will hopefully provide Biblical answers to big worldly questions. Just some examples include: what does science have to do with Christianity, why does God allow suffering, and so on. We will be having a lunch bar, an international track and a weekly evening series. Our events week is Monday 17th - Friday 21st February, so prayer throughout that week would be appreciated by us all.

That's all from us for now! We hope you had a lovely Christmas, and pray that you have a very happy and blessed 2025. Thank you again for all the prayers and support, it means so much to us and our CU.

Yours in Christ,

Cristina at RUCU

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. - Isaiah 43:18-19