‘We are Sutton Bonington Christian Union (SBCU), on the small campus connected to the University of Nottingham which houses the vet school. The University of Nottingham vet school has a dual intake, so there are two cohorts, one of which starts in April and runs through the summer. The April subdivision has a relatively small but flourishing CU, which has grown over the course of a few years. We have been really blessed to see the number of Christians in the April intakes grow each year; over the summer we met the wonderful problem of having too many people attending Bible studies to fit into one discussion, so we split into two smaller discussion groups.
Over the summer, we have continued to meet weekly and build strong friendships. On Wednesday mornings we do early morning prayer where we eat breakfast together and pray for each other, which is a valuable time mid-week to recentre our thoughts. Then our main meetings are Thursday evenings, where we come together to play games, share food and read the Bible. Alongside these we have run a multitude of social events including a movie night watching ‘The Prince of Egypt’, a bring-and-share BBQ and a game of rounders.
We were so grateful to receive a VCF grant which allowed us to run an ‘Arts and Games’ evening open to Christians and non-Christians alike. This allowed people to bring their non-Christian friends along to a CU event and introduce them to their friends from CU, which fostered many good conversations. On the night we had a few different stations, including bracelet making, coaster painting, bookmark decorating, prayer/study book painting and boardgames. It was so well attended we ran out of chairs. Afterwards we received a lot of encouraging feedback, even from people who had never heard of SBCU before, that they enjoyed themselves and would happily come to another event.
As a CU, we have seen God moving on our little campus to bring His followers together to support each other through the trials of the vet course. We’re excited to run more outreach events in the future so we can keep spreading God’s love to those around us.’
