University students like Heath Gaydon are bringing the wisdom of the Church to their peers at a critical time in their lives. Source: The Catholic Leader.
Mr Gaydon, a fifth-year student at the University of Queensland, was aware many studies showed university was the number one place people lost their faith.
He said as a student involved in ministry, it was an “enormous” challenge – but one the UQ Newman Society were rising to meet.
Each Friday, the society relied on a rotation of about 20 people to hold down an evangelisation stall in the university courtyard.
Passersby had the opportunity to walk up, receive free books and brochures, ask their questions and share their own experiences of God.
Thousands of university students and staff walked by the stall and saw its signs and brochures, while about 10 to 20 people approached with questions or wanting to hold conversations.
Mr Gaydon said the stall had run for a few years and they were seeing positive outcomes.
Some conversations, he said, might last only a few minutes and others could go for an hour or longer.
He said there was a lot of interest in God and despite what he expected, he had not had a single hostile interaction.
“People who are really anti-religion just don’t walk up,” Mr Gaydon said.
Part of the popularity of the stall, he said, was what he called a revival of Catholicism among young people.
Mr Gaydon said there was a small but courageous group of young people ready to witness and be part of a revival movement in their lifetimes, hoping to “unleash the goodness of Christ … upon the world”.
He said while modern society offers “prosperity, power, popularity and pleasure”, what everyone truly wanted was “actually God” because “he’s the source of all goodness”.
He said the evangelisation team were passionate that the Church, “in all her goodness and wisdom, is the answer to not just depression and anxiety and suicide, but all the world’s problems”.
FULL STORY
Newman Society evangelisation stall brings sign of ‘young Catholic revival’ to UQ (By Joe Higgins, The Catholic Leader)
