Scotland: Kilts? Haggis? the Loch Ness monster?

On March 8 our team will embark on a week long trip to Aberdeen, Scotland. We'll spend our time reaching out to the more than 15,000 university students that live in Aberdeen. We'll have the opportunity to participate in some pretty exciting and creative relational evangelism programs.

While in Scotland, our team will be working with Radiate, the Chi Alpha group at the University of Aberdeen. Radiate's primary objective is sustained evangelistic outreach to non-Christian college and university students. We are excited about the opportunity to work with and serve this growing ministry.

Many of you may have questions about why we are taking a mission trip to Scotland, or why we are concentrating specifically on university ministry. When we think about Scotland I'm sure most of us immediately produce images of bagpipes, kilts and castles. We think about British accents, hot tea and movies like Braveheart. What we rarely reflect on is the state of the church.

The country that once sent out scores of missionaries reaching people all over the world with the love of Christ can now be considered, as can the rest of Europe, a post-Christian society. The United States is also well on its way to being in this category. Our preconception of the West as "Christian" can blind us to the declining condition of the church in America and Europe.

The United Kingdom can be considered one of the most secularized nations in the world. The attitude towards Christianity is comparable to the atmosphere on university campuses in the United States. Apathy, resentment, and a general view of the church as an oppressive and out-dated institution is common. Intellectualism is rule of the day, especially on university campuses.

Chi Alpha wants to touch universities all over the world with the love of Christ. We believe that college campuses are one of the most strategic mission fields in the world. By reaching the leaders of the next generation with the love and grace of Christ, Chi Alpha has a vision to change the world. As a ministry we want to live out this vision in the United States and abroad.

In Scotland, we hope to serve and bless university students in another culture with a picture of God's love and what an authentic relationship with Him looks like. We're praying to have conversations with students who are searching, and to move other students to a place of searching. We're relying on the power of the Holy Spirit to give us opportunities to speak the love of Christ into the lives of students, and we're expecting God to do great thing through us.

If you're supporting this trip in any way we thank you for being a part of two amazing ministries: spreading the love of Christ to a university in Scotland and allowing students from UNC to grow and be challenged in their faith by experiencing cross-cultural missions. I cannot wait to see what God is going to do in and through this team.

Please continue to check the blog for updates on our itinerary, prayer concerns and, eventually, reflections and testimonies about our experiences on the trip.