You may have seen some guys from the Christian Union handing out free hot chocolate outside the SU.  Maybe it struck you as a great idea.  Maybe you thought we were complete wierdos.  Either way, we hope you grabbed a drink and had a good night.  We just wanted to take the opportunity to explain why on earth people would voluntarily stand out in the cold to give people a free drink!

The next Hot Chocolate event will be on the 21st September outside the SU from 10pm

Imagine you were seriously in debt.  Now this may be easier for some of you to imagine than others!  This was a debt that you could not pay off.  No matter how many extra shifts you took, no matter how much you begged your parents, no matter how many times you applied for a hardship fund.  You were in trouble.  You owed me money and I was coming to get it.

Now imagine if, when I turned up at your door, I didn't bring a load of big blokes to repossess all your things, I didn't threaten you or guilt-trip you.  Imagine if I told you that your debt HAD to be paid or else it wasn't fair, but that my own son had already paid it off for you.  How would you feel?  Grateful?  Relieved?  Like you wanted to meet my son?!

Now imagine that later on that day you were celebrating.  A friend of yours who owed you a tenner came along to the party.  When you see him, how do you react?  Yesterday you would've demanded that money off him and got pretty angry if he didn't hand it over.  But today is different.  Today you just received the most amazingly generous gift.  Do you still demand the money or do you let it go?

Jesus told a very similar story about someone in debt.  His point was that this is exactly the situation we find ourselves in whether we're aware of it or not.  We believe God made us and therefore has a right to some say over how we live.  Every time we reject Him and go our own way, the debt builds up and we drift further from where we're meant to be.  But amazingly, Jesus (God's own Son) took the punishment for us so that we can be free from this debt to God that we couldn't pay on our own.  The barrier is no longer there and we can be with God both now on earth and in Heaven when we die.

This is where the story takes a twist.  It was designed to point out that in the light of everything God has done for us, the least we can do is spread a little of that to those around us.  Out of gratitude for this generousity, we want to do things for others.  And THAT'S why we hand out the hot chocolate!  Still not clear?  Read on...

The bit outside the SU is normally pretty hectic.  People on the phone, people queueing for Lenny, people breaking up, people throwing up...  We just wanted to make that place a little nicer.  A place where people can chat and chill out a bit.  Plus it's cold walking home from the SU.  So why not kill two birds with one stone and hand out hot drinks!

Because of the incredible difference that God has made to our lives as Christians, we just want to make a little difference to life at St Mary's.  If we make one person's night at the SU a bit nicer then we feel it was a success.  Our mission statement / slogan is "Sharing the love of God at St Mary's"  So sometimes that will mean literally explaining about God's love and how it can impact YOUR life too, but it also includes doing things like the Hot Chocolate Giveaways.

Hopefully it all makes a little more sense now.  That's the idea anyway.  But what do you think?  Does it work?  How can we improve what we do?  Has anything we've said made you think at all?  Are we even wierder than you first thought?!

Whatever your thoughts are, please let us know by checking out the CONTACT page and getting in touch.  You're more than welcome to come along to any events that we put on.  If you have a question or comment that you'd rather remain anonymous, then why not try our PRIVATE POSTBOX page on the website or drop a little slip of paper in our Prayer Box up in the Post Room, which you may have seen.  If you want to know more about what we believe look at our ABOUT section.  The OUTREACH page also will have details of courses and events we'll be running so you can find out for yourself what it's all about.

Thanks a lot.  See you outside the SU sometime!