In January 2008, having been at St Andrews university for just one term, David Simpson realised that he had a lot of Christian friends who needed a focus. There was a real need for fellowship and discipleship. Having grown up as the son of a man who is thoroughly supportive and involved with Alpha, David recognised that Alpha would be a great tool to focus the Christians on evangelism and reaching their friends for the Lord.

David decided that the best way to reach the students that were on his heart was to organise a black tie dinner at The Rusacks hotel in St Andrews. Mr Macdonald, owner of the hotel chain, a Christian and supporter of Alpha, was really keen to back this and was incredibly kind and supportive. About 60 students came along to the launch and, as a result of that, the course, which was held at a popular pub in St Andrews called The Lizard, was a great success. David said that as well as touching the hearts of the guests, God really worked in the leaders, knitting them together as a community of believers. The course encouraged the leaders to be 'practising what they preached' as well as developing their listening skills and teaching them about, what David called, 'the infectious nature of the Kingdom'. These were all fantastic outcomes and really cast the vision and raised the profile of Student Alpha in St Andrews among Christians and non-Christians alike.

Although the centralised course had gone really well in St Andrews. David had, and still has, a real heart for getting the students to invest in evangelism with their whole lives. So, in the autumn of 2008 David asked a few key 'households' to host a 'cell' style Student Alpha course. He asked not only students from the CU but also from the Catholic society, the department of theology and many other places. Partnering with others has been key to his vision for Alpha. On the second course David ran there was about 15 'cells' in total. Hosting a course not only allows for the development of a variety of small communities around Alpha but it also encourages students to practise hospitality as well as sacrificial giving with the students each funded their own course. This is something that David feels very passionately about. 

Each 'cell' course (household) was assigned a table, or two where necessary, at the launch dinner party and it was the task of the students to pray, to invite and to pay for, at £10 a head, a table of guests. Paying for friends is something that is more feasible in some universities than others, depending on the disposable income of the students, but in St Andrews it really worked and made the students invest personally in the work and take ownership of their course and the process of evangelism as a whole.

So, the Christian students brought their friends along to the launch party. There were invitations made so they could be invited properly but as the students were inviting friends and because many people had heard about the previous course, there was no need for mass advertising. This worked wonderfully because rather than trying to create community, which is the usual model that works so well on Alpha, the communities were natural and already, organically, formed. For example, one of the guys who was 'hosting' a course is part of the university hockey team, so he had a cell course that was made up of guys from the hockey team. They knew each other and were comfortable in one another's company, so doing Alpha together was very natural.

After the launch party, each 'cell' course was run at a time convenient to the guests in that group, not necessarily the same time each week, just whenever worked for them. This made the course much more accessible to the guests around their busy schedules. The students used the 'Express' version of the Alpha DVDs, which all the students felt went down really well. Using the DVDs took the pressure off the students to prepare a talk and it also allowed the guests to critique the talks more freely without feeling that they might offend their friends. This cell model worked fantastically well as there was still the initial buzz of a big launch party but they didn't lose the intimacy or the community that is created in the smaller cell courses.

The 'power house' behind the success of Student Alpha in St Andrews was the prayer. The students were incredibly committed to this. They met as a team of leaders before the course started and then each week that the course was happening they all met on a Monday morning at 8am (that is commitment!) to praise God for the courses, to give Him the glory and to lift their requests. There were Christian students who wanted to be involved but who could not commit to running a course, these students were asked to pray. It was made sure that whenever a cell course was meeting, someone was praying for each of the students involved by name. They were also given things to pray for, for example if Sarah was struggling with the idea that she was forgiven, the intercessors knew this and were praying for breakthrough - with God on their side, who could be against them?

The only aspect of the course that the students found challenging was the 'after launch lull'. They felt that there was a lot of excitement around the launch party but then getting their friends to come to the first couple of weeks was more difficult. However, after these first weeks it became much easier. There were many more encouraging elements to this second course but David particularly enjoyed 'seeing God surprise us' he said 'there were some 'tables' that I never thought would work, but they did! It was wonderful to see students really wrestling with the gospel and laying solid foundations to their faith and their friendships. Many of them are now attending church regularly. The barriers to church that they had have disappeared as a result of Alpha'. David noted that not many of the students actually came to faith at the course but it was afterwards, during the 'evangelistic dinner parties' that he and other students held and the follow up at church that, and I quote, 'God nailed them'!

On being asked if he was planning to facilitate another Student Alpha course in St Andrews, David didn't hesitate at all, responding immediately with 'yeah! but bigger!' All of the students felt they wanted to take time to make sure that this was what God wanted them to do rather than it just being a good idea. As a result of their prayers, they decided to take a term to pray, plan and prepare and they have come up with some hugely exciting ideas that will go ahead in the autumn of 2009... watch this space...

David feels that one of the biggest successes of running Student Alpha for him and his friends has been teaching and empowering them in making evangelism 'a lifestyle'. Really solidifying that God is able to reach their friends and He wants to use them to do it. What better result can we ask for than that?