It's a new academic year and Sydney Christian university groups are running at top gear to promote their activities and make contact with new students.

On the other side of the world a handful of Italian students have been learning about evangelism from their British brothers and sisters. 

Originally from Canberra, Dean Ingham has served as a CMS missionary in Italy for five years.

He recently returned from a trip to the UK with seven Italian students from the IFES-affiliated university movement Gruppi Biblici Universitari (GBU).

At the end of January they spent a week at Warwick University, where the Christian Union was holding a mission to the university.

The aim of Dean's trip was to give the Italian students an opportunity to see evangelism done in ways they might never have thought of and to encourage them to think about possibilities for outreach in the Italian context.

Dean said that the trip went really well: "They were amazed to see a Christian student group of 200 students that is well known on the campus."

A Christian campus group of 200 is unheard of in Italy.

It is estimated there are only 100 students engaged in Christian campus groups in the whole country and there are approximately 1.6 million university students in Italy.

The Italian students took part in many events during the week but found the "Grill-a-Christian' evening most transferable to their context.

A short talk was given during a meal, and then the guests were encouraged to "grill' the speaker.

The Italian team also found it useful to spend time discussing what the Bible says about evangelism and considering how they could use a simple Gospel outline like Two Ways To Live as a tool for evangelism.

Dean said, "Please pray that they will be encouraged to use what they saw and learnt in their own universities. Five of them are from Chieti and so together they will be able to push each other on. One from Pisa is the only Christian that he knows of at the university, so it is a lot harder for him."