If the pandemic has taught us anything, it is the power of Christian connection. Inspired by this idea, a group of students from UCCF Great Britain created a virtual choir for Christian Unions across the country. After more than 1000 students joined the Facebook group in a matter of days, it was clear that the project was fulfilling a deep need.
What began as 50 – 100 students singing together quickly developed into a huge operation. The students divided themselves into regional coordinators, recruited tech teams, and produced a demo track. International students and students from other IFES movements joined in, adding a verse sung in multiple languages. After one week of organization, one week of video submissions, and two weeks of editing, they uploaded the final video to YouTube. With 550 singers, 60 tech people, and 50 organizers, the project was a testament of student initiative and cooperation.
As the video circulated, the students found their non-Christian friends to be very responsive. One CU student from Essex said,
“I have sent the video to everyone! My non-Christian friends liked seeing what I was involved in and one friend even prayed after watching the video.”
Looking back on the experience, students involved say that the choir revealed a deep longing for connection. Hannah Wood, one of the student organizers, says that the choir shows the power of doing something together. She says:
“Throughout the whole process there was a real sense of togetherness, that although we may all be from different backgrounds and universities and even countries, we all want the name of Jesus to be proclaimed, and that one way to do that is by singing together.”
“I’m praying for you.” Aaron’s* comment to his Muslim friend Rashid* prompted questions. How do you pray? What kind of prayers? How does it work?
Students Rashid and Aaron met last year. Rashid wants to be friends, and occasionally seems keen to talk about deeper things. And yet, like most people from his country, he is also distrustful and hesitant. Building a friendship of trust in which you can share deeply, requires patience and time – time spent together.
With the COVID-19 pandemic, being together is difficult. For many it’s impossible for Christians to physically meet up with their non-Christian friends. Classes are cancelled; students are stuck at home. Communication must happen online, where people can feel more hesitant to talk openly.
Another Christian student Ali* recently started up an English Club on his campus. He couldn’t share openly at the club, but it provided a place to build friendships. Now Ali needs to find creative ways to strengthen those new friendships, while the group cannot meet in person.
Pray for Aaron, Ali and other Christian students to find ways to keep investing in relationships with Muslim friends. Pray for opportunities to show love and to share more deeply about the hope they have.
Pray for Rashid to have the courage to ask more questions and explore the claims of the Christian faith this year.
Longer-term, pray for trust and a sense of partnership to be built with local churches so that Christian students can be discipled effectively and trained up to lead.
*names changed
How is your student group adapting to doing mission in a COVID-19 world? How are you seeing God work? We’re making a film to encourage students around the world. Email hello@ifesworld.org with videos sharing your stories and showing what you’re up to.
Resiato*, an international student from Kenya, has big dreams. She wants to start an international student ministry at her university in Estonia. Her motivation? The Great Commission from Matthew 28. Resiato sees her campus as a platform to make disciples of the nations.
It’s a big dream, but Resiato isn’t alone. A staff worker from another IFES movement heard about her plans and recently travelled to meet her. They spoke about how to share Christ with international friends and how to start a ministry. Within a few months Resiato was taking a Hindu friend to church regularly, and had arranged to talk to church pastors to share her vision.
The majority of international students in Estonia come from Nigeria, Russia and Ukraine, but there are many from India, Bangladesh and Azerbaijan as well. Resiato reflects:
“I’m interacting with so many different cultures. Sometimes I get it right, sometimes I don’t. But the materials from IFES definitely help me carry out the Great Commission.”
Resiato needs your prayers as she seeks to establish an international student ministry in Estonia:
Pray for Resiato as she shares her vision and gathers leaders to help reach out to international students.
Pray that many international students would be reached with the good news of Jesus through this new group in Estonia.
Thank God for partnership between IFES movements. Pray for more opportunities to encourage one another and share resources.
In March 2018, I tried to start a group for international students in the Bulgarian city of Varna… and failed miserably.
The journey begins
BCSU, the IFES movement in Bulgaria, had already started a group for international students in Sofia, the capital. It was going so well that we wanted to expand the work to another city. Varna was the next logical place. It had a large international student population, and there was no other Christian group available for them.
But Varna was an eight-hour train ride across the country from Sofia, where I and most BCSU staff workers lived. The only staff worker in Varna was already tied up with other ministry responsibilities. So we started praying. And we waited for an opportunity.
From bad to worse
Shortly after that, a volunteer offered to come and spend three weeks in Varna, helping to establish the group. An answer to our prayers! We had a venue ready to host us as well, so I travelled to Varna to join the volunteer.
Publicity was the first job. We handed out flyers and talked to hundreds of international students. And then the night of the first event came… and only three students showed up. It was a bad start – but the other nights were even worse. On one evening there were no students there at all! It was very discouraging. We questioned whether God had wanted us to start a group in Varna at all.
Sarah’s request
Then we got a message from Sarah*. She was one of the three students from the first night. She had enjoyed meeting us and wanted to start going to church. At least we had reached one student! God’s definition of success is different than ours, we thought. Perhaps His plan was for us to help this one student come to faith.
Sarah started getting more involved at the church. She was enjoying what she learned and loved the atmosphere. But Sarah was unable to attend the weekly church Bible studies because she didn’t speak Bulgarian. She asked us if we could help. Using resources from the IFES Breaking New Ground program, and with Sarah’s promise to invite her friends, we decided to try one more time to start something for international students in Varna.
Unexpected results
And this time, in October 2018, the students showed up! And they kept coming back. The group started looking at the gospel of John using the Uncover material. Amazingly, the group grew and flourished as international students kept inviting their friends to explore the person of Jesus.
Today it is the largest student group in the country! The group currently includes both seekers and believers from countries across South Asia, Europe and Africa. Sarah is still on her journey of figuring out what she believes. She continues to be a big advocate for the group and invites her friends to all our events.
And I have learned that God’s vision for reaching students is so much bigger than mine, and that He can use our supposed failures for His glory.
6 February 2020 was the first anniversary of the death of British pastor, evangelist and theologian Michael Green. A huge part of Michael’s life and ministry was spent telling students about Jesus. He spoke at countless mission weeks in Great Britain and across Europe, leading many to faith and inspiring students of IFES movements to live and speak for Jesus unreservedly. Two months before he went home to Glory, Michael shared his reflections on the changes, challenges and future of student ministry in the region.
What changes have you seen in student ministry over the years?
The biggest thing I’ve noticed is growth. We’re well aware of what a secularised world we’re living in these days. But we often don’t realise that the Christian church has actually never grown as fast as it has in our generation. The growth, particularly from Islam, is massive in south-east Asia, and we’re seeing this in a number of countries in Europe as well. Underneath the somewhat tired, old oak trees of Catholicism and Orthodoxy we’ve now got the green grass growing up: new movements of young men and women committed to Christ.
What are the main challenges to evangelism in the university in Europe today?
Most countries in Europe have come out of a communist situation, and so there’s still a lot of communist ideology and burnt-in atheism. But there’s also the influence of consumerism and materialism which make people very hedonistic and self-serving. These things affect the spiritual climate and make the atmosphere forbidding.
Add to that the fact that evangelical work almost anywhere in Europe is regarded as a sect. So Christians tend to keep their heads down, and generally there isn’t the confident boldness that I would like to see. People don’t expect God to do great things; they don’t expect conversions when you have meetings. And then of course they’re all covered with confusion when they see ten people coming to Christ! But it happens often enough. I love it!
But these are very difficult days. There is no doubt that the Christian gospel is facing challenges that it’s never faced before. Issues like trans-genderism were almost unknown in days gone by, but now are major. And today’s Christian young men and women have got to get so rooted in the gospel that they are able to handle challenges of this sort. So when they come upon these new, contentious issues, they don’t just give an opinion, but answer from a rooted, biblical worldview.
What encourages you as you look at the work of IFES national movements in Europe?
I’m encouraged to see a greater innovation and creativity in evangelism. In the old days it would have been straight proclamation. I believe in proclamation, but I believe in using the creative arts as well: music and drama and dance and mime and so on. We’re beginning to see more of that in Europe. Of course, the gospel is the same, but the wrappings need to be different according to the culture.
National movements are also paying more attention to apologetics training, and I wish I’d focused more on that when I was young. I now realise that apologetics never saved anybody, but it is a very valuable tool for moving the rubbish out of the road that leads to Christ. It needs to be the hand-maid of evangelism, not some sort of metaphysical discussion that never brings anybody to conclusion.
What advice would you give to this generation of Christian students?
Firstly, I would urge all Christian students to join a Bible-based organisation that is passionately evangelistic in outreach and coherent in fellowship, and the classic example is the IFES worldwide. Christian students need to be with other students who are committed believers from a different denomination, from a different nation, from a different culture. Together they need to be God’s counter-culture on campus, committed to God’s work in the university.
The future lies with people who’ve got the guts to stand up and be counted. Students must have one foot in the culture and one foot in the Scriptures. And they must have a heart blazing with passion to pass on this gospel that has made new people of them. Unless there is a new life and a new lifestyle in us, nobody’s going to listen. But if there is, and if we’re determined to reach the lost, nothing will be able to stand against us. Jesus promised that the gates of Hades would not be able to stand against the proclamation by His kingdom. And He’s never been proved wrong yet.
What’s kept you going for so long?
I think there are two things: one is my devotional life. I have kept a devotional life going every day right the way through my life. In other words, I’ve kept in touch with the source of light and life, and that is absolutely critical. The other thing is that when I find I’m not doing anything for the Lord, my spiritual temperature goes down. But once something new is thrown to me, I say to myself, ‘Hey look, I can’t do this – but the Lord can. I’ve got to rely on Him.’ And so: a mixture of keeping my devotional life going and taking opportunities for service which will cast me back to draw afresh on the resources of the Lord. Those two things have kept me fresh.
What’s your prayer for Europe’s students in the coming years?
I pray that in the next ten years there’ll be a renewed confidence in the power of the gospel, a new courage to be bold in testimony, in drama, in music, in dance, and in inventing other ways of bringing the gospel home to friends. And that confidence of course comes from going back to the cross again and again, and realising what the Lord has done for us. And if He’s done it for us, He’s done it for others. So woe to us if we don’t proclaim the gospel.
We give thanks to God for the faithful service of this remarkable man to the university world. His co-worker and friend Michael Ots, reflected:
It was an incredible joy and privilege to partner with Michael in student evangelism around Europe over the last ten years of his life. He was not only an incredible evangelist and an inspiring mentor but he also became a close friend. His many decades of involvement in evangelism around the world gave him a unique position from which to assess the strategic and valuable ministry of IFES of which he was a great supporter.
Buy a copy of the recently published authorised biography Michael Green: By His Friends. It includes reflections from Lindsay Brown (former IFES General Secretary), Richard Cunningham (UCCF Great Britain General Secretary) and Michael Ots, among others. Also available at tenofthose.com.
30 December 2019: students, graduates, staff members, and representatives from other Christian student ministries – together, united. All 3,000 voices from 68 countries raised together in prayer for God to move in Europe. For many, it was the stand-out moment of Revive,the recent IFES Europe student evangelism conference.
Giulia, a graduate from Switzerland, was one of the 3,000. She shared her reflections:
“In my workplace, I’m surrounded by people who don’t know the Lord, but sadly I’ve put little effort into sharing my faith or living as a disciple at work. Revive made it very clear to me that, as a graduate, obedience to God must come first every day of the week, not just in my free time. I left eager and equipped to be a fruitful, blazing witness in my workplace.”
Will you join us this week as we pray for Giulia and for all those who were at Revive?
Thank God for the amazing ways he answered prayer for Revive. Countless young people left feeling excited to be part of something bigger, better equipped for mission on campus and beyond, and with a renewed love for Jesus and the gospel.
Giulia asked us to pray for graduates in Europe: “Pray that we become equipped for evangelism through a flourishing relationship with our Creator and Saviour.”
As the new semester starts, pray that Revive participants would be putting into practice what they learned. Pray that through them, revival would come on campuses and in communities across Europe.
Sandbags. It was an unusual picture. Brian* had been a student at the time. Just one among the vast crowds of young people at Urbana, the InterVarsity/USA missions conference. And there God spoke to him. He gave Brian a vision for using his life to share his faith. The picture he had was of people piling up sandbags to deal with a flood, but there was one area where no one was working. If I can go anywhere to share my faith, why not go where no one else is going? he thought. And so the idea of serving among Muslim people was planted in Brian’s mind.
A short-term mission trip to Bosnia, a Muslim-majority country, confirmed it. Brian found he could relate to Muslim people well, and he enjoyed their company. Living among them and sharing his faith seemed more doable. Before, the concept of Islam had been an empty void to him. Now it had a face.
Surprises in store
Brian ended up settling in France with his young family, to serve with GBU, the IFES movement there. A large part of his time was spent reaching out to Muslim students and helping GBU students to do the same. It wasn’t easy. Being on staff didn’t make him immune from the usual fears of evangelism. Over the years that followed, Brian discovered a lot about sharing the gospel with Muslim students. And he was often surprised.
Coffee and questions
Brian and his wife set out for the campus one cold morning, armed with flasks of coffee to hand out, and a question: would you be interested in joining our Bible/Quran discussion group? One of the Muslim students they met that day was particularly keen to come along. Why? That very morning he’d been wondering what the differences were between the Bible and the Quran. He was delighted to meet someone offering him the opportunity to find out – along with a free coffee!
Time and again, Brian found that Muslim students were often happy to talk about faith matters, and to receive prayer. In fact, they were often disappointed to find that westerners – including Christians – were usually reluctant to talk about those kinds of things.
Rethinking worldviews
While it was easy enough to get into a conversation with a Muslim student, their different worldview meant that Brian needed to learn a different approach in apologetics.
Take, for example, the commonly held Muslim belief that the Bible has been changed and corrupted. In a Western context, Brian would start by inviting the student to look at the evidence, say by studying the manuscripts, to prove that the Bible hasn’t been changed. But that approach, Brian found, fell flat on a listener with a Muslim worldview. One day he tried something else:
On hearing ‘the Bible has been changed’, Brian suddenly took a step away from the student. What are you doing? they asked. “I don’t want to be standing here if you get hit by lightning”, Brian replied. “What you’re saying is really serious. This is God’s Word. Are you saying God has allowed His Word to be changed?! May God protect you from what you’re saying right now.”
Brian’s dramatic approach worked. The student quickly changed his mind. Because as a Muslim he already understood that God is sovereign and unthwartable; there was no way He’d let His Word be changed.
Daniel Morton – Unsplash
Believing forward
Of course, helping a Muslim see that the Bible hasn’t been changed was not the end goal; it was just a helpful step along the way. Brian knew that the power to transform hearts is found in the Bible. That’s why he helped start up student-led Bible/Quran discussion groups, and loved to open the Bible with his Muslim friends. Sharing his faith and his life was not quick, easy, or obviously fruitful work. But it was obedient. And that’s all that mattered.
So what about us? Why should we bother to share the gospel with our Muslim classmates on campus? Brian reflected:
We don’t have a choice but to get on board with it. If we’re really committed to reaching every corner of campus, we have to be willing to engage all people. There are staff in IFES movements today who are former Muslims. We have to ‘believe forward’, trusting that these Muslim students might one day be faithfully serving God as well.
There are Christians today living in Iran, Tunisia, Kyrgyzstan and similar places. If they could, they would beg us to reach out to their fellow compatriots while we can. Immigrants and international students, visiting scholars. It’s probably their best chance to hear the gospel, and it’s an amazing way that we can partner with our persecuted brothers and sisters around the world.
Rindra is from Madagascar but has been studying in Norway
this year, where he’s been serving NKSS, the IFES movement there, in his spare
time. In ten days, he’ll be making his way down to Germany, to gather with
3,000 other students and graduates at Revive, the European student evangelism
conference. Rindra and thousands across the region, are hungry to see a move of
God in this generation.
Rindra is particularly looking forward to two of the many
seminars on offer: ‘Talking about Jesus without sounding religious’, and ‘The
Mark Drama’. He wants to learn how to share Jesus in different ways, and see his
NKSS friends enthused about evangelism. Norway, like so many countries in
Europe, is increasingly secular and needs revival.
As students and staff from IFES and other Christian student
organisations seek God together at Revive, their prayer is that revival would
ripple out across Europe and beyond. That’s Rindra’s prayer too:
“I hope to be enthused and equipped to return home to Madagascar, to UGBM, the IFES movement there, and share His name, continually praying for revival in our universities and nation.”
Join us in praying for Revive:
The impact of Revive, for individuals, universities and countries, could be huge. But not without prayer! Pray that God would do an amazing work of reviving hearts, and ultimately universities and the whole of Europe, for His glory.
Pray for the organisers, volunteers, prayer team, speakers and those leading seminars or workshops. Pray that they would have energy and great joy as they serve together.
Pray for the students coming from smaller student movements, that Revive would be particularly encouraging and helpful for them.
Over the last 40 weeks, students of IFES movements across Europe have been making short videos about their countries and how you can pray for them. Watch all the videos here
I remember the anxieties of starting university. I didn’t even
understand my timetable, let alone my major. Where was I meant to be when? What
did all those letters and figures mean? How was I going to survive?! I didn’t
have the answers.
But there was one thing I knew a lot about: God. Early on I met some people who were part of the Bulgarian Christian Student Union (BCSU). They invited me to go along to their fellowship meetings, and I was glad to start attending. They didn’t know it, but their invitation was to lead me to three significant realisations and change the course of my life for ever.
Always a student
Before long, the first thing I realised was that I’d been
wrong: I really didn’t know much about God. I’d previously read the Bible as a
novel, skimming the pages without much interest. BCSU challenged me to think and apply
the Word of God in my life, to ask questions and to explore my own worldview. I
came to understand that in God’s kingdom, I will always be a student who is
learning from Christ.
The second thing I realised was why this student group exists. At first, I’d thought it was just a gathering for Christian students to study the Bible. But in fact, the student group was the perfect place to invite my friends who didn’t know Jesus. What better place for a student with questions about God? Many of my friends then heard about God and attended BCSU events and Bible studies.
Aliens, thieves and priests
My third
realisation, I confess, didn’t happen while I was at university. Unfortunately,
it took me a long time to discover it. And that’s why I wanted to write this
article, so you will not make the same mistake.
In my student
years, I thought the university was a place that would give me knowledge for my
career. I thought it was a place to invite friends to study the Bible in the
hope that they would meet Christ and be saved. 1 Peter 2 talks about believers
as being ‘aliens in the world’. I saw myself only as an ‘alien’ – someone who
didn’t belong to the world. My job was that of a thief: to ‘steal’ others out
of the world and make them aliens too.
But 1 Peter 2
also talks about the believer’s role as a ‘priest’. The two are inseparable
characteristics of God’s people. No, we are not from the world, but at
the same time we are in the world, and we are to carry God’s presence.
This was what I missed.
“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light… Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.”
1 Peter 2: 9-12
At university I did not act as a priest. If I had, as well as
inviting my friends to study the Bible, I would have asked my classmates and
teachers questions about what we were learning. I would have been part of the
student council or the theatre club. I would have tried to keep Christian
principles in everything I did. I would have brought the voice of Jesus into
conversations happening around me. But I did not.
Fortunately, this sad story does not end so sad. I am not a student anymore, but I am still allowed to be part of the university literary club (I love to read!). So at last I’m active at university!
An appeal to students
Don’t make
the same mistake as I made. You can live out your role on campus as a
royal priesthood. Perhaps you will ask a question that will change the mind of
your lecturer forever. Perhaps you will hold a position regarding a theory that
will make a lasting impression on your classmate. Perhaps you will do something
that will make people curious about your faith. Perhaps a bold act will turn
into an echo that will change your university, city or even society.
I challenge you to be priests now, to be present at the heart of
the university. As you walk into the corridors and enter the halls, know that
your steps are the steps of Christ, and your presence is the presence of Christ
in your university.
So do not be thieves like me, but be priests, because you are
called to this.
“When I mentioned I was a Christian, they turned on me, telling
me the Bible was a book of lies and saying that I was a judgemental idiot. They
didn’t care what I had to say.”
Caroline studies art and design in Northern Ireland. She
doesn’t know any other Christians on her campus. It can be a hostile environment.
When difficult moral or ethical issues come up in class, she doesn’t have any
Christian friends to turn to for support.
That’s why Caroline has decided to start a Christian group
on campus, with the support of CUI, the IFES movement in Ireland. She’s already
met with the college authorities and has set up social media pages for the new
group. She would love to start reading the Bible with interested seekers. But
it’s hard ground. Even after setting up a stand in the foyer to raise
awareness, only one student has come forward to join Caroline.
She asked us to pray:
Pray that the hearts of non-Christians will be
open to God’s Word.
Pray that the Christian Union will grow and
flourish so that together, in Christ, we can make an impact on campus.
