Student-Led ministry conference in Málaga – 75 staff members, 45 key student leaders, 15 countries, from 11 to 15 March 2016.
It was a time of dreaming with God, sharing best practices, learning from one another and letting God capture the hearts of country delegates to reach 12.5 million students in Western Europe.
Here are comments and testimonies from the participants:
Ireland delegate, Stephanie Luke:
We took five of our student leaders to a ministry conference in Spain where they got some great vision for how they can be missional on their campuses. They learned more about how to effectively share their faith as well as how to help launch new ministries movements on other campuses by finding and coaching key student leaders. This was four days of ministry training GOLD and our students are so pumped about putting into practice what they've learned in really taking steps of faith on their college campuses! They are even planning on leading a training time to talk through what they learned with the other student leaders who were unable to attend the conference! Hearing them talk about their vision of what they pray God will do to spiritually transform Ireland is so inspiring!
It's what my job is all about...working alongside students who dream of revival across their country, and that they want to be instrumental in helping to bring that about by intentionally sharing their faith and discipling others to do the same which will lead to spiritual multiplication across Ireland!
What can you do when waiting in an airport for 8 hours in Sweden? Latvian students wanted to practice a new way of sharing their faith. They made cards with THE FOUR symbols (left) and shared the Gospel with three German students, one of whom was studying in Uppsala.
French Delegation:
The goal of the conference was to talk about our vision to reach 12.5 million students in Western Europe.
It was very enriching to exchange ideas in a multicultural setting.
The training on MyStory, THE FOUR and other tools was practical and helpful to stimulate the student-led movements everywhere so that each person could have an opportunity to say YES to Jesus. Aaron Robinson, director of campus ministry in France, shares: “I heard from several campus directors that their students had really captured the vision. They had shared similar ideas in their own countries over a cup of coffee, but being in Málaga in this kind of context, it makes one think and dream in another way.”
Two students from Corsica, Jean-Marie and Roch, said that they now understood the vision of Agape better and that they are even more ready to start something for Jesus in Corsica.
On the way home from Spain, Jean-Marie and Roch had a 9-hour layover at Charles de Gaulle airport. Jean-Marie had never visited Paris before, so you might think he would take an advantage of that opportunity, right? Maybe go see the Eiffel Tower? No, they contacted a French staff member and went to a university in Paris to share their faith! They wanted to test a questionnaire that they had put together on the plane!
Delegates from Austria, by Elina:
The time in NCD conference was very blessed for our student and our staff. Our student leader Maren started to dream really big during the conference as we were brainstorming what we want to see happen in Austria. She wants the movement at her university to serve all the other universities in Vienna and in Austria. She is trying to find other student leaders for her university so that they could reach students together. During the conference, Maren took also initiative to invite the Irish students for an outreach in Vienna, because there are cheap flights from Dublin to Bratislava, which is near Vienna. Maren was really impressed and motivated by the strategy that Agape has for reaching the students. She put it into action at the same week when by presenting her vision for her campus and Vienna to the Athletes in Action volunteers.
For our staff, the obvious highlight was seeing how enthusiastic our student leader was. It was amazing time to be able to create a vision and dream together for Austria. Now we definitely have more vision for our ministry in Austria and we feel more equipped to challenge the students to become leaders. God also put the little town of Leoben on Maren’s heart during the conference and already, during the same week, we met a student who is studying in Leoben and would love to learn more about evangelism and help start something on her university campus. We are excited to see how God will use this new contact.
Last Saturday morning, I woke up to the shouts and shrieks of children playing in the park below our apartment. Confused and a little annoyed, I shuffled sleepy-eyed to the window to see what the commotion was about.
Caradonna helped me put into words the process I was experiencing with God. Because we write a message on our bodies, it must be short and impactful. Caradonna helped me find words to convey my experience and encourage others through my message.
"Europe needs more Jesus." - Christian Pichler, speaker at Revive Europe.
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It’s such a pleasure to hear about the zeal to share the Good News among missionaries working with students! Way to go!