Has God Ghosted Us?

by EU GradsFund

Brian Leung reflects on Easter evangelistic efforts in the EU

The first half of Semester 1 has been marked by joy and energy, but also significant challenges. On the one hand, we have had the joy of meeting on campus, in person, with great momentum in our second year since we came out of the era of Covid lockdowns. We’ve rolled out brand new small group content and seen some of our faculties experience massive growth from an influx of first-years.

On the other hand, university life continues to be disrupted by strikes. At the time of publication, students have already experienced 72 hours of strikes in the first half of semester; they are expecting to experience another 72 hours in the second half of semester. Although the university is encouraging students to be on campus, we keep finding that there are challenges to face-to-face ministry.

So as we came to our week of Easter evangelism in week 7, it was unfortunate that we were significantly affected by one of the planned strike days being postponed from week 6 and therefore falling on the day that would have had our largest Public Meeting attendance.

Nonetheless, many students took up the opportunity to be an evangelistic presence on the campus. One of the Howies, Rohan, helped the Engineering faculty in their initiative of handing out Easter eggs to invite people to the evangelistic Public Meeting. Pairing up with Jeff (not his real name), a shy first year student, Jeff handed out the chocolate while Rohan invited others to come. But after watching a few times, Jeff was able to have the conversations himself – surprising himself that others were open to talking.

The Health faculty also set up a hot cross bun stall, giving out 90 hot cross buns. As students waited for the buns to be heated in a sandwich press and buttered, EUers asked them to pick a random Easter-related question from a hat to answer, and used that to start a conversation.

I spoke at each Public Meeting that week, as well as the EU Postgrads and Staff (EPS) Easter Service, with a talk titled, “Has God Ghosted Us?” In the talk I sought to show how our behaviour of disappearing from awkward or difficult relationships, or “ghosting”, reveals relational immaturity in us. And though we may feel God’s absence, the Bible tells the story of how God has kept reaching out to his people, and we are the ones who have ghosted him. And the solution to our relational rift has come in the cross, where Jesus offered the sacrifice that we could not offer ourselves.

At the EPS Easter Service, Howie Felicity had a chance to chat with a PhD student. She had been investigating Christianity with Felicity’s help since January, and shared that she had finally become a Christian! While she still had her rational questions to work through, she had become convinced from the heart that God loves her.

Give praise for this new sister in Christ and pray for many more to come to know the love of Jesus this year.

– Brian Leung, EU Senior Staff

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