This year in the EU, the SMEAS (Special Meetings of the Executive and Staff) has encouraged the union to shape their ministry around three values, one of which is spending time on campus.

But what does spending time on campus look like?  On first reflection, it sounds pretty straightforward. All you have to do in order to achieve that is to physically be at the university for more hours. This goal isn’t just about the time, though; it’s most significantly about investing in life on campus and being active at university.

This can happen in lots of ways. Some students have gone about spending more time studying with friends at university, especially non-Christian friends.  This gives students more of an opportunity to build their relationships with their peers in an environment outside their regular class hours.  Another way of engaging with non-Christians more on campus is to join in another club/society.  This allows students to make new friendships, and have their relationships grow around a mutual shared interest or regular activity.  Some faculties, for example, have started a social netball team which they’ve invited non-Christian friends to join.

Other students have decided to help out with an EU ministry.  The EU has lots of ministries which can benefit from more people being keen and willing to help. One example of this is Walk-up evangelism.  Spending an extra hour a week on campus is a great opportunity to go out to share the gospel, and if 20 students were to commit to spending an extra hour a week doing this, that would be an amazing 20 extra hours of proclaiming Jesus as Lord to the university!  Another example is doing an Equip training course.  This allows students to benefit from the great training opportunities that are available within the EU, and has already seen great fruit, with approximately 110 students engaged in training this semester.

This value of spending more time on campus is one small step that can help further the vision of the flood under God’s strength.  If each of the 800-900 students involved in the EU decided to commit one extra hour on campus, that would equate to 800-900 extra hours of the gospel being proclaimed, of building relationships with their non-Christian friends and of being witnesses of Jesus’ love to the University of Sydney.

If students spend more time on campus, then they also have significantly more opportunity to benefit from the EU’s many structures for service and training. This value is most helpful for the flood in the way that it challenges students to actively consider how they are spending their time and what they are investing in.

In order to spend more time on campus the students must consciously decide to not spend their time elsewhere. The value of spending time on campus helps the students to think about how they can be investing their time and energy in the community to which they are ministering, which is essential to them fulfilling the flood vision. Please pray that students would see the great value of investing in the time they have at the University of Sydney, and that God would work powerfully through students and staff alike as they spend more time on campus.