At the heart of the EU’s work on campus, is our second ‘Object’ – “to strengthen Christians in their faith and witness and encourage them to continually submit every aspect of their lives to the Lordship of Christ”.

With the changes and challenges of COVID-19 this year, we have had to rethink our usual strategies to engage students, and have adopted a ‘three spaces’ model to help students engage with God’s word and Christian community; Faculty Gatherings, Small Groups and Prayer triplets/ One to One Bible Reading.

Faculty Gatherings:
These are our weekly, online faculty Bible talks. This has allowed for greater community within the faculty but also an increased engagement with God’s word from the students who attend. Meeting online, while very different to face-to-face, has led to much deeper discussions. Students are wrestling with big questions and considering how they will apply the passage to their lives in the time following the short talk each week. It such an encouragement to see the student’s passion and engagement with God’s word!

Small Groups:
Now in semester two, it has been wonderful to witness the growth in the assistant small group leaders in their ability to both teach and pastor their first-year small groups. I’ve been particularly encouraged in Design and Engineering to see these leaders encouraging their people in evangelism and praying for their non-Christian friends.

Prayer Triplets/ One to One Bible Reading:
The third space has been personal discipleship through One- to-One Bible Reading and Prayer Triplets. One student involved in a prayer triplet shared this;

“My prayer triplet has been a great encouragement to me this year as we shared life together each week; discussing what has challenged, encouraged and grown each of us recently and through seeing our love for Jesus and each other grow so much over the year.”

God, in his grace has worked within and beyond these spaces and it continues to be a joy to see the students learn to submit all aspects of their lives to Jesus’ Lordship.

Dan Bemmer
Howie