“This mystery [of the gospel] is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.” – Ephesians 3:6

The International students with whom we have been trying to build friendships, seem to be lacking in disposable time for three reasons: 1) they spend most of their disposable time in library studying; 2) a lot of them is dedicated to studying because English is often one’s second or third language; 3) the students are often fearful of failing any subjects – failing would mean spending a lot of money to listen to the same subject, which would bring shame upon them and their family.

To address this challenge, folks at euFOCUS needed to get creative. For our International friends who spend every hour and interaction during their day to produce some degree of tangible benefit, we decided to spend Saturday mornings participating in St Peter’s Park Run – pursuant of physical benefit. Afterwards, we would grab breakfast together –  pursuant of emotional and relational benefit. We have been doing this for the past 6 weeks and it has been of great physical benefit for all of us. However, we have yet to work out a way to introduce a bible component to this weekly BYOIF* gathering. We pray that God will give us wisdom to be innovative in this area too.

*BYOIF – Bring your own International friend