At our local university there are hundreds of international students, many from East and South-east Asia. Most of these students arrive in Australia never having heard the gospel. The sad reality is that by the time the students return home whether it be after 3 months or 3 years most still haven’t heard the saving message of the gospel, let alone submitted to Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins. That’s why we’re starting a new group for international students on the university campus. It’s called FOCUS and it’s a sub-group of Evangelical Christians (EC).
At FOCUS our motto is “make friends, meet Jesus”. We want to provide international students with the opportunity to meet people. Often students might come for a few years and never make an Australian friend. We want them to meet Christians who genuinely care about them and want to know them. But most of all we want to provide the students with an opportunity to meet Jesus, the son of God, who died for their sake.
We’ll be kicking off our first dinner and bible study on Wednesday the 20th of June from 6.15pm.
For a bit more info about FOCUS check out our web page or facebook page
Our goal of reaching international students for Christ is something we would really appreciate your support in.
One way you can be partnering with FOCUS is by taking part in the “Aussie Sunday lunch”. It’s an event run by Southern Cross University on Sunday the 17th of June. Australian homes/ families host new international students for a sunday lunch. It’s a great way to meet new students plus also let them know about the new FOCUS group starting on the coming Wednesday. You could host students as an individual family or in your gospel community or small group. For details about how to be a host grab a form to fill in from the connect table at church on Sunday and put it in the everything box or drop in or call the church office and fill out a form.
One thing to note is that FOCUS is aimed at people from non-English speaking backgrounds. So for example if an American student comes you could let them know about EC instead.
If you’re interested in supporting focus in ways other than (or as well as) the Aussie Sunday lunch please talk to James Ritchie or email at focus@eclismore.org
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