A semester goes by more quickly than you might think. This semester is nearly over, and it feels especially true this time.
Perhaps it’s because so much more is going on in the Student Ministry than at this time last year. There’s not just one bible study each week, but two, as well as a reading group. We went this semester to Pilanesberg to see the animals, and more recently paintballing (from which the student missionary is still carrying around a few bruises).
It’s a constant effort to maintain a proper balance in this combination of faith education and relaxing, fun activities. Both are important: It’s not just knowing what is right and wrong, but also the experience of being together with other children of God in the church of Jesus Christ that helps lead people to the Word of God – the gift of God that keeps us in the faith and carries us in difficult times.
Still, our main meeting is the Wednesday night bible study. Every session this semester has had something to do with the main topic of “spirituality.” You can address endless topics under that heading. My hope was to emphasize that from which a Christian lives from day to day, what a Christian can expect and hope for from God, and how a Christian can speak about this hope. I would have liked to invite representatives from other churches or even other religions to come to speak, so that we could compare, but the semester was over too quickly. Perhaps there will be opportunities in the future.
In May, we organised a blanket drive to collect warm winter items for especially needy students here at the university. As I write this, we’re still in the midst of that effort. I’ve been especially happy to see some of those students help with this who don’t come to bible study so often anymore. As their schedules change each semester, some who were able to make it Wednesdays in the past cannot now. Without the regular meetings, the contact can dwindle quickly.
We’ll continue in the second semester of 2016. We’re thankful to God for the peace that’s returned after a long period of protests at the university, as well as for every person who’s involved in the work and by being there enriches it for the rest of us. This is true not just for the students, but also for the many helpful congregation members in Pretoria and in other FELSISA congregations. We’re dependent on this cooperation, on your donations, and on your prayers. Please continue to think of us! Into God’s hands we entrust the success of the work, that faith will grow and be maintained, and that new students will come to faith in Jesus Christ. May He give His blessing.
Jacob Corzine, Pretoria