Dear friends
‘We want to be more effective in evangelism. We realized that students meet as Christians and have a good time, but do not really approach other students. So we decided to decentralize the meetings, so that students in UGBB have more direct contact with non-Christians.’
The idea of Emmanuel Bagumako, General Secretary of UGBB, is to visit 14 UGBB groups by early June and encourage them to split into smaller ‘cells’. The number of Christians in each cell should not exceed the number of non-Christians. Once a cell has 10 people, they will split and create two groups.
Emmanuel continues: ‘Last year we discussed this project with students. Then in January we had a planning meeting with a group at the University of Kiriri – they were more advanced than I was! They had a plan to train 10 students and had chosen three pilot schools. They had the desire to see this project work and help other students become missionaries… they had even begun to train their leader! For me it was encouraging and a sign that the new paradigm can work.
‘In early April we had a retreat and assembled the group leaders - they had chosen the class leaders. Then we started to visit the campuses and have been working to implement this formula.’
‘There are those who are very excited and have already started to operate in the new concept. Some are still hesitant, they are accustomed to the old way, they like large meetings etc. So we try and tell them they can get used to it, and at first it can be a mixture of both and then we'll see what happens.
‘At the second campus, one of the leaders was very organized: he had a list of cells ready, but the rest of the committee found that it was all going too fast. I tried to explain that not everyone follows a new paradigm at the same pace, but we cannot stop those who are already at the front from advancing. I try to encourage them to understand each other and to follow.
‘So now we want to train more leaders—we originally formed the committee that had about five people. At the retreat in April more than 130 students were present. By the end of the year we hope to have trained 200 students.
‘Praise God for five new volunteer staff who have recently committed themselves to helping with student ministry. Without this new team I could not do it! I say thank you to the Lord for these young people who want to help, and pray for generosity in order to support these volunteers.’
‘Please pray that students will understand and commit to the new concept! Pray that the Lord may encourage them to change paradigms.’
Penny Vinden
IFES Global Communications
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