A common need
This post was originally posted on the Ichtus Belgium blog leading up to their week of prayer.
What is it like to be a student today in Belgium? In Brazil? In Burkina Faso? In Britain?
At the start of a new academic year here in the UK, universities and student life feature more prominently in the press. Alongside news that students at Cambridge University can now get up to 60 free condoms a week, there is debate whether the fall in demand for university places is related to the rise in tuition fees, and also discussion about what changes in university rankings might mean for the future of higher education.
The headlines may well be different in another country, yet, as I travel and meet students around the world, I encounter common themes.
Friendships and relationships matter. Community is important. More and more people feel the need to be living in community, to belong. Given the global economic climate, there is also concern for the future. How do you focus on your studies, when you are not sure you will get a job? Then there is the extreme and all-consuming busy-ness, not only with studies and socialising, but from incredible connectedness through Facebook and other social media. These all place a huge demand on today’s students.
New technologies also open new possibilities, and students are taking advantage of the opportunities. They are moving power from the centre to the edges, shifting power from institutions to wider society. Students are speaking out and getting out, using social networks to initiate protests. They are seeking deep changes in the society: the Arab Springs in North Africa and the Middle East, the Occupy Wall Street movement against financial greed and corruption, student protests in the UK against the rise in tuition fees. Students want to be in charge and they are shaping a new society, a new culture is emerging.
In addition, there are more and more students. A recent book forecasts that the world’s population of higher education students will more than double to 262 million by the year 2025, with more than half of this growth in China and India alone.
In the midst of this, I meet students with a passionate love for their Saviour and a boldness to make him known, even in the face of persecution and, for some, prison. IFES – this international fellowship of students – is alive and growing. I know young believers who sometimes fail and often struggle, but who keep going,learning to live out God’s love and having an impact on their campuses, in their churches and in society as well.
Students around the world face a common need: to become friends of Jesus and know his power to change their lives completely. Pray for the millions of students who do not yet know Jesus; pray for the staff workers; pray for believing students to use the gift given them by God to think biblically, to engage critically, to bring the light of the gospel to shine in dark places.
As you celebrate Student Sunday in Flanders, would you also join me in praying for these students around the world? Friday 19 October was our IFES World Student Day. The student world has great openness to networking and prayer is a core discipleship element. Here is a day when we can network around prayer. It is one of the highlights of my year!
As you come to him, the living Stone … you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house … offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 2:4-5
Daniel K Bourdanné, IFES General Secretary
October 2012
October 2012
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keep blogging