College students
from all over Rio de Janeiro
It was wonderful
to hear about what’s going on in every campus. I could feel a little bit how
difficult is the reality faced by my friends in each university. Such
difficulties are as hard as the ones me and my friends face at my university.
In the perspective of a spiritual movement we understand that God wants to use
us so that great things can happen through us and thus His name be glorified.
Christ is the very center, His love is what moves us and His purpose is our
purpose too. We wish to see changes in our universities and therefore we need
to rise up. God has put resources in our hands and this is extremely urgent to
use them. We’re positioned in a strategic place, from where influent people
will rise and act in our society some years later. There’s so more than books,
philosophies and degrees and we should share it with them.
I lived a nice
experience when I mediated some discussion groups. I talked what’s our
objective, our goal, since we are a spiritual movement at the university. Just
like a fisherman, we need to fish in the seas of our campuses, sharing the love
of Christ with those ones we don’t know. We need to be daring althout we feel
hindered by circumstances (authorities in the campus, scarce resources, few engaged
people etc). Nevertheless, these things cannot keep us from doing God’s work.
We’ve been called to do ir and who enables us is God. We depend only on Him,
whatever we need comes from Him. Our goeal is to reach people so that they can
have at least the opportunity to hear about Christ and His redeeming grace. We
also must share with those ones we know, investing in relationships, investing
all our lives in theirs lives.
It was
so good to hear what students have been thinking to do in their campuses. I
felt so inspired and gave a lot of thought about my campus. I designed some new
strategies and felt encouraged to take some step forward. It’s time to see new
things coming and this is what I expect for the universities yet this year.
I was
also very glad with the presence of many new students. It was great when I came
and noticed all those new faces adapting to the context of our movement. It
gave me enthusiasm, hope. Day by day they were understanding their roles as
Christians at the university and how important they are in the process of
changes that can happen through them. I just wanted to get connected with them
and then show them my support, and tell them that they can count on me whatever
they need; I’m just here to help in their journeys. It’s very interesting to
look at myself today and see how different I am, ready to help them by being
always close to them and sharing with them a little bit of what I’ve been
learning from God. I was a big fun to be with them and learn from them. It’s
good to build new relationships. God has inspired me to think about the newness
that is to come. So many things have happened since last January; new students
appeared, things changed, perspectives have become clearer.
This
student retreat was just the beginning of something big, good and new that God
wants to achieve in our State. Students are rising up to be a reference of
youth in Rio de Janeiro
