At least 117 souls were won in January by students who are members of the Students Christian Fellowship and Scripture Union (SCFSU) who have been on a quest to evangelise the nation.
The SCFSU is the parent body for the Inter-School Christian Fellowship (ISCF) and the Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship (UCCF). The ISCF is currently in over 200 secondary schools islandwide.
Ronaldo Rust, team lead for evangelism at the SCFSU, said the thrust towards evangelism is something that the students have committed to and have been doing very effectively since the challenge was given at the start of the year. He noted that 71 souls were saved during a devotion at the Denbigh High School in Clarendon, and nine commuters made the decision to give their lives to the Lord during a week of evangelism at the Half-Way-Tree Transportation Centre. A visit by members of the ISCF and UCCF teams to the Papine High School, also yielded good results, as 36 students gave their lives to the Lord.
Rust said he has been providing guidance to students in the different schools on how to evangelise. He pointed to one student at Convent of Mercy Academy who had taken on the mandate and has won 10 more souls, while two students at an all-male school in the corporate area have reached eight boys.
“This is something that she has never done in her life. She has never evangelised before, because before, there was a narrative that evangelism was for ministers and pastors,” Rust said of the female student.
“She had a shift in perspective, and as a result of that, so many lives are being impacted,” he noted.
General secretary for SCFSU, Paul Lewis, believes Christian students are in a good position to minister to other students in the schools, because they spend a lot of hours in that setting. He said staff workers from the east, central and western region of the SCFSU had conducted training with the students prior to the evangelism push.
“They may feel that they might not be an expert. They may feel fearful of talking to people,” he said, in explaining that students have some of the same concerns as adults when evangelising.
Lewis said the students are encouraged to take part in devotions and do follow-ups with those who have decided to give their lives to the Lord.
