Written by Pr Sara Leong • Jul 06, 2021
The pandemic has taken so much from us in so many ways. In NextGen Campus, the disruption came in the form of their education. Some had to pivot their plans from furthering their education overseas to completing their tertiary education locally. Others were given no choice but to defer their graduation as they were unable to sit for their final examinations. Whatever the disruption and inconvenience was, it did dampen their spirits. However, just as we learnt from the story in Mark 4 about Jesus calming the storm, we are reminded that Jesus is with us in the storm. He commands the winds and the waves. We can depend on Him and our focus does not have to be on the storm that we are in but on Him instead. When we force ourselves to shift the focus off of ourselves, we get to catch a glimpse of what God can do through us when we become His willing vessels. So last year in April, I challenged our campus students to look beyond ourselves and to the needs of others out there. Although Covid-19 was an inconvenient disruption to many of us, it was a devastation to the less fortunate as it threatened their health and livelihood.
So I gave a call to Social Concerns to find out about how we can help. I know that no amount was too small and whatever we can muster up, we will give! Knowing that the people in our ministry were mostly full-time students with no steady income, I set a faith target of RM3000 collectively. I saw it as a win if we could get most of our members to contribute just RM10 each and I was prepared to cover the remaining. As we wanted to get the funds out quickly, we only had 72 hours to issue the challenge and collect the funds. By the end of those three days, the tally amounted to RM12,000! God in His abundant grace blessed us with 4 times more than what I initially expected! The funds we collected were channelled to help the families in the Zomi community.
Fast forward to this year, the realisation that the pandemic is here to stay hit us hard when situations seem to worsen not only in our own country but also in the surrounding countries. As we read about the situation in nations such as Nepal and India that have been hit so hard by the pandemic, my heart sank knowing that people were dying from starvation on top of the virus. There was a strong burden to challenge our campus students to give again. As the pandemic has been around for a while now, some of us may have been desensitized to the suffering of others. In God’s kingdom, it should not be a norm for people to starve. It should not be a norm that those who have plenty stand idly while those who lack suffer. I didn’t want this generation of young people of whom I get the honour of leading to grow up being indifferent to what is happening around us – we have the privilege of living comfortable lives while many others at this point in time do not. I felt the need to challenge our campus students to get out of our comfort zone, to look beyond the four walls of our home and church, to think of ourselves less and others more, and start making an impact right where we are.
So I challenged our leaders to own IMPACT projects as a CG. Additionally, I wanted us to take up a project collectively under the Campus Ministry. The opportunity arose for us to raise funds for the Nepal Covid-19 Relief under IMPACT Now and we went for it. I challenged our leaders as I got them to pray and state their faith target as CG so that I would know how much we could expect to raise collectively. The numbers came in and the target was set at RM12,000 this time; a figure that was significantly higher than last year’s target. I was amazed at their faith, as I knew that hitting the target would not be an easy feat for these 130 full-time students. Even so, I admired their faith and trusted that if this was the target God placed in our hearts, then surely He will provide for it. We gave our campus students about a week to raise those funds. Our final sum collected came up to a whopping amount of RM21,000.
It was truly amazing! How did we get there with mostly non-salaried full time students? I really don’t know but what I do know is that when God places a burden in our hearts, just obey it, and He will somehow make a way! I am grateful for the generosity of our campus students and really in awe of how God used these students to impact nations beyond Malaysia through such a humble initiative. I am in awe of His goodness and His abundant blessings over our lives that we get this opportunity to make such a difference. The thought that we have now helped many families struggling with poverty in Nepal gives me hope that good can still come out of a bad situation when God is in control. My prayer is that our contribution will not only meet the physical needs of the recipients but it will also showcase the goodness of our God, bringing these ones a step closer as they grow in their affections for our Lord Jesus Christ. To God be the glory!
Reported by Pr Sara Leong (NextGen)