“It was wonderful to see international students engage in events each day and throughout the week at Purpose Belfast. We had a full room each night at our International Meal & Message and the numbers of international guests grew from 20 to 25 and then to over 30 by the end of the week!

 

Our speaker, Neto from Brazil, shared how Jesus offers us true belonging, freedom, and purpose. One volunteer shared about a great conversation with ‘J’ from China who had never really heard of Jesus before. “She was asking really great questions, one in particular along the lines of ‘so no matter what I have done He can forgive me?’” ‘J’ came along every night and has also been attending a weekly discussion group for international students.

 

One new addition to the events this year was running three follow-up evenings for internationals, that included dinner and a Bible discussion. I was so proud and encouraged by the small team of students who organised, cooked, and lead these evenings. Faith, the international secretary from Ulster Belfast shared: “Most of our students came from India and we had over 10 students join us over the course of the 3 weeks. It was really encouraging to see ‘S’ and ‘N’ in particular engaging last week and asking questions, and in general the engagement from students has been amazing. A lot of people took bibles home with them as well…”