How GBU faces the Coronavirus emergency
Sharing Jesus from Student to Student.
This is the GBU motto. The goal is to reach university students with the message of the Gospel, proclaimed and witnessed by students who believe in Jesus as their Lord and Saviour.
At the beginning of the school year, students belonging to different GBU groups started planning activities and events to accomplish this goal. University students full of passion for Christ have organized Bible studies, prayer meetings, themed evenings with an evangelistic message, and many more initiatives. It has all been done with great commitment. Students invested time and energy, filled with enthusiasm and zeal, with the joy and the urgency of sharing the message of salvation in Christ Jesus.
The Coronavirus seems to have nullified these efforts.
Today, Italy is locked down, universities are closed. The students are at home and the GBU initiatives have all been postponed indefinitely. We can’t hide our frustration! The students use these events to proclaim Christ publicly, but also to establish relationships and share the Gospel one on one. Now the virus keeps us away from people and separates the GBU students from their friends, those friends who need someone to witness to them about Christ. And yet, we should and we must stop. The GBU students must stay home, not only to comply with the Ministry’s decrees, but out of respect for other students, professors, families and, in general, our neighbour.
However, we find ourselves asking: “Do we just stop? Is our mission quarantined also? Or is it still possible to Share Jesus from Student to Student in the times of Coronavirus?”
With determination and passion for God, GBU students all around Italy are taking charge with creativity to keep witnessing Chris and live their faith in the university. And since the university activities have migrated online and on social media, likewise GBU students are using these resources to have an impact on the multimedia student society of today. From Messina to Turin, students are implementing many activities: prayer meetings and Bible studies in video calls, evangelistic posts on social media, one on one witnessing with roommates, and many more ideas that are being born right as we speak. All this so that Gospel witnessing in universities will not stop.
After all, this too is a way of loving our neighbour. Doctors readily and lovingly care for those in need.With the same urgency and the same love, the GBU students want to keep on sharing Jesus with their friends, colleagues and roommates, so that others may choose to follow Him. That is why, in a climate where Italian students respond to government directions with fear or sometimes with blatantly careless attitudes, the GBU students continue to boldly proclaim their faith in God and the hope found in Chris Jesus.
“In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” [Jesus]
(Gospel of John, 16:33)
Domenico Campo
(GBU staff worker in Sicily)
