This episode is a continuation of our discussion about the changes in the coming school year. We know that this topic is multi-faceted, and we recognize the concerns that a lot of people are voicing out. 

This episode is merely our proactive response to help us empower our listeners to serve and make disciples in the new campus in case the academic year pushes through. The views and insights expressed in this episode are not prescriptive.

5:56 Processing the Interview with Dr. Eva Arcena

• Campus missionaries are primary stakeholders in the campuses who need to embrace this new normal.

• Our partnership with different schools in spiritual guidance and character development is highly needed now .

6:32 How can we serve the campus in this landscape? 

• Our essential role is to empathize with the teachers, administrators and students as they embrace this new change.

• Teachers are facing a challenge in making sure that quality education will be served. We can grab the opportunity to minister and to support them as their campus ministry partners this season.

9:39 In a landscape wherein we are physically limited, is it still possible to change the campus and change the world even without the physical campus? 

• We need to embrace the call that we are front-liners in facing this new landscape. It is admirable that the teachers and school administrators are trying their best that this new school year will work. This season is a collaborative effort for all of us.

11:57

• The role of the parents in this new landscape is essential. However, not all parents can’t provide this because some parents are working while other students have absentee parents.

• This is where we can stand as spiritual parents to the students, and help them be connected to a church community.
• The new learning methods may be difficult for some students. As campus missionaries, we can guide them and help them cope with the challenges that they are about to face.

• Suggestion: We can provide tutoring and form learning groups for different students to help them adjust to different learning methods. 

• Suggestion: We can empower students to extend help and be a blessing to other students when it comes to adjusting and learning.

• Suggestion: The beauty of our campus ministry is that we can connect students to the local church, since we may have members who have expertise in the subjects or courses that the students will be studying.

19:00 What’s our role as campus missionaries?  

• Even before pandemic, our heart as a campus ministry is to serve. We can still continue to change the campu and change the world even in this new landscape by serving.

• Methods and tools will change, but the calling still remains. Our goal is to reach the next generation no matter what, and to be where the students are.

• Because the principles of campus ministry remain the same, we can navigate through the change to help launch the students towards the new normal. We are still called to follow Jesus, fish for people, fellowship with believers. Our core values do not change.

• How do we teach leadership, integrity, faith, and excellence to students in this setup? Home study is a great opportunity to teach self-leadership. It is essential to teach integrity since online learning can make cheating easier. Students can also share their faith in ministering to an anxious world. Lastly, excellence is tested and built as they do their best in their studies. 

23:05

• We can find ways to serve and partner based on our local context. There may also be a large portion of students who will not enroll this school year. 

• For students who will enroll, how can we prepare them? For students who will decide to take a gap year, how can we remind and lead them towards their purpose? No matter which option they choose, they have to know God’s purpose for them.

• What we can do best this season is to ask the right questions and listen to the people we are reaching out to. We need to stay close.

26:55 We depend on the Holy Spirit

Our God, will you not judge them? For we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.” 

2 Chronicles 20:12

• We are in this very unique situation where God has placed us in and we need to humbly come before God for His wisdom that trumps the best strategy. We are not experts here, even the brightest mind cannot fathom the best plan. We are in the best position of humility, waiting for the Holy Spirit to move.

• Philip depended on the leading of the Holy Spirit when he preached the word to an Ethiopian eunuch. Even though the instruction of the Holy Spirit to him may not make sense, he did it anyway, and that obedience bore fruit. (Acts 8:26-28). Keeping in step with the Holy Spirit is essential as we do campus ministry.

• Thinking of strategies and ways should be secondary. Our primary role is to be spiritual frontliners: to ask God and to position ourselves to seek and receive orders from Him.

30:04 We are the “Nehemiahs” of this generation

• Observations from the story of Nehemiah: Nehemiah cried out to God when he heard the news about the wall of Jerusalem. He lamented for the welfare of his people, but he waited on God to guide him in his detailed plan to rebuild the wall. 

• The season that we have now is not going to be easy, but just like Nehemiah, who fixed his eyes on the goal despite the taunting of Israel’s enemies and provided stability to his team, let us fix our eyes on God and secure ourselves in His call.

• As campus missionaries, our role is to lead and to encourage one another to provide help and assistance. We may not fully understand why we are in this season. It may make sense someday or we may never make sense of it, but we know that years down the road we’ll get to witness how God sustains us in any situation, despite the uncertainties. 

• Our stories that we get to collect here will be a blessing to the next generation. God can turn even the bad for His good purpose. This is our declaration for the future that we are about to face.