Ministry team focused on leading students to Jesus

Assuring the next generation of Taiwanese people have heard the gospel is the goal of the Taiwan Baptist Mission’s Unbound Student Ministry (USM).

Representatives of USM said students bring respect for teachers with them to their universities. “And we want to introduce them to Jesus, Life’s greatest Teacher,” USM said on its Web site.

The total number of students in Taiwan’s universities and colleges make them a large mission field. The USM said there are more than 1 million students attending college in Taiwan, with an addition of 125,000 each year.

But along with the large number of students come obstacles because of the way previous generations of Taiwanese have been raised:

• 97% of students are non-Christians.

• More than 90 Percent of students are still expected to practice ancestor worship with their families.

• Many students go to temples and make offerings to false gods when faced with problems or under heavy stress.

“Affirming the role of the church in reaching students, we will work with all churches, as well as other Christian organizations, with a burden and a vision for reaching students and training them to reach their classmates,” the USM Web site said.

“This generation has been raised with the availability of many material goods, yet they lack meaningful, personal relationships,” the Web site said. “Like students of every generation and in every culture, there are trappings that hold them back and keep them from being all that God would have them be. We desire to ‘unbind them’ of these trappings and empower them to live the abundant life that Jesus promises to those who believe.”