City Harvest Church’s Uni Campus Ministry offers undergrads opportunities to make new friends and develop support on campus.
By Jonathan Teo and Aaron Neo
CN PHOTOS: Henzy David.
One’s years spent in the university should offer one more than academic knowledge. What graduates mostly remember are the late night supper sessions, that hilarious project-mate who brings laughter to stressful project meetings, the friends who introduced them to a bigger, brighter world than they ever knew. They would recall these better than the facts taught in lectures.
Friends are a big part of campus life. To help undergraduates in the church network forge meaningful friendships with their fellow schoolmates, City Harvest Church started the Uni Campus Ministry.
Ee Zhen Ying, the zone supervisor in charge of the Uni Campus Ministry in Singapore Management University, says, “We want to connect the university students because they can feel quite alone at times. It is always good to take a break from all the mugging and recharge through fellowship and praying together.”
Each tertiary campus has its own fellowship group that meets on a monthly basis for fellowship events, prayer meetings or sharing sessions. The ministry also organizes occasional training workshops to help students develop life skills.
In the month of February, students from the Singapore Institute of Management and National University of Singapore held Valentine’s Day events to celebrating friendship.
SIMply Love
“Simply love friends. Friends make our lives colorful.” was the tag line for SIMply Love, the event organized by SIM students. Forty-one students gathered on Feb. 15 for a time of games and fellowship.
CHC zone supervisor Lee Yi Lun explains, “We hope that through campus events like SIMply Love, meaningful friendships can be forged among the students. Such events are an effective platform for university students to meet and connect with new people in their campus.”
The event started with a few rounds of games to break the ice among the students, most of whom were new to one another. Musical performances created a relaxed atmosphere for everyone to mingle and get to know each other over dinner.
The organizer of the event, Jonathan Ng, 21, told City News that it was great to see his fellow schoolmates having fun. “It was a much needed getaway from exams and deadlines.”
One of the performers, Darren Huang, 26, said, “It was a really good experience performing in a social setting. But more importantly, the event gave me the chance to make new friends.”
NUS Friendship Day
Students from NUS organized a cozy Friendship Day dinner for 15 at K Gourmet Café on Feb. 9.
Dinner, which was followed by games like Human Bingo and a Valentine Day’s version of Taboo, gave the students a chance to bond. After the games, the students, who came from different faculties and countries, shared their experiences of studying in NUS. The seniors took the chance to give their juniors some survival tips and offered to help them with their academic work.
Rhoda Siu, a sociology major, said, “I feel that the party was very relational as we got to mingle around and get to know other NUS students in a comfortable setting. I’m glad that we all took a break from school work. It was good to be able to enjoy myself with my friends instead of only meeting them for project discussions. I enjoyed NUS Friendship Day tremendously and hope to attend similar events in the near future.”
If you are a student in a Singapore university and would like to join the fellowship group in your campus, please email info@chc.org.sg for more information.
