Strategic Student Ministry in Kyrgyzstan – Morph

A reflection by Lim Ying, a recent graduate from NUS VCF Life Science, on her Morph experience. Morph is a FES education and engagement program for students to encounter God at a deeper level and go through experiences that challenge their life perspectives.

I signed up for Morph during my final year in school. I had been feeling uncertain about what I wanted to do in the future, and I did not want to succumb to the pressure of securing a job immediately after graduation. Hence, I decided to sign up for Morph so that I may have a more God-centered direction to work towards leading up to graduation, while also learning more about the Mission of God.

Final day in Talas! The local ministry sees a need to pioneer a student ministry in this town. Thus, it was especially important for the local team to form connections with the Talas students. This would allow for future visits and the pioneering of the student ministry

During our trip to Kyrgyzstan, I noticed how our exoticism always attracted large crowds of curious local students. They wanted to hear more about Singapore, about what we thought of Kyrgyzstan, all with the added benefit of practicing their English. However, as days went by and the initial attractiveness of our heritage died down, many students continued to express an interest in our team. Perhaps it was because of the language barrier, or the knowledge that we would be leaving soon, but it was evident that instead of forming friendships with the local students, we became the bridge that helped form friendships between the local team and the local students.

Ministry work is a slow process, especially in a place like Kyrgyzstan where evangelism takes the form of journeying through life with the students. Simply treating the students with the love that God has shown us, sometimes without even mentioning God, can leave a huge impact on the students. While hard work is required in ministry work, I find that being strategic is far more important. If outsiders like us are too aggressive with our own agendas of making a big impact on our short trip, we risk ruining the progress made by the local ministry. To put it bluntly, the greatest strategic value of our trip was an opportunity for the local team to draw students in.

After two weeks with the Karakol students, we had a tearful farewell. We can see how important the local team is to the Karakol students, as the students look up to them and treat them as pillars of support. It was precious to see the local team taking time to truly understand every one of their students