RISEN stands for ‘Reaching International Students in Every Nation’ and is an initiative of followers of Jesus who are committed to sharing the Good News and demonstrating the love of Christ to international students all over the world with the aim that those international students would influence their respective nation, tribe and people with the Gospel.
Prayer and listening to the Holy Spirit
God precedes us in His work and invites us to partner with Him. Prayer and listening to the Holy Spirit demonstrate our dependence on him. Every movement has to make prayer (and fasting) a top priority.
Hospitality
God has welcomed us into his family. In the image of this reception, we seek to demonstrate the value of hospitality through concrete acts.
Faithful friendship
Beyond all the activities that we organize, we seek, above all, to build sincere and faithful relationships that will last even after the students have returned to their home countries.
Proclamation of the Gospel
The primary need of international students is to be reconciled with their Creator through Jesus Christ. We not only demonstrate love in action but we also proclaim the message of reconciliation and hope in a way that is relevant to each community and each student.
All nations
We address all students regardless of their cultural or religious background. We do not prioritize any particular community or religion, even though we seek to proclaim the Gospel in a culturally relevant way.
Community
We see beyond the students themselves entire communities being reached. We therefore think of our witness not only to individual students but also to their communities. God has gathered us into communities---our churches---and it is with and/or through them that we want to reach international students.
All generations
RISEN seeks to encourage believers from all generations to take part in this wonderful ministry. Whether retired people, families, singles or couples with children or without, as well as students, all of them can make a huge difference in the lives of international students.
Focus on receiving countries and sending countries as well
We work both on inbound mobility (receiving countries) as well as on outbound mobility. Some countries where believers are numerous send a large number of their students compared to the number of students from outside their countries that they receive. That is the case of Brazil or Nigeria, for instance. In those countries, we focus our ministry in mobilizing, preparing and equipping the future international students who are disciples of Christ to intentionally reach their future classmates from all over the world.
Incarnational witnessing in language schools
Alongside traditional international students, in recent years, we have seen an incredible growth of the number of people who go abroad in language schools to learn or improve a language. We think the best way to reach them is to send believers who both want to improve their language skills too and who want to witness to the nations.
Adaptability
The way that the ministry is done can differ from one place to another. In some places, our emphasis is more on preparing students in their countries to be part of the global mission. In other places, it's more on welcoming international students. And there are places where we do both. In some countries, we only focus on languages schools.
Pioneering spirit
Pioneering is in the Gospel DNA so that we are always on the lookout for new locations to start the ministry. We focus on places where reaching out to international students appears to be most needed and where we observe no ministry or very little compared to the opportunity.
Europe - Africa
podcastRISEN Antsirabe, Madagascar
©2023