The South Pacific region is as varied as it is vast. With many student groups and movements geographically isolated, opportunities to gather together as a region for fellowship and training are invaluable.

At the SPARC regional conference every few years, students are encouraged to think missionally about their campus, country and region. This has helped to foster an eagerness among the students to pioneer work in new places. In recent years, students have started IFES movements in Vanuatu (2008), in the Solomon Islands (2013) and in New Caledonia (2019). They are now looking to see if pioneering work can be started in places like the Federated States of Micronesia, Tonga, Samoa and American Samoa. Students in New Zealand, Vanuatu and Fiji have recently launched new groups as well, supported by the IFES Breaking New Ground project.

While this kind of student initiative is worth celebrating, those involved in student ministry are confronted with a range of challenges. The Pacific Islands experience problems of corruption, broken families and a culture of passivity. New Zealand and Australia are both heavily influenced by secular Western culture, and are seeing a hostile secularism spread across campuses. In this changing context, national movements are equipping their students to share the gospel with their friends and be agents of change on campus.

Pray for students in South Pacific on 18 October! Learn more about World Student Day.