United Appeal | Caring for international students
Channel: PresbyterianIreland
Date: 24/02/2017

A United Appeal video highlighting the work of Derryvolgie Halls of Residence in Belfast.

In the leafy suburb of south Belfast you’ll find the Presbyterian Halls of Residence in Derryvolgie Avenue.

This is a Christian community of 88 young people, the vast majority of whom are studying at Queen’s University, Belfast (QUB). Students there are equipped and encouraged to be outward looking and to love their neighbours on campus, including those from further afield.
One area of service that many of the Derryvolgie students choose to be involved in is iMeal, a free meal for international students provided by local churches every Friday of term time.

Rev. Karen Mbayo, Presbyterian chaplain at QUB, explains, “iMeal has been a real success story of the last couple of years. We have about a dozen Derryvolgie students who come and commit every Friday night to this meal, befriending around 50 international students.

‘‘The international students are usually part of Erasmus, a European Union exchange programme, so they are only here for 12 weeks. It’s not about whether we have converted them in those 12 weeks, rather have we shared who Jesus is and who we’re about in that time? So when they go back home they’ve heard and experienced the gospel in the most relational of ways.’’

For more videos on the work of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland see our Vimeo channel at https://vimeo.com/presbyterianireland