Lydia Adams

Slovenia has a population of 2 million with 0.1% evangelical Christians (less than 2,000) and almost 90% of municipalities lacking an evangelical presence.

Working with students is a strategic way of reaching the whole country.  IFES in Slovenia (ZVESh) is a small movement for students currently working in 3 university cities. We’re helping students from various churches to meet together in groups, be built up and discipled in the gospel and then help them effectively engage with the university and reach out to their friends and schoolmates.

A strategic ministry

There are many challenges: holding religious activities on university campuses is illegal; talking about God is strange and reading the Bible is very rare, but at the same time there is a great longing and searching for purpose, especially among young people.

Having benefitted greatly from being involved with Christian Unions personally, I’m convinced that reaching out to students is a strategic ministry. I think there should be a Christian Union in every university in Slovenia (and the world) giving each student an opportunity to come to know Jesus for themselves.

Brought up in Wales in a Christian family, I became a Christian in my teens but my time in university was crucial for me testing what I believed and why. Since then I’ve been working with students through IFES.

Equipping, discipling and mentoring

My current aims are to build sustainable student groups focused on Jesus and God’s Word, who regularly reach out and engage with their peers. Equipping students is a relatively new ministry in Slovenia and I pray that God will convince students of the spiritual benefits for themselves and their country of belonging to such groups.

I work one on one with Slovene and international students discipling, mentoring and counselling. I help them form groups of believers who read the Bible for themselves and are actively reaching out to unbelievers. With my team, I also organise larger projects, events and conferences that equip students to be able to live out their calling.