Gallaudet University (GU) is one of the only known Deaf Universities in the world, where students flock from all over the world to receive a prestigious education, since 1864. With only have about 1,800 students attending, many leave after their undergraduate or after receiving a masters or Ph.D.  But what’s missing?

What most people don’t know, including the majority of GU students, is that there is a department called Office of Campus Ministries (OCM), where students can go for questions, counseling or if they are seeking spiritual guidance. GU does not recognize student run organization as a religiously accredited place for students to attend. There are only three known Christian organizations running on campus, but one of them will be making some drastic changes next year because of the lack of students.

Because of the student’s lack of knowledge of the existence of OCM, or participation in any of the student run organizations, there is a darkness that lurks over the campus every year.

Recently, the Baptist Campus Ministries decided to do some research and find out why no one knows about OCM… and what can be done to step up.

Here’s what we have found so far; many students are raised with some kind of religious background, but because of the lack of communication, they discontinued going to church. Many students, who are believers, feel peer pressure from their friends that they cannot talk about their faith, so they avoid stepping up. Many are not informed about the resources on campus, but if they were, they would most likely use it. We also discovered that even though the main reason for attending Gallaudet was for education, it was for social and cultural reasons as well. We also found, faith did not play a factor in their daily routine.

As a campus ministry, we strive to do outreach with the students. We find that many of them come to the campus struggling with issues but we desire to help them along the way by assisting them to make better decisions with the future, and preparing them for the outside world, where Jesus is crying out to millions of Deaf people worldwide.  If that hasn’t shocked you yet, maybe saying that there are less than two percent of Christ followers in the U.S., one percent worldwide, what’s more shocking? At GU, less than one percent.

If you think your campus is struggling to do outreach, imagine your day like this: I will spend time with God praying for the campus. The servants’ team meets up in the office; we have a meeting, pray for the campus and students. Then we either have a recreational time with them or we pursue Bible Study.

When we do these, two things happen, students never show up except maybe one or two at least once a month out of every week. When we attempt to do outreach before we start, students are quick to pass-by without a second thought.
For the first time in many years since OCM was established, we did a post-Homecoming worship service. Only 40 people showed up, which is better than we anticipated. We also did an Easter Worship service, where only two students showed up and maybe five other people. We believe that God has a plan, even if it seems like a failure in our eyes, having one person show up, made a huge difference. It’s a start to something new and we’ll be prepared for next year.

There are other supporting staff members through OCM (supporting staff members are people who serve under the Chaplains that work there).  One of them is a former student at Gallaudet and certified to run a non-denominational organization but has to work under the Assemblies of God campus ministries. We have taken the initiative to step outside our box this year by starting 24-Hour prayer. With this valuable tool in doing outreach, we believe it will do more next year… such as bringing revival to a truly dark place.

Even though I’m working for a campus ministry through the University and not student run, we question how far can we go if no one is reaching out to the unreached, and how far are we are wiling to go to get them prepared for the mission after they leave their campus?

So when you go to bed tonight and imagine your campus, imagine what it would be like seeing oppression everywhere.  Imagine that culture seeing your campus not worrying about culture, social status, dealing with language barriers from hundreds of countries coming together to speak the same language. Imagine that most students are resistant to something better than them, and I mean almost every single one of them.

How would you break the wall that’s been difficult to tear down? GU is just another college campus, with amazingly intelligent students. But believe in God? It’s not actually impossible until we release the oppressed.