AUP’S ROLE IN EVANGELISM AS EXPERIENCED BY THE STUDENTS

Abstract

The Adventist University of the Philippines (AUP) is celebrating its centennial anniversary this academic year. In  its 100 years of existence providing quality education not only to Filipino citizens but also to other nationalities from over 60 countries, AUP has been doing its role in soul-winning, being one of the functions of Adventist  education. In fact, Adventist education’s primary role is to lead the youth in finding a saving relationship with Jesus Christ, thus this qualitative phenomenological study was conducted to find out how AUP has performed such function. The participants of the study were eight AUP students, four undergraduates and four graduates who were all converted and baptized in AUP. One of the participants, a graduate student, was baptized in his country in Senegal but did not feel any change in his life after baptism and only did he find true relationship with Jesus in AUP so he decided to be rebaptized here. Data were gathered through semi- structured interviews. The audio-recorded interviews were transcribed and analyzed. Eight themes emerged as to how the study participants found a saving relationship with Jesus in AUP: encouragement  and close relationships in small groups, Week of Prayer touching messages, devotions in classes, Bible study with friends, ways of worship in SDA specifically in AUP including music, influence of faculty and guardians, participation in the Voice of Youth (VOY) and beautiful landscape or nature of AUP that draws students close to the Creator and Savior. These results show the significance of AUP in terms of its role in winning souls and these may serve as basis in further designing and strengthening of spiritual enrichment programs.