InterVarsity students at the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) invited their friends to view Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ. Revana, a freshman, asked her friend David to attend the film with her. “It was a great opportunity for me to share the gospel with David,” Revana said. At the end of the film, David and Revana sat through the credits in silence. As they left, Revana asked, “What did you think, David?”
David expressed his sincere interest in God and said that he had a lot of questions about his personal relationship with God. Revana listened as David described the void in his life that couldn’t be filled by friends and parties. Revana shared some of her experience with God, and David asked, “What is InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, and what do you do there?”
Extending an invitation to David was a big step of faith for Revana. “As I was praying for people to invite to the film, David’s name came up. I was scared to talk to him, since I’ve never really talked to him before. I felt God urging me to ask him how he was doing, and if he was content with life,” she said.
Six of the non-Christian students who attended The Passion of the Christ outreach expressed interest in exploring Christianity further and joined a GIG (Groups Investigating God, Bible studies for non-Christians) on campus. Revana wanted to do more to share the message of God’s love portrayed in the film. She suggested to Eddy Ekmekji, InterVarsity staff at UCLA, that they organize another movie event. “Yeah, I’ll help you with anything you need,” he replied. Revana thought, inviting one person to an event is one thing because if they reject you, they’re really nice about it, but planning an event is out of my league. Revana decided to take a risk and plan the event herself.
God used the planning of this event to increase Revana’s faith and trust in him. The support and encouragement of her friends in InterVarsity helped her attend to the details of what she hoped would be a large event. A group of students helped Revana post fliers announcing the event.
Seven people came to watch The Passion a second time. After the film, the group stopped at a restaurant to discuss their reactions to the story.
“To take that risk and step out in faith, and then see God coming through in the end was amazing,” Revana said.
