Lunar New Year Outreach Dinner

Rose Ren May 2026

If you ask an international student from a Chinese, Korean, South Asian, or Southeast Asian cultural background what the biggest festival of the year is for their family, the answer will almost certainly be the New Year celebration — also known as the Spring Festival, Lunar New Year, Chinese New Year, or other names depending on different cultural traditions and calendars. It is a time when families gather together to share a feast around the table, express love for one another, and exchange blessings for the year ahead.

As many of you prayed and praised God for, at the end of 2025 the OICCU team organised a Christmas outreach dinner at St Ebbe’s. Praise God — it was a wonderful event where many international students were drawn closer to the Gospel. Many guests stayed in touch with Christians and the church afterwards, continuing to explore Christianity in their lives. Therefore, as Chloe mentioned in the last newsletter, we began praying and planning for another outreach dinner during the New Year season for international students who celebrate this festival. Many international students from these cultural backgrounds — mainland Chinese students like me, for example — often have less accessible contact with the Gospel and the church. Many did not grow up in Christian families or backgrounds.

So we asked ourselves: what could be better than sharing God’s blessing through Jesus Christ with these students during this New Year festival? Our prayer for the event was to welcome international students to celebrate the blessings of the Gospel through a wonderful evening filled with God’s word, great food, and genuine companionship from our hosts and Christian students.

There were over 100 guests at the dinner, not including table hosts and servers. Over half of the guests were from Asia, around 20% were from the UK and Europe, and others came from North America, Africa, Central Asia, and the Middle East. It was a wonderfully diverse and vibrant evening gathered together in St Ebbe’s Hall. At my table alone, there were guests from China, Singapore, and Iran. We enjoyed one another’s company and formed friendships that may never have happened outside that particular evening.

Nathan McBroom — International Student Worker at St Ebbe’s Downtown — gave a 10-minutes talk on God’s blessings from Psalm 8. Through the words, “Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!”, we prayed that guests would begin to see that everything, including ourselves, is created by God. And the greatest blessing on earth is that this Creator God laid down His life to save us from sin and death. To echo the message of the talk, we designed a keychain for each guest featuring Genesis 1:3.

Nathan lived in China for over ten years, and his love for and understanding of Chinese students and Chinese culture were clearly visible throughout both the preparation for the event and the talk itself. The table discussions afterwards allowed us to explore more deeply the idea of having a Creator God in our lives. Many guests had meaningful conversations and left with a new understanding of the Creator God. I also shared my own testimony of how God found me and how I became a Christian in China. For many guests, it was their first time visiting a church and hearing the Gospel.

One Chinese student sitting at Nathan’s table commented afterwards: “Could the Gospel message really be something this good? It almost feels too good to be true!” It was the student’s very first time hearing the Gospel, and it was clear that their heart had been deeply moved by the beauty of the message. Let us continue to pray for God’s ongoing work in their hearts and lives.

And of course — the food! The meal was delicious and created such a warm and welcoming atmosphere for the evening. Praise God for the volunteers in the kitchen and for their faithful service. To be honest, preparing the food for the New Year dinner was not easy, as we wanted to provide authentic Asian dishes of high quality for our guests. We also ordered excellent Chinese dishes from a local restaurant. We prayed hard for everything to go smoothly, and praise God that we were able to serve a wonderful feast.

The menu included Korean rice cake soup as a starter; beef brisket in tomato sauce and chicken in black bean sauce for the main dishes, alongside Di San Xian as a vegetarian option; dumplings; vegetable side dishes such as radish and cabbage; and homemade osmanthus jelly with goji berries for dessert. The guests at my table were genuinely touched by the hospitality and care shown through the food. The way we love our neighbours is often reflected in the time and effort we put into helping them feel welcomed and valued.

Our organising team has been hugely encouraged by God’s mighty work in people’s hearts and lives through this event. We pray that many of these students will continue to return to church on Sundays, and join midweek groups. After the New Year outreach dinner, we continued praying that more students from Asian backgrounds would come along to church. And God has been good, as always! We have already seen four Chinese students attend St Ebbe’s Easter events, and one student from mainland China recently became a Christian after the Easter Sunday service. Praise God!

Thank you so much for your earnest prayers — we could not do any of this without bringing everything before our Heavenly Father. Praise God for His blessings, not only for the New Year, but for the new life we have in Christ. Amen.