EQUIP 2026: Reflections from a student attending for the first time!
Kirsten Buick is a second-year student at the University of Galway who studies Media and English and is part of Dóchas Christian Union. This year was her first-ever EQUIP. Read on to see how she was impacted by it!
This September, I went up to Castlewellan to attend EQUIP for the first time, and it is safe to say I am now obsessed with EQUIP and will be there next year! There were so many highlights, but if I had to focus on one, it would be Wednesday evening's session at the launch of the IFES World Assembly.
Throughout the evening, as various people spoke about the World Assembly, someone recalled a story Pete Dray, last year's main speaker, had told them. The story goes a little like this: “I (Pete) was at the World Assembly in Poland in 2011. One day, while we were in our small groups, we were talking about the challenges of walking in faith in our countries. The woman across from me was from a country in North Africa. To get to the World Assembly that year, she had to leave home in the middle of the night and couldn't tell her family and friends where she was going. She had to leave her phone behind. After she left, she walked to her country's border, took a boat and then a plane to Denmark, and travelled by bus and train to Poland.”
That story struck a chord with me. Ironically, one of my highlights was something that humbled me. It opened my eyes to how ungrateful I am to live in a country where Christians are not persecuted, to how I can be bold in my faith, and to how much more I need to do so!
Initially, I looked at EQUIP as a chance to see my Christian friends from across the country, and while that is a great thing, EQUIP really brought my mind and heart back to the real reason we gathered. We are students who love the Lord, who are reaching out to other students for Christ! My experience at EQUIP reignited my heart for praying with and for others. It reminded me of the importance of representing Christ, not in a way that feels like immeasurable pressure to be perfect, but rather as a gift. I get to serve God through social media for my Christian Union and meet hundreds of people for whom He laid down His life.
As Jesus says in Matthew 17:20, "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move." EQUIP taught me that you cannot see the mountains moving if you keep looking at your seeds. We need to seek God, serve others, and flee from self-obsession.
Another thing it taught me was the significance of prayer. I want the year ahead to be prayer-oriented. As we seek a closer relationship with Christ, we can go deeper with Him. I want to bring encouragement into the CU so that we may spur one another on in our God-given gifts and strengths and, most importantly, so that the word of God is authoritative, relational, contextual, and climactic. All of it points back to Jesus, who was the ultimate sacrifice and declaration of love and is the living God. All we do is for Him and because of Him, meaning we are not doing it alone but with Him. You are never alone. We are never alone.
