Raising the Next Generation of Leaders: Wee-Yeong Eyou M.A. ’23

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Wee-Yeong Eyou M.A. ’23

New Zealand

His passion for campus ministry is rooted in his own experience as a teenager. When Wee-Yeong Eyou M.A. ’23 was 15 years old, his family moved from Malaysia to New Zealand, which resulted in him struggling with identity and faith. While a student at the University of Auckland, he attended a campus event hosted by missionaries from Every Nation, a church-planting network. “That’s when I was confronted with whether to stay with my faith or walk away,” he said. “And by God’s grace, I decided to go all-in for God.”

After working 13 years in the corporate world, Eyou became an Every Nation campus missionary and pastor. Five years in, Eyou knew he needed a novel approach. He’d always used the popular philosophy of campus ministry: Offer free food and they will come. But the new generation in New Zealand, now labeled a post-Christian nation, was skeptical of anything religious.

Whenever Eyou asked students about their faith, they were often defensive or uninterested. “One day I just had one too many of these conversations that I felt so frustrated,” Eyou remembered. “I was praying, ‘Lord, how can I rebuild trust with young people?’”

So Eyou started asking a different question: “Is there anything I can help you with?” To his surprise, students were eager to answer. They shared struggles about finding their purpose, wanted advice on choosing a major, and asked questions about how to get their first job. Inspired, Eyou held topical events on life skills like leadership or job interviewing. Soon, these were the organization’s most well-attended programs.

Excited and hopeful but in need of resources, Eyou received two invitations in 2019 that elevated his approach. The first was from an acquaintance, Yvonne Godfrey, who founded a life skills program for teenagers called “Making It On My Own”  to help young people on their journey to adult independence. She offered Eyou the organization and all her materials. “She’s taken the time to build it, and then she’s going, ‘Here, it’s yours,’” Eyou said.

The second was an invitation to join an Every Nation cohort at Wheaton College pursuing a master’s in evangelism and leadership. “It made me hungry to learn more because I was inspired by these great lecturers,” Eyou said. He recently began a doctorate of ministry in youth, family, and culture at Fuller Theological Seminary, studying “how to engage post-Christian young people with the gospel.”

Today, Eyou juggles four roles as “NextGen” pastor (serving ages zero to 30), director of MIOMO (which they’ve developed into an online platform), doctoral student, and married father to two teenage boys.

“I feel like we’re at the cusp of a new generation,” Eyou said. “They just get out there and make things different. What they need are adults like me to believe in them, support them, and go for it with them. I really believe that whatever solution I find through studies won’t be led by me; it’ll be led by Gen Z and Gen Alpha.”