Defero Ichthus, a new Christian group at Oakland University, is aiming to share the original story of Easter with students at Oakland with new forms of communication in mind. “We have done skits to communicate what Easter actually meant,” Nsiah said. “This time, I thought we would go video, because the medium for this generation is through videos.”

Defero Ichthus plans to incorporate personal experiences in the video, titled “What It Actually Meant: The Price of Life”, but plans to base its information off of the Bible.

“We try to stick with Biblical truth,” senior Josh Rooker said, “So with everything we were coming up with, we wanted to go back to the Bible and make sure we were communicating the Gospel and not just our thoughts and how we have twisted them to what our culture believes a Christian is.”

The video will be released on Sunday, April 6, via Youtube and Vimeo. They also plan to hold a screening event Tuesday, April 8 at 6 p.m. in 156 North Foundation Hall.

“There will be a room where all the students can gather [to watch the video], and they don’t have to be from any affiliation or religious background,” sophomore Hannah Dugan said.

The video will be approximately 15 minutes, but split into multiple parts to attract viewers.

“We understand that not everyone wants to sit down and watch a 15 minute video,” Dugan said while laughing. “But maybe a three minute video.”

Instead of keeping the video solely on Oakland’s campus, the group said it hopes the video will go viral online.

“We’re looking to have the video circulate and go around, and start at Oakland by giving them the true meaning of Easter before going outside the campus,” Nsiah said. “We hope to establish a reputation with the students for future events.”

The Name Game

The group’s name has its origins in Greek and Latin, where defero translates as “to communicate” and ichthus as “God’s son” respectively, giving it the name “To communicate God’s son”.

“The motive behind [Defero Ichthus] was to communicate what Easter actually meant,” Senior Rockson Nsiah, a member of the group, said. “We want to communicate what the major Christian holidays are, revealing what the pagan, culture-infiltrated aspects of them are and the true meanings behind them.”

The inspiration for the group came to Nsiah when he experienced an Easter party at a friend’s house two years ago.

“It was fun, but it had nothing to do with what Easter is really about,” Nsiah said. “After the eggs, I was hoping there would be some Bible time, some time to discuss what the season is really about.”

Ultimately, the group wants to reach everyone, Christian or otherwise.

“We look at the brokenness of our culture, the redemption, and what that means for the future, [such as] reconciling people to each other and people to God,” Dugan said. “We also have a segment on reaching out to people who are not of the faith and sharing our understanding of Easter. And also on challenging people who are of the faith and challenging them to live out the truth.”

More information about Defero Ichthus can be found at www.deferoichthus.org or www.facebook.com/defero.ichthus.

Contact Intern Michael Pulis at [email protected].