Freedom Within (La Liberte)

A few weeks ago, our team had the opportunity to welcome, Hannah Booth, a fellow Grand Valley alumni, and current staff member with Jesus Film Media.  While she was here, she showed us a culturally relevant way we could initiate spiritual conversations with students by using our mobile devices.   

We've been showing this video called La Liberte (only 5 mins long and totally worth the watch!) and then asking students what their thoughts are.  So far we've had some really positive results!  My last post about the great conversation that I had while initiating with a dutch student occurred while we were using this tool!

One of the things that this video does really well is it illustrates the natural human desire to help others after we've been helped ourselves.  I often find myself telling students that, I'm here to be the guy who points the other guy in the direction of freedom, because I've been freed myself.  From my experience this seems to sit better with dutch students who are have no desire to explore Christianity for themselves.  I've really enjoyed using this new tool, and I'm sure we will be using it more in the future!

Making progress towards the goal!

Our team's long term goal is that by five years from now there will no longer be a need for American staff workers to come to Tilburg anymore, because the ministry here will be completely sustained by Dutch staff workers and student volunteers.  

While on campus yesterday, I had the opportunity to conduct survey's with a Dutch student named Gijs (pronounced hice).  He's a great guy and he is really wanting to share his faith with his peers on campus!  I lead the first conversation, which didn't amount to any interest.  So then it was Gijs' turn to lead; something he'd never done before!  

A picture of Gijs!

We went up to 3 different people who all told him they weren't interested in talking to us, and I could tell he was getting a little flustered.  After a small suggestion, he initiated another conversation with a dutch student named, Carl.  Carl said he would do our survey, and so we took our seats.  After chatting with him for a bit, he told us that he hadn't felt completely free since his mother died a few years ago.  And that as a result of her suffering he didn't believe in God anymore.  We told him that we had found complete freedom before and that it is found in Christ.  And that we would love to share more about that with him if he wanted us to.

I could tell that Carl was deeply moved by our offer, and he said he was going to consider taking us up on it!!!  We gave him our contact information and now you and I get to pray that he follows through.

Even if we never that great conversation with Carl, the step that Gijs took yesterday was very significant!  We often quote Bill Bright and say that "success in evangelism is by faith taking the initiative in the power of the Holy Spirit to share the Gospel, and leaving the results up to God."  Gijs did exactly that in his four times today.  Three times people said no, and one said yes, but even if he got 12 no's he still would have been successful.

It is also really exciting for me to see Gijs step out in faith like he did, because he was the first male student at Tilburg University to do that.  We are hoping and praying that he is just the beginning.  And that soon we will have more and more students sharing their faith, giving Jesus more notoriety and hopefully a second thought from these spiritually apathetic students.

A Student's Perspective...

Here is the facebook status from a PhD student here in Tilburg from October 17 written after he joined us in practicing one of our evangelism tools called Soularium.  It's really encouraging!!!!

"I have been thrilled by what I have experienced today. It is not that I visited the planet Mars nor it is because I greeted a dinosaur. Far from it! It was just an ordinary day bound within the rising of sun and its setting. In the ordinary, however, there was something that made it different, extraordinary people. It was anecdotal evidence that what matters ultimately in life is relationship, both with God and People. It is not that they fetched a lot out of life as they turn gray amassing wisdom from everyday interaction, painfully learning from experience the hard lessons of life. They were indeed young and energetic American missionaries who are enthusiastic to share, the relationship they have experienced with their Lord. Their approaches were indeed ingenious. You cannot help but be overwhelmed by the love they have to the Lord and their attempt to make God at the very center of life. Their communication is a simple love that cannot be misunderstood.

In the interactions that I have they do not pretend “I have figured it out” mentality rather openly admit the fact that life is full of dazzling complexities. They are full of faith, not in the sense that they are sure of what is ahead (the customarily static understanding of faith as cognitive assurance), but in trusting the Lord (faith as dynamic relationship where at times an honest doubt being a means of refining it) even in the midst of confusions. Their friendship is not closed rather embracing, the invitation is extended generously.

In a sort of a creative game, a kind of projective test, we talked about our spiritual Journey. We all were presented to choose pictures from. In terms of representation the pictures range from concrete realities to abstractions. Indeed the pictures were a sort of stimuli or windows towards deeper understanding of self and God. At times we did not even know exactly why we have been attracted to the picture but once we picked it up quite an impressive insights unfold in a very fragmented manner.

The reflections were characterized by honesty with the spirit of openness among brothers and sisters. It was indeed a deeper introspection and of all we dare to share them even if they are not stories of victory. We have seen in our weakness also the presence of the Lord. In the stories told God always comes to the center. It was indeed an encouragement. After it I felt experiencing a true fellowship with brothers and sisters in Christ. It is my prayer for all of us to exhibit such a character and be a blessing to the people around us. It was indeed a blessing day and blessed individuals were the reasons to realize that."

Video Update!

Check out this video, where Nick describes a little bit of what we are doing here in the Netherlands!

Dreams do come true!!!

Everybody has dreams and goals that they hope to see become reality in the future.  I began to dream while reading a book called, "The Finishers" by a guy named Roger Hershey.  Thanks to Mr. Hershey for sharing his dream of one day being able to complete God's Great Commission, which commands all his followers to 
make disciples of all nations.  While reading, my heart was moved to the point that I began to share that same dream.  I mean, why wouldn't you want everybody in the world to experience the fully satisfying life that Jesus offers?

I don't even say that, because I'm some super spiritually gifted evangelist.  In fact, I'm not a gifted evangelist.  Most of the time, I'm not on a spiritual high, and wanting to talk to people about Jesus.  I think that in today's "passion" oriented Christian culture, we sometimes think that people who share their faith regularly, have better "spiritual DNA" than the rest of their peers.  That's not the case.  And this whole tangent is not what this post is really about, so I'll try to get back on course.

As I mentioned above, I began to dream about every people group on earth hearing the good news of Jesus Christ.  As I dreamed, I began to look at my life, and see that God has blessed me in many ways.  I was challenged by others and by Mr. Hershey to steward those blessings well, and finally came to the conclusion that I needed to commit to seeing the Great Commission completed in my generation.  That's my dream, as lofty as it may seem, but I do want to remind you that we serve a God who created everything you see, and loves humanity more than you ever could.  

And what a great God He is, because this past Thursday, He gave me the opportunity to travel to Leuven, Belgium to train students to share their faith with their peers.  It's not everyday that you are able to "go and make disciples" of another nation, and I'm super grateful to have had the opportunity to be a part of it!  Here are some pictures from our day:

On top of the 5 staff members from the Tilburg team, we brought 2 students and another volunteer with us to help.

Our group preparing to go sharing at KUL a the main university in Leuven that has 40,000 students.  Belgains tend to be more community oriented then Dutch students, and were generally less willing to open up about spiritual things with strangers.  If anything, we at least made them think a little bit.

 As Maarten, our team leader accurately said, "Great revival movements of the past began with prayer."  Revival is what I was praying for many times that day.

About 20-30 seminary students gathered to hear more about sharing their faith!!!

Leuven was also a beautiful city!

One of the most famous Gothic city halls in the world... just don't ask me what it's called. ;-)

  My favorite was Sint-Pieterskerk or Saint Peter's Church.  Check it out!!!

So blessed to have the opportunity to walk through this 800+ year-old church and pray that one day it will be filled again with followers of Christ.  
  

Undeserved Clarity

I think one of the ways that God chooses to bless His children is when He allows them to more clearly perceive how He's working in their lives.  I was able to experience this blessing in a number of different ways this week.  

For much of the time that I've been here, I really felt like my view of God in my ministry was just like the photo below:  

Let's say say that those little orange berries represent my view of how God was working here in the Netherlands.  I knew that we were influencing lives as we shared about Christ's love day in and day out on campus, but I wasn't seeing the whole picture yet.  I wasn't able to really connect with students during our conversations those first few weeks.  I felt disconnected even more with the language barrier and the massive spiritual apathy we see here.  

Thankfully, God takes care of us in just the ways we need it.  And this week, I guess He wanted to encourage me by letting me see a wider perspective of His work.  

On Tuesday night we held one of our bi-weekly openhouse events where we have been hoping and praying would be a mix of Christians and non-Christians.  Our prayers were finally answered when a few international students came.  On top of that we were able to connect with one of them, and play ultimate Frisbee yesterday.  And even more exciting he is interested in discussing spiritual things in more depth!!!  

A Christian international student we met this week, posted  a lot of really nice things about the "American missionaries" in his facebook status.  (I will share it on the blog as soon as I get permission from him.  It's really cool!)

Another spiritually apathetic student got to hear about how I had a community of people in the United States willing to fund my mission.  He was genuinely impressed that people believed in something that much to make them willing to give money to it.

Shelby (one of my teammates) and I, also had two really good conversations with students while sharing on Tuesday.  One student is in his first year, and seemed really interested in hearing more.  He said he used to believe that there was no such thing as God, until his mom died and he had an experience that lead him to believe that everything happens for a reason.  Please pray that I will be able to meet up with him again soon.

Needless to say it was an encouraging week, and I'm thankful that the Lord has blessed me with seeing more of His plans in action.

God has blessed me with seeing how He continues to make things new, just like this picture of the plant making the building beautiful again as it grows.  He truly is the one who knows what we need and when we need it, and I'm grateful to have the opportunity to experience His grace like that.

Enjoy your apple cider...

Yep today was one of those cold, rainy fall days with nicely colored leaves.  Unfortunately the only kind of apple cider they have here is alcoholic.  Thankfully there is hot chocolate though.

Fridays are our administration days.   So instead of going to campus in the afternoon, like we do Monday - Thrursday, we get to work the computers.  So for me, that entailed using Facebook to make sure all the students we know as a team were invited to our openhuis (open house) that will be taking place next Tuesday night.  I also tied up some loose ends with some of my ministry partners, and had two unplanned conversations with a Jehovah's Witness who is also our neighbor.  On top of that, I got to dabble in a little bit of personal development by reading, The Reason for God by Tim Keller.  

Not a bad day if I say so myself.  But I do miss the apple cider.