Month: March 2020

Leadership

General

Recently at a student event I saw an interesting scene. At the front of the meeting room, a musician was performing some songs. Throughout the room there were a number of tables laid out with students sitting around them, watching the performance.

At one of the tables, there was a group of guys. They sat, soaking up the atmosphere and gazing admiringly at what was going on. All of a sudden one of them looked down at a leaflet on the table containing the lyrics of the songs that were being sung. The other guys also looked down. This one guy then lifted up the leaflet. The others followed suit. He perused it. His colleagues began perusing too. Finally, he put it back on the table. The other guys also put it down.  

Once the evening was done, this central guy got up, putting his jacket on and prepared to leave. Then, he headed out of the room. You can imagine what the other guys did!

One of the topics that is very popular in this day and age is leadership. Left, right and centre, there are courses, seminars, books and all sorts of nuggets of wisdom on this topic. All of us human beings are one way, or another, affected by others and in turn involved in have influencing on those around us, which explains the popularity and relevance of the topic.

We could define leadership as the ability to influence the actions of others. Above we see a good example, whereas when I organise children’s activities, a less than successful leadership attempt can be witnessed!

There are probably many different styles of leadership, some better than others, although much depends also on the abilities of the person leading as well as the circumstances in which leadership is being attempted.

Many leaders prefer an authoritative style. This has the advantage that it can motivate people to get things done, but the disadvantage that it depends a lot on the whiles and whims of the leader, who could easily abuse the situation for personal gain or mistakenly lead people in a wrong direction.

Thus, a second leadership style is group leadership. A good example (hopefully!) is democratic government. Here, although things are often led by one person, a prime minister or president, they are subjected to scrutiny by their own political party, which is then in turned scrutinised by opposing parties. In other words, not just one person is deciding what to do.

A third style is relaxed leadership, or ‘pandering to the people.’ This involved making decisions simply based on what others want. Otherwise said, letting the people being led dictate to the leader what to do, rather than the other way around. In a measured way, it is important to let the people being led have a say, which is at the basis of democratic government, but it’s probably still necessary to have someone making the decisions because it will be chaos in any organisation if everyone can have their say. As they say, where there are two Baptists gathered, there are three opinions!

There is a much-loved Bible verse in Genesis 2:18, which says that ‘it is not good for the man to be alone…’. Obviously from the context this is talking about marriage as God then proceeds to create Eve. Nevertheless, throughout the Bible we can see examples which show the same principle applied to Christian ministry.

One such occasion would be at the beginning of Exodus when God appears to Moses in the burning bush and tells him to go to Pharaoh and request that he let God’s people go. Moses is not too keen on such a daunting task, so we see in Exodus 4:14 God sending Aaron along as well. They form a team that undertakes the difficult work of freeing the Israelites from Pharaoh’s grasp.

In the New Testament, we find Jesus choosing a group of men to be His apostles, that were with Him and went out to preach (Mark 4:14). When He sends them out, He sends them out in pairs (Mark 6:7). Thus, even Jesus didn’t work alone.

There is much debate and different opinions to church leadership, but from what we have seen, it can nevertheless be said that some sort of team leadership is favourable. In 1 Timothy chapter 3, Paul describes both church overseers and deacons thus suggesting more than one person in leadership. From both personal experience and scripture, it is clear that Christian leadership is a spiritual battle (Ephesians 6:11), so it is logical that those in leadership need support and hence a team leadership model is a good idea.

As alluded to above, team leadership can eliminate some potential problems when one person becomes too dominate in leadership. It offers the chance for accountability, which can help things remain on track and prevent things becoming one person building their own empire, for their own ends. It also shares around the burden of a work or ministry and means that things don’t all depend on one person. This can be particularly important as things can often be great if there is a charismatic leader leading the way, but if that leader grows tired or goes off the rails, they can then fall apart.

Team leadership thus offers longevity to ministry as it enables leaders to keep going for longer and gives rise to the possibility of followers who will take things on at the right moment. A good leader will also want a group of people to share their vision for what is going on, as that way people will be more inclined to get involved, if the vision is group owned.

One other advantage of team leadership is that it guards against the extreme of a leader simply pandering to the people and not actually leading anywhere.

A good text to illustrate Christian leadership is Mark 10:42-45, which compares leadership in the world to leadership in the Kingdom of God. Here, we see that in the world people lead by dominating others for personal gain whereas this is contrasted with serving others. Indeed,

 ‘For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.’ Mark 10:45

Thus, in the world as someone progresses in leadership their rights and privileges grow. On the other hand, in Christian leadership as someone progresses their rights and privileges decrease, and their responsibilities increase. This can be illustrated by an example that I heard of the General Secretary of IFES queuing in a long line for food at a large student conference, rather than skipping to the front of the queue!

In conclusion then, we can say that team worker is when a group of people make a coordinated effort to fulfil a task. Team leadership is when a group of people coordinate that effort. From a Christian point of view, the aim of team leadership is to build up and serve those around through the activities carried out, rather than profit from them.

Inspired from ‘CURS Baza biblică a conducerii şi lucrului în echipă

de Mihai Dumitraşcu, Cristi Petricioiu şi Mihai Ciucă’ BIG impact Romania

Why me?

Meditations

One of the big questions in life is ‘Why do things happen the way they happen?’

There could be many and endless answers to this question, but for what its worth, here are my thoughts.

One way of looking at it could be to say that there is no God or higher beings that exist, so everything that happens depends on me and my circumstances. In other words, I have to take the cards that life deals me and try to make the best I can out of them. If I want to achieve something in this life, I need to get on and do it, hoping that sickness, crime, natural disasters or other forces out of my control don’t get in the way.

This approach can be modified using a phrase that a Greek man once described to me as apparently being a Greek saying (anyone?) ‘συν αθήνα και χείρα κίνει– the sum of Athena and my hands’. This I understood to mean that what I have in life depends on a combination of what the God’s (i.e. Athena) give me and what I manage to achieve with my own hands.

Both these points of views have something in common. They emphasise me and what I am able to make out of life. The first one however suggests that other factors that influence my life are merely dependant on the nature around me, whereas the second recognises that there could be divine beings but implies that their involvement in my life is limited.

Personally, I believe in the exists of just one God, the God of the Christian Bible. Much could be said about this, but I have explained my reasons simply elsewhere. This then gives rise to two other possible perspectives about why things are the way they are.

The Bible contains the concept of sin, which can be simply though of as humans not doing as they were created to do. Over the centuries many peoples and cultures have had an idea along these lines. Thus, we can consider the things that happen as a consequence of this sin. A simple example would be the Canaanite people who lived many centuries ago in what is today Israel. They believed that humans had to offer certain sacrifices to the God Baal. If he was pleased, he would then send rain so that crops would grow. In other words, in their thinking, the weather depended on the mood of Baal.

In a Christian sense, we can take things a little further and say that the world is the way it is due to the consequences of sin, which Christianly speaking is disobedience to God. The first humans didn’t obey God’s command not to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the result was that suffering and death entered the world. Hence, in a general way, everything that happens is connected to that.

However, as human beings, we are more interested in the question of why certain things happen to me. ‘Why me?’ is an age-old refrain. Here, there would be three possibilities.

The first would be that things have gotten out of God’s control. Similar to the Athena example above, some people might say that although God set the world in motion, he is no longer influencing what is happening, whether intentionally or he is just not powerful enough.

Secondly, there is the idea of karma. The things that happen to me are proportional to the good or bad that I have done. This means that good things in my life are a reward from God, but bad things are a punishment for my sins.

In the Old Testament in the Bible, we do indeed find this sort of idea. An example is Deuteronomy chapter 28, where the blessings for obeying God and curses for disobeying Him are described.

However, there is a third idea, which springs from the fact that we have both the Old and New testament and so have to interpret them together. The point is how to do we define good and bad? In Romans 3 from verse 10 we see a number of quotes about how humans aren’t actually good. Maybe we are based on our own standards, but we fall short when compared to God’s standard. Interestingly, these quotes are all from the Old Testament and remind us that this isn’t a new concept. Just reading the Old Testament stories we can see how often Israel, God’s chosen people, failed to keep God’s laws.

In our own day and age, we just have to look at the world around us, or to think about our own personal experiences in life, to see that something’s not right. This is all to say that God doesn’t deal with us on a merit system because if this was the case, we would all merit punishment as we have all done at least something wrong in our lives.

This all sounds pretty gloomy, but it’s just leading up to the third perspective which is that God is in control and the things that happen are permitted by Him so that in His grace and love, His good and righteous plans can be fulfilled.

That’s all well and good when we are talking about positive things in our lives. We want good things to happen to us even though we don’t deserve them, but what about the bad things that happen? Here the question of our faith in God enters the equation. Do we trust Him that the bad things that happen are ultimately fulfilling a good purpose?

One example is John Newton (1725-1807). He was a slave trader, but after experiencing a storm at sea, he decided to seek God. Eventually, after ill health, he gave up slave trading, became a Christian minister and eventually was involved in working for the abolishment of the slave trade. He also wrote amongst others the famous hymn ‘Amazing Grace.’

So, we see that out of two bad things, near shipwreck in a storm and illness, good came. He gave up slave trading, served many as a minister, wrote hymns and helped to abolish the slave trade.

In conclusion then, there are in essence two responses to the things that happen to us. One is to focus on ourselves, seeking an introspective explanation and solutions based on our human abilities. The other is to focus on God and ask Him what He wants us to learn and do as a result of what has happened in our lives.

Socrates Club

Moldova

For some, the name Socrates Club will conjure up images of a fan club devoted to a certain Brazilian footballer. For most though, it will give rise to thoughts about one of the world’s most famous philosophers. Indeed, this is the origin of the name (sorry, football fans!)

The Socrates club however is not so much named after the man himself, but a method of analysing things to reach a critical conclusion, the Socrates method as it were. This basically involved someone presenting an idea, ‘the world is round’ for example and then by a process of question and answer, with someone representing an opposing point of view, investigating the idea to try and get to the bottom of it as it were, ‘But why don’t we fall off?’, ‘Have you seen it’s shape?’, ‘How does it rotate?’, ‘Isn’t it supported on the back of a tortoise?’ etc.

The idea of Socrates clubs was probably first made famous by the Socratic club at Oxford university. This particular version of the Socrates club had a big help in creating its fame due to the fact that one C. S. Lewis, a renowned Oxford University professor and darling of those who like to share insightful Christian quotes on the internet, was the first president. It met from 1942 until 1972, but its most popular period was inevitably up until 1955, the years when C. S. Lewis was an active participant before his move to Cambridge.

Since then, many have endeavoured to take this Socrates club concept and create their own version. Such attempts have even made their way to the Republic of Moldova! Hence since the beginning of 2018 the IFES student ministry here (otherwise known as CSC, the community of Christian Students) as been organising their own version.

In true post-soviet cultural style and taking heed of Isaac Newton’s famous idea of standing on the shoulders of giants, the Socrates club (Sokratov Klub as it’s locally known) in Moldova is based on a combination of three concepts. There is the aforementioned Oxford Socratic club, but to this is add the modern-day TED talks concept and mixed in with a Russian idea of 15 by 4 talks, and hey presto ‘Сократов Клуб’.

TED talks involved a speaker giving a short talk on a topic of general interest. The 15×4 format is popular in the Russian speaking world. As the name would suggest it refers to an event where four speakers have 15 minutes to present a topic of interest (as opposed to 15 speakers having four minutes – that would be quite an event!). Finally, the element of the Oxford Socratic club that has been carried over to Moldova is  the fact that he talk is analysed using a question and answer methodology (in the Moldovan case, thus far, the audience serves as the questioners rather than an invited expert).

Hence the average Sokratov Klub evening in Moldova addresses four different topics with four different speakers. The speakers are free to choose their topic, but the evening’s moderate discusses with them beforehand to make sure the topic is suitable. Because the Sokratov Klub is organised by the previously mentioned CSC student group, the speakers are often, but not exclusively, students. Other speakers have included politicians, Catholic priests and even famous footballers! Following are some examples of talks that have been given by students:

–The awkward Czech language.

–The History of the Evolution of Learning

–Spirited Away by Comics – I am the ruler of the world!

–Two Kettles

One important aspect of the original Socratic club from Oxford that has been partially carried over is that this first Socrates club was created with the aim of discussing ‘the intellectual difficulties connected with religion and with Christianity in particular’ Thus, our Moldovan version includes at least one presentation that addresses a topic connected to Christianity.

Just as the first Socrates club at Oxford university has spread to other places and developed different guises, so to has our Sokratov Klub in Moldova spawned a relative. The things written above related to the first club in Moldova which was started by the CSC group in Moldova’s second biggest city, Balti. However, since then the student group in Chisinau, the capital city has also started up their own version of the club. The format is similar with the main difference being that they have a theme for the evening and all the talks are related to it.

Some quotes from students who have been involved in the Sokratov Klub in Balti:

“The Socrates Club has helped me become less shy and given me much knowledge that I didn’t have before. I have learned to be more eloquent, succinct and responsible. It has also helped me find like-minded people, with whom you can have interesting conversations and share your life experience.”

‘’It was interesting, and the atmosphere was relaxing after a hard day. The subject presentations were exceptionally interesting. At Socrates club, there is always something new and instructive. New in the sense that although we know many things, often we haven’t discussed or touched on their nuances. Socrates club however does.’’

“I enjoyed being here. I found out a lot of things. It was interesting. There was a pleasant atmosphere where I could find out the answers to my questions”

“It was very interesting. Thank you for the evening!”

Introduction

Romania Reminiscences

Ben was on a journey that he would never forget. He’d heard about the country of Romania for sure. Unfortunately, a lot of it was negative, connected to Communism and all of its consequences. And then, of course, there was football. Without football, Ben’s knowledge of the world would have been poorer. But as it was, he was well clued up on geography having watched matches from all sorts of places. Bucharest was one of them. He had vague recollections of Rapid Bucharest, whose players, fortunately, weren’t so rapid as to give West Ham the run-around.

And then, there was the World Cup. Ben was old enough to remember red-shirted players giving some Columbians a few problems. Lăcătuș was one of them if Ben wasn’t very much mistaken. A funny name if ever there was one, Ben had thought at the time. Ireland had put pay to their progress in the end, though.

Next, there was the World cup in the USA. This was a golden time for the Romanians’ golden generation. There had been a flaw though. They’d allowed some players into the team whose surname didn’t end in -escu, which had obviously disrupted team unity and led to their quarterfinal exit. I mean look at Bulgaria, hardly anyone whose name didn’t end in -ov ever got into the team and they made it to the semi-final and, by Ben’s reckoning, really deserved to be in the final, which they could have won. They even beat Germany on the way.   

Such football reminiscences could have gone on for a long time, if it were not for a sudden jolt. This woke Ben out of his deep football-related meditation. It was probably a good job too, as he was getting close to ’98 and 2000 in his thoughts, not happy years for English football fans as far as Romania is concerned.

The jolt was from the train coming to a stop in the middle of nowhere. Well at least to Ben it seemed like nowhere. The train spent many a minute standing still for apparently no reason and with no announcement to illuminate the passengers as to what was going on. Gradually, Ben was to learn that this was not an uncommon occurrence, but no problem, Ben was from Britain after all. And maybe it was better to not know that you are waiting because there are the wrong type of leaves on the line.

While he was waiting, it gave Ben a chance to reflect on his surroundings. The train looked like it had seen better days. Ramshackle was a word that came to mind. Sadly, the same could be said of many of the passengers. Old people who looked like they’d had hard lives and young people who looked like they were having hard lives. The man sitting beside Ben was typically plump and middle-aged with not so designer stubble and an ominous-looking bottle by his side, the size of a large coke bottle, but brown and three-quarters empty.

There were also beggars. One little child had a sign with her, ‘Mor de Foame’. With the help of his bi-lingual dictionary, Ben had worked out that this meant starving. He’d compassionately given her his last cheese sandwich, although she obviously wasn’t quite that hungry and instead of scoffing it down, had put it in her pocket saying ‘mersi’. Well, Ben thought it was quite a merciful act, although he would have been happier if she’d eaten it ‘cos he had slaved ages to make those sandwiches and now he too was quite hungry.

Part 2 – The Journey

The Journey

Romanian Reminiscences

As the train chugged along, Ben found it increasingly hard to stay in the little compartment that he was cooped up in. In this sense, the train seemed kind of old-style. Rather than a big, spacious salon type wagon full of seats, these Romanian trains were compartmentalised. Ben reckoned that eight people could fit in his compartment that of course depending on their personal dimensions as it were.

His compartment was only half full, but that still meant spending an uncomfortably long period of time, crammed together with complete strangers. Ben had thought that maybe he should initiate some meaningful conversation, but due to the fact that those with him were not fluent in the same languages as he, it had proved difficult. In order to get some respite from this incommodity, he had decided to leave the compartment and stand in the hallway that ran along the side of the compartments, starring out of the window. He was slightly concerned for the safety of his things that were stuffed into a modern style suitcase and a couple of industrial strength carrier bags, not to mention his go everywhere rucksack that contained his laptop, but there wasn’t a lot of value. Even the laptop was not by any means the most newest or best performing type around (you could easily get some odd jobs done, while windows was loading up), so probably nothing too much to worry about and in any case it was unlikely that anybody could slip anything out without others noticing, so unless the whole compartment were to hatch a plan, he thought it highly likely that everything would be just fine, in spite of the worry that was niggling him.

As he peered through the window, he was enthralled by the scenery that laid itself out before him as the train sped along; luscious meadows, sown with all sorts of intriguing crops; fields populated by cows, sheep and even goats; different villages, many of which reinforced the ramshackledness that he had meditated on earlier, but nevertheless gave an air of simple, communal living; and hills and other contours that built up to areas of extraordinary mountain beauty. Some of the mountains that they passed as the train rumbled on to its destination were simply breath taking. The windows of the train were large and closed except for a small panel running along the top that could be tilted open. This added an extra dimension to the viewing experience as cold air rushed in and swept over Ben with a refreshing blast.

At one point, while Ben was submerged in this viewing experience, he felt a tap on his shoulder. Turning to see what it was about, an older lady, face worn from the stresses of many years, but adorned with a headscarf which offered dignity a sense of humility, stood there.

,Să aveți grijă să nu te curentezi!’, she said.

Ben starred at her. His Romanian lesson hadn’t gone quite that far, and he had no idea what she was saying.

, Să aveți grijă să nu te curentezi!’, she repeated as if, maybe, Ben hadn’t quite caught what she was saying and needed to hear it once more. That however wasn’t the problem.

‘Eu nu…’, Ben spluttered then stopped. Now what was the rest of that phrase he had painstakingly learnt, he thought to himself. Actually, there were two good phrases for moments like these and it was time to pluck one of them out of the bag. How else would he learn Romanian?

He reflected for a moment as the old lady looked at him, thinking about repeating her words for a third time, but then realising something was up. Ben on the other hand, was reflecting on whether to say that he didn’t understand or that he didn’t speak Romanian. A third option would be to ask the lady if she spoke English, but he felt that that was unlikely. He decided to go for the one about not speaking Romanian.

”Eu nu vorbesc limba Romana’’, he said triumphantly, but with a stutter.

The lady looked a while at him and then replied with a smirk on her face, “Pai nici eu nu vorbesc limba Romana, puiule, eu vorbesc limba română!”.

The discussion was going beyond Ben’s head. Nevertheless, he could tell that he hadn’t quite said something right. He started racking his brains to try to think how to ask the lady to repeat what she had just uttered. ‘Repeate vouz’ came to mind, but that sounded like something an English tourist would say, so he thought on. Fortunately, he had studied diligently his book of ten basic Romanian lessons from his local library and after a while it came to him, ‘din nou’.

He broke the uncomfortable silence by saying to the lady, “din nou”.

She looked at him, seemingly smirking yet again, “Bine, puișor, limba română se spune, nu limba romana”.

Aha, this time it clicked. There were different types of vowel sounds in Romanian due to accents that you put on them. In particular, a can be soft or hard. He obviously hadn’t quite mastered that lesson yet. He felt like he could give it another go.

“Eu nu vorbesc limba Romănă’’

“Aproape, dulceața, dar o să te inveți!” were her final words before turning and leaving to return to her compartment, obviously feeling that that was enough language teaching for one day.

Ben also decided it was the moment to go back to his seat and have a sit down, language learning was tiring after all. Little did he know, that in more ways than one, this was going to be a theme over the foreseeable future.

More here: Part 3 – The Arrival

Accused

Ben looked nervously at his conversation partner sitting opposite. The conversation had taken a not unusual turn and he knew what was coming. Ben steeled himself.

‘So, why aren’t you married?’

This wasn’t the first time that Ben had received this question or a version thereof. He quickly calculated in his mind which of the possible approaches to use this time in his defence. The man sitting opposite him was a relatively young family man from church, so Ben thought he would go with the direct spiritual angle.

‘Well, God hasn’t led me to the right person yet.’

He threw the yet in there to offer a glimmer of hope and emphasis that he was working on it. This didn’t have the desired result though of offsetting further interrogation.

‘Don’t blame God! You need to be out there doing something about it!’

Ben wasn’t sure exactly what he should be out there doing. ‘I’ve asked a few girls, bjt they weren’t that interested.’

‘Yes, but how did you ask them?’

Ben refrained from answering, assuming that the reply ‘with words’ would come across facetious.

 ‘A girl that’s worth having, doesn’t give herself easily,’ continued the romance lesson.

Ben was aware of that!

‘You’ve got to insist! They’re playing hard to get!’

Some of them were certainly good players, although his recent experience when he approached a girl after church and asked ‘How are you?’ to which she looked the other way and went to talk to some one else, seemed like more than a game. In any case, Ben wasn’t good at insisting. He was English!

‘I have prayed about it and am waiting for God’s plan,’ was all he could think to say, hoping this wouldn’t been seen as clutching at straws.

‘Well, it’s about time you took action. God won’t send her to your front door. You need to go out and get her. It’s like any gift, you need to accept it!’

The straws had evaded Ben’s grasp. Maybe Ben’s adversary was right. Maybe he should be doing more. Maybe he should be more active. He began to contemplate how the search features of facebook worked.

‘I’m waiting for a wedding invite this autumn!’

All of us encounter at times Bildad, Zophar or Eliphaz. These were the friends of Job, a man mentioned in the Bible has being one of the greatest men to live. However, God allows a time of testing to come on him. Satan is able to take away all that he has and furthermore, even inflict him with boils on his skin.

Job is then visited by the aforementioned friends. We might expect that they would offer words of encouragement but actually their interpretation of the situation is that Job has done something wrong and thus everything that has happened to him is a punishment from God. Eliphaz says for example ‘’ Job 22:4,5.

It is also common today that people interpret bad things as being a punishment from God. Thus the cause of suffering is that we haven’t been doing what we should and the solution is to correct our ways. Hence someone who isn’t married hasn’t been trying hard enough, but if they correct this, all will be well. Job however puts a different perspective on things.

He argues that actually he hasn’t done anything wrong that deserves what he is going through (Job 9:21) and that no one can present themselves innocent in comparison to God (Job 9:2) thus suffering can’t be a direct punishment for wrong doing because in that case everyone would be suffering. Indeed, the reader knows the reason why Job is suffering because the heavenly discussions between the Lord and Satan are presented in the first  two chapters, where we learn that Job’s suffering is actually a test permitted by the Lord to prove his faith genuine.

In this day and age many people promote the idea that our deeds equate to either the quality of our life in the here and now, and/or our final destination. If we do good now, we will be blessed and if the good outweighs the bad, we will have the hope of heaven. However, this sort of thinking gives rise to wrong theology such as the prosperity gospel.

In this false gospel, we are told that God has earthly blessings for those who have faith in him. He who prays the right way has a nice wife coming his direction, as it were. This is far from the case though.

Job debates for a good number of chapters with his friends, before we eventually arrive towards the end of the book. God reveals himself and clarifies things. In chapter 42 verse 7, we discover that Job’s friends are indeed wrong in what they have been saying. There is no prosperity gospel or right and wrong karma in operation in the universe. Rather we see in the preceding verses the way things are; God is in charge (I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted. 42:2) and everything that happened was to enable Job to truly come to know God (My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself
    and repent in dust and ashes.’ 42:5,6).

Ben lay prostrate in bed. His head hurt, but even more so his heart. He had been rejected once again. Thoughts raced through his mind about what might have been. Maybe he should have asked a different way? Maybe he should ask again? Maybe he should have asked someone else?

As he was tormented by these thoughts, he just about mustered the energy to roll his head to one side and spy his Bible that he usually left beside him when he slept. Knowing that it was the only hope, he raised himself to sit upright and then reached out. Taking the Bible he opened it to Psalm 43. So far there wasn’t to be any invite, but what did it matter? God was his delight. Anyway, things weren’t done and dusted yet.

Who Am I?

‚Who am I?’ is a common question that most of us ask ourselves sooner or later in life. Indeed, if we don’t think about this issue, at least subconsciously, if not more openly, we will just float through life, tossed about from right to left by each and every wave that comes our way.

Gradual Formation

Over the years, we have all actually formed some ideas about this question due to our experiences as we have grown up. The circumstances around us influence our thinking whether we like it or do. As a simple example, someone who has grown up in England will probably develop the idea that he or she is English, unless of course they have parents or extended family from elsewhere that might give rise to other ideas. In Moldova, many people’s families moved there during former days from Russia or the Ukraine and so have kept the language and traditions from whence they came, thus children born into these families can often feel more Russian or Ukrainian than Moldovan.

Obviously, there are many areas of life where we need to make a decision about who we are, not just our nationality, but also with regard to our careers, characteristics, religion and lifestyle to name a few important ones. Some of these things are given us, for example our personalities are something that we can not control or the country where we are born. Others of these we can work on and influence one way or another.

Jekyll or Hyde?

There is a well-known story about a man who actually had two identities.

 In a small town, a mysterious stranger appears, Mr. Hyde. He is not the most pleasantly behaved individual ever, and so a certain negative feeling grows in the townspeople with regard to him. There also appears to be some connection between him and the town’s respected physician, Dr. Jekyll; Mr. Hyde is seen around Dr. Jekyll’s home and they both seem to have similar handwriting.

One day there is a murder in the town. Evidently, suspicion turns towards Mr. Hyde. The investigation progresses and the conclusion of the matter is that Dr. Jekyll is found dead with a letter of confession. He admits, not to harbouring Mr. Hyde, but to being him!

He explains that he had discovered a potion that when taken frees him from his restraints thus allowing him to indulge his passions, in other words becoming Mr. Hyde. Initially, things were under control, but gradually he started turning spontaneously into Mr. Hyde. Hence, he was living as two people in one, something that proved complicated and ultimately fatal.

This fictional story nevertheless serves as a warning to us. There are indeed psychological conditions where people medically don’t know who they are. Even if we are not afflicted in this way, we can still suffer from confusion with regard to our identity.

Bad Influences

Our perception of who we are can be greatly influenced by different factors. For example, if I want to be accepted by a group of people who use bad language, I will probably start using the same language. Alternatively, if when growing up, my parents instilled in me the thought that it is important to study science, then probably I will have gone in that direction in my life.

The point is though that it is necessary for our perception of reality to correspond to reality. I may believe that I am a great football player, but if I make it my life’s goal to play for Real Madrid and invest all my time and energy in achieving that aim, I might be disappointed when I go to Madrid for a trial and find that they are less than keen to include me in their first team.

In other words, what we believe about ourselves will direct our lives thus it is essential for us to think carefully about our beliefs.

Will the Real Ben Step Forward

As a result, we can say that two things are important.

Firstly, to seek things are true, both about ourselves and also the world around. Some people claim that truth is relative, so instead of seeking it, we can just develop our own. There would be much to discuss on this point, but a simple observation would be that there are some absolute truths. For example, I know that it is not a good idea to jump out of my flat window because I can be sure of what will happen (barring miracles of course!).

For Christians, our reference point for truth is the God of the Bible. He created all things and so only from Him can we find out the truth about everything around us. We can glean some information by analysing His creation (after all this is what science is) but the ultimate picture we can only understand in the light of His revelation of it. To this end, we have the Bible which contains all the things that God wants us to know about ourselves and the world around us.

Thus it is important for us to be getting to know the Bible, otherwise we will be groping around in life in  the dark.

Secondly, it is necessary for us to put into practice what we know from the Bible. There are many people who claim to be Christians, but who never do what the Bible says, which is like me claiming to be a great footballer, but never playing football!

As mentioned already, finding out who we are is a gradual process. Indeed, we could say that maturing is exactly that; over the years discovering out more about ourselves. This is why it is important in life to get involved and try out different things. Only by trial and error can we find ourselves. However, if we want to find our true selves, it is necessary to look from God’s perspective through the prism of the Bible. Otherwise, we will be drawn to the darker elements of our sinful nature and the sinful culture around us, missing out on the real person that God created us to be, and potentially sharing in Dr. Jeykll’s fate.

Meaning

’To be or not to be?’ is a question that many have asked over the years. It is indeed a question that I have asked myself. When you think about it logically, if this life is all there is and nothing awaits beyond, then you could argue that there is a certain meaningless to all we do. Whether someone is successful or not here on earth, they just end up in nothingness and will soon be forgotten.  

To counter this, many people say, ‘well, I find meaning in the aspects of my day to day life, work, family, relationships etc.’ This may be the case but the hard truth is that this is only a temporary meaning that doesn’t last. Indeed, a book has survived and comedown to us from ancient times which discusses this very problem. It is called ‘Ecclesiastes’ and after its opening sentence that presents to us the author of the book (a teacher, a son of David and a king) it presents to us the problem that we are all confronted with:

‘Meaningless, Meaningless!’ says the teacher. ‘Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.’

Not the best way to get people into reading your book, you might think! However, as often seems to be the case with ancient writings, this is actually a simple and brief introduction to what the author wants to talk about. ‘Couldn’t he have taken a more positive approach to things?’ I hear you cry. Well, actually, in at least one of his other books he did (just try reading song of song!). Anyway, once you get beyond this slightly depressing opening, the author of Ecclesiastes (i.e. the teacher) starts to explain how he’s come to his conclusion.

We learn in the following chapters that he has tried everything. In the first part of chapter two we see that he has indulged himself in all kinds of pleasure; he has drunken wine, undertaken all sorts of building projects, enjoyed various relationships, acquired possessions and position in society. Yet his conclusion is still that ‘everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun’.

In the second half of chapter two, we see that he has also tried hard work. Here, he also has some gripes, both that work (or toil as he puts it!) causes grief and pain and also is meaningless because one day he will be gone and who knows who will then benefit from all that he has done!

Here in this chapter 2 though, we see the first glimmer of hope and a solution to this problem of meaningless. After this musing on the meaningless of work, the teacher suddenly comes to a surprise conclusion; that a person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. How can this be if everything is meaningless?

Well, actually for the first time we see that the teacher offers a way of finding true meaning, and it’s from the hand of God (no nothing to do with Maradona!). It’s about the fact that God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness. Only sinners have the problem of meaninglessly gathering things to have to pass them on to others!

In the pages of the book, he muses on some of the situations that we face in life; wisdom and folly, oppression, life and death, loneliness and riches (supposedly, someone asked a rich man home much money is enough and he said, ‘One more dollar!’) He like any human being has different moments of reflection and struggle, but what’s interesting is the conclusion that he reaches fear God and keep His commandments.

So, when all is said and done this is what it is all about and what gives true meaning to our lives!

Testimony

When I grew up, I always believed in God and went to church with my family. But God wasn’t the most important aspect of my life. I had my own interests. For example, I liked football and Sunday’s at church, I was often thinking about what football match was on the television later.

When I was 17 years old, I realised that most people around me didn’t bother thinking about God, reading the Bible or going to church, but nevertheless seemed happy. So, I thought I would try to give these up as well. After a while though I realised that I couldn’t live this way. I felt empty and surrounded by darkness if I didn’t think about God. Thus, I soon returned to my religious way of life but it still seemed like something was missing.

Not long after this I went to university. I studied chemistry and had big plans to become a professor and maybe even discover something new! I knew that there was a Christian student group at my university, but I was unsure if I wanted to go.

At the beginning of the academic year, there was a Fresher’s fair. This is an event where different student groups and organisation have a table and present their activities. Students who want can sign up. I made an understanding with God that I would go and pass through the fair once. If I saw the Christian union table I would stop and talk to them. If not, I would understand that it wasn’t God’s will for me to get involved with them.

I went to the fair and quickly passed through the long hall that it was situated in. I didn’t see any Christians, so I hastily exited via a side door and hurried away, glad that I had fulfilled my side of the bargain and was now free to continue with what I wanted to do.

However, this wasn’t the end of the story. As I began my studies, I realised that I didn’t really like what I was studying (it was Chemistry after all!). Not only that, I am a closed person and don’t make friends easily. As a result, I began to feel down. This caused me to start putting deeper questions about life. What is the point? Where am I headed? What is there after death?

Especially, the question about my final destination bothered me. I saw that after death, we just become nothing. But if we become nothing, then what we do in this life doesn’t really matter, as we all end up not existing and one day forgotten, no matter what we do or achieve in this life. This thought was hard to swallow and caused me much soul searching.

One day though, the thought occurred to me Why don’t you pray to the God that you have heard so much about at church and in the Bible? If He really exists, then maybe He will answer, if not, then you haven’t lost anything!

So, this is what I did! After praying to God and asking Him, if He’s there, to help me and reveal Himself to me, He Did!

There were a number of things through which He spoke to me. The main one was that Bible verses started to come alive, as if they had been written especially for me. For example, Matthew 6:33 –

‘But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.’

From here it was as if God was saying to me that up until that point, I had really been seeking my way; although I acknowledged God, He wasn’t the centre in my life. I realised that this needed to change, and I realised how!

At the beginning of the next academic year, I prepared myself to head for the Fresher’s Fair again, this time with a different frame of mine; to find the Christian Union stand at all costs!

So, the day came and after morning classes at the university, I summoned up the courage and started making may in the direction of the said Fresher’s Fair. On the way I bumped into one of the students I knew who studied together with me. He asked me where I was going. I said to the Fresher’s Fair to which he replied that he also wanted to go there. This produced a dilemma.

Initially, I strolled along with him towards our common destination. I made no mention of my intention to look for the Christian group. Maybe he would change his mind, or something come up on the way to separate us. Alas, to no avail. Thus, as we approached the Fair, I realised that I was going to have to make my first public confession of Christian interest. ‘I’m going to look for the Christian Union!’, I managed to blurt out.

He hesitated and my embarrassment began to grow, when all of a sudden, things took an unexpected turn. ‘Me too!’ was his refrain!

I was surprised, but then felt a surge of encouragement. This was meant to be!

Eventually, we found the Christian group at their table. A second surprise (There was also to be a third surprise) was that the student manning it was also a Chemistry student like myself, but in the third year. He gladly signed us up and told us about their activities.

After this I was still hesitant to attend the Christian Union meetings, particularly as I was living far away from the university and their main meeting was in the evening. However, one day someone gave me a flyer for a lunchtime Bible study. I decided to go.

When I arrived at the meeting, there was a group of students already waiting outside. I was struck by their desire to study the Bible. Over the course of a number of meetings, the way these students took the Bible seriously, really spoke to me.

Gradually, I started going to other meetings. It took some courage, but slowly, I started going to more and more. Eventually, in my final year at university, I attended a Christianity explored course. Here there were six meetings. Each one involved a short talk based on a passage from Mark’s gospel and then a discussion time in a small group.

At the final meeting, there was a difficult moment as the usual room was booked. We had to go searching through the university to find an alternative. Once settled into the tight wooden benched lecture theatre the speaker began. This lesson was a little different as it mainly centred around a presentation of the Christian Good News.  Although I had heard aspects of this message before, this was the first time I had heard it so well and thoroughly presented. Suddenly, everything was clear.

As I listened to the words that were being spoken, I began to understand many things about myself and the way the world was. I also realised that God’s solution was to trust in Jesus Christ. I accepted this message and it began to guide me through my life.

I had wanted to remain at the university and study further. However, I felt like this wasn’t God’s plan for me. Thus, via the church I had started going to, I found out about an opportunity to get involved in student ministry with IFES, something which I did and eventually led me to Moldova!

During this final year at university, I got to know a little bit some of the others from the Christian Union. One day I entered into conversation with one of the guys and told me that he had been helping on the Christian Union table in my first fateful year, when I inadvertently missed them. I learned from him the reason why.

That year, there had been so many student societies and clubs, that some of them had to set up their tables outside. However, it had begun to rain and so they moved under the famous UCL archway. When I had exited the Fresher’s Fair, I was aware that something was going on outside, but also felt the rain and was already decided that I had done my bit, so headed off without exploring further. Thus, I missed the Christians!

However, God didn’t abandon me and found a way to eventually bring me back to where He wanted me to be!

Student Ministry in Moldova Summary

Moldova

The concept of student ministry has been around for a long time. Some use the example of Daniel and his three friends in exile in Babylon as an example of the first Christian student group.

The first chapter of the book of Daniel tells us that these four young men were to be trained along with other fine young men who had been taken captive from Israel in the language and literature of Babylon. This was obviously a challenging situation for these Jewish youngest as the Babylonian way of doing things didn’t necessarily match up to God’s law. Thus, Daniel boldly asks permission to not defile himself with Babylon food and wine and the first student fellowship is formed as Daniel and his friends are tested by the royal guard, eating only vegetables and drinking water.

Over the centuries not much is not known about Christian student fellowships until more recent times. From the later part of the 1800’s there is information that suggests God was starting to stir the beginnings of what would eventually become worldwide student ministry under the banner of IFES (the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students). A prominent example is the CICCU Student Christian Union at Cambridge university.

CICCU was officially formed in 1877. It was a group of Christian students at Cambridge university who desired to make Jesus known to their student friends. Not to be out done, OICCU (the Oxford version) was founded soon after in 1879. Gradually, a number of such Christian student groups began popping up throughout Great Britain and even the world!

The British Christian student unions eventually formed a national organisation to help unite and coordinate them all. Today this is called ‘UCCF’ (the Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship). In 1947, representatives from ten such national Christian student movements came together in Boston, USA where they decided to form an international organisation to help link all these national movements. This was the beginnings of IFES.

The work of IFES was not just to help and oversee already existing Christian student movements, but also to pioneer new ones. During the days of the Soviet Union this was hard in the individual states that made up the Union, but after its fall, IFES style student ministry began propagating throughout these countries.

In Moldova throughout the 90’s student contacts began to be formed by visiting missionaries until by the end of the decade there was already effective ministry taking place and a leadership structure formed consisting of both Moldovans and international volunteers. By 2004, CSC (Community of Christian Students) as it was called, became officially registered. After this the ministry spread and became established also in the Northern City of Bălți. This resulted in two student ministries, one in Chișinău, the capital city, and the other in Balti, the second city of Moldova, which function even until this day.

The aim of the two CSC groups, as in any ministries one would hope, is to do evangelism and discipleship, with the IFES specific of this being concentrated on students. There are a number of means that are used to try and obtain these goals, which will be presented shortly. Before that it is worth mentioning that something that probably makes the CSC groups different to other similar ministries is that the emphasis is on student leadership. After all who is better placed to reach other students than students themselves. Thus, the intention is that each CSC group will be led by a group of Christian students with the help and guidance of a more experienced staff worker.

In Bălți, here are some of the ways we are trying to achieve the aim of doing discipleship and evangelism:

Socrates Club

Over the past couple of years, one of the most popular events in our student ministry has been the Socrates club. This is a monthly evening where 4 speakers (often but not always students) share a topic for 15 minutes and then answer questions on it.

The most recent Socrates club was attended by 41 people and there were talks on ‘the principles of love’ and ‘everyday Metaphysics’ sandwiching a presentation of our CSC activities and a talk on the difference between grace and legalism. Some photos here!

Bible and Life conference

The conference is based on different levels of training. The first presents the basics of the Christian life, the second is on the topic of preparing and leading manuscript Bible studies and the third level is about discipleship. An encouragement for us is that we have five people from Balti have completed level three and so we now have five members of our student group who have been through all three levels of training! Next semester, we will have to do for the first time ever in Moldova level four or get them involved in helping run the seminars of the other levels! Here are some photos

Rethink! Mission Week

The main evangelistic event each year is to organise a mission week for students during the autumn term. Here is some info about the most recent one last November:

After much planning, the event finally arrived in early November. The first evening (4th November) took place at our office and was a preparation time for Christian students and other helpers who were taking part in the event. Then, from 5th to 7th November, each day we went out to start inviting students to come to the evening talks, which were held in the festivities room of a local and well-known hotel. We invited students by giving out flyers and attracting their attention by playing songs on the guitar. One group had a particularly interesting experience as the director of the educational institute that they were visiting called them into his office. Initially, he was very angry, and they thought that he was going to call the police. However, after they explained that they had come to tell people about Jesus and invite them to an evening event, he all of a sudden, and almost miraculously, changed and said that they could go around all the classes taking place and give out flyers!

We had three evening talks, each on a different subject: Why does suffering exist? / Was Darwin right? / and what is the secret of happiness? We had planned for 80 people to come and were nervous that there would be nowhere near that number. But actually, on the first evening there were nearly one hundred people. On the second, over a hundred and on the final evening around 150! Of these, 86 people left their contact details and on the last evening, 26 indicated that they had prayed together with Slavko Hadzic, the speaker. There is a video of one of the days here and some photos from day two here

We also have other regular activities such as English club, Bible studies, Kino Klub and special events!