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Parlez-vous Québécois?
Signing up to be a part of the School of Biblical Studies (SBS) staff has definitely opened up many avenues for adventure. Among them, a visit that my friend Steph and I made to Quebec for a week of teaching. On the flight there, it struck me that this was the third time this year I was able to go out and teach on Inductive Bible Study; the method that we use in the SBS. Though you might expect that perhaps by now I was growing tired of repeating the same information, I realized in that moment that it was quite the opposite. Why all the excitement and anticipation? Our flight landed us in Montréal airport, and after a less than efficient baggage claim experience, the miraculous retrieval of one of our passports (that we didn’t know was missing) and an hour and a half of driving, we arrived at our destination: YWAM Dunham. Often times I have found that there is an unspoken stigma associated with ‘Bible’ week, for example: ‘Bible’ week was already given to me several times through in Sunday morning installments, ‘Bible’ week brings tears of boredom to my eyes. Oh and most commonly, ‘Bible’ week is not relevant enough to be one of the highlights of my DTS. Our week was halfway done by the time we reached the text of Philippians; my friend and I were taking half of the book each to teach. We had laid much groundwork with regards to the Inductive Bible Study method, now was our opportunity to apply it to the Bible itself. As I watched the students dig into Philippians chapters 1 and 2 for themselves, giving thoughts and interpretations of what was going on in the book, I watched their excitement grow. Suddenly Philippians was no longer a cute collection of Bible verses that we find on bookmarks, memory cards and pretty picture-frames. Sometimes it can be so hard for us to realize that our Bible is about real people and their real lives; not mythical super-people in robes and sandals, walking through sand and unrealistic situations. We had the privilege of watching 16 students relate with the same issues they had 2000 years ago (though the issues may have different faces today), and realize that God had something to speak into their situation then as He does now into our situations. The beauty of it all, God had something to say to all of us through the same book, though we were a mixture of at least 8 nationalities, a joining of eastern and western Canadian culture and a mishmash of all ages. My desire has always been for people to find the treasure of the Bible themselves, rather than relying on ‘second-hand’ treasure discovered by others. And here it was, happening before my eyes. I couldn’t help but think of Luke 24:32 - “They said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?”” God was speaking to our students through the Bible in ways that some of them thought impossible, and they wanted more. What could I want more? ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Turkish Delight
I recently returned from Turkey where I was doing missions work. Ironic, hey? Or at least, it would be if it was not so sad. Turkey was there at the beginning of missions. Have you heard of Ephesus? Galatia? Laodicea? Antioch? Tarsus? All of those historic sites talked about in the Bible are now located in modern day Turkey. Sadly, Turks now represent the largest unreached people group (based on percentage) in the world. The missionaries we worked with gave us the following statistic: Of the 74 million people in Turkey, there are only about 3000 evangelical Christians - roughly .004%. With that said, I’m happy to tell you that not everything in Turkey looks as bleak as those numbers. God is at work, and He is using the faithful men and women there to bring more believers into His Kingdom. Our team of four was privileged to serve alongside these committed people, doing whatever we could to further the cause of His Kingdom in Turkey. A lot of our outreach was based on relationship-based evangelism. Normally, it might be ineffective to try and establish any decent relationship in such a short amount of time, however, we found that the strong hospitable nature of Turks made it almost effortless to meet and follow up with people, despite the language barrier. One of the most rewarding times took place in the first couple weeks, when we invited all of our friends to a Christmas party at our house. The nine people that came heard the story of Luke 2 (the Christmas story) in their own language. For some of them, this was their very first introduction to Jesus. And that is why we came; to introduce people to Jesus. Throughout our time there, we had many opportunities, not only to share our faith with the people we met, but also to see God begin working in their hearts. Some asked for Bibles, some came to church with us, some just asked questions and others just expressed amazement that these foreigners actually cared about their culture, their language and their people. When we were not meeting new people, or spending time with our friends, we were helping the local church and the long term missionaries however we could. We taught English, we babysat, we cleaned houses, we led prayer services, we weeded gardens, we led worship, we prayed in mosques, churches, city streets and just generally did our best to be obedient to the Spirit. I can say with confidence that I know the Kingdom of God was moved forward in Turkey. Not because we are good, but because our God, who loves the Turkish people, is good. We can stand on that and thank Him for all that He has done and will continue to do in Turkey. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: |
