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| University Student Ministry - by Ruth Siemens |
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So
my years of service in Latin America began with this strong reassurance of
God’s presence and care. He had not sent
me to Peru — he had accompanied me
there! By 8:00 AM I was at school! I
had come as a tentmaker, to earn my
living in the binational school in Lima, as the apostle Paul had earned his
living making tents. When my missionary preparation was nearly complete (I
thought), I became very ill. After a long slow recovery, I knew no mission
agency would send me abroad with only one functioning lung. So I took classes at
Chico State and earned a degree in English and education. What a needy place!
Friends and I began the first campus fellowship, learning much through IVCF
training and leading several students to the Lord. Then
I went to teach near San Francisco and discovered two of the teachers who were
also young IVCF alumni! As graduates, we helped in the area IVCF work, but we
knew God held us responsible also for our school. We began a teachers’
Christian fellowship, which spread through the whole region and into the valley,
with Bible study groups, evangelistic breakfasts and teas — even a weekend
conference. In
the middle of all this, I was surprised by an invitation to teach abroad — in
Peru, long my target country! God intervened to get me the contract with a
binational school in Lima. He gave me a ministry with teachers, with elementary
and high school students and their upper-class Peruvian families. He also led me
to begin a campus fellowship in the local university. God had used illness only
to delay me long enough to add two more pieces to my training — how to serve
him in a secular school and how to begin a campus ministry! I would need them
the next 21 years of my life abroad. The
university work became my main ministry. I spent three years in Peru and then
took an administrative position in a bilingual school in Sao Paulo, and spent 11
years doing student work all over Brazil. Then at the request of IFES I began
work in both Portugal and Spain, and did student and staff training in Austria,
Poland and other countries. Then in IVCF-USA again, I recruited and trained
students and graduates for missions, and then began a job-matching and missions
counseling service, which has enabled us to help several hundred people to serve
abroad as tentmakers. In
1982, God allowed me a glimpse of the long-term fruit of those early beginnings.
The Brazilians invited me to the 25th anniversary of the ABUB, to speak about
the first eleven years. I met many old-timers, the student co-founders of the
work which began in my apartment in Sao Paulo. I met the successive student
generations that built it into a strong movement. On
my way home, the Peruvian AGEUP surprised me with a spontaneous 28th anniversary
celebration, where I rejoiced with early graduates and later staff and students.
One meeting was in my old apartment where the early Lima CBU had met! In
both countries I saw what godly adults the early graduates had become and the
ministries God had given them in their secular professions or in formal
Christian work, and to see their children active in the student groups. I
believe God gave me this glimpse, so I could encourage others. Student
evangelism, discipling and training sets off ripples that never stop. Many
students had far more potential than I. Maybe the most important thing I did for
people like Samuel Escobar and Pedro Arana was draw them into IFES, to be
influenced by today’s finest Christian leaders and scholars. Changing a
student’s direction even slightly changes where he will come out twenty years
later. II Why Campus Ministry Is Important
III Who Are Campus Christian Workers? IV Suggestions For Campus Workers V Beginning A Christian Student Group
VII Forming A National Movement VIII Seeking Membership In IFES
IX Principles For Student Work X Preparation For Student Workers
I About Small Beginnings
God
allowed me to begin student work in four countries — in scores of universities. Beginnings are often forgotten
because they are the small, slow, arduous part of any movement. But without
beginnings no movement appears. Church growth expert, Donald McGavran, said that
just as there cannot be a man unless there is first a child and an adolescent,
so it is with churches — and other ministries. Starting
from zero rakes persistence. I know people who desisted when they could not gain
an initial foothold. The story of our IFES movements is a story of many false
starts — little groups that did not survive and develop into organized student
movements. But
those pioneers were not failures! What courage it took to try to begin work
where evangelicals were a persecuted minority in fanatically Catholic countries!
They made a great difference to the few students they found to serve. Take
Spain. In 1957 when Rodolfo Gonzalez and the Padillas started a student group,
it could not produce a movement because there were no Spanish evangelical
students! They were not allowed in the universities. Dr. Gonzales made it
through but suffered persecution. The other students in that group were
foreigners. In
1960 Luis and EIida Perfetti from Argentina made an attempt in Barcelona, which
could not survive. When I visited them, I found the little house churches as
clandestine as those in Muslim countries today! Spain
had no civil law — only Catholic religious law, which left all non-Catholics
with no legal recourse. They were non-people. Not until 1965 could house
churches legally register — with severe restrictions. (Evangelicals could not
be buried in the cemeteries!) In
1968 1 began to work in Barcelona, with the first generation of evangelical
students after the new law. But the meetings in my apartment were illegal. The
meetings were evangelical and student. Police visits frightened
us. Some of our students were kicked out of cafeterias and dorms. I was relieved
when my landlord and landlady found God. Most
of Latin America and Iberia were then restricted countries with no more liberty
for evangelicals than in many Arab countries today. How fanatically Catholic
they were! We should not wonder that the student work only began to mushroom
when the churches began to mushroom,
after the Catholic Church lost its tenacious hold on these
countries. The student ministries began flourishing as their world
radically changed from what it had been during the laborious pioneer years. Missionary work in almost every country had been done among
the poorest classes. Students found themselves alone, venturing into a hostile
academic environment, with no pastor sufficiently educated to appreciate or help
with student concerns. Some were illiterate. Many still frown on education as
unspiritual. Now many Christian professional people, including
university lecturers — the fruit of our early ministry, give spiritual,
practical and financial support to the student movements. It is precisely the members of those early groups that
helped produce the middle and upper class churches which now dot the Latin
American landscape, that our movements, in turn, benefit from. When we began there was no Christian literature! Samuel
Escobar, Rene Padilla and others set up the much needed Certeza Publications and
Certeza magazine in Spanish. But in
Brazil in 1958 I surveyed evangelical books in Portuguese and found not even a
dozen titles useful for students. So Sao Paulo leaders and I worked with Dr. Russell Shedd to
set up a joint publishing venture between his mission and IFES. We produced
books like Stott’s Basic Christianity
—
even the big New
Bible Commentary and an annotated Bible. Now many Christian books exist, the
best published by our movements. These countries were extremely poor and politically
unstable. I could write a chapter only on states
of emergency and the military coups that
interfered with our work. Even in normal times transportation was difficult and
phone communication virtually impossible. Most of these countries now have
political stability, thriving economies and modern infrastructures. The students were very poor. I remember a delicious meal
prepared by a student’s mother on one little alcohol burner, in a hovel with
no running water and only a mud floor. Today’s students come from the large
new middle class, nonexistent two decades ago. The
IFES is now in over 100 countries, which leaves only the more difficult
countries still to pioneer, where non-Christian religions are dominant and
conditions today are similar to those we pioneers faced in Latin America and
Iberia and elsewhere several decades ago. Many
are Muslim countries where workers can expect many of the same problems we
faced, because of the similarity between Latin and Arab cultures — after seven
centuries of Muslim domination of Spain and Portugal. So
I hope this paper will be helpful. I will share some of what I learned about the
importance of student ministry, lessons for campus workers, and suggestions and
principles for campus work.
II Why Campus Ministry Is Important
Students
are strategic and have unique needs. If I wanted to choose the fastest way to
influence church and society in any country, I would choose student work.
Consider these points: 1.
Non-believing students are easier to win than the general population
— millions of them! They are open to new ideas, and willing to drop
traditional beliefs, especially if they live away from their families. 2.
Christian students face unique problems. In pioneer areas there may be
no pastor with a tertiary education, able to help. If students do not receive
answers to intellectual questions they believe there are none. Several pastors
told me that every one who entered university stopped coming to services.
Students need a campus fellowship for mutual encouragement and protection from
the temptations of student life. 3.
Students are at the crucial age of life’s important decisions.
To win and train them influences their careers, marriages, homes and families. 4.
Students are present leaders in their churches,
especially if they are few, and after they have received our training in Bible
study and evangelism. In Spain, Samuel Fabra (now a medical doctor) was already
an elder in his church. Students taught adult classes, were deacons and youth
directors. Some preached. Some
did church planting. Two students in a mining college in fanatically Catholic
Ouro Preto, started a Sunday school for children, involved parents, and then
brought in an itinerant pastor once a month. In
the agriculture college in Vicosa, Daison da Silva and two other students,
started a house church. When they sought to buy land, the priests organized
against them. Then the student body organized in favor of the Christians, for
reasons of democracy, not religion. The publicity enabled them to proceed with
impunity. Even though they were pelted with stones, they conducted street
meetings and radio programs, and quickly filled the new building with new
converts. Daison was hired by the university, and headed similar projects for
nearby towns. 5.
Students can bring a spirit of cooperation into competitive, separatist churches. In Brazil, pastors feared they would lose members if they
cooperated with each other or with us. I explained the students’ need for a
group for mutual help and for evangelism, and that cooperating churches were
more likely to gain new members that might result. Even some students in the
early meetings were suspicious of each other. But they grew to love and trust
each other, and brought a new spirit of love and trust to the churches where
they were in leadership. 6.
Students are future leaders in their churches.
Carlos Garcia, became a Christian as a fourth year law student in our first
little group in Lima, then studied theology and became pastor of Lima’s
largest Baptist Church, and later, headed the Peruvian Evangelical Fellowship
… Pedro Arana, who began to attend when he was still
in secondary school, became group president, lFES director for Latin America,
then a Presbyterian educator, pastor and writer. Several others pastored, or
headed para-church ministries. 7.
Students are present leaders in society, exerting great influence. If
they are few, they have much more power than huge student bodies in our
industrialized countries. I have seen them mobilize the uneducated citizenry,
and force the hand of government. This was common in our bipolar world before
the disintegration of the Soviet Union. By the time Peruvian Manolo came to us,
he had already killed a man. Christian students were politically involved by
their presence on campus, and needed help to think biblically about tough
decisions most adults will never face in a lifetime. 8.
Students are future leaders in society. Carlos Garcia was elected Vice
President of Peru, and Pedro Arana was elected to congress to help rewrite
Peru’s constitution. Many alumni of our IFES movements around the world have
held public office. 9.
Students become effective lay witnesses at home and tentmakers abroad.
God made sure I would provide a model of self-supporting, lay ministry, which is
also important for perpetuating the student work. When
Wangles Breternitz, first president of our first Brazilian group, and Julieta
(the first to become a believer) graduated in education, they had to teach in
Brazil’s outback, to pay off government loans. They started a congregation and
put up a church building in one unevangelized town. They did the same thing
again when transferred to another location. Then he headed a prestigious high
school in Sao Paulo and she has been turning the Bible into programmed learning
courses. Another
former ABU president, Carlos Alberto, rose to the top in a large corporation,
with a high salary, but retired at 40, and with his wife Ida, founded, and
pastors an upper class church in a gated community. 10.
Students are important for the future of cross-cultural missionary work.
In worldwide missionary conventions, a disproportionate percentage of the
leaders are IFES graduates. Our increasingly educated world requires more of
them. David Howard’s book, Student Power
in World Evangelism, shows the unique role of students and graduates in
missions history. Samuel
Escobar, the dynamic leader who became head of our Lima group, then the national
movement, then lFES director for Latin America, then a university lecturer and
writer, is often a main speaker at international missions events … Neuza
Itioka, who headed the Brazilian movement for several years, then earned a
doctorate in Missiology, is also an outstanding missions speaker, leader and
trainer. Rene Padilla, Gottfried Oseih-Mensa, Isahelo Magalit and many others
are influential voices in global missions.
III Who Are Campus Christian Workers?
Often
local students or local lecturers begin Christian groups on their
campuses, or other local graduates do it in their free time. Often missionaries
mobilize students in their churches, and a few are seconded by their mission
agencies to teach in universities in order to do student work. Tentmakers
often do student work, especially if they are university lecturers or language
instructors. Students and young graduates, as study abroad tentmakers, do
campus ministry. Tentmakers
are the only people who can serve in most of the countries that still have no
student work. Formal religious workers are not allowed, but Christians with
needed expertise can get salaried employment or study opportunities. They
integrate work and witness, doing other ministries in free time. Tentmakers
are ideal for countries where student movements are already established. Many of
them need help, but strong nationalism and politicized campuses make it awkward
to invite foreign staff. Even if the national leadership wants a foreigner,
their constituency often does not. It is risky to invite staff they have not met
and be stuck with someone who does not work out. But
tentmakers do not seek staff positions. They need not even voice their hope to
do student work — just their willingness to help. So they are under no
pressure from the local movement, nor from donors, nor a mission agency, to send
reports of great student ministry. They settle into their homes, and jobs, and
begin evangelizing in their workplace. They
meet and befriend non-believing students. If God enables them to win their own
student contacts, and bring them to the group, the leaders will be glad to have
their help. If they cannot reach students, they look to God for another
ministry. No expectations have been disappointed. As
part of the student work, they are no threat to leaders. They require no
financial support. They work under the authority of the leadership. They can
minister to leaders personally. If leaders sense that God speaks to them through
the foreigner (spiritual authority), they will have confidence to invite him to
help. If his language is less than perfect he can work with international
students. Tentmakers
are also free of denominational or mission agency demands that they link up the
work with them. In working with non-believers, they are not religiously suspect. Their
model of self-support can solve the movement’s need for staff. Have one or two
fully supported national campus workers and several self-supporting, part-time
staff. The Mexican movement has had mainly tentmaker and local self-supporting
staff. Local professional people have helped the French movement for long
periods when there was no staff worker. Tentmakers
can start fellowships in cities where there are none. They can help with camps
and conferences, literature production, evangelistic Bible studies, discipling,
teaching and training. Some can be evangelistic speakers. Their jobs provide
pleasant homes to put at the disposal of students. They may be able to give
generous financial help. Faculty
people understand the academic environment, the mentality and jargon of their
colleagues. They belong in academic circles. A professor lends a certain status
and confidence to a student fellowship, especially if no other evangelical holds
such a position. A language instructor (usually English) also belongs to the
university, and may have even more liberty. Faculty positions are part-time,
allowing hours for ministry, apart from integrated work and evangelism on the
job. Many
non-campus positions, like my elementary and secondary school work, leave the
tentmaker free during the same hours the students are free. I audited classes to
improve my Spanish and to meet students. Tentmakers
provide Christian models. For young people about to enter the job market, they
demonstrate that a full-time job is no excuse for not being involved in
ministry, on the job and in free time. They demonstrate how to live out the
Gospel at work, and how to integrate work and low-key evangelism. For people who
will soon be earning their living, they show that a Christian’s money is not
his own. They give generously, but wisely, to the work. They show that their
homes belong to the Lord, that hospitality is not optional for Christians. For
young people soon to marry and establish a family, a tentmaker couple can model
a genuinely Christian marriage, home and family. I always invited couples with
children to our camps. Single tentmakers model the Christian life of the single
male or female. Our
student converts from non-evangelical backgrounds were impressed by the
Christian marriages and parent-child interactions. They were also impressed that
Dr. Ross Douglas, a physics professor, would
wash dishes! In some countries, it is not acceptable for faculty people
to fraternize with students. They will expect “most favored status grades”
for diminished effort. They may lose respect. Most faculty find acceptable ways
to get around this. They can socialize with students not in their classes, and
are always free to evangelize their professional colleagues. They can always
live out the Gospel and discreetly engage students and faculty in religious
conversations. Tentmakers whose work is not campus-related do not have
this problem, but neither do they have the sustained, natural contact with
students. International students can be excellent campus workers,
especially if they were leaders in their campus fellowships at home. These study
abroad tentmakers, demonstrate Christian life and witness as students. In
restrictive countries they often have more liberty for ministry than older
adults. They are less suspect. Although I earned my own living, I was younger than many of
the students, so I worked with them, not as a staff person, but as a peer, as a
fellow student. By auditing, I made contacts and felt the Peruvian university
environment. Working as a peer has limitations and advantages. Because previous
attempts to start student work in Lima had failed, I don’t think another older
outsider could have succeeded. I identified with the students, and shared what Christian
students were doing on my California campus and in other countries. I was too
shy to say, “Now I would like to give a series of talks on doctrine or
apologetics.’ But it is amazing how much I could teach through Bible study
discussions, especially since I prepared the discussion guides. I did much Bible
study and evangelism training.
IV Suggestions For Campus Workers
1. God uses imperfect instruments. He sends no finished products, because he has none. Our
ministry is by grace, just like our salvation. God’s blessing is not dependent
on what we deserve, but on what it pleases him to do. So we get no great credit
— nor great blame. We seek to be faithful. 2. You need a strong conviction
of God’s guidance. I had just arrived in Spain when I got cold feet.
I knew no one. Spain was a restricted country. I was no longer a student. Even
if I found evangelical students, why should they accept me, a middle-aged
American woman? No one paved the way for me. Space does not permit me to
describe how God warmly reassured me. That Sunday I met two medical students in a church, who
told me that just two weeks before they had met for the first time — a half
dozen medical students — to discover ways to help the newly opened evangelical
hospital. God had brought me there exactly at the right moment to challenge this
group to reach their fellow-students — an idea they had not considered. They
became excited about the possibilities, and rounded up a dozen students —
about all there were. 3.
Expect God to give you favor with students as he gave Joseph favor
in the eyes of Pharaoh, and gave Daniel favor in the eyes of Nebuchadnezzar. 4.
Expect God to lead you to key people. A couple of hours after my
arrival in Brazil, I met Wangles Breternitz, who would become our first student
leader in Sao Paulo. Of the fifteen students who attended our first camp, all
but two became active in our work. 5.
Ask God to give you spiritual authority. In a pioneer situation, you
have not been elected, appointed, or authorized in any way — not even invited
by the students. But Christians will respond if they sense God is working in
their lives through your words. 6.
Remember your mandate is from God, not the students.
The marxist atmosphere of Latin American universities was very anti-American,
but the hostility was not personal. Radical students were friendly. They hated
all the Americans they had not met. In Brazil, I shared a room with a young
faculty woman who was a key spokesperson for the just deposed Marxist
government. She was in hiding from the new government. I was doing evangelistic
Bible studies with her! I knew God had arranged our meeting. Marxism
has decreased since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the massive turn to
free market economics. Americans are used to anti-Americanism, but other
nationalities also experience hostility, like the Chinese in Southeast Asia.
There are tensions between the Japanese and the Koreans, between Europeans and
North Africans, between Arabs and non-Arabs, and in Africa among adjacent
tribes. But we need not rule out regions where we are not loved. The Great
Commission has no popularity clause. God chose Jews as his first envoys —
hardly popular in Rome! 7.
Do not let Christians discourage you. Several missionaries in Peru
assured me it was no use. They had tried and failed. A serious attempt just the
year before had failed. But my approach was different. The missionaries became
very supportive! I had no mission agency — then suddenly I had four! I found
no initial encouragement in Brazil or Spain, but a missionary couple in Portugal
was helpful, since they had been trying to get work going. 8.
Pray regularly and keep a prayer notebook. By recording our prayer
requests they become more specific and definite. It’s easy to say, “Oh, that
worked out well,” because we forgot we prayed. By recording requests, we have
a place for answers. It is a good way to remain aware of God’s constant
intervention on our behalf, even in minute matters. I place a T for “Thank
you” when a request is answered — often with details. But I place only small
t’s for partial answers, and a row of them encourages me to keep praying. 9.
Make personal Bible study a priority. You need it for survival and
for ministry. In Peru after only a few meetings I panicked. I had already taught
all that I knew! I realized I could not regularly give out unless I regularly
took in. So personal Bible study became a major part of my life. I was refreshed
and I could turn my studies into discussion guides for students. 10.
Make group Bible study a priority. Even if you work as a peer,
Bible study discussions let you teach doctrine, Christian living, apologetics,
evangelism, discipling, etc., because it will probably be up to you to acquire
the study guides, or to make your own. No matter who leads, you can assure the
right emphases. 11.
Organize what you know about student work. We know more than we
think, but it is not organized for easy transmission. I wrote my own rough
manual for student work, with an outline, and everything I knew about each
point. 12.
Organize what you know about apologetics. I made a shoebox file, with the
questions non-believers ask on file dividers. I jotted notes on cards with my
best answers, Bible verses, illustrations, etc. I then added clippings from
magazines and notes from sermons, until I had enough for a good series of talks. 13. Memorize key Bible verses and their references.
What good is it to have a Bible full of information, if you cannot find passages
you need? A soldier’s sword has little value if left at home. You need it at
the moment temptation appears, or when a non-believer asks a question. You need
the Scriptures, not only in your handbag or pocket, but also in your head and
heart and mouth. Memorized Scripture gives you enormous confidence in
evangelism, teaching or preaching — especially if you do it in a foreign
language. The Psalms can help you pray publicly in a language you can still
hardly speak. Memorize a prayer verse. 14.
Read good Christian books. There is a chance you will never hear a sermon
that helps you at your stage of maturity and ministry. Let books be your sermons
— truth from sources other than you. 15.
Read secular books and magazines. A Christian trying to impress the great English
preacher, Spurgeon, said he would never bother to read anything but the Bible.
Spurgeon answered, “Then you have little understanding of the Bible.” It
must be related to human thought and life. I forced myself to read through Time
magazine (the only weekly available), to broaden my interests and common ground
with seekers. 16.
Interruptions may be your best opportunities. I made myself a strict
schedule so I would not waste any time, but visitors came at inconvenient times.
Then I realized that the interruptions were my ministry! My other activities
would have to wrap around them. 17.
Live on the level of a secondary school teacher in your host country.
This level usually enables you to reach to the upper classes and to the poor. 18.
Keep a friendly open home. Hospitality is not optional for Christians. Many
students live away from home, or have poor homes. Regularly hosting large groups
of guests puts wear and tear on furnishings. I decided never to own anything
that would cause me heartache if it were damaged. Color scheme is important to
me. But soon students were imitating my bookcases made of boxes and boards.
(Couples must protect private family time.) 19.
Keep your hospitality simple. I had more freedom than a married couple. In Latin
America, an invitation to a meal was a formal occasion, with a special meal. I
extended that kind of invitation. But several evenings a week students were free
to bring friends, without notice. They could expect a substantial soup, hot
bread from the bakery downstairs and fruit or a baked dessert. Because it was
informal and simple, they felt free to come. 20.
Single people must find culturally acceptable housing.
Young single women in Peru did not live alone in apartments. They lived with
their parents until they married, and when the parents died, they lived with
other family members. Local people would make some allowance for me as a
foreigner. More
problematic — a single woman could not invite male students, without being
morally suspect. There were more men than women students. Instead of being
critical of me, the missionaries were wonderfully helpful. They arranged a
pleasant apartment for me in a building occupied by Christian families. The
entrance was placed so no one could know to which apartment guests were going.
They found Juana to live in with me and do light housekeeping. In addition, an
elderly nurse from Ireland came to all our meetings. She brought women students,
and sat quietly in the back. I finally realized she was our chaperone!
Legitimizing our mixed gatherings! It meant much to me that she frequently
dropped in to pray. Single
men need to be even more careful in their living arrangement, or they will be
morally suspect. If they have a maid, she should be an older woman. 21.
Be careful in men-women relationships. In each culture, immorality is
understood differently. You can always find students who break the rules, so you
must follow the norms of respectable families in your host country. Even the
non-believing students will expect you to have higher standards than theirs. You
must not arouse suspicion. Many missionary men will not even give a ride to a
single woman unless their children or someone else is along. Bolivian
missionaries were upset when Robert Young (staff worker in Argentina) and I had
rooms in the same hotel. Separate rooms.
But they quickly moved us into homes, so we would not disgrace the evangelical
community. 22.
Guard against emotional entanglements. You can lose perspective. You
learn to love the students. If you are young, it could be God’s will for you to marry one. But cross-cultural
marriages are complicated, and require caution. Also, many cultures have no
casual dating. From the first date it is assumed the man intends marriage. To
break the relationship can ruin the young woman’s life and destroy the man’s
ministry. Engagements are as binding as ancient betrothals. 23.
Know that things will go wrong when you travel with students.
When we travel we have less control of our circumstances. God allows the
problems when someone is there to say, “Let’s pray.” The answers provide
first hand experience of God’s love and power. Take
Carlos, the fourth year law student in Peru. A few days after his conversion he
and I, Guillermo and Aida, flew to an Argentine student conference. The
fellowship with spiritually mature young Argentines was helpful, but the trip
home was unforgettable. Buenos
Aires authorities had Okayed our documents, but we were put off the plane at the
border city, Mendoza, because the three Peruvians needed visas to re-enter their
own country! We prayed. Offices were closed for the weekend. So the airline sent
us on to Chile to get the visas on arrival in Santiago. Chile wired back to
detain us in Mendoza. But it was too late. We were high up over the Andes. On
arrival, we would have to buy four Mendoza-Santiago-Mendoza airfares with money
we didn’t have! We prayed. Then
our little unpressurized prop plane, circling interminably in a fearsome
lightning and hailstorm, could not make it over the Andean peaks. So we were
returned to Mendoza. Our round trip and a weekend in Mendoza’s best hotel were
compliments of the airline! But
the Peruvian Consul’s office was closed until late Monday — we would lose
our free flight. We prayed, and then discovered — he lived in our hotel!
Except on weekends. It was Saturday night. We prayed in the lobby — just until
11 PM, we said. At five to eleven, the Consul walked in! He opened his office Sunday
morning, and stamped the visas, and didn’t need a bribe! Unheard of! We
sat down in the park across the street for a praise meeting! God again
intervened when a worse problem arose in Chile. But we all arrived home with a
strong sense of God’s personal care. For Carlos, it was a powerful
introduction to his new life in Christ. 24.
Know that many things will go wrong in student activities.
For the same reason. We were running camps all over huge Brazil, about one a
month. I arrived a few days before our first one in Salvador, Bahia. Two
speakers had arrived and students were already coming from all over the country
— some of them on five-day land journeys. Then our campsite arrangements fell
through! Imagine
how the local committee and I prayed! We told everyone to meet at a central
church early Monday morning. But it wasn’t until Sunday night at 11 PM that we
received keys to two private houses, 100 yards apart, on an exclusive beach we
could never have hoped for! By early morning the boys hauled a truckload of army
mattresses to the houses none of us had seen, while the cook and I bought food
for 60 people for 5 days. Two trucks then took the food and all the people to
the beach, where we had one house for young women and one for young men. At
night we had wall-to-wall mattresses, even in the kitchen. During the day,
rolled up, they were sofas. God blessed, because of all the extra prayer. We
knew God had made our new arrangements! Students learned to trust the Lord. 25. Be prepared to live by
improvisation. It depends on the culture. I admire the British who seem
to plan everything six months in advance, and the Swiss who seem to have the
same precision as their watches. But a highly organized person will face great
frustration in many cultures. Understand the reasons. I
would fly into a city with only a few hours to spend with students. But usually
the meeting was not even called until after
I arrived! Because flights don’t arrive on time, plans change, you can’t
phone. Government and university administrations lived on the basis of
improvisation, and so did everyone else. Brazilians joked about this approach to
problems, “Let’s leave everything like it is, so we can see how it turns
out. Students
couldn’t register for camp because they didn’t know until the night before
whether the university would grant a holiday or continue classes. I learned to
proceed by faith. We usually bought groceries for a hundred people for a couple
of days. If 200 came, more food could be bought in the morning. If only thirty
came, we had a dull menu for six days. Usually, we had more rather than fewer
people. 26.
Be careful about the varied standards of conduct in local churches.
An American young woman destroyed her missionary credibility when she encouraged
the young people to break the church rules she considered too strict. Our
early camps in Brazil were a problem because Christian norms were so diverse in
different denominations and regions. Students from the south opposed makeup and
movies but approved wine and church dances. Students from the north approved
makeup and movies but not wine and dancing. It depended on whether the early
missionaries were from the U.S. or Europe. We translated Stacey Woods’ little
NP booklet, Taboo, to help sort out
right and wrong. 27.
Be aware that some of your causes may not be appropriate for your host culture.
It would have been wrong to argue for women in leadership, in Latin America,
where it was customary for women to go to church, and the men to refrain. It was
essential to encourage male leadership, but also train the women. I provided a
model for women leaders. In
Brazil, I discussed what was needed with the men students, and had them provide
platform leadership. They ran the camps. In the early days they didn’t seem to
mind that I was always behind them, reminding and suggesting. It would have been
easier for me to run the camps. Rut they developed excellent leadership skills
because I encouraged them to lead. Then when Samuel Escobar arrived, he provided
a model of dynamic, genuinely Latin American, male leadership. 28.
Do not wait for ideal situations. God often works best in a
crisis. Just before our Easter conference, a military coup overthrew Brazil’s
Marxist government. Martial music was on the radio, and the military were
everywhere. We went ahead with the camp. Many students came because normal
activities had halted. Two leaders arrived a day late because they were arrested
enroute and jailed. All students were suspect. Only the chaos kept authorities
from investigating our unauthorized gathering of ninety-eight students in Araras. 29.
Avoid paternalism — make sure the students own the ministry.
Don’t let them become over-dependent on your generosity or leadership. Local
people often say, “Let the missionaries do the work — they have time and
they get paid.” But I had a full-time job, and students offered to do things I
would have done. That I earned my living was healthy for students. The work was
theirs. The test: What happens when you leave? 30.
Do not lend money. I was in Peru a short time when Amilcar came to say he
had finally finished his studies, but could not graduate for lack of $75. My
quiet time reading that morning included the verse, “Do not withhold good from
another when it is in your power to give it.” I think God intended that $75
for him. But it was wrong of me to lend it. I never saw him again. I had no idea
how difficult it would be even for a university graduate in those days to repay
$75. I had destroyed a relationship. If I could do it again, I would say,
“It’s a loan from God. Repay him, as you can, a little at a time.” 31.
Get cross-cultural training, if you are working in a foreign culture. I had
none when I went to Peru, and I don’t think the other missionaries did either.
It was not yet a major missions concern. I often marvel at the love and patience
the students showed me when I was breaking all the rules. Latin Americans, like
southern Europeans, eat a light breakfast, an early lunch, a light afternoon
“tea” and a late dinner — as late as 11 PM! But for several years I kept
American mealtimes, except when I had guests. It was what I saw missionaries do.
(I have since researched and prepared materials on how to learn a foreign
culture.) 32.
Count on God’s protection. I traveled much in Latin America, especially, in
Brazil. One engine of our two-engine plane conked out, we lost altitude in a
storm, and finally made an emergency landing in a jungle clearing. From takeoff
to rescue in the jungle to arrival at my destination, took eleven hours, instead
of the anticipated three. I
was in the middle of a street in Belo Horizonte waving my arms for any vehicle
to stop, because the friends who were driving me had a tire blow-out, and I was
going to miss the only two buses for Brasilia, where I had meetings. I missed
both. That night a big new bridge on the Rio Sao Francisco collapsed. The first
bus plunged into the river and all drowned. The second stopped with its front
wheels over the edge. The driver told us about it when I went a few days later
and crossed that river on a pontoon bridge. 33.
Practical skills make life easier — auto and household repairs, etc.
I was weak in this area, so when my old refrigerator conked out, in tropical
Brazil, all I could do was pray over it and wiggle the parts. For 24 hours that
didn’t work. Then it let out a cheerful hum, and outlasted my years in Brazil. It’s
a great boon to enjoy cooking. Sometimes I had a live-in maid or a weekly
cleaning woman. But I was thankful for experience with quantity cooking that I
gained in camps and conferences in IVCF-USA. For unexpected guests in my
apartment I would mix shortbread with my fingers in the baking pan, and have it
baked by the time water was hot for mate tea. 34.
Your biggest problems will not be with students but with your compatriot
colleagues,
if you have any. Contributing factors are cultural stress, strong convictions
about the work and Enemy attacks. Often it is a distant administration’s
failure to provide job descriptions, and a propensity to miscast personnel. 35.
Expect great enjoyment. It is stimulating and spiritually rewarding to
work with students! It takes everything out of you. As Paul said, “We gave you
not only the Gospel, but our very own selves” (1 Thes.1:7-9). I often regret
that my whole life has been so people-intensive that it has been impossible to
keep in touch with many of the former students. But I remember them often with
affection, and pray for them. I will have them all safe to enjoy in heaven. 36.
Plan recreation away from students. It was hard to distinguish
between work and play. In Brazil it was fun to scale a perpendicular limestone
cliff on thick vines to see wild orchids and iguanas on top — hut I was also
counseling all day. . . Keep
one day a week free. Our international staff were surprised to learn we all felt
discouraged after successful camps. Hans Burki said psychological letdown was normal after great effort, and to plan a
day off. He also suggested we think of each day as morning, afternoon and
evening, and consider any two periods a normal work day — a helpful standard
even when unworkable. 37.
Learn basic cyber-technology — FAX, phones, computers,
E-mail. How did we live without them? A personal computer (add a Bible program)
facilitates Bible study, preparation of materials, correspondence, desk-top
publishing. E-mail gives instant access to people and information — to whole
Christian libraries!
V Beginning A Christian Student Group
1.
Do not compete with existing student work, if its goals are reasonably the
same. In Peru and Spain there was nothing. In Portugal, the missionaries who had
tried to start a group, invited me to come. But
in Brazil, the ACA of the ecumenical WCSF had been active for 40 years! Mainline
denominations still backed this once evangelical organization. I knew it had
long since given up its biblical doctrine and was highly politicized. But I
invited its national leaders to my house for tea, and shared my plans. When I
talked about Bible studies and evangelism, they laughed — and assured me our
work would have no overlap. A few years later, when Soviet funding was found in
their headquarters, they were dissolved by the government. The
only other groups were Youth for Christ and Word of Life, both at that time
limited to secondary schools. So we did not start secondary school groups. They
would refer their graduates to us, and we would encourage our graduate teachers
to help with high school groups. Word of Life gave us generous use of their
beautiful campsite. Navigators came in much later, and focused on men, not
students. They were then only in Curitiba and we helped each other. But
we saw our IFES work destroyed in two countries when an unscrupulous student
organization came, and left after a couple of years, leaving no campus ministry
in its wake. They nearly destroyed us also in Spain. The well being of the whole
church must always take precedence over our organization or denomination. 2.
Decide on the most strategic city for the work. A
tentmaker begins where his job is. My positions were in Lima and Sao Paulo, both
strategic cities. Where can you mobilize the most evangelical students? Where is
the largest evangelical community? The
student work does not develop in isolation, but in relationship with churches.
It gains credibility in churches as they benefit from its fruit. Students need
the help, advice and prayers of pastors and Christian professional people. It is
good to be thinking ahead to the day when they will want financial support for
staff. Two
major cities often compete — like Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. In Spain,
Castilian Madrid looked down on Catalan Barcelona, which was academically
dominant. In Barcelona I had to contend with a third language — Catalan. But
it had the strongest evangelical community and a dozen Spanish Christian students. In Madrid, there were only two or three Spanish
students, doing non-campus work with 0.M. ‘s international team. None
attended our GBU camps, so it took several years before a Spanish
campus group was formed. 3.
Find a home suitable for meetings and accessible to students.
It was frustrating to spend days finding the right apartment that I could also
afford. (Mt. 7:13-14 shows prayer does not make seeking, knocking and opening
unnecessary, but guarantees their eventual success.) I finally found a new
building in Rio de Janeiro that seemed right. The doorkeeper had already said
there were no apartments for rent. On my third visit, I asked, “Is there one empty?”
She said, yes, but the owner wanted it for his family. In fact, he was there
doing interior finishing. I went upstairs. He
confirmed that he wanted to move in, but then started thinking out loud, that if
he rented it, he would have it paid for sooner. Then he asked me the dreaded
question — who would be my co-signer. I knew no Rio property owner. I asked if
my friend in nearby Petropolis would do? He shook his head negatively, but
asked, “Who is it?” I said, “Dirk Van Eyken, an engineer who works at
Canadian Light Co.” He
put down his tools and stood up. He said, ‘Anyone who is a friend of Dirk’s
needs no guarantor and no contract!” Dirk worked in the office next to my new
landlord! In a city which then had three million people, God had led me to the
only one who owned an empty apartment, who also knew Dirk! When
I went to start a group in Curitiba, I found a strangely placed building between
the Catholic and federal medical schools, and near other faculties. The
doorkeeper was annoyed when I came for the second time, not to ask if an
apartment was for rent, but if one was empty. (Closed doors may not be locked!) She
reluctantly gave me the name of the owner, a widower. He said, “No. Since my
wife died six years ago I have not allowed anyone to touch it.” But almost in
the same breath he added, “It’s foolish, isn’t it? How much can you
pay?” Before I could answer, he cited an amount lower than I expected, and he
had the place ready for me in a few days. In both cases, God’s provision gave
me strong expectations of what he would do in those apartments. But
in Barcelona I felt God had let me down. The most important decisions have to be
made when we have little information and no one to ask. After much searching, I
finally rented a little place much too far from the university, but close to bus
and tram lines. Then, I discovered that my map was wrong — the new campus
would not be occupied for some time. I would discover that the medical school
where most of the evangelical students were, was exactly one block away! All the
other university colleges were within walking distance! How beautifully God had
led me! 4.
Look for evangelical students to mobilize. If there are none, a student
worker must be resident, and begin at zero with non-believers. This is one
reason why we established only a few groups in Spain. I kept a little map in my
prayer notebook showing the 72 Spanish cities with at least one university
faculty. But only seven had evangelical students. When lovely Beatriz entered
the medical school of the University of Pamplona, she was the only Christian.
Most of those cities had no evangelical church. Even Madrid and Barcelona had
only a few. Spain is still less than one percent evangelical! To
look for evangelical students in the university would be looking for a needle in
a haystack. You must look in the churches. The pastor may not know if there are
students, but the young people will know. But it gives you a chance to seek the
pastor’s approval — important where there is competition. I learned I must
talk to a certain denomination first, or they would not cooperate. In another
town it might be another denomination. Rarely
would one church have two students. Take time to establish a friendly
relationship. Get the students together, and share your vision, motivate, give
initial orientation and materials. Where evangelicals are a tiny, persecuted
minority, they develop a mental block to evangelism. Campuses are threatening
environments. New converts from a non-evangelical background will be more
courageous. The
most committed students will be overburdened with church responsibilities. Some
say they can evangelize on campus without a group. But they don’t evangelize.
I say that if they can do it alone, they have a responsibility before God to
help the other students who cannot do it alone. The student can multiply his
efforts by several times, if he motivates and helps the others. The privilege of
university study obligates Christians to be missionaries to the campus. No
matter what other ministry they do, they are accountable for students around
them — fellow Christians and seekers. When
there is only one student in a church, he often does everything, robbing less
experienced young people of a chance to develop their gifts. When I was a
student, I sat down with the pastor to decide which jobs I should keep, and
which we could train someone else to do. The student must be seen as the
church’s missionary to the campus. 5.
Start your own evangelistic Bible study. This two-pronged approach is
important. What are you inviting the initial students to? Nothing at first. That
is a problem. You are telling them about something that doesn’t exist and that
they cannot visualize. In Lima, I discovered about a dozen Christian students,
but I couldn't get them to come for meetings (I could barely communicate in Spanish.) Then
I audited classes at San Marcos University, to improve my Spanish and to find
non-believing students. Maria started coming to tutor me in Spanish. The lessons
turned into Bible studies, and Maria turned into a believer. Her friend, Estela,
found the Lord, and a few others came. Now
when the Christians came, they saw a tiny ministry already producing fruit. A
few caught the excitement and came. Enrique Giraldo became our first leader —
and later went to begin work in Chile. Then one denomination started its own
student organization, with a beautifully decorated student center. It set us
back. But it quickly folded. The second year Samuel Escobar joined our group —
an exceptionally gifted, dynamic student leader, and the work took off. 6.
Decide when and where to meet. I have always begun meetings in
my apartment. So I look for one near a traffic hub, and easily accessible to
students. Usually, we have continued the large group meetings there, and some
small groups. But small groups can meet anywhere, except in a church. You want
to draw the non-believers who would never come to a church. Students were
welcome to bring their seeker friends, for games or music with light
refreshments. It gave me a chance to meet them, after which they often came
without their Christian friend. In
Curitiba, up to sixty non-believing medical students from two nearby schools,
floated in and out of the apartment I shared with Maria Celia, a medical
student. 7.
Do not compete with the churches. There was such fear that our
work would draw students away, that we took pains not to schedule our main
meetings to conflict with any Sunday activity, prayer meeting or choir practice.
How difficult this was! But once we had a regular, weekly time churches respected it. 8.
Form initial contacts into a group with a common vision and goals.
Create a family feeling through fellowship, Bible study and prayer. Members need
to know each other through fun and work projects, too, so have an outing or a
retreat as soon as possible. 9. Concentrate on a single pilot group until it is
strong. You learn how to do things with students in this culture.
You need them to help expand the work to other cities, so they will feel
ownership of the work. 10. Meet student needs at various levels of
commitment. I like to think of concentric circles: a) Responsible
leaders, who are faithful in their duties, and committed to the work. b) Active
and growing members, who are less committed, but can be asked to help. c)
Occasional participants. Social activities may keep the latter coming until
their spiritual interest grows. Move each person toward the center. Get
peripheral people to come regularly. d) Those who attend evangelistic Bible
studies, but do not attend large group activities.
A
good schedule could be a weekly large group meeting for prayer, teaching and
training. Once a month it could be for group outreach. Every student should be
in a discipleship Bible study/prayer group and co-lead an evangelistic Bible
study. Retreats could be once a quarter. Students who eat together could use one
noon a week for missions. 12. Use conversational prayer.
Instead of having each person pray, with much repetition of requests, have the
group make one long prayer, with each person adding a sentence or two. Pray
around subjects. When various aspects of one subject are covered, begin a new
subject. It is more effective praying and each prayer stimulates others. It is
not boring, like some prayer meetings. Even new Christians can add a sentence. 13.
Keep a balance between contemporary and traditional music.
Group meetings should not be replicas of a church worship service. It is not
always appropriate to have music at all if you meet on campus. But however music
is used, remember that the traditional hymns are the church’s collective
treasure. Many of us are grateful that our student movement developed in us a
taste for this music, which is saturated with Scripture. Repetitious
contemporary music seems empty by comparison.
15.
Make inductive Bible study groups your main activity.
In a pioneer situation, you may not have one person able to speak to a student
group. The Bible study is where your most effective teaching will occur.
Students think Bible study is dull until they learn the inductive approach. But
a prepared study guide is not inductive just because it has questions. Many
questions merely test if you can read. The questions in inductive study enable
participants to discover truth for themselves, by examining what the text says,
what the text meant to the writer and early readers, and what it means
to us today. Discovery makes an impact and fixes data in the memory. IVP
has a great many excellent guides — the Lifeguide Series — some in other
languages. The Neighborhood Bible Studies, published by former IVCF staff, are
in 30 languages. Every campus worker should gain skill in preparing study
guides, and leading the discussions, and training students to do both. (See GO
Papers: Inductive Bible Study Preparation and
Investigative Bible Study Discussions.) 16.
Times and locations of Bible study groups. Ideally, they should be
somewhere on campus, during a free period, when students can attend with the
least expenditure of time, effort or expense. Some can meet in your home, if you
live nearby, or in some other Christian’s nearby home — anyplace except a
church. A student’s room is ideal if it is a residential campus, but most
campuses are commuter type. Meet in an empty classroom, the cafeteria (some
bring sack lunches), in a Christian lecturer’s office, or a nearby coffee
shop. In Sao Jose dos Campos, engineering students, Eliezer and Ary led prayers
before breakfast on the engineering school rooftop. Off-campus,
students who live near each other might meet in each other’s homes. The
students will often say there is no place, but that usually reflects their
fears. When sufficiently motivated, God provides. In Curitiba, chemistry
students were bussed to their new building out of town just in time for the
first class, and bussed back to the city after the last class. There was no
other transportation. On
Saturday we prayed God would provide a time and place for Walter and Tietje to
have a Bible study on that campus. That week the administration arranged a
two-hour free time slot! They might not have known why they had to do it, but we
knew! The problem of both time and place are more complicated in a country where
Christian activity is restricted. If
students say that with work and study they do not have time to meet, remind them
that life divides into more than two pieces. Help them determine priorities. 17. Large group meetings can have varied content. It
may be basic doctrine, Christian living, evangelism or discipling, social
issues, marriage and family, serving God through one’s profession, etc. Do not
assume the students know the basics. We work with a perpetual kindergarten,
where every year the trained students leave and novices enter. When I was a
student, I was weary of hearing what Christians
should do, and I found it refreshing that IVCF staff and books told us how
we could do what we should. How deal with problems in praying? With the
evangelism? With relationships? Teach
the basics, but vary the formats. Once I had students learn the outline of
Stott’s Basic Christianity, and then
the Bible passages in each chapter. I taught doctrine by having each group
compose their own basis of faith, using passages I provided. Then we compared
them with formal statements of Christian organizations to discuss omissions,
inclusions and wording. Formats
can be speakers (if available), panels, round tables, forums, interviews,
dramas, music programs, audiovisuals, book discussions, videos, films, etc. Evangelistic
meetings can be on apologetics (How do we know the Bible is true? Is there a
God? Why does God allow suffering?) or Christian testimony. (How did you find
God? How can you be sure? How has he changed your life? How does he speak to
you?) But only the core truths of the Gospel can save (Who is Jesus? Why did he
die? Did he rise to life?). One
of our best-attended meetings in Brazil was a book discussion of Bertrand
Russell’s Why l am not a Christian, at
a time when it topped all sales in the campus bookstore. (Know what students are
reading.) We discussed several books by European existentialists. But when I
arrived in Spain, these were passe. Some were reading political writers, like
Herbert Marcuse. But Herman Hesse was popular, so we discussed his book Siddharta,
and considered how this missionary’s son had lost his way in India. 18. Evangelism must be the group’s main purpose. The
teaching and discipleship is to help students to be effective witnesses for
Jesus Christ. The one purpose of the church is to declare the glory of God —
as we know him through Jesus Christ. Many groups spend the first semester
getting ready and second semester evangelizing. It doesn’t work. No one is
ever ready. You learn evangelism by doing it, by integrating it with your
training. Nothing matures students so quickly as evangelizing and discipling new
believers. Both the evangelism and the training will be improved. If
you teach fishing evangelism, students
will lose their fear. Teach them how to interact with non-believing students in
an attractive, wholesome, non-judgmental way, inducing them to ask the crucial
questions. Teach them how to answer the questions, not as authorities, but as
learners, not as paragons of perfection, but as God’s children, struggling to
please him, and often needing his forgiveness. You
fish out seekers from among the indifferent or hostile people around you. When
seekers ask, they want to hear. You are not intruding on their privacy, nor
interrupting them at an inconvenient moment. They pace the initial conversations
as they are ready. Their questions show you exactly where they are spiritually,
what they already understand, truths they lack, their felt needs, hangups,
obstacles to faith. These are the people with whom you do friendship evangelism. Fishing
helps Christians relax, and their joy and confidence attracts more seekers. Get
them into your evangelistic Bible studies. See GO Paper, Fishing
Evangelism. 19. Group members must lead evangelistic Bible
studies. These are quite different from discipleship Bibles
studies that form the basis of the group. The majority must be seekers, with
only two believers to co-lead. You focus on Gospel passages, to watch Jesus in
action, and help participants to interact vicariously with Jesus through the
characters in the narratives. If you want to prove the existence of God, begin
with Jesus, the shortcut in all evangelism. He is the way to the Father — the only way. John 14:6; Acts 4:12. See GO
Paper, Investigative Bible Study
Discussions. 20. Include missions in the group program. The
third purpose of IFES is to help each student to find his place in the worldwide
mission of the church. Have some meetings on what God is doing in the world. In
each large group meeting, have students present a “missionary minute,” using
data from Patrick Johnstone’s Operation World, available in several languages. Use mission
posters. Invite a missionary speaker. Befriend an international student. The
university is missions training — a microcosm of our spiritually hostile,
multicultural world. 21. Encourage students to read good Christian books.
Have a two- or three-shelf
library in your regular meeting place. If you do not have one, take a little
suitcase portable library to each meeting. We all lent books to
our first library. 22.
Plan local retreats and outings. We had some for recreation, to learn to know each
other on a different level, and create a sense of family. Other retreats were
for teaching or training. Evangelistic retreats could be attended only by
Christians who brought along a seeker — to keep a fifty-fifty ratio. 23. Organize only as much as necessary for effective
functioning. One reason Peruvian
Christian students had been resistant to student work was because a missionary
had tried to start a group by having
the Christians write a constitution. They were bored and tired of
haggling over a document for a non-existent ministry they couldn’t visualize. When
the Lima group had reached a certain level of stability, I suggested choosing a
president, vice president and secretary. But they wanted a co-equal three person
troika arrangement, which has served them well for decades — probably to avoid
the caudillo one-man show type leadership dominant in Latin cultures. Keep the
constitution and bylaws simple, because it can always be changed or enlarged
when necessary. I
discovered that elected committees did not function well. It was better to elect
one person and have him choose his assistants. Personal friendship is important.
For the central executive, it is better not to allow nominations from the floor,
but for the leaders to present a prayerfully chosen slate of nominees. But
executive leaders should choose assistants to train as possible replacements for
the next year. Leaders should keep a record of events — what was done at
regular and special meetings, with brief evaluations of what was good and what
should be avoided in the future. No executive committee should have to begin at
zero to learn all the lessons over again. Every
student group is always just one year from possible extinction, because its
leaders graduate. It will continue only if new leadership is prepared. 24.
Training is the lifeline of the work if it is to survive.
Leaders and members need training in all the doctrinal and practical living and
ministry subjects. Teach a few to teach others (2 Tim. 2:2), even before they
seem ready. In Spain, both Pablo Martinez and Marisa Gimenez surprised me with
the superb way they did their first Bible study training of others. It brings
rapid maturity. Try an evening series, or a full day in your home, or a weekend
or a week at camp. Most movements eventually run annual month-long training
courses, and send students to regional IFES courses. 25.
Keep activities within the financial capabilities of the students.
During my 21 years of working with students abroad, we never asked for funds
from the IFES for anything, except a loan for our publishing venture in Brazil,
and eventually, salary help for our first staff. All activities were planned so
students could pay for them. (Even non-believers are often more comfortable if
there is a small charge for refreshments.) We gave scholarship loans which
recipients were to repay by funding others when they could. We kept no records. Students
were resourceful. The Peruvian students sacrificed much to bring Ecuadorians and
Bolivians to our first conference. (They went home and started the first groups
in their countries.) Enrique quit his job to receive his termination pay, to
contribute toward their arduous land journeys! … Two young women from Belo Horizonte requested and
received from their governor two free seats in a military plane, so they could
help me with a camp in northeastern Brazil! ... In Spain, where we finally found
a run-down apartment to rent for a student center, our attempt to earn through a
Christmas card project, led to a businessman’ s generous gift toward its
renovation.
VI Expanding The Work
1. There are no recipes because God wants us
dependent upon him, not on methods. The evening I arrived in Sao
Paulo, I met Wangles Breternitz, and a few weeks later we began meetings with
his friends, before I had furniture in my living room. … Euzi, who found the Lord while studying at Oregon
State, called students together to meet with me in Vitoria … Dirk van Eyken, who found God in IVCF at McGill,
helped in Niteroi, where a group eventually developed… I
found students in Belo Horizonte and Goiania on a survey trip, and scheduled
meetings with them. Instead of returning, I suggested our Sao Paulo group send
Lucas and Peter to get the Goiania group started. Members contributed toward the
air fares … Ten students accompanied
me to Belo Horizonte to get them started with a weekend training program... One
afternoon about 4 PM, Lucas called me at my school. He had announced at the
National Baptist Convention that people interested in campus ministry were
invited for tea at my house at 5 PM!
Sixty people had signed up! I kept my cab waiting at the little corner grocery
while I swept off the shelves anything I could serve. By the time Julieta and I
had mate tea and platters ready to serve, Lucas and Wangles were already
explaining our ABU work to the crowd! As a result, students and young grads went
home to cities all over Brazil and began little groups with our materials. It
warmed my heart that Lucas had so much confidence in me. He knew that he and I
would do anything for this ministry. Then I made long journeys to help these new
little groups, and conducted training camps and conferences in each region (ten
or twelve a year). At almost every camp were students from yet other cities, who
went home to begin small ABU’s. 2. Aim for orderly expansion, but be sensitive to
God’s leading. We expanded too quickly,
in a country larger than the contiguous U.S., and in a quite disorderly way. It
would have been wiser to develop one region until we had produced
staff, and then to begin work in the other regions. But that is not what
happened. When
I made a 3000+ mile trip north to
visit a group, I broke the long distances with stops at state capitals. In these
cities, I had the choice of doing nothing, or of looking up students. A city
might have six churches, but only five students. Some were in the same classes
but didn’t know the others were believers! Just getting them together helped.
I would give minimal training in Bible study and evangelism and leave our
materials. The chance for long-term survival of these little groups was slim,
without more staff help. But
should I ignore needy students because we were not organizationally ready to
serve them? I cared about those few students, preferring to give enough help, so
they could help each other in their spiritually hostile environment. Some came
to camps for further training and their groups did quite well. At one point,
before we had staff, I had students meeting in 45 cities! Eventually, we were
able to divide into five regions. Often
we had the first little meeting in a home. But sometimes we met on the beach, or
in a coffee shop. On a visit to Vitoria, I asked for and received the free use
of a hotel ballroom, which was still decorated from the Saturday night dance!
The novelty of it brought out about twenty students on a Sunday afternoon! We
had light refreshments, fun and a good orientation session. Expanding wildly in Iberia was not a possibi |
