Region / Country: Europe

Travel in tandem with God’s heart

“Where did you go over the holidays? What are your plans for the summer? What’s on your bucket list?”

These are the questions that fill conversations on campuses across Ireland. Many students eat, sleep and dream travel. When we’re not travelling, we Instagram old photos of our last trip, or we look at flights to see where we might go next.

But what is God’s heart for travel? For the last few years I’ve been reflecting on what it looks like for staff and students to travel in tandem with God’s heart. And that led me into action.

Intentional holidaying

As Christians we know that God loves the nations, the ‘outsiders’. And yet we don’t always share that love. Having seen how hard Christian students here find it to reach out to Muslims on their campus, I decided to use my holiday to explore the Muslim world. That first trip was an incredible experience — the culture, food, scenery! I met up with missionaries as I travelled around the country. At various points along the way I stayed in something like a ‘homestay program’ with a local Muslim family for a few days. I came back feeling rested and refreshed by God and his creation. But I also came back feeling challenged — waking up each morning at 4am hearing the call to prayer from the mosque had got me thinking…

Keen to return

The following year I decided I must do something similar. This time I went with another adventurous student who was interested in learning more about Islam. Getting stuck in the desert with no petrol, being followed up a mountain by a gunman and being surrounded by wild dogs were just a few of the more exciting moments. Off the back of this trip, we came up with the idea of doing an outreach program with the local Christian student groups and churches in a city in Ireland.

Mission on your doorstep

“To Ireland? There aren’t any Muslims living here!” was the comment of many on the team when we first told them about it. But as we went around the local area, we found that over 5% of the city is Muslim. Many of the team had Muslim neighbours they’d never been aware of. It was an eye-opening experience. The program went well, and has happened every summer since.

Four years later, we now have an international student ministry in the city that helps reach some of the least-reached Muslim students in the world, with the gospel. We also have small prayer groups meeting to pray for Muslim friends. We encourage each other to intentionally build friendships with them and share the good news of Jesus. And because of it, several students and graduates have moved to the Muslim world to live and work.

Come and see

This year we’re doing something a bit different. We’re taking a team to a country in the Muslim world to see what running a business there would look like.

We’re linking up with someone who has decades of business experience in that part of the world. The team will consist of some business students from across Ireland and the UK, and a few others from campuses with high Muslim populations who want to learn more. We’ll head off together to get a flavour first-hand of what living in such a culture and “loving our neighbour as ourselves” would be like. Please pray for us as we go.

“I’ve already got a profitable business and I hope to have several more over the next few years. But instead of enjoying it all myself, I would love to plough the profits back into helping build the Church in places that don’t yet have Church. Or even to run my businesses there too. This trip will help me see what that might be like.” (Irish student)

What can you do?

How are you using your time off from university to travel in tandem with God’s heart? How could you spend your holidays growing in your heart for reaching the least-reached students on earth with the good news?

Peter works with students in Ireland, blogs about faith and travel at www.aljabr7.wordpress.com and longs to see the most unreached peoples hear something of the good news.

Learning to lead in a global world

Balancing time. Managing tensions. Making decisions. Keeping going.

Leadership is hard. Especially when it’s all new.

At IFES we believe in investing in our young leaders. We want them to be empowered to exercise their leaderships gifts with boldness, integrity and godliness. We want them to love and lead their teams well. We want them to have wisdom as they navigate the complexities of cross-cultural campus ministry in a fast-changing world.

That’s why the Global Leadership Initiative (GLI) exists. 26 March 2018 marked the end of the first GLI program. 18 young IFES leaders had been selected from each of the regions across the world to participate. The group met together three times over the course of 18 months. It has been a formative experience for all of them. One reflected:

“This has been a life-changing experience for me. I have grown so much not only as a leader but as a believer in Christ.”

Three of the participants shared what impact the GLI program had had on them and on their ministry.

Mary Olguin — Compa Mexico, Head of the national office & regional staff worker

I’ve always enjoyed working with IFES, but a few years ago I was ready to quit. I just felt that I had finished what I needed to do; and there were already new leaders who could take on my role. I wanted to do something new. But then I joined the GLI program. During our first meeting together we spent some time considering what our strengths were, what gifts God had given us. I realised that God has made me a pioneer; it’s what I love to do and what I’m good at doing. Maybe that’s why I often get the urge to move on and do something new! Soon after that an opportunity opened up for me to stay with IFES but to focus on pioneering within the national office. And I knew it was the right thing for me.

I also oversee some of the field staff of the movement. After learning about teamwork strategies at the GLI program, I met with my field staff in one city and shared with them what I’d learned. They were excited and decided to try out the new strategies together as a team.

So when they met six months ago they agreed on some changes. They agreed that they’d hold each other accountable. They agreed they’d make plans and help each other to keep to them; that they’d turn up on time. They agreed to give feedback to each other after every event. They agreed not to talk behind others’ backs but have those difficult conversations openly.

The change has been huge. Not just for team morale, but also for the students. The team being more committed has made the students more committed. The students know the events planned are going to happen; it will start on time and finish on time. That makes a difference.

Team relationships have improved significantly too. They used to struggle with the same issues many teams face: team members not pulling their weight; people turning up late; people feeling annoyed with each other but not saying anything; making plans that never materialise. One of them was so unhappy she wanted to leave the team.

They are a much healthier team now. They communicate; they support each other; they really enjoy working together. New staff want to join and old staff want to stay. They’ve realised how much they need each other if they are to do the best they can for God’s kingdom on campus.

Lawrence Gomez — FES Gambia, General Secretary

At the start of this year, I became the General Secretary for FES. GLI has been hugely formative for me as a leader. Taking the time to work out what my gifts are and what they’re not was such a helpful exercise, and one that I’ve brought back to the office. We’ve since moved people around a bit so that they’re in roles where they can play to their strengths. Discovering your strengths at an early stage of life saves you from a life of mediocrity.

GLI has helped me to be a better leader. In the past if someone wasn’t doing their assignment, I would just do it. But now I try to encourage and empower them to do it. We check in every day. How’s that project going? What’s holding you back? How can we help?

If you do it alone you might do it fast; but if you do it together you will go far.

Christian Pichler — ÖSM Austria, General Secretary

As a new General Secretary, one of the big challenges is discerning priorities. There are many good things to do, but which one is the best? Which one should you start with? It really needs wisdom and patience to lead a national movement in the right direction, one step at a time.

And that’s particularly true given that we live in such a global world. The teams we lead are often cross-cultural; the students we try to reach are both local and international. We need to deal with global issues. We need to learn to be leaders in a global context.

That’s why GLI is such a strategic and unique program: the participants are from all over the world, from different cultures and backgrounds. We all do leadership differently.

Learning in community with the other young IFES leaders really was the highlight for me. I learned so much just through conversations with them over coffee or lunch. Hearing about the challenges they face and the way they address those challenges made me reconsider my approach to leadership in my own cultural context.

GLI helped me to have a global vision. That’s so important for leaders today.

Hungary: five weeks of events in budapest

Students of MEKDSZ Hungary put on events across different campuses in Budapest over five weeks. They chose five thought-provoking titles to get people curious to find out more:

Independent; Unbound; Undecided; Unclothed; Irretrievable.

Student Aron told us more:

“The purpose of the five mission weeks was not only to put on great events, but to invite students into Bible study and conversational groups. So the story did not end with the events, it only started there!”

Their creative events included a Christian escape room challenge, a lecture about religious relativism, a talk with a Jewish Christian and an Arabic Christian on the subject of peace in Christ, and a debate between Christian and atheist lecturers, to which 240 people came.

The IFES Innovation Project supported this and many other student initiatives to share the gospel on campus in creative and innovative ways. Find out more about how IFES is supporting student evangelism around the world.

Pray for follow-up in Portugal

It’s truly a wonderful thing when a student turns to Christ. But in a sense, that’s just the beginning. Young believers desperately need Christian friends around them to disciple them, encourage them and answer difficult questions, like: Do I need to get baptised now? How can I explain my new faith to my parents? What kind of church should I join?

GBU Portugal students are thanking God for the three students who professed faith last month at one of their mission week events. But they know that for these three, follow-up is essential. Follow-up is also key for those who heard but have not yet decided to follow Christ – they still have questions.

Student groups across eight cities in Portugal put on evangelistic events in March and are now following up with the contacts they made. Some student groups are running follow-up Bible study courses (20 are attending one in Coimbra); others are following-up one-to-one with individuals.

Please join us in praying:

  • Pray for the three students who professed faith, that they would keep trusting in Jesus and be discipled well.
  • Pray for all the students who attended mission week events, especially for those who have started coming along to follow-up groups.
  • Pray for a better training structure for students to engage more effectively in evangelism, not just during mission weeks but as a way of life.

Thanks for praying with us!