Global Perspective

Taking Muslims out of the Toy box

2006-11-20T15:40:00.000-08:00

by: Stefanie Parsons

She was the most mature and focused person I knew in high school. I looked up to her in Key Club as she was our student leader in our senior year. She had pictures of Boys II Men in her locker and was one of the first of us to get her own car, which her dad fixed up for her. I always wanted to be like her ever since we were in grade 4 when she would wear her long black hair tied up with a rainbow of colourful elastics.

That beautiful hair was covered in a tight head scarf during high school but it never really caused me to think about the differences between my friend and me. I knew she was a Muslim and she knew I was a Christian, that fact never complicated our friendship. I never shared my faith with her probably because I was not a strong Christian in high school and I didn’t want to make myself stand out for fear of rejection by anyone.

I was reminded of my friend during this past Missions Week here at EBC. Lisa Keller was the first guest speaker in Chapel on Monday, October 6 and the title of her message surprised me: “When there’s a Muslim in your toy box”.

As the Executive Assistant for Arab World Ministries in Canada, she has had many experiences working in missions among Muslims throughout Asia. In her message she explained that five years after the attacks of 9/11, the Western media and populace still focus on the Muslim religion instead of the person who happens to be Muslim.

“We treat Muslims like toys,” she said. “We analyze them but have no real relationship with them. We play with them and put them away.”

She encouraged us to pursue relationships with Muslims around us in our communities, saying that many Muslims today are questioning their faith and looking for a deeper connection to the divine.

Irshad Manji is one such Muslim. The outspoken Canadian author of The Trouble with Islam Today: A Muslim’s Call for Reform in Her Faith, admits on her website that she has thought about rejecting her faith on many occasions.

“There needs to be ‘feeders’ to administer the living water and give the bread of life (to these Muslims),” said Keller.

While listening to Lisa talk, I had to admit to myself that I often intellectualized the guilt away for not sharing my faith with my friend in high school. I realized that my friend was more passionate about her faith than I was about mine; I thought that I was an inadequate example of a Christian.

I currently have no friends who are of the Muslim faith, but with the encouragement of Lisa, I’m going to consciously make the effort to get to know at least one person who is a Muslim and I challenge my fellow EBC students to do the same.

We don’t need to look very far, so take these suggestions and pray for your future Muslim friend!
- Shop at Muslim stores and make friends with the owners
- Listen to the news with compassion and grieve for those in Iraq who are suffering.
- Visit Muslim student groups on local university campuses:
UofW Muslim Student Association
McMaster Muslim Student Association
- Attend multi-cultural festivals and visit mosques during their celebration activities
- Volunteer with programs that help new immigrants to Canada by teaching them English, etc.

The New Focus of the Church in China

2006-11-05T20:12:00.000-08:00

by: Stefanie Parsons

The house church movement in China is ready to send missionaries west through all Asian countries until they reach Jerusalem according to a special visitor to Janice Anderson’s World Mission class on Friday, October 20.

“The Chinese have a vision to spread the Gospel westward,” said the missionary who is working to encourage the Chinese believers. “They feel it is their responsibility to take it to Jerusalem until Jesus comes back.”

Sharing many testimonies about the harsh repression of Chinese Christians under the Communist regime in China, he said because of this persecution they are uniquely equipped to spread the Gospel into Muslim countries between China and Israel. He admits that the leadership of the church is ready for more suffering, sighting the recent killing of a Chinese worker in Yemen last July when authorities discovered she was a professing Christian.

“The leaders (of the house churches) expect the majority of the missionaries they send out will die for the cause,” he said.

He estimates that nearly 100, 000 Christians are preparing to leave China with God’s saving message and predicts that this will be the next major move in Christianity. He also states that the Chinese believers can more easily move into countries which are considered closed such as Myanmar and Bhutan.

Although he told the audience in the classroom his name, he decided not to let it be published in The Voice for fear that it would be connected to believers in China. Even the name of the movement in China is changing its name to lower the profile of new missionaries who will be leaving for hostile countries.

“We can’t say too much,” he said. “The Chinese government knows about it and Muslim nations have asked China to ‘not send your missionaries to our countries’.”

He also said that the church in Canada and North America should prepare for suffering and that persecution is not far away. He stated that many issues in society today are going to separate the real Christians from the “chaff” and we must stand for our beliefs in the areas of homosexuality, political correctness and in dealing with people of other faiths.

“External pressures are coming and internal discipleship must be learned,” he warned.

“You are living in one of the most exciting times in history,” he said to the audience. “Don’t waste your life!”

If you would like to learn more about this exciting movement in the Chinese church pick up one of these books:

Back to Jerusalem by Brother Yun, Peter Xu Yongze, Enoch Wang with Paul Hattaway

Jesus in Beijing by David Aikman

China’s amazing history: 1421 - The Year China Discovered America by Gavin Menzies

Mission Magazine in the Library

2006-10-16T11:26:00.000-07:00

by: Stefanie Parsons

Check out these articles in the mission magazines on the shelves beside the computer room:

In Mission Fields (Fall 2006) you can read about Canadian Olympian, Cindy Klassen who visited MCC projects in Nigeria and Ethiopia and talked with AIDS patients undergoing antiretroviral therapy.

The Evangelical Mission Alliance’s Team Horizons magazine (2006-2007) has many great articles with big, glossy pictures notably, The Face of Islam which outlines the ways that the Western media is unbalanced when portraying Muslims. And Megan Darreth writes about the decline of traditional churches in Europe in the article, Board Up the Cathedrals.

Last year’s issue of Internationals on Campus is focused on Asian students studying in American universities and introduces a plan to help them explore the Bible with other international students who are Christians. There are also many insightful student testimonies about how they came to a relationship with Christ through friendships with believers at university.

If you have a story about missions or know someone who does, contact the Voice at voiceofebc@gmail.com!

My Thailand Experience

2006-10-02T10:34:00.000-07:00

by: Stefanie Parsons

They were all standing at the door wearing their turquoise baggy pajamas. Most had long faces and some even had tears on their cheeks. I had come to the senior girls’ dorm to say my last goodbyes before I flew back to Canada in the morning.
But one of my student’s wasn’t there.

“Where is Jeed?” I asked the girls.

Pattamaporn had to get her from upstairs and when she came out her face was red and wet. We hugged for a long time.

“Please don’t forget me, Ajan Stefanie,” she whispered.

How did I ever come to feel so much love for these kids when I couldn’t fully communicate with them? Why was Jeed so sad to say goodbye to me? Why did God give me this gift only to take it away? I had so many questions that night and sometimes I still ask them.

For almost two years I lived and taught English at a Christian boarding school called Sammuk Christian Academy in the beach town of Bang Saen in Thailand. I had only been on one previous mission trip to Cambodia and the only practice I had at sharing my faith was as a member of the Christian student group at Sheridan College. I was very surprised when Canadian Baptist Ministries appointed me as an associate missionary and supported me when I was accepted to teach English in Thailand.

Only about 20% of the kids at Sammuk come from Christian families and the rest are Buddhist, the main religion of Thailand. Sammuk Christian Academy was founded over forty years ago where children could be educated by Christian teachers in a loving environment and grow up learning about Christ through biblical teaching as well as all the major subjects in the Thai curriculum.

Being of slightly small stature, looking young for my age and not knowing any of the language, I was not very confident standing in front of a room full of teenagers. Often they would not participate in the lesson or some would talk constantly in English just to get my attention. I didn’t know how to get them to care about studying English or even respect my authority, and then I realized that I must be serious and stop trying to be their friend and instead be their teacher.

After my first year I had finally mastered my serious ‘teacher voice’ as I like to call it and also had used the evil eye to great success. I was confident in laying down the law and keeping a straight face when a student would try to get me to laugh at their antics.

At the start of my second school year one of the girls asked me to be her tutor and talk to her everyday in English. Her name was Machukan (nickname Jeed) but she had never studied with me in my class before. I was soon informed by my fellow English teachers that the year before she had been the friend of the most disrespectful girl in school and had been in trouble frequently. I began to doubt her sincerity at wanting to study with me but after our first couple of meetings all I could see in her was a shy girl with little self confidence.

She told me about her dream of becoming a tour guide so she could travel the world but she worried that her grades would not be good enough for university. I shared my own high school experience of not fitting in and never thinking I was good enough. I also explained how God had changed me from being timid and unsure of my abilities to graduating from college and moving to Thailand. I told her that I believed that God can do anything and wanted to be in her life but I’m not sure if she understood. There was so much more I wanted to say to her but my time in Thailand was cut short and I found myself packing my bags.

As I left the school in the early morning, looking back at the ocean and the mountains my heart was broken. Not because I was leaving this beautiful place but because God had taught me to love. Through a language barrier and with little ministry experience or Bible training, God had made me a missionary, not just because I was willing to go but also because I was willing to love as Jesus loved.