Netherlands: Missionizing among refugees

Netherlands: Missionizing among refugees


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"Why are we always so sad and Christians full of joy and peace?"  That is, according to Johanna Marten, one of the lamentations of Muslims.  Thursday was the last day of a conference week in Ambt Delden, which aimed to reach Muslims with the Gospel.

Of the 600 people who visited the Kroeze Danne center last week, 75% were Muslim, says organizer Johanna Marten, who herself comes from the Middle East.  She says they saw in those Muslims a hunger and thirst for Jesus.  ""Muslims see that Christians radiate something they don't have.  In the last day we saw by them an intense interest for the Bible and Christianity."

This was the eighth time Marten organized a conference for Muslims, under the umbrella of Gave, a foundation which encourages the relations between the Church and refugees.  "We chose these people from the Middle East because most refugees in the Netherlands come from that area.  Because cultural difference are too negligible, we could set a separate week for them."  Most visitors came from Iraq and Syria.  Lectures and discussions were held in Arabic with translations via headsets to English, Kurdish and Dutch.

Slowly the big hall fills, strikingly with many in their 20s and 30s.  After 15 minutes, Arab team member urge the visitors to sit.  On the red shirts of the organizers team is Psalm 96:2 in Arabic: "Sing to the LORD, bless His name; Proclaim good tidings of His salvation from day to day."

On the walls in the back of the conference hall there are pictures from kids 12+, made during one of the day programs for children.  The pictures depict Bible stories such as creation or portrays of Jesus, the Good Shepard.  Habib and Mustafa painted a house on a mountain in poster colors.  One man walks there in the rain.  "You can take shelter by God", it says in wiggly children's handwriting.


Yet Muslims must pass many hurdles in order to accept the  Gospels.  Is the Christian God one?  Why don't you need good deeds to be blessed?  Where does a Muslim go after death?  A panel of five Christians from the Middle East answers questions from the visitors.

Is the Christian God divided into three Gods?  somebody asks the panel members.  "No, at the moment Jesus begins to grow in Maria's tummy, He is already one with God."  Followed by: Man can only please God through Jesus Christ.

One conference-goer asks if a Christian may lie.  One of the panel members starts by talking about sin.  "A sin, big or small, is like a drop of ink in a glass of water.  All the water is contaminated.  In the Middle East we may lie for certain reasons.  But according to the Bible that is as severed as adultery."

He speaks to daily life of the visitors, mostly refugees from asylum centers who are still waiting for residence permits.  "Thus you may not lie about your age to the government.  If God you to go back or stay, you can't change it."  The speak tells of a Yemenite who became Christian and out of remorse told the authorities he lied about his age.  He had to go back to his homeland, but could come back to the Netherlands after several years.

The eternal future also brings up questions.  A young man in the hall stands up abruptly.  "Don't I go to paradise if I'm Muslim?"   A panel member answers that Christianity doesn't recognize paradise, but a new paradise: Heaven.  He gestures widely and laughs.  "God loves all men, not only Christians.  Man differentiates between religions, but God doesn't.  In John 17:3 it says that we all need the same thing.  "Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent"

The conference week also has a practical point. Christians - some with Muslim background - attend workshops about relations between man and woman, education and modern media.  The children's program is attended by almost twenty Dutch.

Relations between man and woman also brings up questions during the lecture.  The panel impressed upon the visitors that a man must stay faithful to a woman if she's seriously sick or can't have children.  "Well educated women in the Middle East often stay single, because they don't want to be abandoned."  To the men: "You shared everything with her.  You must stay by her in good and bad days.  Above all, marriage is a commitment from God.  Nobody may separate that."

Another visitor asks why there's so much criticism of Islam in the conference.  The panel: In all religions there's laws, testimonies and ceremonies.  But in Christianity the individual is central.  Jesus is not a way, but THE way.  He doesn't only have life, but He is life."

Later on Marten says that visitors know in advance that they're going to a Christian conference.  She says they prepared ads in the asylum centers.  The study week is special: for a low price, sometimes for free, they offer a week for the whole family, and they also organize transportation.  It's really staying in a five star hotel for free.  But they make it clear in advance: in this conference you also hear about Jesus.

Financially the conference is in the red.  Gave organizes a low admission price, because many asylum seekers have almost no money.  About 250 people come for free, according to Marten.  Marco Vos of Gave: In Muslim culture it's not common to ask for an admission fee if you invite people to come."  In the past six months Gave got financial support from parish collections.  They're still missing 5000-10,000 euro.  Last year they manage to bridge the gap and they hope to do so also now.

In the upcoming two years Marten will put in effort via Gave to spread the word in Reform churches about missionizing among asylum seekers.  "I will thank then for their support for our work and hope for open doors in order to give out more information."

Source: Reformatorisch Dagblad (Dutch)

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