Tag Archives: multiplication

A Growing Vision

by Jacob Varghese, staff worker with UESI India

My journey with Scripture Engagement goes back to when I was a student. At that time, I entered into a personal relationship with Jesus as my Lord and saviour and started to connect deeply with God’s Word. Studying doctrine helped me see the Bible as the inspired Word of God and convinced me of the need to reflect on this Word. Simultaneously, I was introduced to the discipline of having a ‘quiet time’ and sincerely started practicing it. Doing this laid a good foundation for my faith.

However, I did not realize that I was only reading & reflecting on a few passages. I applied them to my life, but before long I was getting bored of reading the Bible. I continued to read in the Bible, but only as an exercise, just like physical exercise for my body. Slowly, I started withdrawing and having my quiet time only when it was convenient. Little did I know that even during that time my God was actively working within me and shaping me.

Taking A Break. As we travel, we take journey breaks in order to be refreshed. But for me, the break on my journey was breakdown. My staff colleagues and other students in the fellowship never realized the struggle I was going through. It was during this period that I met Rev. Koichi Ottawa (then IFES Regional Secretary for East Asia). He asked me very directly: “how is your journey with God?” I was taken by surprise, but I responded truthfully. Ottawa helped me to re-start my journey with God and his Word. I realized that Scripture engagement is not a duty or mere discipline, but that it is about the Lord walking at my side and speaking to me – there is fun, there are arguments, expressions of disappointment, joy and gratefulness. Scripture became the framework for my life. 

A Renewed Vision. Through the IFES global ministry of Scripture Engagement, my vision was enlarged. I began to understand more deeply that engaging with Scripture is an ongoing journey in an active relationship with our Lord God. I recognized that Scripture is not only about what God has done for me, but that it also places me in God’s grand story.
Scripture engagement is so much more than techniques – it is an invitation to continue growing in our relationship with Jesus and his world. As I understood this more deeply, I recognized my responsibility to start building up lives centred around Scripture.

Sharing this vision with individuals and building them up as vision multipliers was the next step for me. I made a conscious decision that in my personal capacity, I would focus on individuals and small group training programs and not wait for the formation of large groups. My journey continues with the vision to see young people actively engaging with God, his Word and his world.
 

One Bible Study Multiplied into Many

As a student, I had the opportunity to join a Bible Study group, in addition to our weekly FES fellowship meetings. We met once a week during the semester. We named the group “Bible Surgeons” because we wanted to dissect the Word, discover it and process these discoveries in our lives. We did not just want to hear the outcome of someone else’s study, but engage with Scripture ourselves. These studies taught me to look at biblical passages through the eyes of different people, perspectives and entry points. This has been a great gift for me in my discovery of God and his Word.

Our FES staff worker, Annette Arulrajah, facilitated the Bible Surgeons’ group. Through this experience, I learned to lead Bible studies. As a student, I mainly observed how Annette facilitated. This wasn’t difficult because she would explain the reason behind why she did certain things, even if she had to repeat it weekly! In this way, we studied biblical books and at the same time learned to facilitate studies. I learned from Annette that you can facilitate Bible studies with 1 person or with 100 people. I discovered that engaging with the Word can be interesting, interactive and alive. I think the most valuable thing I learned is how to lead a Bible study in such a way that students learn how to study the Word for themselves and are enabled to facilitate a Bible study for others.

What inspires me to continue facilitating Bible studies with others is the desire to see students discover for themselves who God is through His Word. Since the Word is alive and still speaks to us, it can pierce our heart and draw us back to God – if we allow it to. I have often seen students so moved by the Word that the door for deep conversations was opened and new steps of faith were taken. For me, it is always important to remember that when I mentor a student, I do not do so with my words, but with God’s Word.

For eleven years I have been facilitating Bible studies and training others to do so. I thank the Lord that because of this, many students in turn have started to facilitate Bible studies!

Beatrice Leong, beascuits@gmail.com
staff worker FES Malaysia until 2018

Scripture Engagement: A plant nursery for trainers

Over the last three years, I have participated in a continuous Scripture Engagement training. The idea behind this training was to invest in young people who would in turn invest long-term in others. The aim was not to establish a specific programme for Scripture Engagement, but rather to train men and women who would translate what they learned into their own contexts.

Ten of us, from different French-speaking countries in Africa, took part in this training. The training happened over three sessions from 2015 to 2017, in Togo, Guinea-Conakry and Mali respectively; these sessions were key in enabling us to grasp the concept of Scripture Engagement and to improve how we approach the Bible. In between sessions, we had homework to do, such as studying the Gospel of John, reading a theological book, writing Bible studies, surveying students about how they perceive the Bible.

For me, one of the most important topics dealt with the convictions we have about God’s Word. I realized: Firstly, this topic allows us to relook at what we state about God’s Word and ensure that our beliefs are not simply abstract statements but alive with meaning. Secondly, it enables us to lay good foundations for engaging with God through His Word. I think it is essential for everyone to have strong convictions about God’s Word. Then we wouldn’t constantly have to chase people to ask if they are meditating every day, because they would be doing it anyway.

These training sessions impacted my ministry and my life. In terms of ministry, I have improved in how I ask questions when writing Bible study guides, I have set up a support group for my ministry (for financial, material and spiritual needs) and I have started to invest into a youth group. With this youth group, I am soon planning to survey students to find out how we can introduce them to God in the light of Scripture.

In my personal life, my way of engaging with God through his Word has changed. I now always try to establish a bridge between my biblical knowledge and my everyday life. And I have set myself the challenge of always sharing my discoveries in God’s Word with others whenever an opportunity presents itself.

Salimou Traoré,
high school teacher and leader of the Bible study department in GBEE Mali, trasa_86(at)yahoo.fr

Multiplication Efforts

(written by Josue Alanis, Cinthya Ocón, Fausto Romero staff of MUC El Salvador)

We are grateful to God for awakening our interest in his Word through IFES consultations on Scripture engagement. Now our desire is to pass on this interest to others in El Salvador. We have been doing so in different ways.

Over the past two years, we have been teaching a session on Scripture Engagement at our national training event for students. Each time, I (Cinthya) teach this session, I fall deeper in love with the Word. Repeatedly, I am amazed at what God is doing in the lives of students through his Word. And have come to realize just how important Scripture is for the Christian life.

During these past months, we also had the privilege of teaching young people from different churches about Scripture engagement. It was a joy to see their perspective on God’s Word change completely. One of the results is that they have become interested in the work of MUC at university. These sessions have opened a door for us to collaborate with young people from different churches.

The topic which sparks the most interest is reflecting on what it means to love, study, live and share the Word. We encourage young people to foster a real love for God and his Word. Studying, living and sharing the Word flow out of this love.

In an attempt to grow in how we address the challenges of our world biblically, one activity has been very enriching. We start by reading the reality of the country we live in. We ask the participants to create a collage from newspapers with the challenges, desires and fears of their fellow students. Then we ask them to find answers to these issues in the Bible. Many reply with individual Bible verses that give a superficial answer. We question these answers so that they realize how important it is to have a deeper biblical knowledge than just a few memorized verses that are known by almost the entire population of El Salvador. We finish this exercise with a small study on Habakkuk and how God’s answer to this prophet might relate to questions in our context. Our purpose is to see how we can hold the newspaper in one hand and the Bible in the other.

We have been able to touch the lives of over 150 students from MUC and over 50 young people from churches with sessions on Scripture engagement. God has been good and we have seen some young people commit to studying and loving God’s Word. Our church in El Salvador needs to abandon religiousness and have its love for Scripture rekindled.