Evision winter 2017

Winter 2017/18

A Clash of

Worldviews

THE GOSPEL AND THE NEW MORALITY

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Editorial: Living faithfully and living by faith

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The Gospel and the New Morality - a clash of worldviews

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Stephen McQuoid

Stephen McQuoid

Summer Teams Profile

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Tilsley College – teaching values to a new generation

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Erika Raigné

This magazine is published twice yearly to report on the work of GLO in Europe and around the world and to promote mission interest. There is no subscription rate but readers are welcome to send gifts towards postage and production.

New GLO Workers Picking up the pieces of a broken society

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Anne Dryburgh

Reaching young people in Europe today

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Allison Hill

GLO Bookshop

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Andrew Lacey

Connect with us!

GLO Europe Mission is on:

GLO is a charity registered in Scotland: SC007355.

If you would like to contribute financially to the work of GLO this can be done directly using the bank details below or by contacting our Finance Director: Ian Smith (ismith@glo-europe.org).

Leaving a lasting legacy Many people have a concern about what the long-term impact of their lives will be on others. As Christians this is a big issue because the Bible encourages us to live our lives in view of eternity. GLO, along with many

BANK OF SCOTLAND, 72 BRANDON PARADE, MOTHERWELL ML1 1UW ACCOUNT NAME – GLO TRUST SCOTLAND SORT CODE – 800915 ACCOUNT NUMBER – 00400636

other Christian organisations, benefits greatly from legacies that people leave behind. It is a way of significantly helping the work of the kingdom by organising your giving after you have gone.

We have produced an information booklet on the use of legacies and if you would like to have one then write to: Stephen McQuoid | GLO Centre | 78 Muir Street | Motherwell ML1 1BN | smcquoid@glo-europe.org

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elcome to this new edition of e-vision magazine. In this edition we are continuing our series on

the major challenges that face the gospel in Europe by looking at the issue of the ‘New Morality’ which pervades so much of European culture. This concept might be a new one for many readers and it is certainly a fairly new cultural phenomenon. Put simply, not only has the collapse of a Judeo-Christian worldview caused a degeneration of ethical standards in our culture, but more than that, our culture has become positively hostile to the Judeo-Christian worldview.

As well as looking at this troubling aspect of culture we will hear from Anne Dryburgh, a GLO missionary to Belgium who is seeking, though counselling, to help broken people recover a sense of their value before God. We will also introduce the new first-year students at Tilsley College and Erika Raigné will describe how the college courses help students to navigate their way through the complexities of our culture with holiness and integrity. Allison Hill will also talk about schools’ work and how we teach values to children.

The summer of 2017 was an exciting one for GLO. We had 29 summer teams which helped hundreds of people all across Europe get involved in short term mission. There are lots of stories to tell from these teams, but space does not permit.

Living faithfully and living by faith

by Stephen McQuoid

However, you will see pictures and read comments which leave an impression of all that God has done as a result of our summer programme.

We are also delighted to have more people joining us full-time in the work of GLO. In total six have joined this year and are working in training and the admin department doing a variety of tasks from the organising of summer teams and student placements to running social media platforms and mission mobilising. It is exciting to have these new people join us and our prayer is that they will experience God’s help as they launch into their ministries.

Working with GLO is a challenge. Not just because we are on the frontline trying to reach Europeans with the good news of Jesus in a culture that is fundamentally opposed to Christianity, but also because for each of our new workers this is a huge step of faith. GLO is a faith work! We do not pay salaries, instead all GLO workers look to God to supply their financial as well as other needs.

Consequently, life for each GLO worker is an adventure of faith in which they learn total reliance on God. Our job, in short, is to live by faith while we live faithfully. Depend on God’s provision while we serve him in obedience.

‘Living by faith’ is not just something for individual workers to practice, rather it is something that we as a whole work must practice, and now more than ever. This is because we are at a point where we need to trust God for a major project that looms on the horizon. Some 32 years ago (1985) we were needing to extend the GLO Centre and so we obtained some second hand mobile classroom units which we got free from a local school. They were already coming to the end of their shelf life but they have provided us with offices, lecture rooms, student bedrooms and also space for our bookshop ever since. This ‘new building’ was flat roofed with all the problems associated with that and now it is in very poor condition and desperately needs to be replaced.

Compounding this problem is the growth of GLO which means we desperately need, not just the replacement of this section of the building, but we need more offices, student accommodation, lecture rooms, library space and meeting rooms.

Without this we will be greatly hampered and will not be able to sustain what we do or grow further. A building project of this magnitude is very significant, costs money and at present we don’t have the finance. However, we trust God like we always have done and believe that when the time comes God will provide. Please will you pray with us that this vision will become a reality and that we will be able to continue living by faith as well as living faithfully.

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017 will go down as a landmark year for observers of the ever-changing cultural mood, particularly within the UK. Firstly, there was the resignation of Tim Farron as the Liberal Democrat party leader. Farron, a popular leader, joined the party at the age of 16. However, the media began to hound him with questions over his Christian faith and in particular his attitude towards abortion and homosexuality. Under immense pressure he gave a variety of answers, all of which put pressure on his leadership. Finally, he resigned, claiming that being faithful to the Bible while being a party leader was for him impossible. He also remarked that, ‘we are kidding ourselves if we think we yet live in a tolerant, liberal society’.

Another politician to face hostility from the media was Jacob Rees-Mogg, Conservative MP for North East Somerset. A committed Roman Catholic, Mogg appeared on the ‘Good Morning Britain’ show and was asked about his views on same-sex marriage and abortion. He expressed his commitment to the teachings of the Church on these issues and was met with hostility, both by the TV hosts and also fellow politicians, as well as the media in general. Some described Mogg’s views as ‘utterly abhorrent’ and the vehemence with which he was criticised both on social and mainstream media led some commentators to believe that he had little future in his political career.

While these events were unfolding, Equalities Minister Justine Greening was beginning a campaign to streamline the process by which people in the UK can change their gender. Her proposal was that the government should remove the need for a medical diagnosis for gender dysphoria and be able to transition to a different sex much more easily. Following quickly on the heels of this campaign, Murray Edwards College, one of only three ‘female only’ colleges within Cambridge University, decided to adapt their policy and begin to accept transgender student applicants.

Their rationale was that they were in sympathy with the belief that gender is not binary (ie. male and female) and that narrow gender identities can be damaging. The move elicited a wry comment

from leading feminist thinker Germaine Greer, who stated that if Murray Edwards didn’t believe gender was binary, they shouldn’t be a single sex college.

All of these events demonstrate a worrying reality that Christians both in the UK and right across Europe need to come to terms with. That is, while our culture continues to disintegrate morally and standards keep changing, any Christian or person of faith who dares to question the liberal consensus will find themselves being vehemently criticised or opposed for doing so.

A question that needs to be asked is, how did we ever end up at this particular point in our cultural history? Ultimately we can trace the moral disintegration of our culture down to the loss of the Judeo-Christian worldview which underpinned European values for so long. If anyone doubts about how completely the Judeo-Christian worldview has collapsed, they need only glance at newspapers, Twitter feeds and other media outlets and reflect on what is being said. Much of European culture has absorbed moral relativism in a wholesale way to the point where there are now no objective moral values underpinning our culture and just like in the book of Judges 21:25, ‘everyone does what is right in their own eyes’.

But our cultural situation is even darker than this. Not only are we experiencing moral drift as a culture, but there has been, in very recent times, a furious backlash against anyone who would dare suggest that we need objective moral values or even that they exist. It is this backlash that Tim Farron, Jacob Rees-Mogg and so many others have experienced. There is rich irony here too, because the proponents of this ‘new morality’ are very keen to stress that they are liberally minded and tolerant in wanting to accept any kind of lifestyle, while Christians as well as other people of faith are intolerant for raising questions about how some people might live. However, their angry denunciation of people who believe in fixed values is itself utterly intolerant. The extent of this intolerance and the anger associated with it can be seen in a whole variety of ways from the popular and social media to the violent protests that accompany special interest groups such as

anti-capitalist demonstrators who cause mayhem at international summits.

Someone may ask, what does all of this have to do with mission and with GLO? The answer is that it has everything to do with it! GLO exists to proclaim the gospel throughout Europe. The gospel pervades everything we do from shortterm mission teams to training and even to the resources we sell in our Christian bookshop. We want the people of Europe to know and understand the gospel. The problem is that the gospel includes the reality of man’s sin and the forgiveness that is offered through Jesus Christ. Likewise, the gospel demands personal transformation so that people repent of the fallenness of their culture and commit to holiness and following Christ. It is not possible to clearly articulate the gospel without making reference to sin and that is where the culture clash occurs.

Many people today do not recognise sin as a real thing and certainly do not accept the biblical view of what sin is. Worse still, the very suggestion that sin exists provokes such anger and resentment that the beautiful story of God’s love in Jesus gets lost.

This is a real challenge to those of us who want to present the gospel in a biblically faithful way. Its very message closes doors before it can be fully understood and appreciated. So how do we get beyond this impasse?

Firstly, we must determine not to water down the gospel. It is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes (Rom.1:16). Whatever offense the gospel may cause it is true and truth must never be diluted. We need to have a deep and abiding conviction about the importance and power of the gospel and be unashamed of its claims.

Secondly, we need to learn to communicate it well and be culturally relevant in our presentation.

That does not mean that we will hold back on controversial issues such as human sin and judgment. However, it does mean that we open conversations talking about the generous love of God, the positive difference God cam make in our lives, the beautiful and historically attestable life of Jesus and the joy of belonging to a Christian community. We also need to skilfully argue for the

“Some described Mogg’s views as ‘utterly abhorrent’ and the vehemence with which he was criticised both on social and mainstream media led some commentators to believe that he had little future in his political career.”

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benefits of a biblical worldview while at the same time critiquing the broken culture we all live in.

Thirdly, we need to let our lives speak as powerfully as our words. In a culture that would treat us with derision, the last thing we need is lives that do not match what we say. On the contrary we need to be beyond repute and demonstrate the love of Christ in all of our relationships with others. In particular, we need to demonstrate that we love and accept others whether or not they agree with us.

Finally, we need to create church families that are living examples of community.

When culture is poisoned by bad ideas and attitudes, the church needs to react by demonstrating the joy and harmony of a community where love and acceptance are the norm. All of these are the weapons with which we wage this cultural battle for the soul of Europe.

“We must determine not to water down the gospel. It is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes (Rom.1:16)�

A Clash of

Worldviews

THE GOSPEL AND THE NEW MORALITY

by Stephen McQuoid

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Mission

Teams

2017

BELFAST

The highlight of my week in Crescent Church was being connected with an international team and as well as the Crescent Church team and being able to share the gospel with them to the people of Belfast.

AIX-EN-PROVENCE I was really challenged with my week in Aix-en-Provence.

Spending time with the relatively new Christians was fantastic - witnessing their enthusiasm, passion and fire to spread the gospel to others put me to shame a little as to our witness at home. I hope some of the passion and new ideas will rub off and I can utilise them at home.

ALBANIA I saw God work incredibly in a number of young people's lives at the English camp I was helping out with in Shkodra.

It was an amazing experience to help and encourage young people in their walk with God and do daily one-to-one sessions with different people each day.

It was amazing to serve God again with the friends I made last year, and also getting to know people. We saw God at work in the children from the children’s club and also through the people who were at the cafÊ. We felt very blessed to be part of the team.

ROMANIA Being involved for the first time in a mission team, I visited several gypsy villages in Romania and saw many needs. I feel so blessed for everything that I have - a very good lesson to be thankful!

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EGER, HUNGARY I loved being part of the church in Eger, Hungary, and just being able to be a part of a completely different culture for a short while. It was beautiful to see so many nationalities coming together to worship God, and I loved seeing not only how pleased the church was to receive the team, but also how passionate they were about Jesus and sharing the good news of Christ!

TANZANIA Two children coming to faith; previous 'children' being leaders today; faithfulness of long-term commitments among some leaders which strengthens continuity.

I enjoyed every moment we shared in the GLO team (the mission, meal times and learning about work of the missionaries). It was a very good experience for me, it helped me to grow with God and I was amazed to realise that he had prepared everything for the mission (the weather, team members, friendship and journeys).

ITALY We were blessed from day one! We were in Italy, and even though we heard the phrase: ‘Italy is the graveyard of missionaries’, we experienced daily strength from God, encouragement, and miracles!

During the GLO team in Italy this summer, I was reminded yet again that God always listens. I had a great time sharing God's word with the believers there. I miss them so much already and look forward to seeing them again.

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RICHARD & PAM HARKNETT

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e returned to the UK in February 2017 after some years working in Peru and are currently living in Bishop’s Stortford, just north of London. At the end of August, Richard began two part-time roles: three days per week with Echoes and two days per week with GLO. The Echoes work is focused on training and equipping. This involves not only churches in the UK, but also overseas, through the formation of strategic partnerships with national churches to help their leaders and full-time workers.

He will also be working closely with the First Serve programme. The GLO role is likewise centred on training and Richard is working alongside Mark Davies on the Joshua project and with Enable.

Pam is investigating opportunities for schools’ work in Bishop’s Stortford and Harlow. She is in contact with three Christian groups who are active in these towns and hopes to clarify what her role will be with them over the coming weeks. She has also been able to build some friendships with Latin Americans living in the town. We look forward to seeing how God guides each of us in the coming months and years.

“After graduating from the University of Glasgow with a degree in French, God brought to her attention the need for Bible translation and literacy work”

ANNE GROVER

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nne is from Greenock in Scotland and became a Christian in her late teens.

After graduating from the University of Glasgow with a degree in French, God brought to her attention the need for Bible translation and literacy work, so she attended a course at the Summer Institute of Linguistics. There she met her future husband Peter and, changing course completely, went with him to serve God in Pakistan.

During this time their son and daughter were born and as well as home schooling the children, she had various roles in the language school for missionaries.

The family spent fifteen years in Pakistan before returning to the UK unexpectedly and Anne then worked in administration for several years. In 2012 the Lord made it possible for her and Peter to return to the mission field; this time to Lima, Peru where Anne became involved in outreach through English conversation classes. She returned to Motherwell in 2016 on the death of her father and a year later heard of the need for an academic administrator at Tilsley College, where she has been serving since September 2017. She and Peter are members of Bothwell Evangelical Church.

New Workers 8

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SEB & JESS BRANDT

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ebastien and Jessica are French and they have been married for 16 years and have three children – two daughters aged 14 and 10, and a 3-year old son. In 2015, they decided to give up their secular jobs and joined Tilsley College for one year, in order to prepare for full-time Christian ministry.

However, a few months into their studies it became clear that there were roles within the work at Motherwell for which they had the necessary skills. After much prayer and reflection, they felt they should do the second year at Tilsley College, whilst being involved with GLO ministry. After completing the second year, they were both commended by their home church in Grenoble into the work of GLO. Seb is now a third-year student in Tilsley College and he is involved in the spiritual development of the students, in teaching, especially in the Joshua Project, and assisting in the set-up of short term mission teams. Jess is responsible for GLO Europe social media and she is also involved in translation work. As a couple, they are engaged in promoting the work of GLO, especially in France.

They give God thanks for the way their children have adapted so well to the culture even to the point of having Scottish accents and seeing their future here in Scotland.

JUDITH MCKEOWN

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y name is Judith McKeown and I am originally from Northern Ireland. However, for the past four years I have been living and working in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. I came to study at Tilsley College in September 2016 as the result of a GLO summer team in Rambouillet, France with Alan and Valerie Kyle. In October 2015 I met some GLO workers at the Living the Passion conference and the Lord, through 1 Chronicles 28:20, ‘Be strong and courageous and do it…’, confirmed his plan for me to come to Tilsley College. During my first year I did my field placement in the GLO Admin Department and the Lord showed me that he does not waste anything in our lives, but uses each stage to prepare us for the work that he wants us to do for him. I joined as a GLO worker in September, however I am also continuing my studies and I am currently in my second year at Tilsley College. I am doing my placement in the GLO Admin Department, working on summer mission teams, as well as working with Tilsley College on student placements.

“In October 2015 I met some GLO workers at the Living the Passion conference and the Lord, through 1 Chronicles 28:20, ‘Be strong and courageous and do it…’, confirmed his plan for me.”

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Reaching young people in Europe today O

ften when we think of the moral disintegration that is taking place in society our minds focus on the attitudes and behaviour of adults, especially those in their 20’s and 30’s.

However, one age group that urgently needs attention is children, who are every bit as much part of the moral fabric of culture as any other age group. The truth is that whatever the moral temperature of our culture, the children growing up in it will be affected by it.

It would be a reasonable generalisation to say that children have a natural moral compass.

They have an innate sense of justice and while they might not use the labels of right and wrong, they sense that some things are good and other things not. This may not be a very finely-tuned sense of morality and they can feel just as compassionate about a cat as they do a person, nevertheless that sense exists.

It is in the family that moral education begins. Some may be born into a religious family that believes in and lives by an objective set of moral values. However, others may be in a family where abusive language or behaviour is the norm, marriage is not valued, where moral absolutes are scoffed at and where almost any lifestyle is accepted. They also come under the influence of the media which, if unsupervised, can have a corrosive effect. All of this will influence and shape them even before they reach primary school age.

At school, the wider culture continues to make its impact. The education system in most European countries does have a

moral component, but more often than not the morality which is espoused bears little resemblance to a Judeo-Christian worldview.

The Scottish education system is a good example.

In the current ‘Curriculum for Excellence’ four purposes are articulated. They are: l The development of successful learners l The development of confident individuals l The development of responsible citizens l The development of effective contributors Of course each of these is open to interpretation, but the idea is to work with children so that they develop intellectually and socially while learning what it means to make a contribution to wider society. Doing this will, in practice, mean that they will be taught to be tolerant of a whole diversity of lifestyles and points of view and also to avoid the great sin of judging people. Linked with this is the burning issue of human rights which takes such a central role that children become acutely aware of their rights from a very young age. It could be argued that the ‘UN Convention of the Rights of the Child’ has replaced the Bible as the moral textbook of choice within schools.

All of this means that children are being taught values in school, but those values do not include our accountability to God, any question of judgment or even the basics of biblical morality hardly surprising in a secular education system.

The values taught assume moral relativism and that no one faith can claim to be absolutely true.

Consequently, if we ever get the opportunity

to talk to an average 13 or 14 year-old, they are not unaware of the importance of values, but what they have learned will force their naturally questioning minds to evaluate the claims of Christianity and they may react negatively to it.

How do we reach out to a new generation of young people whose worldview is even more removed from biblical Christianity than that of their parents? One important way is through schools’ work which enables us to reach large numbers of children because every child in the community will go to school. The problem is that in many European countries no religious activity is allowed in the classroom. In others, such and the UK, Religious and Moral Education is part of the curriculum, but it is greatly tempered and limited by the strictures of political correctness and pluralism. This is exemplified by a recent event where a maths teacher was suspended and faces losing his job on the basis that he ‘misgendered’ a pupil because he referred to the girl as ‘her’ when she was transgendering to become a ‘him’.

A Christian school’s worker might be able to

Searching questions from the mouths of children ‘Why doesn’t God like gays? (Amy, 9 years)

‘Why do good people die young?’

‘ If God didn’t want people to die, why did

(Mark, 11 years)

he allow children in Egypt to be killed?’

‘ If aliens came to earth and looked like us,

(Melissa, 10 years)

do you think people would still believe in

‘ Why is the world suffering from poverty

God?’ (Karen, 8 years)

and hunger?’ (Susan, 9 years)

‘ If God exists then why did the Titanic,

‘ Why did God make the world?

9/11, World Wars 1 & 2 and other tragedies

(James, 10 years)

happen?’ (Philip, 9 years)

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e describe what Christians believe, but they would not be able to tell children what they should believe or that other beliefs are wrong. That same Christian worker would be able to say a little more at an after-school club or a lunch club, but some restrictions would still apply and attendance would inevitably be much smaller. Schools’ work still remains strategic, but we need to understand its limitations.

Of course churches can do a great deal more if they run children’s clubs and children’s church events. Some caution is still needed, but there is much more freedom. The reality is, however, that only a tiny fraction of the nation’s children ever attend church based events. Indeed, one recent statistic suggested that a staggering 95% of children and young people in England and Wales aren’t in church. Scotland doesn’t fare much better. Only 4% of under-fives, 8% of 5-11 year olds and 3% of 12-15 year olds go to church.

The impact of this can be seen in the knowledge that children display. Brent Cross Shopping Centre, London

commissioned a survey to find out what children understood about Christmas and discovered that 20% of children interviewed thought Jesus was a premier league footballer, half of 5-12 year olds thought Christmas celebrated Santa’s birthday, 1 in 10 children thought Rudolph the reindeer was in the stable at Jesus’ birth and that a quarter thought the shepherds found Jesus birthplace on Google maps.

All of this means that while we do have more freedom to impact the lives of children under the roof of our church, only a fraction will ever attend. How will we reach children influenced by our amoral culture? There is no easy answer to this and it will involve responding in a whole range of ways. If the door into schools is open to us we must take it. We must also have a range of church-based options that enable the church to influence children in our community.

Another option is worth exploring. Children are great evangelists, they are enthusiastic and direct and willing to express what they believe. If we can find a forum where Christian families can get alongside families who don’t go to church, it will not just be the adults who do evangelism, but the children too. These things individually will never reach all of the children in our community.

However, combined these will begin to address what is one of the biggest mission challenges of our age.

by Allison Hill

“At school, the wider culture continues to make its impact. The education system in most European countries does have a moral component, but more often than not the morality which is espoused bears little resemblance to a Judeo-Christian worldview. ”

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Tilsley College Teaching values to a new generation

Given the new morality that pervades much of contemporary culture, theological training needs to be more than just head knowledge.

Erika Raigné, one of our lecturers writes about an important element in our training programmes, that of developing character in students so that they can be shining lights in an increasingly dark culture.

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hat is character education? Why should we care about it? Is it an important element of theological education?

At a recent conference of theological educators we were challenged to consider again the issue of character education and how we help our students to develop their character as a reflection of Christ’s character.

Firstly, it would be good to define what we mean by ‘character education’. Character is linked to the virtues described in 2 Peter 1:5-7 and the list found in Gal. 5:22-23 which refers to the fruit of the Spirit; among them we can see selfcontrol, patience, steadfastness, etc. At Tilsley, we believe that academic knowledge and ministry skills development are very important, but we are also convinced that character formation in our graduates is one of our most important roles; every disciple of Christ must be able to show Christ in every aspect of their lives.

Secondly, how do we teach character? Can we teach character? Do we simply add classes and essays, rules and regulations, to explain character?

To that we can answer YES and NO. We can say that, YES, it is possible to teach the concepts of virtues expressed in the Scripture; we could do so by teaching our students spiritual disciplines of Christian life, like prayer, daily reading, time

keeping, responsibility, etc. And we can say, NO, because that would only affect external behaviour through legalism, and not character emerging from a change of heart. We are convinced that character education can be passed on to our students through our example. So as staff, we are challenged to live lives that will reflect the character of Jesus: through love, patience, joy, self-control, godliness and many other biblical virtues. We also pray that God will work in the lives of our students to being about a spiritual transformation that will make them the men and women God wants them to be.

In conclusion, we can say that character education is BOTH taught and caught. But we firmly believe that the most effective way to develop godly character in our students is by being imitators of Christ in our own lives; and by encouraging others to do the same. In the words of the Apostle Paul to the Philippians ‘Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do. (3: 17)

First Year Student Introductions

GIOVANNI GOTTA – ITALY Before I came to college I was in Switzerland where my parents are living at the moment. I was trying to understand what God wanted me to do and suddenly the idea of Tilsley occurred. I decided to come to Tilsley College because I wanted to get closer to God, to know him better and to understand what he wants for my life.

“We are also convinced that character formation in our graduates is one of our most important roles;”

LIZ MCGUINNESS – SCOTLAND I was an English teacher in the south of Scotland before I came to Tilsley College. I want to explore whether I am called to Christian vocational work, and, if so, which area.

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SARAH LAURENSON – SCOTLAND I did First Serve before doing this course and have been a relief care worker in care home for the elderly for the past two years.

I came to Tilsley College because I felt that God was calling me here and I have a desire to learn more and grow in my relationship with God along with gaining a deeper knowledge of his Word.

DEIVID MUSTAFA - ALBANIA Just finished high school. I decided to have a gap year and I thought that coming would be the best way to spend it.

LYNDA GOW - SCOTLAND Previously I worked as a social worker for 16 years. I felt God calling me to step out in faith and come to Tilsley College to learn more about him. I am thankful to my church, Woodhill Evangelical, Bishopbriggs, for encouraging me.

EMMA HAMILTON – SCOTLAND Before I came to Tilsley College I studied social sciences and then took a year out to work and study at Capenwray Hall. I came to Tilsley to explore a possible future in Christian ministry.

SCOTT THOMPSON - ENGLAND I was a gardener for seven years before I came here.

I came to Tilsley College because I had a clear conviction that my life was not going in the will of God and that I had to choose to change that.

DAVE MARTIN - SCOTLAND I am married to Moira and have three ‘grown-up’ children. I am a qualified electrician. I walked into work one day and said I was leaving to go to Bible college, then left one month later. I didn’t want to do Bible college in any way, but God had other plans and here I am now!

DANIELLE MCGRATH – SCOTLAND I worked in financial services for approximately seven years and was studying to became a financial planner. I realised that I had been leading a half-hearted Christian life and wanted to devote a year to learning about God and how best to serve him. I also realised the only important things in life are God, my family and friends, the church and his people and I needed to get better equipped to tell people about God. Material things don’t matter.

JENNIFER NEELY - SCOTLAND Primary school teacher and leader of ministry evangelising homeless community in Ravel, Barcelona.

I’d had two main prayers this summer: a chance to deepen my knowledge of the Bible and for training in Christian ministry leadership. I came home to visit family for a weekend and met Simon Marshall at church. By Tuesday I was registered at Tilsley!

MAGALENA SZWARC – POLAND Before I came here I was a high school student.

The reason why I came is God’s call for ministry and the preparation to be able to do that.

ARON STEPHEN - ALBANIA I just finished high school so I wanted to take a gap year and chose to come to GLO because I wanted to learn more about God.

MIRTHFAN MANGWIRO - ZIMBABWE I was working in Cape Town as a cost auditor before moving to Scotland to be my mum’s carer two years ago. I came to Tilsley to learn more about the Word of God, and to prepare for whatever ministry God’s calling me to.

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or long periods of its relatively short history, Belgium has been under foreign rule. As a country, it has also traditionally been dominated by Roman Catholicism.

High on the national psyche is the veneration of Mary and the saints, as well as the idea of being subject to spiritual authority. Over the years the abuses within this religious system have left a lot of bitterness in the minds of many.

Today’s Belgians are strongly marked by years of both physical and spiritual oppression.

Consequently, the concept of ruling and being ruled over by others is commonplace, especially in Flanders, the part of Belgium where I live and work.

The hallmarks of this are everywhere to be seen.

Rather than having or allowing freedom of thought, people often gravitate towards wanting to have power over others, or submitting to the authority of another. The weapons of this cultural oppression are things such as shame, guilt, fear, intimidation, flattery, and ostracism; all utilised to make others do what we want them to.

Most of my ministry involves counselling, and the counselling work that I do is primarily about

them. This has included financial help, transport, babysitting, speaking to other members of the family, and practical help such as house repairs.

During the last couple of years, Skype has been invaluable as I have met with women from Scandinavia, the Netherlands, Papua New Guinea, and the UK. These women have been similarly helped by the Lord with issues they were struggling with. Seeing the Lord touch and transform so many lives over the years, has given me the desire to produce resources to help others. I have written about women in emotionally abusive relationships and I am working on a book to help victims of assault and hope to write about supporting women whose husbands have left them.

Obviously, these are just a few of the issues that people face in life. Others have written and produced excellent booklets, mp3s, videos, and blogs on a wide range of subjects. During the last year, I have become involved with the Biblical Counselling Coalition which makes these resources available to people around the world in different languages. In a broken culture caused by the moral vacuum, my ministry exists to repair damage and point to Christ.

by Anne Dryburgh

Picking up the pieces of a

Broken Society helping people who have suffered under this oppression and helping them to live new lives.

People whose lives are dominated by shame, guilt and fear for long periods of time usually suffer from some form of depression and harbour some level of anger toward those who have been treating them in this way. As a woman I counsel other women and helping them involves delving into the depths of scripture. We look at fundamental issues such as the nature and character of God, his loving work for us and I help the women to apply these truths to their lives. This proves truly transformative and the women come to think of and relate to other people in a way that is God-honouring, instead of merely being controlled by others.

Sadly, this tendency to dominate is seen within families where I have helped adults who were victims of abuse in childhood and women who have been, or are being, physically and emotionally abused in their marriages. In the past couple of years, I have also met with a number of women whose husbands have left them for someone else.

They have moved from the initial raw emotion to rebuilding their lives. For many of these women, the church has played a major role in helping

“ As a woman I counsel other women and helping them involves delving into the depths of scripture. We look at fundamental issues such as the nature and character of God, his loving work for us and I help the women to apply these truths to their lives.�

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Europe

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by Andrew Lacey

GLO Bookshop Update Issues Facing Christians Today 4th edition – John Stott, Roy McCloughry

ecently, BBC Radio 4 ran a feature in which they invited listeners to contribute their thoughts as to how the world had changed in the sixty years that the ‘Today’ programme had been running. Since the programme began just (and only just!) before I was born, these ‘Today at 60’ features have been very interesting, and illustrate how much has changed over these years.

That pace of change is becoming even more rapid, and this is felt acutely in the Christian publishing industry. Books can take a long time to ‘gestate’ – the situations that authors are attempting to deal with are shifting rapidly, and this can render a new title obsolete before it is published. Nevertheless, there are some very helpful titles available that seek to give overviews of the Christian response.

John Stott’s classic book 'Issues Facing Christians Today' helps thinking Christians sift through and respond to a sweeping array of complex and pressing topics. Thoroughly revised and updated by Roy McCloughry, this fourth edition continues a twodecades-plus legacy of bringing important current issues under the lens of biblically informed thinking.

This edition includes a study guide and I would suggest it is essential reading for Christians ‘who wish to engage our culture with insight, passion, and faith, knowing that the Gospel is as relevant and deeply needed today as at any time in history.’

Also well worth considering is Tom Wright’s book ‘Surprised by Scripture’. This is a challenging collection of his best recent sermons and speeches, and the author provides a series of case studies that show how the Bible can be applied to pressing contemporary issues. You may not agree with all you read in this book! But one thing is sure – you will be challenged to consider again how to affirm the Bible in today's world- and to engage effectively as a Christian believer with the world around you.

Surprised by Scripture: Engaging with contemporary issues – Tom Wright

Normal price £12.99

Normal price £12.99

e-vision reader price £10 – save 20%

e-vision reader price £10.00 – save 20%

Free UK post & packing, normal GLO post & packing prices for overseas applies. Offers available while stock lasts, offers end 31st January 2018

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any of you will have met Marion Mathers in the Bookshop.

Marion has served faithfully in the Bookshop for over 27 years, and will be retiring at the end of 2017. We are deeply grateful for the commitment to customers and promoting the reading of God’s Word that Marion has exemplified over the past years. We marked these years of service at the GLO Conference with a presentation, and Marion was asked what she enjoyed most about her job. Her answer was immediate – no thinking needed! It was the privilege of selling a Bible – not for its own sake, but because that Bible represented the chance for the Word of God to be spoken into someone’s life. It’s been a pleasure to work with Marion over these years, and we pray that God will bless her retirement with good health and productive days.

Our General Director, Stephen McQuoid, sends out occasional book reviews, based on his personal reading over the previous months. If you would like to be kept up to date with his reviews, please contact Stephen directly (smcquoid@ glo-europe.org) and he will add you to the listing. The GLO Bookshop will support his reviews by adding some special offers on the reviewed titles.

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GLO Board Members

Stephen Cracknell Mark Davies Richard Elliott Sam Gibson Karen Macrae Simon Marshall Stephen McQuoid Mike Packer Philippe Perrilliat Ian Smith Patrizio Zucchetto

Contact Details Stephen McQuoid (General Director) smcquoid@glo-europe.org 01698 263483 Mark Davies (Training Director) mdavies@glo-europe.org 07503 953259

Admin office admin@glo-europe.org 01698 263483

Sam Gibson (Missions Director) sgibson@glo-europe.org 028 9447 9411

College Office college@glo-europe.org 01698 266776

Ian Smith (Finance Director) ismith@glo-europe.org 01698 263483

GLO Bookshop books@globookshop.com 01698 275343

GLO short-term opportunities Check out our website: www.glo-europe.org or contact our Mission Teams department: missionteams@glo-europe.org 01698 263483

GLO Europe Vision Statement

Our vision is to grow mission focused churches in Europe.

Our focus is to:

EVANGELISE:

to proclaim the gospel to as many people as possible in Europe

Tel 01698 263483 Fax 01698 253942 E-mail: admin@glo-europe.org Internet: www.glo-europe.org

Gospel Literature Outreach 78 Muir Street Motherwell ML1 1BN

using every method available

ESTABLISH: to ensure believers are established in their faith, strengthen existing local churches and plant new mission focused churches in Europe

TRAIN:

to prepare and equip people for mission, to evangelise and church plant and to serve God and his Kingdom with excellence in a wide variety of vocations

RESOURCE:

to provide resources that support mission activity through finance and literature, strategic input and pastoral care

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