∞ Infinite ∞

While meeting with a non-Christian student the other day, I had the opportunity to explain God's infinite love for humans.  These are the notes I drew to help him visualize what we were talking about as we worked our way through the Connect study together:

I drew this part here...

 ...while he read this paragraph aloud:  The Bible shows that sin is the root of all other human ills.  The ultimate consequence of sin is death.

As we continued reading...  In the Bible, death doesn't simply mean that our heart stops beating.  The essence of death is separation: separation from our bodies, from each other, and from God (who is the source of everything good) for all eternity.  This is what the Bible calls hell.  Unless something changes, this is our destiny.  However, we've also seen that God loves us and wants to rescue us from our sin and his judgement.  Like the father of the prodigal son, God wants us to share our lives and hearts with him.  But for this to happen this gulf of sin must be dealt with... I drew this picture:

The object above the word, "God" is a life ring used by lifeguards.  I drew it to illustrate that God wants to save humanity.  The bit to the right of God is a plate, with silverware and a cup drawn to illustrate God's desire to relate personally with us, like we do when we have meals with others.

This story would be pretty sad if it ended here, but thankfully it doesn't!!!  I got to explain that because God loves each of us so much, he sent his very own son to make a way for us to experience him in our everyday lives.  But the way that he made is not an easy one.  I used these two pictures below to show how gruesome and brutal Jesus' death really was:

When you take the time to really think about what it must have been like for God to lay all the sins of the world on the shoulders of His very own Son, eventually turning his back on him in his very hour of deepest need, and excluding Jesus from relating with him like they had done for eternity before that moment, one can only conclude this:

God's love for us truly is infinite and accessible!!!  What a thing to know and ponder!

The Dutch Spiritual Landscape

One the things I wish I could communicate better with people back at home was the spiritual climate here in the Netherlands.  I can honestly say that I haven't seen anything like it before in my life.  
Instead of giving you a bunch of stats, I'm just going to share with you what a typical conversation with a Dutch student sounds like:

Today, we went to the main cafeteria to conduct our spiritual interest surveys.  This week we are using a survey called Perspective Cards, where students are asked to answer questions about their worldview.  The survey consists of 5 larger questions, which open the door for us to ask some follow-up questions as well. 

Ok enough stage setting.  Eric and I went and initiated a conversation with a Dutch student named Kyle, and he politely agreed to help us by answering our survey questions.  So we began with the first question:  "What is your perspective of the nature of God."  After taking a minute to look at the cards, he answered by saying he was agnostic.  After asking why that was his answer he said some things about how there was no way to know if there was a God, but that he respects others who believe He exists. 

When asked about what his view of human nature was, he responded that he thought it was neutral.  He further explained himself by saying that all humans start off as "blank pages" and are influenced to do good or bad things by the environment they are or were at one time in.  

Moving on the third question now:  his answer for the meaning and purpose of life were to live for the betterment of your descendants.   He explained that he doesn't really know why he thinks this way, but it could possibly have to do with some natural human instinct.

His answer to "Who was Jesus in your opinion?" was pretty typical for dutch students.  He said he thought that Jesus was a great spiritual leader, but not God.  He even said that he liked some of Jesus teachings like "love your neighbor as yourself."  

The last question of the survey is, "What is your source of spiritual truth?"  To this, Kyle answered that he uses reason and hard evidence to come up with what he thinks is true.  The discussion then turned to how he used reason and hard evidence to come to his conclusions for the previous four questions.  To which, he responds that he is confident in his reasoning and hard evidence conclusions in all but the third question.  When asked to further explain about how he came to his conclusion for the third question, he responds with, "I don't know, but I just feel like it is that way."  

The conversation ends with exchanging pleasantries, and an offer to learn more about Christianity, which he kindly turns down.  

Now multiply that by 15, and you have a typical week of doing ministry on the campus of Tilburg University.  Please pray that students will be more open and interested in the amazing Gospel of Jesus.  And praise God for the rare (but not extinct) conversations that end in interest and another meeting to further discuss God and spiritual things.

This is my story... Agape Ontmoetingsconferentie 2013

This weekend, I had the opportunity to go to a conference with all the Cru (Agape) staff from the Netherlands.  To be honest with you, I really wasn't looking forward to going.  I would have rather enjoyed a weekend of relaxation and recharging in my bedroom, but after going I can gladly say that it was definitely worth it.  

The theme for the weekend was, "This is my story" (dit is mijn verhaal).  The emphasis was on processing through our testimony, so that we can make it more accessible for non-Christians to connect with and relate to.  My own personal theme for this weekend was, "Where am I?"  I've been here for a month now, and needed some time to think about, who I really am, as an American missionary in a new country, experiencing things for the very first time.  Although, I haven't been able to fully organize my thoughts, it was a great start.

Nestled between sessions on Saturday afternoon, we got to go out and play soccer.  It was a blast!  I think that we Americans represented ourselves well with two of us each scoring goals, and the other placing a corner kick perfectly, so that it could be headed in past the goalie.  After the game, I was told I scored "a beautiful goal" by a Dutchman   Talk about a highlight for the weekend!!!

Sadly, there are no pictures of the goal itself, but here are some from the game courtesy of my wonderful teammate Molly Tolbert:

GVCru Netherlands update 1.0

This was a video update that Shelby and I made for students involved in Cru at Grand Valley!

It is about 7 minutes and discusses some cultural highlights, as well as ministry challenges, and other random fun things.

More Divine Provision

As I mentioned in a previous post, I have been blown away with all the ways God continues to provide for me since I got here.  Monday of this week was a perfect example of this:

Heiko knew a guy from his church who is in charge of a retirement home in a town nearby.  All the residents of the home moved out last year, and they were going to change the building into something else.  That's where we were able to come in.  There were still quite few things left in this building that they were just going to through away when they began renovations.  We got to go in an pick through the stuff, and take it home with us if we wanted.  

We took home items both big and small.  From a soft green couch to power strips.  We got another fridge, and a dryer.  The dryer is significant, because due to the lack of space in most homes, the Dutch typically air dry their clothes.  I don't doubt our ability to do it, but that makes washing our clothes much less of a headache.  Which will help us to focus on our ministry even more!

I would say that all in all, we took home about 500 Euros worth of stuff from that place.  That is about $650!!!  Praise God!

Here are a few of the larger items we got on Monday!!!

Description of my ministry...

Ok, I'm going to try it.  I'm going to attempt that no man named Steve Hintz has ever attempted until this date.  I'm going to try to shed some light and clarity into what exactly I'm doing here.  If you are familiar with Cru or any of its affiliates, this should be review.  If not, I hope this will be both educational and concise.

The Theory:
As an arm of the campus ministry branch of Cru, we are trying to build a student-led spiritual movement on the campus of Tilburg University.  Although student-led is pretty self explanatory spiritual movments are not.  A spiritual movement is a group of people who are actively seeking to obey the Great Comission by 'going' and 'making disciples' through evangelism.  And then 'teaching them to obey all that Jesus has commanded them.'  Which includes both biblical principles and very practical ways of implementing that into one's life and walk with the Lord.  For example, a teaching one to obey Jesus' commands would include explaining to someone that we must share our faith, as well as actually going out with them and modeling precisely how one may share their faith.  

I personally really like this model for many reasons. First off.  It's biblical.  Secondly, students are going to be the most effective at reaching their peers.  On top of that, they get hands-on experience in discipling others and sharing their faith.  Lastly, students have their whole life ahead of them in which they can use what they learn now for the rest of their lives to touch the lives of many others they come into contact with.

My Role:
If you are anything like me, you are probably asking, "Ok, so how exactly are you going to get all the nice things you said above to become reality?"  The simple answer to this is: pray and step out in faith as God leads, trusting in Him to bring people to Himself.  Essentially that is what I'm going to be doing, and holy cow is it important.  But I know from experience, that probably doesn't even come close to being a satisfying answer to your aforementioned question.  

So, on top of those things, I first need to meet students in order to begin to get a feel for their interest in the Gospel.  We do that by surveying students we find sitting on campus.  As we "collect information" we are also trying to build a relationship with them, so that we can invite them to events where we can continue to build relationships.  Eventually we want to enter into a discipleship relationship with those students, so that we can teach them Jesus commands.  This may happen with either a Christian or non-Christian student.  So, just as Jesus spent a lot of time with his disciples which included teaching, traveling, healing, hearing, etc. with His disciples.  We want to do the same with ours, and walk with them on their spiritual journeys.  This may be, modeling how to share the Gospel with a Christian student, or searching the Bible for contradictions with a non-Christian skeptic.  

Getting even more specific now.  I will hopefully be discipling 2-3 students this year, leading fellow Christian students in going sharing on campus for 3-4 days a week, as well as maintaining the Agape StudentLife Tilburg Facebook page to keep students connected with information about events and other notes.

How you can help:

• Pray, pray, and pray
• Ask God to incline students hearts to want to learn more about Him.
• Pray for clarity, boldness, and salty speech when sharing our faith on campus.
• Ask God to provide student leaders, who begin to join us in this work to reach other students, and therefore causing our movement to grow.

Transitioning out of transition...

Well, I was finally able to move into an apartment this week.  The reason that it took three weeks to get figured out was because we needed to know exactly how many other guys form the US were actually going to join me.  Thankfully, God provided and both, Nick Kellogg (Western Michigan University) and Eric Coombs (Central Michigan University) were able to come.

As much as God really provided for me in those first few weeks without an apartment, I was ready to move into a place of my own.  Now I can begin to make the transition out of this phase of transitioning, and settle down a bit.  This will be very nice, because I now have a bedroom that I can call my own to go to when I need some time away from people, or just a quiet place to get work done.  This will also help me develop a nice daily routine, so that I will be more efficient and effective in my ministry.  In the meantime, if you so desire, check out these pics of our new place:

Our street number is:

Statenlaan 167

This is what you see when you first open the door.  The kitchen is the first left, and the living room is straight ahead.

This is the shower room.  The toilet has a little room of its own.

This is my bedroom with a nice big, dutch window.  Sorry mom, I didn't make my bed.