Decisions,
decisions.
Should I pack my rain boots for the student retreat
this weekend, or not? How about the old 35 mm camera versus the little webcam camera that
will shoot some digital photos? And, oh, which pair of jeans should I take: the
old standard jeans that are getting a little too tight or those hip huggers
with the flared pant legs that someone passed on to me in a bag of used
clothes? (Ugh. I know that’s what the
students wear right now, but I didn’t even like this particular style when it was
in fashion the first time around more than twenty years ago!)
Finding a tiny hole in my old pair of jeans and listening to the weather
report again helped me to decide.
I recently decided to attend the regional
retreat for the Québec French university movements of Campus Crusade. About 45
students and staff were there from
It was great to interact with
the students. One of my purposes in
going on a retreat such as this one was to introduce
students to how they could use ilyaplus.com as a tool to reach their
friends back on campus.
At one point during the retreat, we went out in small
groups for a prayer walk around the grounds of the retreat centre. As we were walking and talking, it became
apparent that one of the students in my small group was not yet a believer and
still had many questions. One of the
issues that this student was struggling with was why God permits suffering and
how faith in God changes the experience
of suffering.
The three other people in the
group, including myself, took turns as we walked giving responses and
testimonies about the issue of suffering.
We didn’t get a whole lot of praying done, but the searching student
sure appreciated the discussion.
Later, I thought of an
article on our website that would have been a helpful response to this
searching student: http://www.iamnext.com/spirituality/suffering3.html
*
In
the evening during a snack time, I heard a female student asking the speaker,
Bob, another key question as she struggled with the meaning of Christian faith:
“How can Christians say that there is
only one way to God? That’s a very intolerant point of view.’’ Bob answered
the student’s question with much patience and wisdom over popcorn and Pepsi.
But what if Bob had not been there to respond to this
girl’s issues? I thought of an article on the website that
would serve to respond with sensitivity and accumulated wisdom of much
on-campus apologetic experience: http://www.iamnext.com/spirituality/trueforyou.html
In another situation at the
same retreat, a young man who identified himself as having recently made a
decision to follow Christ was test driving an apologetic DVD connected to the
“Jesus” film. The issue that he spontaneously looked up on the apologetic DVD
was related to a question that he had recently struggled with during his
journey of coming to faith in Christ: “What
really happens to me after I die?”
Again, I thought about how
the website attempts to address such issues in a way that is approachable for
students: http://www.iamnext.com/spirituality/lifedeath.html
Being an editor is about making good decisions. The decisions
that I make daily about what to put up on ilyaplus.com and how it will look,
shape the evangelistic tool. There are hundreds of big and small decisions that
I make daily go into making ilyaplus what it is. I need
God’s wisdom and insight into this generation of students if I am to do a
good job of developing a first class evangelistic and apologetic tool for Francophones.
It’s a little bit more
important than deciding which pair of jeans I will wear.
Thank you for your continued
prayers on my behalf. I believe that the
Lord is using your prayers to guide me.
Together we are providing an important
resource for students like the ones I have described in this letter who are
asking questions all over Québec,
Communicating for Christ’s
sake,
Catherine
* The articles mentioned currently appear on
iamnext.com, the sister English site.
They are now in the bank of translated articles and will eventually
appear on ilyaplus.com over the course of the next few months.
Catherine Savard, serving
with Campus Crusade for Christ, Nov ’04, redacteur@ilyaplus.com,