World Assembly 2023 Story: Sara Fris Børty

😥 ¿Cómo mantenemos vivo nuestro ministerio?   📺 Ziel Machado, Presidente Honorario de IFES, nos anima a ser resilientes, permaneciendo en Jesús y recibiendo vida y fortaleza de parte de él:   “Rechazamos las propuestas de este mundo de este mundo para fundamentar nuestra misión con base en aquello que el mundo define como poder, relevancia y reconocimiento. El amor de Jesús es todo lo que necesitamos”. ❤️  

From a student in a GBU France small group to GBU regional coordinator in north-east France. From representative in the IFES World Assembly 2011 planning team to participant in the IFES Global Leadership Initiative (GLI).     In this Voices of IFES interview, learn about Isabelle’s journey from local to global. She shares about her experience of grassroots student ministry, her joys and challenges along the way, how she became involved in IFES, and how it’s impacted her. Find out more and how you can pray for her in her new role as Executive Assistant to Tim Adams, IFES General Secretary. 

Il y a une histoire qui dit ceci : Deux anges ont été envoyés sur terre avec des paniers. 🧺🧺  Un ange devait recueillir les demandes et les supplications - toutes les choses que les humains demandent à Dieu. 🙏  L'autre ange devait recueillir toutes les prières de louange et d'action de grâce. 🙌  À ton avis, lequel des deux est revenu le premier ?  Ecoutez la conférence de Michel Kenmogne à l'Assemblée mondiale 2023 pour vérifier - et vous découvrirez comment le Psaume 145 peut nous motiver à prier avec louange et action de grâce. 🙌 

😶 ¡El lenguaje puede tener más limitantes!   En la Asamblea Mundial 2023, Isabela Pineda (CECE Ecuador) y Marcio Lima (obrero de ABUB Brasil) nos enseñaron cómo podemos responder de forma creativa en nuestros campus. Con unas preguntas para reflexionar sobre el Salmo 139, nos presentan:    🎨 Unas obras de arte de los estudiantes de ABU Puerto Rico.   🖼 Unos cuadros de la artista brasileña Darli Nuza.   💬 Un poema de Marília Teres (ABUB Brasil).   🎙 Una canción de Brandon Molina (MUC El Salvador).   🎵 El ministerio de Peter Paris y su ministerio con su instrumento de dos cuerdas (FES Malasia).   Inspírate y da rienda suelta a tu espíritu artístico 👇  

💖 ¿Te has sentido alguna vez profundamente conmovido por la música, la pintura, la poesía o la arquitectura?   En esta breve charla durante la Asamblea Mundial 2023, Marcio Lima, profesor de Arquitectura y Urbanismo en la Universidad de São Paulo, Brasil, nos ayuda a entender el por qué:   🎁 “Creemos que las artes son un don dado por Dios”    💞 “Las artes pueden ayudarnos a comprender y experimentar realidades que difícilmente podríamos alcanzar mediante conceptos o definiciones conceptuales”.   Aprende por qué las artes son tan importantes en la vida y en el ministerio y considera seis formas de fomentar las artes en tu contexto. 

It’s one movement on one island, but it serves two countries with very different contexts – a religious culture with large Christian Unions in Northern Ireland and a more secular culture with smaller groups in the Republic of Ireland. Chris McBurney introduces us to the emergence of a united student ministry on the island and shares his passion for their common vision: students encountering Jesus.   On this Voices of IFES, learn about the context of Irish student ministry, how Chris became involved, and what hopes he has for CUI hosting IFES World Assembly in 2027. Find out how you can pray for him and CUI at a “pivotal point” in their movement. 

📖😕 Algunas palabras de la Biblia pueden resultar inquietantes...   Josué Olmedo, co-director de la Iniciativa Logos y Cosmos de IFES en América Latina, repasó de forma honesta los salmos 105 y 106 en su charla de la Asamblea General de 2023.   Josué reconoce que contienen versículos que nos pueden resultar “incómodos y polémicos” y pregunta: “¿A qué nos invitan estas extrañas historias y afirmaciones?”    Nos sugiere que: “Recordemos que la fidelidad incesante y transformadora de Dios no es domesticable”.   Escucha “La fidelidad incesante de Dios” para ver cómo la fidelidad constante, transformadora e inmensurable de Dios nos debe conducir al arrepentimiento y a la fe.  

♿ “We are the change agents to improve everything to make it disability-friendly” 🦾   Spend five minutes well today⌚... Hear the passion and plea of Lakina Milanzi, an optometry student from Malawi Consider her call to be agents of change, leaving no-one behind in our outreach   Another gem from World Assembly2023!

Have you heard Vinoth Ramachandra’s thought-provoking talk about justice at World Assembly 2023?  💥 “Early Christian theologians, the Church Fathers, challenged the absolutist understandings of wealth and property that undergirded Roman law.   They taught that if I have food in my house that I don't need for my survival, but my next-door neighbour is starving, then the food in my house belongs to him and his family, and not to me. If he breaks in and takes that food, he is not stealing. It is I who commit theft – as long as I refuse to share it with them. Because the right to life trumps the right to private property.  My friends, this is not Marxism. This is traditional Christian theology which we have forgotten.”  Hear him unpack the biblical vision for justice and what that means for us. Listen to the full talk in this podcast.

⏱ Life is short! Life on campus is even shorter! How should we view our time?   In this Bible exposition, Kuzipa Nalwamba (a Program Director at the World Council of Churches and former ZAFES Zambia staff), invites us to take heart in the BIG-PICTURE offered in Psalm 90.   💎 “When we understand life as a gift, the brevity of human life ceases to be a problem. It becomes an opportunity for prayer – to ask God for wisdom to discern the significance of human experience – and for God's gift of fruitful work in life, for orientation and perspective.”   💎 “We are called to entrust ourselves and our allotted time to God with assurance that, grounded in God's work and God's time, our lives and labors participate in the eternal.”