Wednesday, November 14, 2012

About a Baptism




Last week I had the privilege of attending the baptism of five Afghan men our team and ministry partners have been working with for a few years now.

Please pray for these guys.  Though they do have more security and church around them that they probably would not have if they were in Afghanistan, they can still face harassment or be cut off from their community.  It's not easy and bound to become more difficult as some received threats even before they made a commitment to Christ and were only attending Christian outreaches out of curiosity.

One of the men came up to me after the baptism and thanked me for giving him a Bible and putting him in contact with one of the culturally-sensitive outreaches we work with.  It was a humbling moment, because I don't actually remember giving him the Bible and my conversations with him always seemed so short and truncated, I assumed that none of it made much difference.  A good reminder that many of the big programmes and events that I think are so important and clever (and might be a bit proud of) may not be the main thing for God.

The other encouraging aspect of being at the baptism was seeing many different streams of ministry come together.  All of these men have been involved with one of our ministries or team members, but all at very different points of their journey to faith.  All of the guys had been to football on Friday at some stage.  Though this, they met other Christian guys and met some of our teammates or other outreach workers in Glasgow.  Then they started attending a seekers' Bible study or culturally sensitive outreach.  Now all are finding a home in a church -- not all the same one, but places where they have found a community.

For these guys, this journey to faith in Christ took over three years.  Many of the people who were in the room had played important roles or helped to show the signposts on that journey.


If I'm honest, as much as enjoy it, I sometimes get fed up with the football ministry.  I'd rather be at home with Emma and Niamh with my feet up, especially as the weather gets colder and wetter.  I get annoyed when the guys fight, or just seem disinterested.  Often I feel as if I should be doing something more with Friday nights.  It's a casual programme and has become more so as volunteers have had to leave due to other commitments.  I often feel like I should do some more explicit Christian outreach to justify the programme -- I have done such from time to time, but something every week?  Should I stay longer and engage in more conversations, when in reality I'm just tired after a long week and want to get home?
Being at the baptism was an ample reminder that God has used the football outreach greatly simply because of what it is.  Stressing about doing more, more, more, with it actually blinds me to the good that it is already doing, and continues to do.  Many of the guys tell me that they are happy to bring their Muslim friends to football because it's non-threatening, casual, and they will be able to meet Christians and see that they are all right.  Others tell me that they've learned that they've been able to get over prejudice through meeting people at football, comments like, "I never knew any Scottish/Arab/American/English/Iranian/African people before, but you know, they're really nice and are a lot like me."  If I was to over-programme football, it would lose what it currently is: a non-threatening place where relationships can be made in a casual, normal way.  This kind of social outlet is something that many young asylum seekers don't normally have access to. 
Though most of the young guys who have attended football have gone on take part in a Bible study or church meeting of some sort, this is not a conditional requirement of attending football and shouldn't be.  People quickly see through these ulterior motives and feel betrayed or resentful if they are 'baited' to attend church, instead of attending out of their own initiative. The football is a good thing to do in of itself, in that it breaks down barriers, helps newly arrived refugees to make social contacts, keeps these young guys off the street, and promotes good health.  I hope that this bears witness to some aspect of the Kingdom.  Clearly, that is not the full picture and I want all the guys to encounter Christ on a real and personal level.  But perhaps more programmes and leaflets is not the way to do this.  Rather, it's being deliberate about what we're already doing through football: opening ourselves to relationship and simply "being there" week-in and week-out to offer some stable form of relationship.

This of course takes time.  Had I been told which five guys were going to be baptised, I probably wouldn't have believed it.  They definitely weren't the guys who seemed most "open".  But at the baptism, all the guys let me know how important football was for them as they came to faith in Christ.

It also seems that these things go in cycles.  One of the more recent football participants has just contacted me by text telling me that he wants to speak with me one-on-one about Christianity and how to read the Bible.  He also wanted to let me know that he would be stepping away from football (he's a very skilful player who also plays with the Saturday league team) for a couple of weeks so he could attend a Bible class at a local church!

Being a good friend to some young men or hosting a Friday kick-about seems pretty basic, maybe not that exciting.  And for as much as God can use big exciting outreach events, he also calls me to be faithful in the day-to-day.  It took over three years for the five Afghan guys to get to a point where they could be baptised... as we chatted over a celebratory meal afterwards, the guys didn't credit any special concert or talk from a Christian celebrity preacher as what was most important to them.  It was things like: "Thanks for letting me have that meal at your house."  "Thanks for letting me come with my friend to football, even when I didn't have any money to pay."  "Thanks for giving me that Dari Bible and telling me where was a good place to start reading."  "Thanks for giving me a lift to sign on at the Home Office when I was so scared."  "Thanks for visiting and calling me when I was in the detention centre."  "Thanks for inviting me to that Bible study."  "Thanks for the lift to church."
Yes, let us plan and think of great new strategic programmes that will reach the lost.  But let us not forget the importance of being faithful to the things that God calls us to in the everyday.


Posted by Paul and Emma at 4:28 pm |  

2 comments :

Post a Comment
Subscribe to: Post Comments ( Atom )