what is a 'good' Christian?

'...we have confidence before God and recieve from him anything that we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them.' 1 John 3:21-24

At the tram stop by the university on Monday, I had a brief conversation with two guys. The conversation started out with the usual- them saying something in Dutch and me replying that I only speak English! This gets the conversation going as they want to know where I'm from and why I'm in the Netherlands. When I explained that I'm here to work with Christian university students, the first thing that was said in reply was 'oh so are you a good Christian girl?' This question is so loaded and got the discussion going about what a 'good' Christian is. Unfortunately my tram came not long into the conversation and they made sure I got on it!

The bible verses that I've added above are just one of the passages that tell us about what the heart of being a 'good' Christian is. The most popular idea of being a 'good' Christian is someone who follows the rules set by the Church and God. In a way this is true, but it's not about following the rules. It's about love. The above passage talks about obeying God's commands and doing what pleases him. This is commonly thought of as the Law or the ten commandments. The passage goes on to tell us which commands please God: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another. Where's the 'no adultery' and the 'honour your parents'? When we think about the ten commandments and other 'rules' set out in the bible, they can really be placed under these two commands. Let me try to explain.

Believing in the name of Jesus Christ means believing in what the bible has said about him. This means believing in his life, death, resurrection and rule now as king. It means believing he was sent by God (his Father) to take on the punishment we deserve for our rebellion against God. It means believing that we have recieved grace, mercy and love from God through Jesus. That's not a simple thing to do, but is what pleases God. Believing in these things pleases God, because in believing these things it means we are in him and he in us- just as he originally intended!

Loving one another means putting the other person's needs above your own. This relates to many of the ten commandments. Loving your parents means that you'll honour their wishes and ideas. Loving someone who you want to have an adulterous relationship with means loving them (and their spouse) enough to not put them in that situation- putting their needs before your own. Loving one another means that you value them enough to be honest with them and not to lie. I think you get my drift.

There are other commands/laws in the bible, but it is these two that are the things to strive for- the things to practice. It is in obeying these commands that we will live in him and he will live in us. So maybe you're thinking about how this relates back to the conversation I had with the two guys at the tram stop? Would you answer the question of 'what makes a good Christian?' differently now? Is it all about following the rules? or is it about believing in Jesus and loving others?

First day at work!

I tried to upload a video for you all, but am having 'technical difficulties'- which really means I just can't seem to make it work. I'll try again soon. In other news though, I had my first day at work today. It involved travelling to Utrecht to the National Office for a meeting. It was so nice to get into thinking about what will be happening this year in Den Haag. While there's much more thinking and organising to do, I'm really excited about the possibilities that there are for my year in Den Haag.

Some of these ideas include:

- helping to establish a bible study with International students at the Haagse Hogeschool (The Hague University). There was one there last year, with a few students going. It may be possible for me to spend some time on campus with these students to train them and to help grow this group.

- looking at opportunities to reach out on campus. Not sure what this might include, but there's the idea of their first ever Mission Week. Having been involved in the Mission Week at Flinders, I'm pretty keen to be involved with this. Not sure if this is for Dutchies or Internationals, or even the both.

- some kind of work with the Dutch students.

- there's a Hotel management school or something near where I'm going to be living, so maybe that's a chance to make contacts there.

There's so many ideas, and I can't wait to nut them out more to see what we can do. I'm also excited about meeting some students (which I get to do on Monday) and to see where they're at and getting to know them. Students are the same around the world it seems! One of the ideas to reach students was a pizza and movie night...just like you would have in Australia. I'm also looking forward to the staff training days where I can meet other IFES staff from around the country. Since it's such a small country, they get together more often than they do in Australia. There's about 20 staff, most of which are Dutch. There are a few international staff (now including myself).

Not really sure what else there is to say, so I'll keep trying to make a short video and upload it, so you can see that I'm still alive and it's not someone else writing on here...

Planes and Trains

Travel itinery for the past few days was as follows:

Melbourne- Abu Dhabi 14hrs

Abu Dhabi- Frankfurt 6hrs

Frankfurt- Oldenburg 4hrs

That’s 24hrs of travel with transit times in between. Either I was lucky, or I planned well, because the longest time I had to wait was 2 hrs. Once at the airport in Abu Dhabi (where once I’d found the gate for my next flight I lay on the cool tiles reading) and now at Frankfurt (where I’m sitting in a McCafe writing this). I know what you’re thinking. How could I fly across the world and end up in a McCafé?! Well it’s a bit of the familiar in a very unfamiliar place (plus they have soy milk, whereas another café I tried didn’t). I’d forgotten what it was like to be in a foreign country- especially one where I don’t know the language. I find myself eaves-dropping on conversations. Anything I can’t immediately understand, I ignore. When I hear English, a little spark goes off in my chest as I recognise the words and the meaning behind them. It sounds strange, but I'm in a place when the most German I know is bits and pieces that I can pick up due to my limited knowledge of Dutch. It’s a strange feeling knowing that people are talking about everyday things and it sounds like a mash of sounds that could never be deciphered. Language intrigues me.

Anyway, back to the travel. Last time I flew to Europe I slept a lot. This time I hardly slept. I think it’s because I’m older and find the seats harder on my body, especially my back. I know it sounds like I’m and old woman, and I know I’m not, but the fact is, I’m not 18 anymore! Getting comfortable was hard, but the whole experience was made better by Etihad. Individual screens with a plethora of movies, tv shows, music, games and news. A constant stream of food and drinks. Kind hostesses who bring extra blankets so you don’t freeze to death mid-flight. All of these things made my air travel quite comfortable, despite my sore back and my frequent need to go to the toilet.

So now I know what you’re thinking again…if I’m currently writing this from Frankfurt, then how about the train aspect of my journey? I haven’t taken the train to Oldenburg yet. Seeing as thought I can’t seem to connect to the internet to actually post this, I’m doing this in two sections. My next section will be either tonight or tomorrow, depending on how tired I am when I arrive at Julia’s place. By the way, that’s what’s in Oldenburg. It’s a random town in the North-West of Germany. A friend, who is more like a sister, lives and studies there, and I couldn’t come to Germany and not visit! I haven’t seen her in almost 6 years, so 2 days/3 nights won’t really cut it, but at least it’s a start.

So I went with the ‘tomorrow’ option. Yesterday’s train travel was not as easy as I had hoped. It wasn’t bad, but I was totally exhausted. The trip was also made more difficult by the last minute change in the leaving platform, as well as the added stop to change trains in Bremen (feel free to use Google maps to help locate these towns if you're interested). The first couple of hours were pretty good though, as I talked to a really nice German girl that helped me out with some information about the train. I'll call her V, as that's what her name starts with, but I've forgotten the rest. She's writing a thesis about religion and the way that it is intertwined with culture. Was great to have a friendly face and to find out a bit about her life and such.

Getting off that last train and finding Julia waiting for me on the platform was the best feeling. Seeing her after so long was coupled with the fact that I hadn't seen anyone I knew for over 2 days. This made me quite emotional (I think the exhaustion also had something to do with it!) Anyway, talking about exhaustion, it's time for me to head to bed. Hopefully tonight I won't keep Julia awake with my snoring!

New Life

After all my talk of the end of things and death in my last post, I've had the chance to think more about the beginning of life. For the last 4 days I've been visiting my brother and his wife in Canberra, along with my 4 week old niece (pictured below). This has allowed me to be amazed, yet again, at the miracle of life. The tiny bundle in my arms was a human being. She started as a group of cells in the body of another person, and is now a full person herself. She has tiny fingernails, eyebrows, hands, feet and all the things that come along with being human. I'm so amazed.

My gorgeous niece, Alena!

Then I love thinking about the life that's to come. I picture her walking, talking, singing and dancing. I picture her at school, with friends, at parties, at the beach. I imagine what she will enjoy doing and what she'll be good at. It's such a privilege to be involved in this little person's life and to see it unfold before my eyes. I can't wait!