UCM Alumni Abroad
* Each year, UCM students graduate and begin a new phase of their lives. For some, that new phase takes them abroad. Since so many current UCM students are interested in considering living and working internationally when they graduate, we thought we'd interview a few UCM Alumni who are doing (or have done!) just that.
Meet Katherine, a UBC & SFU grad (BA in English Literature, 2006, & BEd, 2007 respectively). Katherine was a student leader with UCM throughout her undergraduate studies. After graduation Katherine made a pretty radical decision and she now lives and works in the Middle East.
* Who do you work with and what do you do? I am currently living in the Middle East, working as a high school teacher at a British International School. Outside of work, we pray for sick people and when God heals them, we tell them about Him. I also lead a women's Bible Study, although I feel like a large part of why God has brought me over here is to train and equip me.
* What compelled you to work internationally? In my first year at UBC, I heard Toni Campolo speak at Missionsfest and I felt like God was calling me overseas. It was along process (that I resisted heavily for awhile) but God is good and patient:). He totally opened up doors for me and as I listened to Him, He placed the desire to move to the Middle East in my own heart as well.
* What do you love about working cross-culturally? I truly love being over here. The biggest difference (a good difference) is probably the spiritual climate. I don't know quite how to explain it but there is no such thing as only going to church on Sunday. I have grown so much in my faith since coming here and it is like I am so hungry for the Lord now. I just want to know Him better and better and better and tell people more and more about Him. When we are out witnessing to people, they are very open. There is a verse where Paul writes "My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith mightnot rest on human wisdom, but on God's power" (1 Cor 2:4-5). This verse has become really meaningful to me because as we go around sharing thegood news about Jesus, He is showing up and revealing himself to people in power. People are coming to know him through dreams, visions, visitation and miraculous healings. This week, the group of people I serve with saw two people with canes get healed, a blind eye open, and a variety of other healings. When someone gets healed, IMMEDIATELY, you have his/her full attention to tell them about Jesus. It is pretty cool.
* What do you find challenging about working cross-culturally? In terms of challenges, I guess anytime you move overseas, there is always a bit of culture shock. It was less so for me because I had already travelled to the Middle East but it still took some adjustments. I would say that if you move overseas, you need to give yourself maybe five to six months to really settle in.
* What hasGod been teaching you and challenging you with? Jesus has been teaching me about my identity in Christ and the authority He intended for us to walk with. He said in John 14:12 "I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in Me will do what I have been doing. He will do greater things than these, because I am going to the Father." I seek to know my identity and the purpose He intended for me so that I can serve Him better. As the spiritual battle increases (see Ephesians 6:10-12), we need to know the weapons that He has made available to us so that we can fight. It is not something rare or special or for only a few or based on anything I have done, it is His grace made available to all of us.
* What is one piece of advice you’d give a new student at the brink of graduation? One piece of advice: don't take the Lord lightly or set Him on the back burner of your life or think "after this or that I will seek Him." Seek Him now with all your heart, soul, mind and strength! Make the cry of your heart to know Him better. Pray Psalm139:23-24 daily. Ask Him to help you. I believe we are in a crucial time. Over here, we are seeing Him pour out His Spirit like never before. We are living the promises of Acts 2:17-19. The pastor in church mentioned yesterday that over the last ten years, the signs pointing towards the end times have dramatically increased. I don't know when He is coming but I do believe it is soon. We are His warriors and I believe that we need to fight the battle, with His help, with everything we've got!
* What is a verse of scripture God has used to encourage you over the years? There are a lot of verses that have been speaking to me. One I like is Mark 15:16-18. I also like Matthew10:8. Both of them spur me on and help me to persevere.
Meet Carolyn. Carolyn graduated from UBC in 2004 with a double major in History and Psychology. After a few years living in England, Carolyn took a 'God-inspired risk' and moved to rural Romania to help start a ministry for children with special needs.
* What is your current line of work? Who do you work for (organizationally), where are you located, and what do you do? I am currently living and working in a city of 80,000 people in Western Romania called Hunedoara. For the last 2.5 years I have been volunteering here at the Bethlehem Christian Centre, and the House of Grace. The centre offers various facilities and ministries that support the underpriviledged children and families who live in our neighbourhood. We provide free meals, showers, and laundry, as well as homework help on a daily basis. I am involved in leading the afterschool children's programs - Bible stories, games, songs etc; girl's groups; kids and teen groups in local villages; family support visits; and an english class. In the last year and half, my main focus of ministry has become more focused on developing projects and programs to support children and young adults with intellectual disabilities and their families. We have run camps for children with Down's Syndrome and Autism and their families and offered training courses to young Romanians interested in being involved in this area of minisry. In November we started up a weekly group (MOZAIK) for young adults with intellectual disabilities, and this Spring we will be hosting 3 more special needs camps!
* How did you end up working where you are now? (Is it what you planned for? What compelled you to take this job?) When I finished University, I planned to take a year out - spending a summer in Romania, and then a year volunteering with a youth work charity in the UK - after which I would return to UBC to do my Education degree. That obviously never happened! I ended up staying in England for 3 years, and then God rather suddenly and unexpectedly brought me back to Romania! Since I was 8 years old, I had wanted to come to Romania. God put the nation on my heart at a very young age, and from then onward, anytime I heard anything mentioned about Romania, I felt an odd connection, and something in my heart would jump. So I have always been very confident that it is God's will for me to be here serving. The first summer I spent here, in 2004, was the first time in my life where I ever had the overwhelming feeling of actually being IN God's will for my life. It was incredible! And then, 3 years later, through a random, though God inspired series of events, God brought me back for another summer, during which God answered my prayers for direction very specifically, and helped me see that it was his will for me to stay in Romania for a longer period.
* What do you love about your work? The thing that I have loved most about my work here in Romania, is the relationships that I have been able to build up, with the children and families who I work with, and with the new 'family' and friends that God has given me here in Romania. I am also very grateful that I have been able to develop and focus in on the area of ministry that God has put on my heart. I guess that is one of the positives of coming out here 'freelance'....as in not with a certain mission organization, but just through personal connections. Though I guess I miss out on a lot of training and support opportunities, I feel like I have a lot more freedom to just go where I feel like God is leading me, without worrying about beaurocracy and all that jazz!
My best experience so far in my time here, was last April, when we had our first camp for kids with Down's Syndrome and their families. It was BRILLIANT seeing the families come together and meet each other, and have fun together! At the end of the camp, everyone was raving about what a brilliant time they had had - the kids, the parents, and especially the volunteers who had come with us. This was the case again in August when we had a camp for kids with autism. We ended up have a team of over 20 young Romanian volunteers (6 of them being teenagers living in an orphanage), only 3 of whom had ever met anyone with autism until that point!
So we had our team of volunteers – something that already amazed and encouraged me….seeing that there were so many young Romanians who were wanting to learn more about autism and to serve in the camp for a week. One of my main goals for the camp was to see some young Romanians develop an awareness of the situations faced by people with specials needs, and their families, and also to see them have a passion stirred up to build up relationships with these families, and to be involved in this area of ministry. That goal was definitely met! Almost all of those who came along really impressed me with their involvement, but there were also a few who absolutely amazed me with their dedication and patience (some of these being the ones who I was least expecting to see that from!). Throughout the week, the feedback I heard most from the parents was how amazed they were with the volunteers in camp…how these young people were happy and wiling to spend time with their kids…how much patience they had…how kind and helpful they were.
There was one mother who said she was asking herself the question of ‘if her child didn’t have autism, would he be willing to do for kids with special needs, what these young people were now doing for him?’. And another mother who talked about an older teenage son she had at home, who didn’t really have much time for his little brother, as all he wanted to do was to play on the computer, and she really wished that he would have the same patience and love as these young leaders had.
One of the volunteers, a 21 year old guy from our neighbourhood in Hunedoara, wasn't someone who I ever would have thought about inviting to come help in the camp. But 2 weeks before the camp started, Bogdan turned up at a sports outreach I was leading with about 80 kids. He showed up with his gang of friends, who were a group of 'cool' guys who came on and off to one of the teen projects we run at the centre. They wanted to stick around and play sports. I wasn't sure how it would be, deep down I thought they would probably cause more problems than they would be of help. But I am happy to admit that I was wrong. And I am very happy to admit that I was especially wrong about Bogdan. He amazed me with his involvement in all aspects of the project - from playing football with the kids, to sitting amongst them during the study time and doing all the hand actions to all the songs etc. So I decided to go ahead and ask if he wanted to come with us in camp. And he did. He ended up being one of the most dedicated volunteers in the camp, spending most of his time with the most challenging boy in camp - Ernest, a 12 year old boy with a very severe form of Autism. Ernest's mum had never been on holiday with Ernest, and said that she had not been to the mountains since she was a child. She was very touched by her experience in camp, but especially by the way so many young men were happy wo spend time with her son! On our last night in camp, we had a big bonfire, however Ernest did not want to go and was very agitated. And so, Bogdan offered to stay with him, so his mum could go and enjoy the bonfire (the first bonfire she had ever been to). On the last morning, one Ernest's mum talked about her desire to simply stay here in the camp, in the collectivity there forever…to create our own little community in which these special kids (and their parents) were loved and supported, even by people who had no reason for being interested in working with people with special needs…she talked about being scared to return back home, to the real world. It was quite sad listening to her talk, and seeing how real her fears were.
Since the camp, Bogdan started coming out on a regular basis to help with the kids groups at the centre. He has recently gotten a job working in a car cable factory that means he isn't able to come to the weekday groups anymore, but he joins us on a Saturday when we lead different village groups, as well as being involved in MOZAIK, the group for young adults with intellectual disabilities.
* What do you find challenging about your work? Breaking down stereotypes and prejudices - or trying to, and most often failing. The culture here has very set views on disability that enters into every aspect of society, including in to the families of those with disabilities. THUS, it is still a nation where people with disabilities tend to be hidden away and ignored, and definitely not given the opportunity to develop, learn, socialize, or use the gifts that they do have. Parents are ashamed of their children, churches are, more often than not, unwelcoming places for people with disabilities, and the general population has no understanding, and thus no real level of acceptance for people with intellectual disabilities. It drives me CRAZY when parents are one of the biggest stumbling blocks to be able to do something for their kids. They can't be bothered....they think it's a waste of time....they don't think anything is going to change anyway....it's just not worth the effort...
Disunity is a huge problem - amongst organizations, amongst churches, amongst Christians. If we want to really do anything, we need to work TOGETHER to do it. I even find that at the centre where I work, the disunity amongst the staff here prevents us from really working together to further the ministry in this neighbourhood. It's sad. Especially being that everyone who works here should have the same purpose and goals...
And of course, there are some teenagers who we work with here who I find VERY challenging. Young people who don't listen to anything you say, who think they have the right to enter into the Centre and do whatever they want, whenever they want.
* How is it similar and/or different from what you expected when you were in university? When I finished highschool, and while I was in Uni, I expected that I would end up back in my little hometown of Agassiz, teaching history and geography, and coaching drama and basketball! So it is a little bit different....
* How do you ‘live your faith’ in and through your work? In some ways I find that working in a 'Christian' setting makes it harder for me to live out my faith sincerely in all I do. Being a Christian project, we pray with the kids, we sing songs about God, and we talk about Jesus' love all the time. Thus, it can often become more a habit, than a real living out of my faith. I often struggle to know that my prayers and my worship are really from the heart, and not just something that needs to be done.
I know that the work I am doing is fulfilling God's commands of caring for orphans and widows, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and speaking up for those who can not speak up for themselves, and following Christ's example of ministering to the outcast and marginalized of society – I just have to make sure that I am doing it not just out of compassion, but for His glory.
* What has God been teaching you and challenging you with? During my time in Romania God has taught me a lot about trust. Trusting that He will provide for all my needs (something that I have seen Him do in amazing ways), and trusting that He is way better suited for the job of caring for my family than I am.
He has taught me that it's ok to be weak and it's ok to be messed up and it's ok to ask for help. In the last few weeks I've been listening a lot to the song 'Unashamed' by Starfield (look it up!), and He's been reminding me that “there needs to be a broken heart for Christ to enter in.”
He's been trying to teach me to trust in His word. A lesson that I am struggling with at the moment - trusting that the Bible is in entirity the inspired word of God – without fault.
* When do you feel closest to God (those sustaining moments of the day)? I tend to feel closest to God when I hear songs that really fit with where I'm at. I've discovered that translating songs gives me a whole new sense of worship...somehow being able to express my feelings in a deeper way. Spending time playing the guitar (even if I don't play it very well) and singing helps me connect with God. I also have found that preparing and teaching Bible lessons for the kids has helped me to understand and see things in a whole new light – understanding some very basic Biblical truths from looking at the lives of people in the Bible. I think I often learn more from my lessons than the kids do.
* How does living in [your city] affect your faith and/or relationship with God? Being in Romania has had a huge impact on my faith. In some ways it has inspired me seeing the strong faith of Christians here, especially of many young Christians. When I first came here I was amazed at the Biblical knowledge and the level of spiritual maturity I saw in so many Christian kids and teenagers. Christianity here is a lot more strict, and it surprised me to see how young people meet all the 'standards' that they feel they need to meet to be 'good Christians'.
However, over time, this has become something that has made me struggle more than be encouraged.
When I go to church here I find it very hard to worship. The style of most Romanian Baptist or Pentecostal churches doesn't really create an atmosphere of free worship. You need to dress a certain way to be able to go to church, you need to follow the exact format of how a church service should be... it often tends to be the choir who sing songs, while the rest of us sit and listen. The style of preaching is also very different, with the message of each sermon not being something that really meets you where you're at. Most sermons seem to either be a presentation of the Gospel, or talking about the endtimes. Thus, I sit and listen to an hour long sermon, and get bored. I then feel guilty that I get bored at church, or that I don't really have any huge desire to go to church, aside from going to see people.
Entering into a different culture and experiencing different interpretations and understandings of the Bible has also caused me to really question and lot of things, and this creates all sorts of doubts in my mind. This then creates another problem, being that Christians in Romania don't seem to doubt when it comes to their faith. Anything. It is considered almost crazy or unheard of that you would question the authenticity of the Bible, or that you would question the fact that God responds to prayer, or that He doesn't always protect His children, let alone mentioning the fact that sometimes you question the existance of God or His involvement in your life. Not being able to talk about these sorts of things, or to question things that I don't understand, is a real challenge for me, and often makes me feel alone in my struggles. I often don't do very well in walking through these times, and have had some really low days, weeks, or months in which I feel like I really want to talk with someone, yet also feel like just hiding away and crying, and that feeling seems to win out. I have a friend here this year who is from England, and who often faces a lot of the same struggles, so we are able to talk together – which is encouraging knowing I'm not alone, but also doesn't necessarily give either of us the answers that we need, being that we often have the same questions. Fortunately, God has blessed me with a computer in my room here, and so I can chat with my mum on skype, or send emails to certain close friend who have been huge supports for me, even from a distance.
* Where is your primary community? Where do you find community? God has blessed me with a lot of friends and family here in Romania. I have Elena, my Romanian mother, who makes sure I don't go outside in the cold with wet hair.... I have Abel, my little brother, who, like my actual little brother, often gets too busy for me, but when we do have time together we have lots of fun and some really good chats....and I have Anna, my Romanian sister, who is someone I can actually be open and honest with, and who I can be sarcastic with :) Along with them I have two main 'groups' of friends – one being the Teliuc crew, the young people in the village where I usually go to church. They are a really united and sincere group who I can always trust to be there if I need help with anything. Then there is the Micro 7 crew – the friends I have up in the area where I live. We meet and cook together most evenings, hang out and play cards or rummy or watch films. We have started meeting on Monday evenings to have a bit of a Bible study and prayer time. Something I had loved doing in England with our cell group, and loved having at Uni through CORES. Having that sort of deep fellowship with a small group isn't something that people here seem to be that used to, and so it has been hard trying to build that up here – even though I think it is something that we all want!
* What is a verse that God has used to encourage you over the years? The book of Philipians. One of the times when I was really struggling, I started memorizing the book of Philipians. I found it such an encouragement having God's words on my lips – especially words that talked so much about being united in Christ, and being humble and putting others first. I guess I got distracted and gave up memorizing – but should probably start doing that again!
* What is one piece of advice you’d give a new student at the brink of graduation as they prepare for life ‘after university’? Think about your passions and the ways you think you want to serve God and bless others, but don't hold onto those ideas too much but be willing for God to change whatever plans you do make!
Meet Dan. Dan went to high
school in Ladysmith, BC, and then complete a B.A.Sc. in Civil engineering at UBC (2002) followed by his M.A.Sc (2004). Dan married fellow UCM'er Marta, and followed her to the USA where she is finishing her MD.
* What is your current line of
work? Who do you work for (organizationally), where are you located, and what
do you do?
* What do you love about your
work?
* How is it similar and/or
different from what you expected when you were in university?
* When do you feel closest to
God?
* What is a verse that God
has used to encourage you over the years?
* What is one piece of advice
you'd give a new student at the brink of graduation as they prepare for life
'after university'? As we experience it, life is unpredictable. But God knows all that is
coming, and he looks forward to going through it with us. So long as my
hope is in my Father's presence and care, life is an adventure. So my
advice is this: pin your hope on your Father, not on any plan or place or
career or relationship.
