{"id":71391,"date":"2017-05-18T12:03:50","date_gmt":"2017-05-18T10:03:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/2017\/05\/17\/ik-vind-geloof-heel-vet-dat-kun-je-niet-voor-jezelf-houden\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T10:32:34","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T09:32:34","slug":"ik-vind-geloof-heel-vet-dat-kun-je-niet-voor-jezelf-houden-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2017\/05\/18\/ik-vind-geloof-heel-vet-dat-kun-je-niet-voor-jezelf-houden-2\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cI think faith is so amazing that you can\u2019t keep it to yourself!\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

NSR member Mark van Doorn in conversation with international student Harmanan. <\/span><\/p>

\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJoshua Kruter<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

\u201cMay I pray for you?\u201d Mark van Doorn, a member of Navigators Student Association Rotterdam (NSR), puts the question to two students who didn\u2019t know him an hour ago. They frown briefly, look at each other and then shrug their shoulders. \u201cYes, why not? \u201d Mark puts his hands together. \u201cFather, I want to dedicate these people to you.\u201d<\/p>\n

An hour earlier, Mark \u2013 a good talker with ginger hair parted to the right and a hipster beard \u2013 gathered together with four other students who belong to the Christian student association NSR in the Tinbergengebouw canteen. They call themselves a \u2018mission group\u2019. \u201cThe aim of NSR is to get to know Christ and to make Him known to others. We do a lot of getting to know Christ within NSR, but not enough making Him known to others. But I think faith is so amazing that you can\u2019t keep it to yourself!\u201d explains Mark.<\/p>\n

The mission group members use a questionnaire when they talk to students on campus \u2013 not about everyday things, but about deeper issues. They ask questions like \u2018What do you want to achieve in your life? \u2019 and \u2018What do you think is important in life?\u2019 and then, usually later in the conversation, \u2018Who do you think Jesus is?\u2019 and \u2018What do you think about God?\u2019.<\/p>\n

Faith isn\u2019t a package that you post into people<\/h3>
\"\"

Mark reads from the Bible with other members of NSR before they spread out across the campus. <\/span><\/p>

\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJoshua Kruter<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>

\u201cStudents need to talk about these subjects. We often get the comment: \u2018This is great \u2013 I should talk more about this\u2019,\u201d says Mark with enthusiasm. \u201cSometimes I speak to lonely international students, or to unhappy students who are very pleased that we\u2019re willing to listen.\u201d Others are focused on their career, the expectations of their parents, or money. \u201cAnd then I ask: \u2018Would you be happy with your life if this was it and tomorrow you were knocked down by a truck?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Sometimes people are less enthusiastic, but that doesn\u2019t bother the NSR members. \u201cNo hard feelings.\u201d Mark\u2019s mantra is: \u201cWe don\u2019t aim to instil faith into people in the way that you deliver a package.\u201d He mimes opening a rubbish bin and pushing something into it while pulling a face: \u201cAs if we were on a recruitment drive, trying to get people to sign up or to support a charity. We want to encourage people to think about things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scanning the canteen<\/h3>

Mark leads one of the three NSR mission groups. They go out onto the campus once a fortnight. Traditionally, the group meets together beforehand in the canteen, to find a moment of peace amid the eating, chatting and studying students. They take their Bible (or Bible phone app) and read Matthew 19:16-30, in which a rich young man asks Jesus what he must do to enter the kingdom of heaven. Then they pray. They don\u2019t care about bemused glances from tables to the left and right. Mark comments: \u201cI\u2019m fine with ten people laughing at me if I can do something for the eleventh.\u201d<\/p>\n

After this, it\u2019s time to spread out. Mark scans the canteen. \u201cUsually, I\u2019m looking for people who aren\u2019t too busy with something, or who are sitting alone and look open to a conversation.\u201d Mark used to go out on the streets for charities, so getting into conversation with total strangers is not a problem for him. \u201cAnd now it\u2019s on behalf of something I\u2019m passionate about!\u201d<\/p>\n

He has some interest. Two international students from Pakistan and India \u2013 Harmanan (20) and Atif (21) \u2013 who are quietly eating their ratatouille and mushroom soup. He shakes their hands. \u201cDo you have some time to talk through some questions about life with me?\u201d The two look at each other: \u201cUh, yes, we have five or ten minutes.\u201d Soon they have got into a discussion about life goals. Casually, Mark mentions that he himself is a Christian and asks, after a pleasant conversation lasting twenty minutes, whether he can pray for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy are you doing this?\u201d<\/h3>
\"\"

Afterwards, the students meet up again for discussion and prayer.<\/span><\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>

After the prayer, the two still have questions. Atif asks: \u201cWhy are you doing this?\u201d Mark explains about God and what God means to him. In the past he was heavily into drinking beer and smoking cannabis. \u201cUntil fellow students asked me: \u2018Shall we drink beer and read the Bible?\u2019 Then I started thinking, and the turning point came at a summer camp where I saw that God also works in us.\u201d<\/p>\n

A conversation that was supposed to take five to ten minutes ends up being 50 minutes. The mushroom soup has gone cold. \u201cIt\u2019s always like that,\u201d laughs Mark. In fact, they are still not finished, but the boys have to go, and so does Mark. He asks: \u201cDo you want to carry on talking about this some other time?\u201d Nobody speaks for a moment. \u201cWe do want to talk some more, but we don\u2019t want to fix an appointment. We\u2019ll come and find you some time.\u201d Mark smiles: \u201cOK, we\u2019ll meet each other again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Afterwards, the NSR members get together once more to talk things over and conclude with prayer. NSR member Janine Mourik, who has also been talking to people, laughs and jokes: \u201cSomehow I always get talking with international students! Is God trying to say something to me? That I need to improve my English maybe?\u201d They all had interesting conversations and were able to offer a listening ear. And that\u2019s what it\u2019s all about: \u201clistening to another person with genuine interest\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t

De redactie<\/h2>\n\t\t\n\t\t
\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t