Ministry to Chinese students in The Netherlands

1. Ministry to Chinese students in The Netherlands a 30-minute online workshop for the ISI Global Summit, Singapore, March 2018 by Ed and Margreet van Ouwerkerk International Students Inc. Overseas AssociatesFounders of Chinese Student Ministries Netherlands

2. Content • Challenges in Europe • Changes in the seven influence spheres in The Netherlands • Student numbers • Recruiting • Outreach approach • Communication • Returnee follow-up • Demo’s of CSMN mobile ministry app and Spiritual Barometer

3. Challenges in Europe Jeff Fountain, long-time missionary with Youth with a Mission in The Netherlands, wrote this in 2015: ‘Having ignored its inheritance, Europe wonders why its house is falling apart’. A Wall Street Journal article with this sub-title claimed Europeans no longer believed in the things from which their beliefs sprang: Judaism and Christianity; liberalism and the Enlightenment; martial pride and capability; capitalism and wealth. Still less did they believe in fighting or sacrificing or paying or even arguing for these things, it said. Having ignored and undermined their own foundations, they wondered why their house was coming apart. Christianity in most European countries is in serious decline. In most spheres of influence in society, Christians have been marginalized over the last decades. Liberalism and socialism have lead governments taking societal responsiblities that formerly were covered by the Church. The church as a whole has let it happen. Also Christians have been occupiedacquiring wealth after the devastating losses in World War II. But there is hope . . . It is hard to get statistical data on Christianity in Europe, because governments have no interest to do research on what’s almost gone. Let’s briefly discuss the issues sphere by sphere, before we give ideas for Kingdom ministry.

4. Changes in the seven influence spheres in The Netherlands Family structure is almost demolished. My parents still grew up in a Christian family.But they left the church directly after they married in WW II. We, as their children werenot instructed in the Bible nor ever went to church. We went to secular high schools in the sixties. After college we married without any godly preparation. Many ofour marriages broke down in the seventies and eighties. Our children don’t wantto marry anymore and spend their lives having children with different lastnames,because of the many partnerships of mom or dad. But there is hope . . .

5. The Dutch government is proud that it became the world champion of modernity. First in legally endorsing non-married families, first in legally allowing abortion, first in legally allowing eutanasia; all abominations to God. Homosexual relationships became the ‘new normal’ and gay marriage became the next Holland-first record. Because of a lack of statistical data, I mention some personal observations. In the 150-seat parliament (House of Representatives) we only have less than 10 outspoken Christians. There is probably the same number of Muslim and Buddhist MP’s. The majorityof Parliament (around 120) is atheist or agnostic. The chairwoman of the Parliament is a Muslima with dual citizenship (Moroccan/Dutch). The vice-premier is a lesbian. Major cities have Muslim mayors. About 1 millionpeople in the country (of 17 million) is Muslim first or second generation immigrant from Turkey and Morocco. The Netherlands even invites gay people in Muslim countries (Iran, Afganistan) to come and apply for residency. But there is hope . . .

6. The church in general has become liberal and dormant, such as the Roman Catholic Church and the traditional Protestant church (PKN). In our city (Wageningen) with 38,000 inhabitants, we guess there are about 650 Christians in 6 small Bible-believing churches, which is only 2% of the population. There is an annual nationally organized long-weeked open-air Christian festival for all denominations. Last year there were 55,000 people, which is great, but it is only 0.32% of the population. Our church in Iowa (when we lived there) had 500 members and 12 people on staff.Our current church in a neighboring town in Holland has also 500 members but can onlyhire 1.2 persons, because of poor giving by the members. All churches in The Netherlands use the Dutch language in their worship and sermons. In university cities there is sometimes translation into English through a headphone system and there are (small) international churches, using English. Churches and ministries still have a tax exempt status, but this is currently under pressure. But there is hope . . .

7. In education we see the same trends. The number of Christian schools is decreasingdramatically. The two kids of my unmarried daughter (who became a Buddhist) attend a Christian school because it is the best school in her area. The kids are told some Bible stories, but never the Bible itself is read and never a prayer is done.In The Netherlands there were good Theological Universities and Seminaries. Most have become secular or simply vanished. Many pastors need to go to Leuven (Belgium) to get a proper training. In higher education and science there is a ban on spreading a Christian worldview. We, as ministers of the Word don’t get access to students on university premises, because of an entrance pass system. We can only approach them outside and in non-university cafeteria. But there is hope . . .

8. The media are practically anti-Christian in The Netherlands. There is only one nationalnewspaper (Trouw) that is “name-Christian” and there is a positive Christian newspaper(Nederlands Dagblad) with 30,000 daily issues, which counts for 0.2% of the population. Public television is captured in a structure that is funded by the government. There remained three tradional Christian networks which have turned into quite secular broadcasting. After promoting the gay movement (which is currently fully accepted) formany years the focus is now on transgender and #metoo movements. When we zap across six networks, we normally see three networks presented by gay people, promoting gay and transgender lifestyles. A new private Christian network started recently but the public opinion (=state run TV) is opposing it fiercely. But there is hope . . .

9. Although it seems that the media is overtaken by the enemy, there are lots ofopportunities on social media: facebook, wechat, websites, apps. As long as we havefreedom of speech and publishing in Europe (unlike closed countries: Islamic andcommunist world) we can post Christian ideas and point to the salvation plan of God. Praise God that we can do Bible study with people far away, using internet chat software. We still can support, encourage, and educate people through online Christian organizations,such as Global Media Outreach. There is hope . . .

10. In the spheres of arts, entertainment, sports, business, science, and technology the fraction of outspoken Christians is so low, that their influence on society is minimal.But there is hope . . . Our hope remains in the Lord!2000 years ago, the apostle Paul wrote this in Europe:1Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. 2Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. 3And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ. 7But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed (2 Corinthians 4:1-9). 

11. Our ministry strategy is: • We press on in every sphere of influence that is still open. • We introduce Chinese Master and PhD students, the future leaders in majordecision making societies, to Christ and disciple them before they return. • We “model” a Chinese house church in our homes, using every opportunityto involve as many as possible Chinese students, week-in-week-out. We shareour lives in love and compassion, given abundantly to us by the Lord Jesus. The following slides show how our Dutch team does this for Him and for them.

12. Student numbers Estimated number of Chinese university students (MSc + PhD) in The Netherlands: 7,000 • Most Chinese students are in: • DelftWageningen (700)Rotterdam • Twente • Tilburg • Eindhoven • Almost no BSc level, because BSc level is taught in Dutch.MSc and PhD taught in English.

13. Recruiting Over the last three years we have advertised on the front page of a Chinese website, called GogoDutch. The advertisement was postedjust one week before new students would travel to The Netherlands. In the ad we gave a link to our website, where students could sign-up for a free airport pickup. On avarage 40 students signed-up each summer. We rented a minivan and drove 12 times to Amsterdam airport. During the trip back to Wageningen we had the chance to talk to them. In many cases we became their first Dutch friends. We invited them to a welcome party in the same week. Mostly about 25 students showed up. Then the next week we invited them to the weekly “Introduction Course on Christianity”, where 24 showed up. A week of airport pickups is exhausting and expensive ($2000), but worth doing.

14. Outreach approach • The students stay only two years. So, we offer a first year program of evangelism and a second year program of discipleship training • Our Friday evening fellowship “models” a Chinese house church in our home,meeting every week, 52 Fridays per year, using bi-lingual bibles (English-Mandarin)including, • Chinese meal, cooked by my wife assisted by one of the students • Worship songs with piano; English and Chinese songs projected on large screen • Two subgroups in two rooms of the home: • First year group with two team members, study in English, discussion in three small sub groups including prayer • Second year group with two team members, study in English and Chineselearning to study on their own and learning to pray and reach out • Social events (cultural city tours), evangelistic events in cooperation with COCM (UK) • Foundation with tax exempt status, group of faithful donors, church contributions. • Assisting other city initiatives.

15. Communication • Student life • Students are extremely busy • Only 20-30% of them read received emails, other than from their school • Very few check websites other than academic sites • All communication is done on smartphones • They communicate with parents through wechat, almost daily • What we do • Cancelled our ministry website and stopped writing emails to students • Do all communication through instant notifications: • Short wechat messages, personally and by group, linking to: • Schedules, signups, and resources on a mobile app • One-on-one Bible studies and mentoring through video chat (wechat) • Visiting students in their dorms or home country when needed

16. Returnee follow-up Almost all students who graduated want to get a job in “the west”. They have a searchyear to find a job, PhD position, or post-doc. When the search year is over and no jobis found they return to China. We guess 80% returns. • We keep in contact, especially with those who came to faith. We use a couple of networksto connect them to local Christians in China: • in Beijing, a British lady does a good job to introduce Christian returnees to mainly house churches or Three-Self churches if people want that • a small team in the UK (OMF) maintains a ‘secret’ network, called connecting2people.net, by which we have been able to refer people to local Christians; there is a secureprocedure to enter their system; many cities in China are covered • we have not been very successful with FAR • ISI has the ability to refer, and • we have our own network of returnees, who lovingly adopt new returnees.

17. demo ministry app As app from App Store As PWA in browser demo spiritual barometer