Honestly Speaking...

Yesterday my church in Leeds hosted a presentation made by Friends International, one of the Christian ministries in Leeds that are tasked to help out with international students. I met the head of the team in Leeds, Phil, at the Christian Union Living Room picnic last year in September. Since then, I've been meeting him from time to time to discuss about my experiences and give him feedback on the overall situation that International Christians face over here. So for yesterday Phil invited me to share my thoughts in the event yesterday through interview style and he told me that around 30-40 people will attend. When I was there, it was more like 50-60 people from different churches all around Leeds! lol..anyways, initially, I wanted to launch a tirade and a rant. I had already prepared what to say, but just before I got up to speak, God prompted me to go gentle instead and to rephrase some of the materials that I have prepared. Anyways, here's the full uncensored text that I would have said if there are no time limit or barriers. I used a majority of what I had prepared, with some tweaking and softening of the tone in the end..haha.

What was it like for you when you first came to Leeds? What 2 things did you notice were most different to back home?

I was quite excited when I first arrived because I’ve never travelled out of Southeast Asia before. The furthest I have been in my life is Vietnam. England was the first European country that I had stepped my foot on. The 2 Things that I noticed most was firstly, the highly unpredictable and variety of English weather. The sky’s always gloomy, it’s cold..sometimes it gets windy..there’s snow. There is so much to prepare for and wearing the right clothing is important. In Malaysia, there’s only sunny and rainy weather because it’s a tropical country.

The second thing I noticed about the British people is that social life revolves around alcohol. You can never take the beer out of the British. There’s drinking in almost all occasions, even after church meetings and Christian Union (CU). It was quite an amusing situation for me at first, when we have one of the Christian student leaders jumping up and telling the whole congregation that we are going to the bar/pub afterwards! We don’t have that much of drinking in Malaysia, and we only drink during special occasions like wedding or celebrations. Our fellowship revolves mainly around food because the hawker stalls and restaurants in Malaysia have opening hours until past midnight. We will chat the night away.

How warm/cold did you find people in the UK in general?

I would say that the people in the UK are very polite but not warm. Most are reserved and they rarely make the first move to introduce themselves unless they feel comfortable. Privacy seems to be a very important factor here and people don’t seem to be interested in knowing new people or forging new friendships. They can see the same people week and week out, and they are ok with not striking a single conversation. In the law school, interaction between local students and international students is almost close to zero. We don’t talk during lectures and during seminars, at the very most it’s academic. There’s not even an introduction of names when we are discussing in a seminar group. Even after staying here for close to half a year, I do not know alot of the local British here on a personal level.

How warm did you find people in the Living Room? (International students gathering by the CU)

The living room is one of the first contacts that I have with Christians in Leeds. On the first week, I went for the living room picnic and that was where I met Phil too. I found I always felt that the reception in the living room is always warm because most of the people helping out in there are prepared to engage and meet with international students. I don’t see the same level of engagement for international students from local students in the CU or the church. Most of the time, it’s as if the internationals are invisible and they are usually ignored and left alone by themselves. It was very hard for me to get acquainted with the people in the CU because people in general just stick to their cliques and chat among their groups. I only had the chance to know a few more people during the weekend away. I’m very blessed to know Tim Tucker, the previous president of the CU and I will always remember him for the initiative that he took. He invited me over to his house at the border of Wales and I spent a fantastic 4 days with his family over Christmas. I got to know his family members too and we shared personal experiences with each other. Tim Tucker is one of the few British Christians who’s willing to engage with me on such a personal level. Sad to say, most of the local Christians that I know end up only as a “hi and bye” friend whenever I see them.

What could international students who are Christians bring to local churches that are predominately British?

It will make a strong statement that Christianity transcends culture to both local and international students who have yet to know God. We show that Christianity is not a Western religion because Jesus is relevant in every culture and society. The Malaysian churches and African churches are worshipping the same Jesus that the English people know about. International Christians have different perspectives in reaching out to other internationals which the locals may not be familiar with in terms of language and culture. We present the gospel in a much digestible way which the locals may not have considered.

Here’s something which I felt that is neglected in the international students ministry in England. There are lots of outreaches for international students who have not heard the gospel before but there is little support for Christian international students. You’ll be surprised to know that the population of international Christians is quite sizeable. I can name at least 20-30 international Christians that I’ve acquainted with. We are everywhere. But why are they not seen to be participating actively around in British churches or the Christian Union? As far as I know about Malaysian Christians, most of them are all huddled up in the Chinese church for a couple of reasons. Mainly because of opportunity to serve and fellowship. Firstly, the level of fellowship and bonding from the local Christians are almost non-existent. Let’s take my church as an example. Every Sunday, there’ll always be a group of at least 5-6 International Christians in the church. But no one bothered to talk to them or get to know them better. I go to the small group sessions and Christian Union, and apart from the official activities, none of the local Christians actually bothered to contact me outside of the official activities. I’ll be honest here. It is simply not good enough to ask “how are you, how’s your week, how’s your studies”...or to organise one or two international events and there’s no follow-up. What sort of friendship is that? There is no way you’re going to cultivate a proper fellowship like this. Maybe for the first few weeks, it’s alright. But there are local Christians who have known me for 6 months and all they ask whenever they see me is “how are you and how’s your week.” And then *awkward silence*.

The presumption of all international students are non-Christians or that they don’t know about Christianity at all needs to stop. Throughout these 6 months, I find that the local Christians do not treat the International Christians as equal partners in ministry and very often, international Christians end up on the sideline as mere participants. Local Christians seem to assume in their mind that they can’t handle things or know the scriptures enough. Let me tell you, some of the international Christians studying over here are leaders of their respective churches back home. They have led worship, bible studies, prayer meetings and small groups. Some of us join national Christian conferences, organised massive scale evangelical rallies and are part of the Christian union committees back home. International Christians are uprooted from their Christian circle at home when they go abroad. When an International Christian comes to England to study, he wants to see his faith level increase and his walk with God strengthened and to meet with Christians whom he can form meaningful friendships with. But without the support of the local Christians in initiating fellowship, personal sharing and opportunities to serve, he’ll be a loner. You know Christian living is community living. Without close fellowship with local Christians, where can he find the passion to serve and grow spiritually? I could have chosen the easy path and join the rest of my fellow Malaysian Christians in the Chinese Church. Fellowship is good and there are plenty of opportunities to serve. But I’m determined to be patient and stick to a British church because I want to learn a different perspective from the local Christians during my short time of a year here. Every week, I return back to my room in disappointment because of the attitudes of the local Christians that I see. I try to think the local Christians as being different from the local non-Christians, but every week I’m proven wrong.

Some of you might think, we are British and that’s the way we are. But no, we need to rise above that. We need to rise above the stereotypical notion of our cultures and start to see ourselves as common citizens of God’s kingdom. Leeds is a very special place with so many different nationalities converging in the same place. When you say you want to share lives and share the love of Christ, can you afford to ignore the hundreds of International Christians that are in this city? He/She is also your brother and sister in Christ. You are part of the same family. You don’t even need to send missionaries to different countries. That one international Christian that you touched in Leeds could end up as a renowned evangelist in his home country. Never doubt the investment that you put in an international student. But it all has to start from the bottom - with genuine and sincere friendship which I find many of the local Christians are not willing to offer to the international Christians at this moment.

After I have spoken, there was a hush of silence as I walked back to my seat. All I was thinking at that point of time was, "Dear Lord, I hope I didn't make new enemies today!" After everything had ended, Phil's wife came to me to say that lots of the British folks standing behind appreciated the honest comments that I gave. A few of the British who were sitting near me also said the same thing. Jane, one of the new committee members in the Christian Union walked up to me to say that she appreaciated my feedback and will bring up the issue to the new CU committee during meeting. The most encouraging one was a Christian from Jordan who came up to me and said "You spoke exactly what my sentiments were! It's as if I'm actually up front and speaking the exact same things as u!" She encouraged me to continue speaking on this subject to every Brit that I meet, and said that the local Christians need to have this awareness and reminder every now and then. Wow, truly amazed at God's work! I didn't expect my speech to impact that many. I'm just thankful to be given this opportunity to speak for Him. Hmmmm..I guess that my Mama's hard-earned money to put me through law education ain't wasted at all to prepare me for moments like this.

The bottomline situation is this, the international student work which has been going on around in Leeds is impressive, with many China students getting to know the Gospel and going back home to tell others about Jesus. But I often find that for the International Students who are already long-time Christian, they are in a state of limbo. Very little work is being done to help them to settle down or get rooted into the local Christian community. They have already gone beyond the basic stages which most of the China Students are undergoing like who God is and what is the Bible etc. While it is good that international Christians join these activities to help to spread the Gospel, they also need spiritual food and fellowship to grow in their own faith. But if these International Students join the predominantly British Christian Union and churches, they get the proper teaching that they need but the fellowship component is often missing because the local Brits simply do not have the desire to welcome them into their social circles. I admit that the international workers do forge close friendships with the international students that they work with, but I noticed the pattern that it's only international students who do not know the Gospel. Hence, there's this very bizarre and ironical situation where, it is better for the International student NOT to know anything about Christianity so that they can have the opportunity to interact with the British. And for International students who have already known and accepted Christ, there seems to be nothing else that the local British Christian can offer. This, I feel, needs to stop going on if we are to regard ourselves as one a one united citizen in God's kingdom. For me, I felt that I can't just stand around being silent while injustices like this go around unnoticed.

Anyways, recently, I noticed that in these past few years, I'm inclined to advocate for different concerns and pushing for reforms on different fronts. There are undercover campaigns to reduce passivenes in Christian walk, active serving in church, planting seeds in people's life who have yet to know Christ in an effective way, having a Christ-centered path in the legal fraternity and law departments and right now, international Christians integrating with local Christians. At times, I do feel stretched fighting silently on so many different fronts alone and I often wonder whether there are those around me who share the same concerns or they had just chosen to ignore it. I felt the weight on my shoulders on these so many concerns that I have but yet I find myself not being able to fully commit to the full cause because of the studying commitments that I have. I hope that one day, when all these studying and academics are all gone, I'll have all the time and resources to campaign for all these things. As for now, I'm just grateful that God has given me strength to actually speak up on these things despite all the academic stuff that are piling up on me.