Miriam Ford, InterAction Worker – Brussels

May Newsletter
Avenue de la Couronne, 162, 1050 – Ixelles, Brussels, BELGIUM +32 470 579270
miriamford@hotmail.co.uk +44 7738 356096

Hello!  So the GBUs are kind of winding down for the summer now. Most of the students have a
pretty intense period of exams in May/June, and in the run up to that they have their ‘blocus’, basically a period
of time with either less or no lessons at all, in order to revise. It’s a time that Belgian students take very
seriously and so most of the GBU groups will finish during May. Where we can, me and Lucy are trying to do
more studies to relieve the ‘responsables’ of the responsibility, and enable the groups to keep meeting for as
long as possible.

The Central group has started studying Colossians now

which has been great so far! Last week we looked at how
Lucy!
the church at Colosse’s problem was that they didn’t think
that Jesus was enough, but that the solution was to see how
much MORE than enough he really is! The day we meet is
about to change back to Wednesdays which will hopefully
be more suitable for everyone during the blocus. I am
leading the next study on Wednesday 5th May and would
value your prayers for the preparation and leading of that. I
feel more confident now with the speaking French part, but
know that I can do nothing in my own strength.

Woluwe put on a special joint soirée with the Catholic

ÊTRE TÉMOINS: was the Focus seminar that
me and Lucy did! It went quite well and there
were about 30 people there. I survived talking
French in front of people and the feedback
was mainly good… that it had been useful and
biblical. Negatives were that a couple of
people answering questions gave some kooky
answers I didn’t really understand which it
apparently might have seemed like I was
agreeing with :S and just some issues with
clarity… we had to cut a lot of stuff out in the
end because of the time, but we were on the
whole really encouraged by it!
society at the university in April. It was basically an
opportunity to meet each other as we now share the same
building on campus for our weekly meetings, and also to
discuss the Bible. The two leaders worked together to
prepare a study of sorts to discuss, looking at key passages
in the Bible about the Gospel and how it is a gift of God
through faith, and not of works. This sparked some
interesting debate on whether or not everyone will be saved
in the end, and whether or not God’s love is ‘stronger’ than
his justice. The GBU students spoke really well and faithfully,
and always referred back to the Bible when answering
questions which was really encouraging to see. Apparently
there were some complaints afterwards that some people
had felt judged. Grace-Ann said that she had replied to
apologise if our attitude had seemed aggressive or
judgemental, but that she couldn’t apologise for what we
had said because it is the truth. There are going to be two
more normal meetings at Woluwe before blocus.

ULB has been interesting lately, we’re studying John and every week seems to turn into a really deep
discussion about the sovereignty of God, and predestination vs. freewill. Whilst those discussions are hard, both
theologically and linguistically, the studies have been really encouraging, especially to see how the cross was
always in Jesus plan and how his ministry was working up to when finally “his hour had come”. One to ones in
Philippians with Agatha are also going really well and I think we’re both enjoying them and learning from them.
We’ve only had one since getting back after Easter for various reasons, but it was lovely to catch up properly
and we looked at how and why our attitude should be the same as that of Jesus Christ. She also lead her first
study at ULB in French last week, and is going to finish it next week as we didn’t get to the end due to the
aforementioned in depth discussions of the sovereignty of God!

Place Flagey, near my house.
Personally, I am just generally having a great time here now! I
feel really content and genuinely love the people around me, it’s
going to be hard to leave them! That is something to really thank
God for because at the start of the year I didn’t know as I would
ever get to a point like this! It’s just nice to be able to keep getting
to know people and spend more time with them socially before I
guess I’ll have to start packing!
I finished and submitted my second semester report for uni, it
contains the PowerPoint we used for the ‘Être Témoins’ soirée as
an example of some work I’ve done, so it’s exciting to know my
tutors will be reading it and hearing the Gospel at the same time!
I’m spending quite a lot of time at the moment just looking for
summer jobs and have applied for a couple of EFL related things
both in the UK and in France, please could you pray that I would
get something sorted sooner rather than later as it would be a
weight off my mind!
Please keep praying for the opportunities to speak to Quentin and
Kathleen about Jesus before I leave, I haven’t seen them very
much since Easter.

Park Royal in the sunshine 

Please continue to pray:

Plans for this month:
3rd-8th May : friend visiting! 
Weds 5th May : study at Central
(Colossians 1:24-2:5)
Weds 5th May : staff meeting
Sat 8th May : a special focus to
thank Tim and Emily for their work
here over the last five years + a talk
by Erwin Oschenmeier on whether
or not it’s normal for Christians to
be ill/endure suffering.
Mon 10th May : last meeting at
Woluwe
Sun 16th May : GBU Prayer Meeting
Thurs 27th May : special staff
meeting to talk about next year
with David et Marianne
28th-31st : friend visiting! 
 Praise God for the soirée Focus me and Lucy ran, for his
help in preparing and leading it, for those that came, and
that what was shared might be useful and lead to
conversions.
 For students in the run up to their exams, that they might
still be able to find the time to come to the GBU, and that
they might do their work for the glory of God.
 For me and Lucy preparing and leading studies, that we
would serve the GBUs faithfully and humbly.
 For David and Marianne as they continue to seek financial
aid to be able to work with the GBU next year.
 For me, Tim and Emily and their family as we have to start
saying goodbye to people and preparing to leave. 
 For the Focus on 8th May which will be discussing an issue
that several students have issues with and will not agree
with what Erwin will say.
WORD OF THE MONTH
‘ribblechips’ – a sort of crinkly/ridged crisp.
(Leading to much laughter & description of things as ‘ribbled’)

Thank you again for reading this and for your prayers. If you ever have any questions or want to know anything
else at all then please get in touch, all my contact info is in the head at the top of the first page. Or I sometimes
write more detailed accounts of things that happen on my blog. 
Love,
Miriam xx www.ifesworld.org www.gbu.be miriam-ford.blogspot.com

“…God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in
you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:27)