Voices of IFES

World Assembly 2023 Opening Ceremony: Annette Arulrajah - 'Tabah dan Tangguh' / Psalm 84

Join us on our new series of content showcasing talks from World Assemblies. Annette Arulrajah, IFES Associate General Secretary, opens World Assembly 2023 by exploring our theme - 'Tabah dan Tangguh' - through the imageries of pilgrimage in Psalm 84.

World Assembly 2023 Bible Exposition: Riad Kassis - 'A Journey from Obedience to Blessedness' / Psalms 1 & 2

🥰 “What you delight in determines your destiny.”

 

Listen to this insightful exposition by Dr Riad Kassis unpacking God’s invitation to human flourishing (Psalm 1) and global wellbeing (Psalm 2).

 

🤔 He clears up three common misconceptions – including ideas around blessing and being blessed.

👉 And he shows how these two poems form a gateway into the rest of the Psalms.

World Assembly 2023 Story: Sara Fris Børty

Honest and personal testimonies were an integral part of World Assembly 2023. Here, Sara Børty shares about her experiences of pioneering student ministry in Greenland. It's a touching story of working through disappointments and frustrations – and seeing how God blesses faithful obedience, even if it’s not in the way we were expecting.

World Assembly 2023: University as our Context - Timothée Joset & Prarthini Selveindran

When you hear the words “university” or “higher education”, what’s the first thing that comes to mind?

 

🏫🤩🎓🤓💍🤑🎒🥳🎢🤯📚🤣🤝?

 

At World Assembly, Timothée Joset (IFES Engaging the University global team) and Prarthini Selveindran (FES Singapore) asked that question – and got some surprising answers from participants in person and online!

 

Let Timothée and Prarthini help you consider the many changes taking place in the landscape of higher education – and how we should view our calling and witness in that context.

World Assembly 2023 Bible Exposition: Joel Atwood - 'Celebrating and Trusting the God of Salvation, Refuge, and Goodness - Part 1' / Psalm 9

How loud? 🙉 Whether booming praises or noisy petitions, God wants to hear them!

 

Listen to Joel Atwood (National Director of GNYF Vanuatu) explore how Psalm 9 invites us into David's joyful song of salvation – and his heartfelt cry for justice.

 

💬 “Our praise should be our Witness and our witness should be our praise.”

 

💬 “We pray not for an end to our enemies, but an end to them as our enemies.”

World Assembly 2023 Bible Exposition: Naomi Chandrasekharan - 'Celebrating and Trusting the God of Salvation, Refuge, and Goodness - Part 2' / Psalm 16

☺️ How can you stay contented in God and committed to his kingdom?

 

Even when life is tough?

 

In this talk from World Assembly 2023, Naomi Chandrasekharan, a zoology student actively involved with FOCUS - Sri Lanka, explores how Psalm 16 can help us.

A small ministry with a big impact with Joel Atwood from GNYF Vanuatu

It’s a ‘mission field’ of only 2,000 tertiary students, spread over 7 campuses. So, IFES ministry in Vanuatu will never be ‘large scale’. But Joel Atwood, National Director of GNYF Vanuatu, believes the ministry can still have a huge impact.  

On this Voices of IFES Joel shares how he left Australia to help plant student ministry in this island nation. Learn about the context, its challenges and joys, and find out how you can pray for him and the fledgling ministry.  

If you want to support Joel and his wife in their ministry you can do it here.

World Assembly 2023 Evening Plenary: Creation Care (Part 1) - Ed Brown

🌊🔥📈😟 Is there any hope for the world’s environmental crisis?

 

📺 In this talk, Ed Brown (Executive Director at Care of Creation) tells us there is: “God, in his wisdom, has chosen that a message of hope would come to creation and to society through the church.”

 

🔎📖 He offers a robust rationale from Scripture to show why creation care is a gospel issue.

 

📣 And he gives a stirring call to action:

“I'm looking at a group of people that works with the young, with the energetic, with those who are studying, with those who hold the future of society in their hands. If we can't take up this call to wake up the church to care for God's creation, no one else will. This is our time. This is our mission.”

World Assembly 2023 Evening Plenary: Creation Care (Part 2) - Denise-Margaret Thompson

♥🌍 What can creation care look like in practice?

 

📺 In this talk, Professor Denise-Margaret Thompson gives insights into the impact of climate change and shares about the response of student movements in Indonesia, Hawaii, and Trinidad and Tobago.

 

💪 “God always raises up a Moses, an Elijah, a Deborah – and the brilliant young people of our movements. And those young people have leverage with companies and multinational companies.”

World Assembly 2023 Bible Exposition: Dwi Handayani - 'Finding God in the Silence: Lament and Faith in Times of Suffering' / Psalm 88

🖤 “I felt betrayed, alone, and hopeless. And I asked God, ‘'Why God, where are you, why? Do you care?’ And then I started to count all the good things that I had done: Lord, I do this, I do that, I do this, I do that. Why? Why Lord? Why did you allow this to happen to me? But for those four years, it was really dark.” 

In this talk from World Assembly 2023, Dwi Handayani not only unpacks the emotions of Psalm 88 but also honestly shares from her own experiences. 

Watch 'Finding God in the Silence: Lament and Faith in Times of Suffering' and learn how the lament of Psalm 88 can guide us through our own times of crisis and point us to Jesus.  

❤️ “God wants you to know that his love is not dependent on your feelings”