Latest / Eurasia Region Podcast / S2-E11 | Everyday Eurasia |  Tim Bowen-Evans

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S2-E11 | Everyday Eurasia |  Tim Bowen-Evans · Eurasia Region Podcast

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  This week we will join the NCM team from Eurasia.
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  Today we will listen to Tim Bowen.
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  Evans team is based in Ireland and serves as the Eurasia NCM
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  Coordinator. He's passionate about the role
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  of the Church in contributing to justice, peace and renewal.
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  Hello everyone. My name is Tim Bowen Evans and
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  I'm the Nazarene Compassionate Ministries Coordinator for the
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  Eurasia Region. I'm also a pastor in Ireland.
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  The theme for our podcast this week is Compassion.
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  When my wife and I got married, my brother was the DJ for our
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  wedding and the first song that he played was a song by Rihanna
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  called We Found Love in a Hopeless Place.
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  Now, as a lifetime Nazarene, I'm a terrible dancer.
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  Or at least that's my excuse for being a bad dancer.
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  So my role was always to chat to the older relatives while my
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  wife Kate danced the night away with our friends.
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  My brother chose that song because Kate and I met in
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  Afghanistan. It was during the decades long
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  war and we were both working for humanitarian organisations
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  there. The idea of finding love in a
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  hopeless place was on his mind. I remember one of my final weeks
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  in Afghanistan, before I left, I was sitting with a colleague of
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  mine and he said to me, Tim, is there any hope for Afghanistan?
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  I remember thinking about it for a moment and replying to him.
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  I'm not sure. And it troubled me at the time.
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  Because if we are people of the resurrection, then there really
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  is no such thing as a hopeless place in this world.
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  We believe that what God has done in Jesus, God will do for
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  all creation. And throughout Scripture, God
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  shows up in the most hopeless of places.
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  Perhaps there is no place more hopeless than his own tomb where
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  Jesus dead body had been laid to rest and his disciples and
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  everyone else. It looked like the journey of
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  God's redemption was over. Let's read from John chapter 20
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  starting at verse 11. But Mary stood weeping outside
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  the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to
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  look into the tomb, and she saw 2 angels in white sitting where
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  the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the
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  other at the feet. They said to a woman, Why are
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  you weeping? She said to them, They have
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  taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.
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  When she had said this, she turned round and saw Jesus
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  standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus.
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  Jesus said to a woman, Why are you weeping?
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  For whom are you looking, supposing him to be the
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  gardener? She said to him, Sir, if you
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  have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I
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  will take him away. Jesus said to her, Mary.
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  She turned and said to him in Hebrew, Rabuni, which means
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  teacher. Jesus said to her, Do not hold
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  on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father, but go
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  to my brothers and say to them, I am ascending to my Father, and
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  your father to my God and your God.
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  Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, I
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  have seen the Lord, and she told them that he had said these
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  things to her. This is the word of the Lord,
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  thanks be to God. Jesus had a way of showing up at
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  tombs. At the tomb of the man who was
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  possessed by a legion of demons and the land of the garrisons,
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  there was a man who lived amongst those tombs, harming
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  himself. Jesus showed up at that tomb and
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  as we read at the end of that passage, the man is healed,
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  clothed and in his right mind. Jesus showed up at the tomb of
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  Lazarus, his dear friend. And Jesus stands outside and
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  says in a loud voice, Lazarus, come out.
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  And of course we have this story of him encountering Mary at his
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  own tomb, where it looks like the journey of redemption, the
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  hope that all his followers had had had fallen to pieces.
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  And Mary is sitting there weeping and Jesus calls her by
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  name and she realises who he is. Then he sends her out into the
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  world to tell the others to be a resurrection.
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  People changes the way that we see the world, that no matter
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  what situation we are in, that it is not without hope.
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  And when we look at the world around us and we think about
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  places in our world, sometimes they could not look less
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  hopeful. Perhaps places like Gaza come to
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  mind with the unending war in Ukraine and Russia or Lebanon or
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  the Ebola virus in the DRC. We look at our world.
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  We look at situations that seem to be totally without hope, but
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  as a church, to be a resurrection people means that
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  we believe that death is not the end, that death does not have
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  the final say, and that God can speak new life and redemption
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  into any situation. Part of our role is to be that
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  hopeful presence in the world. The places we go and live and
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  minister are not places without hope or places overcome by
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  despair. But in these places we are to be
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  a people who carry resurrection with us because God is redeeming
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  the world. God's hope is linked to our work
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  as a compassionate church because we are a compassionate
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  people who reach out to neighbors.
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  We care for those who are on the margins.
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  We live in solidarity with those who are oppressed.
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  One of the most important things we can bring is hope, the
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  ability to imagine a different future when no one else can see
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  it. And in Jesus we have the promise
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  that He will bring all things to completion.
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  Let's pray. Dear God, we thank you that
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  because of the work you have done and are doing in the world
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  that we are not without hope. Lord, we recognise there are
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  days, there are months, perhaps even years where the sorrow of
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  the world overwhelms. Lord, would you lift us out of
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  despair? Would you carry us in those
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  difficult times? Would you instill in us a new
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  belief, A renewed hope that you have indeed overcome the world?
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  Lord, I pray that our churches around the region and around the
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  world would be places of hopeful presence in their communities
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  and that the towns and cities and villages where we live will
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  be more hopeful places because of the presence of a church.
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  We carry with it God's hope, where the people proclaim that
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  God has indeed overcome the world in the name of Christ.
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  Amen. Thank you for listening to the
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  everyday Eurasia podcast Inspiring Faith for Everyday.
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  For more Everyday Stories, subscribe on this podcast
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  channel, follow our socials, Facebook and Instagram, or our
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  newsletter. Snapshots for our newsletter and
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  further information about the Eurasia region, visit our
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  website, eurasiaregion.org.