It was an idea birth from the active minds of Prakash and Ki Sung: to gather students, to create an open space of meeting. Sure great things could come out from putting together groups of young spirits “in transit” on the city of Oslo, some might think of them as future leaders, some as soldiers of the army of peace and some as the today´s adventurers that will inherit the Earth… anyhow, we were here in Oslo and the invitation to meet other people, to have a place “in English” to meet and talk, to have free dinner and the chance of planning going-outs, parties and any other crazy idea… is very motivating.
I have always enjoyed being there, but the initial fun of attending those meetings changed to the responsibility of organize it (or help to organize it) in the moment I said yes to Ki Sung to replace Prakash in these tasks. Luckily…or not, we decided to make this activity through ISU, the International Student Union that I was already President. So, at least for me this was some sort of luck, because it was not a personal responsibility, but a collective one, an institutional one.
Thus, for me to be there was still fun in a way, but not in a full sense, I guess that the same things I was doing are the things that I´ll normally do, but the fact that it had some dependence on me or that I was somehow responsible for it changed the way to appreciate it. To be before time to help and welcome people and go later after cleaning or organizing, to talk with different people and try to include them into conversations, to know if the cookers are ok and support Ki Sung on making them have everything they need, to find guest speakers and be really in attention to what they say, to motivate and find volunteers cookers for the upcoming meetings and finally to also enjoy the meeting… was somehow not the same.
Luckily for me, I insists, this was now part of the ISU activities, so when I started to have more workload and responsibilities with other stuffs, I could depend on the ISU´s Board to organize the meetings by distributing the tasks. From the logistics point of view, it was working very well. But perhaps something else was emerging.
I started to hear feedback of students not eager to participate in the meetings because being afraid that it had an ulterior and not clear intentions, others will show dissatisfaction because they felt tricked by the intentions of the meeting and finally myself was feeling that the main supporter and founder of this initiative, the IMCO, was getting and letting flow some pressure about objectives and intentions that were not stated from the beginning.
Is a common saying that “there is not free meal”, and perhaps the International Methodist Church of Oslo had it clear from the very beginning: the meetings were an open space for international students, where among many of the things we make, plan, think and do (without any support or meeting place), this International Dinner Meeting will be “also” a place for see a fresh face of this Christian Church and a call to join it. In fact, many students understood this, “we get free dinner, with the condition of hearing motivational speeches about how good is to have Christ in your life”. I guess a considerable number of them deal with this situation very straight forward and could manage to get the most out of it, separating their intention of eating and meeting people and the intentions of the meeting of showing the relevance of God in their life. The IMCO´s intention could be accomplished and their intention of participating as well.
I personally trusted the statements written, where no Christian profession or evangelization was expressed. Just by wordily statements it was mention that the spirituality will find its place and way in the participants’ beings. I must confess that I was a bit sad when I realized that the International Dinner Meetings where kind of heading to a conflict of principles. The principle of No-religions or that all-religions should be included. At this point, it was to hard to separate the IMCO´ intentions and the ISU´ intentions.
In the last IDM I participated, even dough we made the General Assembly and the Elections, I could overcome those feelings. It was actually the fact of knowing that after that meeting I will no longer be in the ISU, no longer with the responsibility of dealing with the tasks of the IDM and the issue of the conflict of principle no longer my burden (of course I did my part on trying to solve it or propose solutions). Just the fact of feeling as a “normal” or “just another participant”, made me so free and relax that I could say now, that this was the IDM that I have enjoyed most. Food was great (Estonian by the way), conversations, people (most of them new students) and the feeling that this is for fun and the fun will continue after the meeting… it was just like I picture it when I first attended. I guess that´s the way international students imagine it will be when they decide to attend. An interesting speech is always welcome, to present motivational life experiences is a great asset to have in the IDM to complement our experience of growing and learning. Bur since Christianity is not the only way to be happy, to find yourself and be with God, I think these IDM should not be seeing as a Christianity´ promotion activity.
I hope this issue gets solved; this experience of the IDM is a great asset of both ISU and the IMCO; is now a pillar in the experience of the international students in the OUC.
I now see two ways: clarity of procedures and intentions or separation of activities. Anyhow I know that Ki Sung and the Board members are the best persons to find a feasible and successful exit to this.
