Program Coordinator Q & A

Questions and Answers with Tim Stabell, Global Studies Program Coordinator

Q: We’ve heard that you were a missionary before you came to Briercrest to teach. Could you tell us a little about your family and background?

My wife, Susan, and I met in Toronto in 1980 during the four week Toronto Institute of Linguistics course, "How to Learn a Language." She was on her way to Sudan and I was heading for ministry in Congo. Both of us were with the Africa Inland Mission. After only a few weeks together, she left for her assignment in Sudan, and I continued raising support in preparation for Congo. When I was ready to go to Paris for French study, I wrote to her (we had continued to correspond that whole year), inviting her to join me in language study "in case" the Lord opened the door for us to do ministry together. Three days after she arrived in France, I proposed, and five months later we were married. We now have 25 years of happy married life behind us and are looking forward to what God still has in store for us.

Susan is a nurse, and during our time in Congo, she was able to use those skills in a number of different ways, generally involving pre-natal and neo-natal care, especially in the area of nutrition. I was doing various forms of informal leadership training (Theological Education by Extension and seminars for pastors and lay church leaders). I was also deeply involved in the life of a local church as a pastor/elder. We helped in the planting of a French congregation in the town of Beni, where we served for most of our fourteen years in Congo.

Our children were all born during our time of service in Congo. Judy was born in 1983 at the mission hospital at Nyankunde (NE Congo) during our first term. Mark was born in Edmonton during our first home assignment in 1985 and was only three months old when we arrived back in Congo for our second term. Sarah was born in 1988 and was delivered by our Congolese friend, Dr. Kambale, at a place called Oicha. Paul came along in 1991 (also at Nyankunde) under the care of an African midwife and an American doctor.

During our time in Congo, our children all attended a Belgian school in Beni (learning in French) for their first years. Judy and Mark eventually had to go to the mission boarding school (at Rethy, in Congo), but just a year and a half later, the political situation in Congo deteriorated, a rebel force was advancing on our area, and the mission made the painful decision to pull out its personnel. We relocated to Canada, where I enrolled in a PhD program at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (Deerfield, IL).

Q: Could you tell us a little about what you like to do in your spare time?

I especially enjoy finding a good novel that gets me inside some part of the world that I don't know enough about. A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini, about people's lives in Afghanistan, would be one recent example of this kind of reading. I also enjoy going for a jog (when Saskatchewan weather permits) and doing the dishes in the evening while listening to "As it Happens" (a CBC program that features interviews in current events as well as humorous tidbits of news from around the world). I continue to keep contact with friends in Congo and long to be part of their lives again if God opens that door in the future.

Q: In your opinion, what makes Briercrest an ideal place to pursue global studies?

I enjoy Briercrest for the diversity of perspectives that students and staff bring to their common desire to serve Jesus and his kingdom. I have been impressed by the level of student commitment to growing in grace, and I am very thankful for the opportunity to help in the shaping of shaping that commitment by raising awareness of the church's global mission.

Q: Is there anything in particular that makes our Global Studies program uniquely beneficial for students?

I am particularly excited about the debriefing seminar that is planned for the post-internship year/semester. Very often Christians who have served oversees, whether in a short-term or longer-term capacity, come back excited but confused, unsure of how to reconnect with friends, family, and life in general after a challenging and life-changing experience. We plan to devote a whole course to thinking through the issues raised in student internships and giving students the opportunity to share what they've learned, what God has been doing in their lives during the internship, questions they have from the experience, frustrations they are wrestling with, and so forth. The course will also offer the opportunity to revisit various aspects of academic learning (cultural anthropology, sociology, theology of mission, intercultural communication, etc.), and ask how these courses related to the field experience. My hope is that as we do this for a number of years, this process will feed back into what we do in the Global Studies courses that we offer.

Q: Is there anything you’d like to add?

One of my central concerns, I think, is to place equal emphasis on understanding the Scriptures and understanding our world. Some might argue that this is the wrong set of priorities, and that understanding the Word ought to be more important than understanding the world. But I don't think we can understand the Scriptures if we don't have a growing understanding of the world in which we live. How can we understand the "Great Commission" unless we have some sense of what the world is like in its need for Christ? Those words of Jesus will not have their full impact if I don't have a grasp of the character of the nations that he wants us to disciple. How can we understand God’s desire for justice if we know nothing about the injustices that characterize so many human relationships in the world around us? If we aren’t using the Scriptures to help us understand our world, we are not using them as God intended us to.