8 S T U DE N T AND AL U MNI S T OR I E S MOOR E M AT T E R S S P R I NG 2 0 2 0
Around the world in many contexts Michael Sadler / Alumni & Fundraising Officer
DURING THE PANDEMIC, MOORE COLLEGE COMMUNITY MEMBERS ALL OVER THE WORLD HAVE BEEN IN DIFFERENT CIRCUMSTANCES, WITH VARIOUS CHALLENGES AND ENCOURAGEMENTS.
B
elow are some of their stories from this time. These stories offer a sample of the many different places God has brought Moore College community members from, and where He sends them to. I hope you find encouragement from them. Please pray for them and the whole global Moore College community at this time. Faraj Yusufov is a third-year student, who’s been living with his wife Emily and their young daughter at the ButHarGra College community located in Croydon Park. Faraj told me that one of the biggest challenges for him has been screen fatigue because every interaction with church, College, friends and family has been via a device. But there have been encouragements to persevere, especially from the Moore College community. “My prayer group has continued to meet weekly to support and pray for one another through this time. Chapel online has also helped provide some consistency during the massive changes; seeing college lecturers regularly speak into the current context in their sermons has helped keep the feeling of community.”
Jemma Fifield is a first-year
Victor Khor is a fourth-year student, who was living back home with family in Melbourne during the shutdown. Like Faraj, Victor struggled with all the screen time, leading to headaches and difficulties concentrating in class. Maintaining community with classmates and particularly with other John Chapman House (JCH) residents would ordinarily have been a joy, but it required effort and intentionality while at a distance. Thankfully, JCH residents did maintain connection while dispersed, and even had welcome guests like Gerald Bray (who usually visits in-person each year) join from Cambridge on Zoom. Victor shared how he gained strength from God. “Living through the upheaval due to the pandemic caused me to lean on passages like Isaiah chapters 7-12 and Job chapters 38-42, reminding me of how big and sovereign God is over history, nations and all of creation. God is in control and I can trust Him.” The Moore College community isn’t limited to just this city or nation.
online Diploma student living in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and serving with an inter-denominational Christian school, Bingham Academy. Jemma told me that studying the scriptures at Moore College helped make sense of the world at a very difficult time: “As I was studying for the course and learning to see God’s plans worked out over thousands of years, COVID-19 struck. My encouragement came from knowing that the plans of God are not thwarted by things of this world— that his covenant is as true today in the time of Corona as it was for the Israelites during their slavery in Egypt or during the Exile in Babylon. Just because I don’t understand what’s happening right now, doesn’t mean that God’s promises have been
