by Steven Dixon
Advertising director
and
Samantha Perera
News editor
Christian Toews, a student at SE, recently returned home from his third trip to Peru. Toews is a graduating senior, majoring in communications with an emphasis in public relations who has traveled around the globe, including Venezuela, Costa Rica, Bahamas and Mexico.
“A lot of them (trips to outside the U.S.) have been mission opportunities,” said Toews. Though all his trips to Peru and some to Mexico were strictly for missions, Toews has traveled to other locations just for pleasure. “We have some family in the airline business,” he said, “that helped out.”
According to Toews, his first ever trip outside the U.S was a mission trip to Peru. Each trip varied in length, from his first trip to Peru lasted a month and a week to his second and third trips to Peru which lasted only 10 or 11 days. The latter two were during the school semester, limiting the time he was able to get away, said Toews.
These trips were all Christian-oriented trips where the basic goal was evangelical in nature, but more complex, said Toews. “What we try to do is in a much more practical way; we hang out with them, we do life with them, we don’t ever want to force what we believe on them. We want to build a relationship with them and hopefully show them a way of living life that might be a little bit different and have more purpose – and we do that from scripture,” he said.
Toews traveled in groups of at least five people for his mission trips. It’s difficult to go on a mission trip alone, he said. “Most of the time, you want to have a diverse group so that you can minister in diverse ways.”
When traveling to Peru, they fly into Iquitos, which happens to be the largest city in the world that you can only get to by plane or boat, said Toews. There are no roads that go directly into the city. “From there (Iquitos) we get on a boat and ride six hours up the Nanay River, which is a branch off the Amazon River, and from there we drop off people at certain villages,” said Toews.
None of the trips were easy, said Toews, especially going back to Peru. “It’s cool to say that you’ve been to these places, but when you’re going specifically for missions it’s not about you, so it takes the fun out of it sometimes,” he said. One of the hardest things he’s done is to “live in the jungle,” he said.
“On a human practical level, I just love it,” he said. “It’s wonderful to go into somebody’s life and get to know them”, he said. “To understand their culture and understand that there are people on the other side of the world living a life different than our own.” They don’t have anything where they live, said Toews, from running water, cell phones and mail.
Although there is no contact with the people of the area between trips, Toews said, “I developed friendships, I legitimately call some of these Peruvians my close friends.”
Toews and his older brother were both home-schooled by their mother and never attended public school until college, he said he has a very close relationship with his parents and when he goes on these trips, “They’re concerned, but they know where my heart is too,” said Toews.
Both of Toews’ parents grew up in Venezuela and “I think that them having that influence on their lives kind of transferred to mine, as far as what they viewed in the world and how they viewed life.”
In fact both sets of his grandparents were missionaries, said Toews, so both his parents grew up as missionary kids. “My parents’ world view kind of influenced mine a lot, as far as being selfless and that your life shouldn’t be about yourself.”
There was no one scripture that turned the light on for him to do what he does, said Toews, just the thought that “Am I gonna live my life for me, or am I gonna live it for other people?”
The whole story of Jesus, his life and his examples are the basis for what he does, said Toews.
“He (Jesus) died so we could have life, and to me, it’s like ‘Well, what am I gonna do?’ I could make all the money in the world, I could drive all these cool cars and date a model and be a rock star or whatever; I could have all that if I worked hard enough at it, but what would be the point of it at the end of it? What I’m doing is furthering the people,” said Toews.
If anybody ever thinks about how to help other people out, just do it, said Toews.
“I think a lot of people of have these dreams, but never let them come to fruition. But don’t let your dreams be just dreams, make them reality.”
Dr. Lacinda Brese, assistant professor, and Toews’ current adviser, has only had him as an advisee for one year, she said. “Christian is interesting in a variety of ways. His interests are what a lot of people would look at as the things he is most interested in, which have been communication and firefighting, and think that those two things couldn’t be married in any way, shape or form,” but he wanted to do that, said Brese.
When Toews spoke to Brese about finishing his degree in advertising and public relations, “he had that idea that seemed interesting to me that he was willing to take two totally different interests and to try to do that,” she said.
His laid-backness and approachable personality make him so interesting, as well as his sense of adventure, said Brese. “He’s always looking for opportunities to take trips out of the country, and they’re not the sort of trips that I would like to take, they’re not vacation-oriented posh trips where you stay in a nice hotel and sit on your fanny and you sight see. They are much more grittier trips, they are ‘let’s go into the back areas of some small country in South America or Latin America and talk to people and do demographic work. I find that fascinating because he has such interesting stories to tell,” she said.
The Toews’ have many family traditions, such as firefighting, said Toews. His two brothers and his father are all firefighters, and have or are currently attending SE.
Toews graduates on Dec. 10 and then plans to finish firefighting school. “College should be taken seriously, but never work to hard to where you’re overloading yourself, and you don’t a life outside of it,” he said. “I think it’s the most moldable times of your life, where you can be influenced the most. You should experience as much as you can about life and different aspects of it instead of being bogged down in your books for four years.”
Toews also receives a lot of attention for his long and infamous beard. Questions such as, why does he have it or what’s up with it, sometimes arise, said Toews. “Honestly, me and my sister got into a debate and she made a bet that I wouldn’t grow it until December.” When trying to attempt interviewing the beard, it had no comment. At firefighting school there are obviously some stipulations about facial hair, so that will be when the beard will have to disappear, said Toews. For now he is currently a firefighter with the Calera Fire Department, he said.