The All-Consuming Fire

"How can people have faith in the Lord and ask him to save them, if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear, unless someone tells them? And how can anyone tell them without being sent by the Lord?"

-Paul, Romans 10:14-15 CEV

Me in the attic above the sanctuary

There has been much going on the past two days. Tuesday, we continued working on the CVJM's new third floor. Unfortunately, there was a fair amount of usable and unusable stuff stashed up there that we had to move before laying any more flooring. Sorting through, moving, and throwing away composed the majority of our workday, save for some end-of-the-day drama. I had to climb up into an attic area above the sanctuary, and Josh and Alan brought me box after box of some heavy metal construction pieces. It was my job to arrange these ten or so boxes. (Given the 90°F, high humidity weather we've had this week, the attic was more like an unfinished sauna.) While I was arranging boxes (and almost done for the day), Josh looked over to the far side of our property, where a farm equipment business's building connects to ours. He said, "There's a bunch of black smoke coming from over there. I'm going to check it out." A few moments later, Josh came running back, shouting something like "Fire, fire!", which prompted me to yell to the others in German, "Help! Fire! Call a fire truck!" I quickly climbed down from the attic an went to find the CVJM's pastor. There was a large plume of dark black smoke coming from what looked like the back adjacent corner of the two buildings. I was very worried that our building had caught on fire. Although the pastor seemed to express little concern about the fire, some people driving by stopped to call the fire department.

The tractor that caught on fire (right)

After making sure everyone had already left the building, I went to take a look at the fire, and I found a large tractor engulfed in flames. Two men from next door were fighting the fire with fire extinguishers, and in spite of the tractor turning itself on and off during the process, the men were able to put the fire out before the firemen even arrived. Thankfully, no one was hurt, and only the original tractor and the one next to it were damaged. (However, my nose randomly started bleeding while waiting for the firemen to arrive, and they kept asking me if I had inhaled smoke.) No one saw the tractor catch on fire, but it is believed to have suddenly started burning. To my knowledge, no one knows the actual cause of the fire.

Of course, I had to pose with the German fire truck.

There is a well-known verse from Hebrews 12 that states, "Our God is an all-consuming fire." (My two favorite translations describe the fire as "destructive" and "unstoppable".) I've already learned that the Lord has quite a sense of irony; after yesterday and today, it is evident that this tractor fire symbolized the fire of the Spirit that consumes us and that would soon be poured out into the streets of Heidelberg.

Tuesday night, I went with Jörg and Petra to their monthly prayer group meeting. There are typically about twenty people from the five churches in Meckesheim, but there were only ten at this meeting. Although I didn't understand everything, the group prayed for several things, including an end to sex trafficking, a political situation with the school system, and that the Lord would be with us Pioneers and would bind Satan's hands. The prayer group meeting was in St. Martin's Chapel, an old Roman temple from the second or third century A.D. The temple was later converted into a cathedral. Today, the chapel is long out of use; all that remains is the alter area and a small wall. The area were the congregation would sit, as well as the area surrounding the chapel, was at one point a cemetery, although I only found two grave stones.

Singing worship songs outside the entrance to public pool.

Wednesday, I woke up earlier than usual for the 6:30 train into Heidelberg. Our team met with other believers from Heidelberg and a missions group from Pennsylvania to eat breakfast and pray. (The breakfast was supposed to be sponsored by the International House of Prayer, but no one seemed to know anything about IHOP when I mentioned it.) Because we did not have a set plan for the day, the six of us partnered with the American group. They were working with an American missionary, Jesse, in Heidelberg. With it being another 90°F day, we all stood outside the public swimming pool in Heidelberg for about three hours to hand out material or sing worship songs. Jesse had brought along a large collection of Gospel tracts, small books of John's Gospel, and cheap, mass produced Bibles. The Gospel tracts contained samples of either citrus drink mix or olive-oil lotion. I passed out many of these. I also gave out four or five Gospels of John. After running out of those, I talked to people walking by and even went up and down the line to the pool entrance, giving away as many Bibles as I could. (I think I gave away about ten.) One man to whom I offered a Bible kept asking if the Bible was a "catholic Bible." I didn't understand the question at first, thinking he was asking about the translation. When he kept pressing me, I finally said "no", because the Bibles did not contain the eleven books of the Old Testament Apocrypha. The man stormed off, seeming upset that I would take away his time by offering him a non-catholic Bible.

I was amazed that so many Germans turn down free things, but one of the Germans with whom we were working explained that they feel there must be a hidden motive whenever something is given out free. Still, Jesse said I had a great success rate and was very proud of my work. Of course, I can't take the credit for this. It was completely the work of the Spirit, who was poured out on us. Only through Him was I able to speak German as clearly as I did. (Germans open up much more to foreigners who speak some German.)

Singing worship songs on the street car.

Thursday morning, we again went to the prayer breakfast and met with Jesse and the American group for a time of extended worship and prayer. For three hours after that, we all hopped on and off streetcars, telling everyone on the train about Jesus, as well as everyone getting on. There was also about ten of us who would congregate in the middle of the streetcar and sing worship music. The Germans didn't quite know what to think of any of this, and we emptied out our first train completely. At one point, we were asked to stop playing music. This was no problem for us; we simply got off of that train and hopped on the next to come by.

I took along Gospel tracts and a few Bibles. A typical conversation would go like this:

Me: (Holding out Gospel tract) Do you know Jesus Christ? (German gives blank expression) You should get to know Him. (German glares at me or moves away) Jesus loves you. He died for you.

German: OK, OK. (25% chance accepts tract)

Despite the general German attitude towards sharing the Gospel, I know the Spirit used us to impact lives. At one streetcar station, there was a middle-eastern-looking couple. I went up to them and asked if they knew Jesus. To be honest, I can't remember their exact response, but I wound up giving them a tract and a Bible. The husband looked at his wife with a smile and said, "Do you want a Bible?" The already smiling wife's expression became ecstatic, and she nodded her head excitedly. They were so excited to have their own Bible! Isn't it awesome to know that God used you to possibly change someone's life eternally? If nothing else, I think we have managed to convince all of Heidelberg of two things: 1) Americans are insane and like to ride random streetcars singing worship music 2) Those lunatics who follow Christ-and do so even outside of a church-are crazy in love with that Jesus guy.

Despite being so tired yesterday evening, I played a game of soccer with me, and Jan against Tim. Even though we lost, it was still fun to get out and spend some time with them. Tim and Jan have been begging me to play soccer with them, but I haven't really had the chance until last night. Afterwards, we had our second Coffee House Social at the CVJM and discussed some fundamental questions about God. I had researched "How do we know there is a God if we can't see Him?" and "Why can't we see God?" I chose to explain the  answers in German, and as an added exercise, Mary made me translate myself into English! While I didn't have as long to talk as I wanted, I still feel the discussion last night was awesome! Mary, who was the moderator for this session, was so passionate about explaining these questions. Even though all present seemed to be Christians, it was good that we could explain these things so that others can learn to defend their faith.

Overall, the Spirit has definitely been at work in Heidelberg and Meckesheim over the past two days. I have to go start construction again on the CVJM, but I'm super excited to see what else He has in store for this summer!