"Later the Lord chose seventy-two other followers and sent them out two by two to every town and village where he was about to go. He said to them: 'A large crop is in the fields, but there are only a few workers. Ask the Lord in charge of the harvest to send out workers to bring it in.'"
-Luke 10:1-2 CEV
"'Not called!' did you say? 'Not heard the call,' I think you should say. Put your ear down to the Bible, and hear Him bid you go and pull sinners out of the fire of sin. Put your ear down to the burdened, agonized heart of humanity, and listen to its pitiful wail for help. Go stand by the gates of hell, and hear the damned entreat you to go to their father's house and bid their brothers and sisters and servants and masters not to come there. Then look Christ in the face-whose mercy you have professed to obey-and tell Him whether you will join heart and soul and body and circumstances in the march to publish His mercy to the world.
-William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army
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| The harvest fields of Heidelberg |
I've been reading through the Gospel of Luke this past week. Two statements stuck out to me. The first is the endings of the two stories when Jesus calls Peter, James, and John and when Jesus calls Matthew. Luke concludes each story saying those called "left everything and went with Jesus". For the fishermen, they left their families, their jobs, and even the income on which their families must survive. For Matthew, he left his profession, his likely lavish lifestyle, and even the tax money sitting on his table. The second statement in Luke that stuck out to me was when Jesus sent out seventy-two followers to spread the Gospel. Jesus said, "A large crop is in the fields, but there are only a few workers. Ask the Lord in charge of the harvest to send out workers to bring it in."
These two statements have left me thinking, what wouldn't I do for Jesus? Additionally, why don't more American believers give up everything for Jesus and take the Gospel to the ends of the Earth? The former question is certainly puzzling and seems as though I would learn too much about myself answering it. This partial explanation seems to also answer the latter question. Ingrained in American culture is the idea of comfortable, no-strings-attached Christianity. A lot of American believers seem eager to follow Jesus conditionally. However, leaving everything implies complete and total surrender to God, never looking back. I believe that the more we examine ourselves, the more we will realize our call to give up our relaxed American lifestyles and take the Gospel out to the dying world. The harvest is larger than we could ever imagine, and there are far too few workers.
It's been a week since my last post. I'm sorry about the delay, but on the nights when I've had time to write a post, I've been too tired to do so. On Wednesday morning, I started work on my primary assigned responsibility, rewriting the missionaries' website. The way the site works right now, they are tied to a single hosting provider, and in the long run, it is cheaper to make an identical site that can be taken from one provider to another. Wednesday evening, I played another game of soccer with Tim and Jan. Jan likes to be on my team and stay in the goal while Tim and I play one-on-one style. My aim is getting better; I'm only kicking the ball over the fence into the neighbor's yard once or twice per game now.
On Thursday, I worked on writing about my calling to Germany to share with the church on Sunday. Thursday evening, we had the third coffee house social with the topic of world religions. There weren't quite as many people there, but the Germans stayed very engaged in the discussion, particularly when talking about Islam. (There are many Turks and Middle-Easterners in Germany with varying degrees of Islam. I've talked with a scantily-clad Muslim woman at the public pool in Heidelberg, and twice I've also seen a woman walking down the streets of Old Heidelberg wearing a full burqa.) In typical fashion, the Germans made known their questions and opinions, which included "How is Islam a peaceful religion?", women's rights in the Middle East, and suicide bombers. I was very surprised at one point when talking about Judaism. When Mary, who was the moderator, asked how many in the group knew a Jew. I saw only one of about twenty Germans raise a hand.
Friday morning, Sakia, Nicole, and I met up with a Ten-Sing participant and university student, Domi. We stood outside one of the university cafeterias and distributed flyers about the Coffee House social event tomorrow night. (There's a world-famous quantum chemist coming to talk about intelligent design!) Most people didn't want to take the flyers, but one student did and then gave a loud, ferocious dog bark at Saskia. At Ten-Sing that evening, we planned the details of the drama production we will be doing at the concert in a few weeks. Additionally, I feel we may be making slightly better relationships with individuals, but it is hard, because most don't seem to want to interact with us.
On Saturday, we had a shortened workday. We cleaned chairs to prepare for the Coffee House social tomorrow night. I then went to pick up my mom from downtown. (She's on her way back from a mission trip to Ukraine and is visiting Heidelberg until Friday.) Because her flight had been delayed and I couldn't find her bus drop-off for an hour, we found each other later than planned but with very little waiting around. She came to dinner at the Hofmanns, and then stayed one night in a bed and breakfast in Meckesheim.
At the end of the service Sunday morning, I gave shared with the congregation about my calling to Germany. Here is the video, complete with English subtitles.
After church, my mom and I went to the Neckarwiese, a grassy area on the bank of the river here in Heidelberg. It was very relaxing just to layout in the grass and catch-up with what had been going on since we last talked. After a nice dinner at the Marktplatz, we fetched my mom's luggage from Meckesheim and went to the main train station, where we met the father of the family with whom my mom will be staying until Friday. The family is very nice. They're even letting her stay rent-free! It was rather funny meeting up with the father, Clause-Jürgen Dietz. We had spoken on the phone and had had a misunderstanding about what time she could come. I called the Clause-Jürgen, and he said in English, "We have a Bible." I found that was odd and was thinking to myself, "Um, OK... I have a Bible, too." Claus-Jürgen then said, "We carry the Bible." I was again thinking, "Well, um... I carry my Bible to church." I couldn't figure out what this conversation could mean; I thought he was perhaps saying that my mom could stay with them because she is their sister in Christ. It turns out, Claus-Jürgen brought a Bible to the main train station as a sign of who he was! (I almost walked past him standing outside the train because I thought he was peddling something.)
Saskia, Nicole, and I all went to Boris and Julia's house yesterday. They are the son-in-law and daughter of the CVJM secretary and active members in the organization. To give us language experience, Mary asked that we only speak German. Nicole looked after Boris and Julia's baby while Julia ran errands; Boris, Saskia, and I worked on putting insulation in Boris's attic. After a hour and a half, we had hung as much insulation as we could stand, and we had a spaghetti lunch with the secretary, his wife and son, and Boris and Julia. I had to leave quickly and catch a train to Heidelberg.
I met my mom in Heidelberg, and we went up to the castle that overlooks the old part of the city. It was a beautiful place that offered an incredible view of the city. We attempted to visit the Königstuhl, the top of the mountain towering over Heidelberg. While we didn't ever make it there, we did get a one-hour bus tour of some older neighborhoods in the city! We split a Döner (Turkish lamb-taco popular in Germany) and then headed to our homes.
On the train ride back, I briefly talked to the teenager sitting across from me. Like most Germans with whom you randomly converse during train rides, I did the vast majority of the talking. The conversation did give me an inroad to talk to him about the Gospel and give him a German gospel tract. (The tracts I ordered are basically a credit-card-sized piece of cardstock.) For the whole ride back, the teen kept flipping it over and over and looking at both sides.
Today, my mom and I visited the local protestant, state-supported church. It was extremely beautiful inside. Emily, my coach from Pioneers, arrived today. We are her last stop visiting the Edge teams in Europe. We socialized with her at the local Greek restaurant. I also met a German couple there, and after talking with them, I found out that they live just a block down from the Hofmanns. We're meeting for coffee on Friday, and I'm invited to a wedding on Saturday. I'm not quite sure whose, but it will certainly be fun. I believe both have a relationship with Jesus, but I'm not quite sure. I believe that is a topic for Friday.
I'm very thankful that I have so many people praying for me back home! It really means a lot to know that they are supporting me as I do God's work. It gets very frustrating and discouraging sometimes due to circumstances here. I would ask for prayers that our team goes out everyday with renewed focus on Christ. Pray that the Lord use us to reap His harvest.
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| View from the castle above Heidelberg |
On Thursday, I worked on writing about my calling to Germany to share with the church on Sunday. Thursday evening, we had the third coffee house social with the topic of world religions. There weren't quite as many people there, but the Germans stayed very engaged in the discussion, particularly when talking about Islam. (There are many Turks and Middle-Easterners in Germany with varying degrees of Islam. I've talked with a scantily-clad Muslim woman at the public pool in Heidelberg, and twice I've also seen a woman walking down the streets of Old Heidelberg wearing a full burqa.) In typical fashion, the Germans made known their questions and opinions, which included "How is Islam a peaceful religion?", women's rights in the Middle East, and suicide bombers. I was very surprised at one point when talking about Judaism. When Mary, who was the moderator, asked how many in the group knew a Jew. I saw only one of about twenty Germans raise a hand.
Friday morning, Sakia, Nicole, and I met up with a Ten-Sing participant and university student, Domi. We stood outside one of the university cafeterias and distributed flyers about the Coffee House social event tomorrow night. (There's a world-famous quantum chemist coming to talk about intelligent design!) Most people didn't want to take the flyers, but one student did and then gave a loud, ferocious dog bark at Saskia. At Ten-Sing that evening, we planned the details of the drama production we will be doing at the concert in a few weeks. Additionally, I feel we may be making slightly better relationships with individuals, but it is hard, because most don't seem to want to interact with us.
On Saturday, we had a shortened workday. We cleaned chairs to prepare for the Coffee House social tomorrow night. I then went to pick up my mom from downtown. (She's on her way back from a mission trip to Ukraine and is visiting Heidelberg until Friday.) Because her flight had been delayed and I couldn't find her bus drop-off for an hour, we found each other later than planned but with very little waiting around. She came to dinner at the Hofmanns, and then stayed one night in a bed and breakfast in Meckesheim.
At the end of the service Sunday morning, I gave shared with the congregation about my calling to Germany. Here is the video, complete with English subtitles.
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| My mom and I from the Ernst-Walz-Brücke over the Neckar. |
Saskia, Nicole, and I all went to Boris and Julia's house yesterday. They are the son-in-law and daughter of the CVJM secretary and active members in the organization. To give us language experience, Mary asked that we only speak German. Nicole looked after Boris and Julia's baby while Julia ran errands; Boris, Saskia, and I worked on putting insulation in Boris's attic. After a hour and a half, we had hung as much insulation as we could stand, and we had a spaghetti lunch with the secretary, his wife and son, and Boris and Julia. I had to leave quickly and catch a train to Heidelberg.
I met my mom in Heidelberg, and we went up to the castle that overlooks the old part of the city. It was a beautiful place that offered an incredible view of the city. We attempted to visit the Königstuhl, the top of the mountain towering over Heidelberg. While we didn't ever make it there, we did get a one-hour bus tour of some older neighborhoods in the city! We split a Döner (Turkish lamb-taco popular in Germany) and then headed to our homes.
On the train ride back, I briefly talked to the teenager sitting across from me. Like most Germans with whom you randomly converse during train rides, I did the vast majority of the talking. The conversation did give me an inroad to talk to him about the Gospel and give him a German gospel tract. (The tracts I ordered are basically a credit-card-sized piece of cardstock.) For the whole ride back, the teen kept flipping it over and over and looking at both sides.
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| The local state-supported protestant church. |
I'm very thankful that I have so many people praying for me back home! It really means a lot to know that they are supporting me as I do God's work. It gets very frustrating and discouraging sometimes due to circumstances here. I would ask for prayers that our team goes out everyday with renewed focus on Christ. Pray that the Lord use us to reap His harvest.
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