"Would that God would make hell so real to us that we cannot rest; heaven so real that we must have men there, Christ so real that our supreme motive and aim shall be to make the Man of Sorrows the Man of Joy by the conversion to him of many."
— Hudson Taylor
"The gospel is only good news if it gets there in time." — Carl F. H. Henry
I feel like I'm having to say this with every blog post; I'm sorry that this post comes so late. When I have the energy to write, I don't have the time. And when I have the time, I don't have the energy. I think I will start posting only once or twice per week.
On Wednesday, 3. July, we replaced our Thursday evening
coffee house social with a special presentation from Dr. Henry Schaefer, a
world-renowned quantum chemist as well as a personal friend and supporter of
Alan and Mary. Dr. Schaefer has been a visiting professor in Munich and agreed
to make the two-hour trip to Heidelberg to speak to the CVJM coffee house
group. The topic for the evening was the relationship between science and
religion. Dr. Schaefer showed the favorable views of science towards religion
in addition to discussing why he believes that scientific facts ultimately
point to a Creator. From there, he began a logically-progressing presentation
of the gospel, starting with God as the loving Creator who desires a
relationship with His special creation and ending with Jesus being God’s
ultimate sacrifice to bring man into communion with Him.
Our team had advertised the event at the University of
Heidelberg, and many students and professors where in attendance. (In total, I
would estimate that about one hundred people came that night. Although that is
not very many for the type of event and speaker, it was incredible that such a
large amount of people could hear the Good News from such an influential
person.) Before the presentation began,
I was able to make small-talk with a quantum chemist from the university.
Before Dr. Schaefer began speaking, I gave this man a Bible and a Gospel tract,
although I regret now not sharing the gospel verbally. (Thanks to the Lord and
my sponsors, I’ve been able to purchase complete German Bibles to give out. In addition,
each Bible only costs about $2.50!) In the Q. & A. session following the
presentation, this man seemed upset that Dr. Schaefer believes there is a God.
I afterwards found the Bible and gospel tract left in the man’s seat. Clearly,
Satan wanted to use everything he could to keep the man’s heart sealed tightly.
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| My mom at "T.K. Maxx" |
Jonny and I painted part of Boris and Julia’s house on
Friday, 5. July. Afterwards, I went to Ten-Sing, where nothing notable happened
that I can remember. However, I did realize how much lip-syncing I would be
doing in the concert the next week, because our team had barely had time to
learn the music for the concert the next week. Saturday was a work-day at the
CVJM, where I hung the external insulation around the larger CVJM building.
That evening, the CVJM hosted a weekly youth worship service. The service is
hosted once per month by a group of local churches. I heard there were several
decisions made to follow Christ, but I (nor anyone else, to my knowledge) do
not know what became of those youth or whether they are connected with a church
and being discipled. Not knowing this really irks me. Jörg has told me before
that it is typical for someone to make a decision to follow Christ at the CVJM
but then go to another church. Saturday evening also brought an end to a lot of intra-team drama and bickering that will not be detailed here.
The CVJM has one service per month in the evening. For this
month, it was Sunday, 6. July. Having a free morning, I went with Petra, Timm,
and Jan to a local public pool. We enjoyed some time in the water, and
afterwards, I layed out in the sun to warm up and dry. This relaxation time did
not last forever, as Timm and Jan had begged me to play with them. At the
moment, that meant pumping water as fast as I can at the pool’s water
playground. It was actually rather amusing. The boys attempted to fill up a
small container by directing water through various troughs. When the container
was full, it was emptied, and the cycle began again. What I found comical was
the life-or-death seriousness with which Timm and Jan viewed my pumping. On the
way out of the pool, I passed a lady who was selling old books for two euros
each. Somehow, I got her to take two of my Bibles and tracts to give at no cost
to whomever would like one. Nothing eventful happened at the service Sunday
night. It was very awkward for me to see my teammates because of the
recently-ended drama, but that’s about the extent of that evening.
I worked on the website for a few hours last Monday, and
then ran errands in Heidelberg. That night, the team met for a time of
fellowship and grilling at Klaus and Trude’s home. This was also a time for teammates to re-bond
with one another. I also got to get to know Klaus better and talk with him
about his growing up in post-war Germany. To cap off a wonderful evening, Klaus
showed us again the petrified cat that lives in the loft of his barn. (NOTE:
The cat was already petrified when Klaus bought the house. He maintains he did
not kill it.)
On Tuesday, the team worked on the CVJM building again,
installing more subflooring in the third story. Wednesday morning consisted of
website work and planning the upcoming English camp for the youth eleven to
fifteen. In the afternoon, the team went down to the Neckarwiese to sing,
conduct surveys, give out water bottles and candy, and to talk with people
about Jesus. We distributed my gospel tracts to whoever would take one, and I
used that as an opportunity to talk with these people about the Good News.
Germans don’t really like when random people want to talk with them, but some
people with whom I spoke were rather interested. One man even took a Bible from
me. Others were rather rude. one in particular told me he was not interested in
Christianity, Jesus, or Mary. Another two people were annoyed that I had
interrupted their conversation to offer them water. A woman with whom I spoke
insisted that she has a relationship with God because she is Catholic and
prays. She was rather upset when I asked her if she followed Jesus, because in
the German language, this question points directly to Bonhoeffer’s The Cost of Discipleship and the German
protestant church. I found this reaction rather strange, but even stranger that
someone would not what to commit their life to Christ on grounds of being
Catholic.
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| Discussion at the coffee house social |
After about an hour of construction last Friday at the CVJM,
the team canoed up and down the Neckar for fun, only docking once to buy ice
cream. With the Ten-Sing concert on Saturday, we practiced that night, and many
of the youth stayed overnight at the CVJM, and I stayed with them. In
hindsight, it was a bad idea, because it did not result in getting to know the
youth any better. On Saturday morning, we again practiced, and that evening, we
performed the concert. The concert went well, even though I was lip-syncing or
making up parts for many of the songs. The play went well, despite finalizing
the plotline that morning. It is actually rather funny, and I’d like to post it
on this blog soon. After all the time I spent with the Ten-Sing youth over the
past two days, I went home after the production and enjoyed peaceful
alone-time.
On Sunday, I was asked to be a part of a two-man prayer team
for the worship service. The prayer teams are available during the worship time
if someone wants two others to pray with them. We prayed for one person, but it
was very hard to hear anything being said, given that we were on the second
row. After the service, the Hofmanns had a cook-out for lunch and invited the
Shifferdeckers, a family of six in the CVJM that also lives in Meckesheim. It
was good getting to know them all better, especially the two oldest children,
who have been in Ten-Sing, but I have not really gotten to know. While eating,
I was talking about the trip I’m taking today to Bremen. I mentioned that when
I booked my train ticket, I did not realize that I could not get from
Meckesheim to Heidelberg’s main train station without taking the midnight train
and waiting four and a half hours for the long-distance train. When the mother
of the family heard that I would have to do this, she very graciously
volunteered to drive me to the station at 3:45 A.M. I was very grateful she
could do this for me! After lunch, I met about fifteen others from the CVJM for
a soccer game. It was a good opportunity to fellowship, and also to make me
tired enough to go to bed early. After final good-byes to the team, I went
home, packed my bags, and went to bed.
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