Mid-June Update!

 I’m so sorry that I haven’t been able to post another update since I posted the Luke 10 story! We have been running extremely hard, and so it’s hard to find time during the days to sit and write.

However, things should be starting to slow down at least a little bit for us now. As interns, we are starting to settle into our roles here at the base, and are doing more to lead the short-term teams, rather than be the short-term team. It’s a very interesting dynamic, really. By no means are we a long-term missions team- we’re only here for 3 months! So, we need to run hard. However, we’re here for 3 long months, so we can’t sprint the way that the short-term teams are able to. It’s been an interesting challenge for us to find the proper balance for ourselves.

So, some updates on the last few weeks:

We’ve begun hosting short-term missions teams here in Germany. With these teams we’ve done several things. Primarily, we do outreaches at refugee camps, or we send groups out and put them in positions where they have the opportunity to meet refugees. When they meet people, whether at an outreach or on the street, they talk with them, hear their stories, see if there are any needs that can be met, and ideally they pray for them and try to see if they are open to learning more about Jesus. There is an incredible openness in the Muslim community here that is unprecedented, and we have been able to engage in Bible studies with several Muslims.

However, in order to do these Bible studies, we have to figure out where the refugees are. Finding them is a lot harder than it sounds… This is where one of my roles has come in. You know how Caleb in the Bible went and scouted the land? Well, that’s what I’ve been doing a lot of! I will lead small groups of short-term teams into cities and ask Jesus where to go. We will look for camps that are open to us, and look for refugees that are open to meeting with us.

            One time, I was in a city with a partner doing some scouting and praying. God had given me a picture of a fountain and said to talk to someone near it. As we left the city, we passed a fountain that looked just like the picture God gave me. So, we went to talk to people near it. I ended up talking with this guy from NEBRASKA. And he attended a church in the city and was working at two camps in a neighboring city. Now, this particular city we had been having a very hard time getting into. The camps were generally hard to find, and not very open to us. We had been praying for open doors, though, and this guy was all for getting us in. He got my phone number and promised to call. A couple days later, he calls me and gives me addresses, phone numbers, and anything we needed to know about these two camps. There was even an Iranian family that he wanted us to meet that were Christians. The next day, I called him to let him know that I would visit the camp he was at. He told me where he was, and I brought a team there. Turns out, he’s the security guard. Talk about open doors!!! Even crazier, it just so happened to be his last day on the job. Wow, God. He got us in and got us connected with people in the camp, and since then we’ve developed a relationship with multiple families, as well as the administrators of the camp. We’ve returned for both family outreaches and soccer outreaches multiple times, and has become our primary base in the city.

            One of my other primary roles is to work with the youth group of the church that we’re partnering with. This has been absolutely incredible. The youth group meets on Friday nights, and the first Friday night we visited and observed. That night I met the youth pastor, and he asked me if I would preach the next week. I was stoked- one of my life dreams has been to preach through a translator! I preached on Isaiah chapter 6, which is a passage that I’ve wanted to preach on for quite some time. The youth pastor had also requested that with our involvement in the group that we help teach the youth about the Holy Spirit. So, we provided space after the sermon for them to respond, and allow the Holy Spirit to direct the rest of the night. The night went incredible. The youth were able to respond and receive prayer, and I firmly believe that they were able to go a step deeper that night.

            These youth are absolutely incredible. I’ve been able to develop friendships with them, and I really really appreciate them. At this church, the youth group ranges from age 13 through 25ish, so there is a wide variety of people to connect with. The younger guys are amazing and love Jesus a ton, and the older guys are awesome to connect with and have even started picking me up and taking me back to my apartment on youth nights. Jesus is after the hearts of these young men. There’s this one guy that I’ve connected with, and Jesus has made it clear that he wants to take him deeper. This past weekend I had the opportunity to go with the church on their retreat to the lake, and while there this particular guy blew out his knee playing basketball. During worship, Jesus said to me very clearly that I should walk out, go outside to where he was, and pray for healing for him. So, I did. I prayed once, and he said that it felt better. I prayed a second time, and he said it felt totally fine!! He stood up, jumped up and down, and was able to return to playing basketball. SO cool.

Unrelated to the youth, here is one more cool story:

            We met with a man one day, and with our translator talked to him and asked him about his religious beliefs. We asked him if he has had any spiritual dreams, and he said yes. One night, he went to bad exceptionally depressed because his sisters were both back in Syria while he was in Germany. That night, he had a dream. In his dream, a man in white came up to him. He asked the man in white who he was, and he responded, “I am Jesus, the son of God. I will be coming back soon to end this war.” Wow. He asked his Imam (essentially a Muslim pastor) about the dream, and he was told that the dream was from Satan and to forget it. Well! That’s clearly not true. We got into Scripture with this guy, and he has now come to know Jesus and has become a Christian. We are continuing to follow up with him and walk with him and take him deeper in his new faith. Here’s the crazy thing about this- this is not an isolated incident! It’s a fairly regular thing for us to meet a Muslim refugee and they will have had some dream about a man in white and they’re searching for an answer about who he is. Jesus is seriously after this people group. How incredible it is for me to have the opportunity to partner with Him and help start a church planting movement amongst them.

            Thanks y’all for reading; apologies if this seems a bit scattered. It’s tough to find time to sit and write, so this is the product of several different days of writing. As we settle more into routine, though, I should be posting little stories more often. Thank you for supporting me.

Much love,

Bae