Leaving Germany

Wow… As I write this, I’m sitting on a bus going to Brussels, Belgium, where I will be meeting my ride to Morocco. James (one of my teammates) and I will be taking the next few days to drive to Morocco to get a car from our base back to the person who loaned it. It’s crazy- I can’t believe that I’m leaving Germany. In 4 days, I’ll be on a plane flying back to Boston and seeing Mama Bae.

What am I supposed to feel? After an experience like this, it’s going to be a while before I can fully decompress everything. 

Note: Everything you read after this is probably going to be a large word-vomit of processing.

Yesterday (7/31), we attended our final church service at the church that we partnered with. It was an amazing combination of thank yous from us to them, them to us, and exhortation to each other. At the very beginning of the summer, Jesus gave me this picture of me on our last Sunday, talking to the church. And, it happened. Classic Jesus. A few of us got to share unique testimonies about what God did during the summer, and I was able to share a testimony about our partnership with the church. I shared with them how God had put them on my heart before I even left, and how from the beginning I had wanted to work with their youth. I shared a few encouragements for them, and then shared with them a picture that The Lord had given me for them. And it was amazing! I shared with them how they are being led through revival, and that Jesus will use them to lead revival amongst churches and refugees. After church, several people thanked me for the work that I did with their youth and with their church, but one man’s thank you really stuck out. He said, “I don’t have the English vocabulary to fully say how I feel, but I want to tell you that I can hear when you talk and see in your eyes and your face that you truly do love our church, and you truly love our youth.” I’m so thankful that I was able to love these people well. And so thankful for how God used me within this church.

In the midst of the joys that this church has brought, I leave behind a lot of pain. Not my own pain, but pain that I’ve felt on behalf of refugees that I met. People I’ve prayed for. People who have such deep hurt, such deep emotional (and physical) scars, and people who have no more hope. People who wouldn’t ask for my help, because they knew that I couldn’t fix their circumstances no matter how badly I want to. Yet in this pain and hopelessness, I can proudly look back and see that I was able to bring peace and hope. I carried the presence of Jesus with me into each and every conversation, and although I was mostly helpless when it came to physically helping them, I was able to bring something far greater than a temporary problem fix. This was, at times, a difficult perspective to maintain. Do I truly believe that the Gospel is good enough for these people who have seen their brothers and sisters killed? Had their children taken prisoner? Wouldn’t it be better if I could process their papers for them, pull strings with the government, and reunite families? Or set prisoners free?

The Gospel is good enough. It’s more than good enough. I may not have been able to physically set people free, but spiritually I was able to partner with Jesus to see that happen. At the beginning of the trip, He gave me a verse- Isaiah 42:6-8. “I am the Lord; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.” Sure, in Germany I wasn’t on the front lines where I’m pulling refugees off of boats, but I was on the front lines of a spiritual battle. A battle against the enemy trying to keep these people chained and bound to hopelessness. But we brought light. We brought hope. We brought joy. We brought peace. We brought Jesus. In the end, what could be more important? Eternities are at stake.

I shared the Gospel so many times over this trip… At the very beginning, I received training on how to share it in a way that fit the cultural context of Muslims. Through learning new words and new ways to explain the Gospel, I realized more and more how simple and beautiful it is. What Jesus has done for us is so simple. Sin requires death as a payment. And when we sinned, our hearts turned black. We were no longer pure. And we were separated from God. But He loved us so much and wanted to be with us that He sent Jesus to die for us. To be the final death as the ultimate payment. Yet, He himself lived a pure and perfect life. So death couldn’t tie Him down, and He rose from the grave! And now after His sacrifice for us, we are pure, and able to be with Him again. He took the punishment for our sins for us.

It’s so amazing.

So beautiful.

So simple.

July Update

So, I know it’s been a little while since I’ve posted an update- my apologies. This past month has been SO busy. I’ve been doing lots of outreach and follow-ups, as well as being with the youth group. Mostly more of the same. Some cool things have happened, though, this past month (how could there not be?). First, my roommate, Joe, visited. The timing of his visit was perfect, because I was absolutely exhausted and getting worn down, and he came and brought a breath of fresh air to me and all the friends he has here. Then, the day before he was supposed to fly back to America, he was asked to stay by the base leaders because he was such an asset. So, he skipped his flight home and made a Go Fund Me page and stayed on as an intern for the rest of the summer. Not long after that, The Harbor (my church in Boston) sent a short-term team out here, and that was another breath of fresh air. Alex, one of the short-term team members, is also going to be helping to lead the college ministry next year. Joe, Alex, and I were able to go out together and do outreach and see Jesus do amazing things. We are all so pumped to take this shared experience and bring it back to the leadership of the college-ministry.

One story from our outreach- we went out to do a solid 7-8 hour day of outreach. I’ve done a ton of outreach since I’ve been here, and this day was unlike any other. People would just come up to us and open the door nice and wide for us to share Jesus with them. For example, the first person we talked to just came up to us and starting talking to us about a tumor that he had and gave us the opportunity to pray with him. Then, we were sharing Jesus with a drug dealer who started talking to us. And after that, a woman came and asked if we had cocaine, and through that interaction we ended up back in her tattoo parlor praying for her. Jesus was breaking down wall after wall giving us the chance to share His love with anyone and everyone. Later on, there was a guy who had his whole arm wrapped up and in a sling. He told us that he had dislocated his shoulder. Naturally, we asked to pray for it. After we prayed, he told us that it DIDN’T HURT and that his shoulder felt hot!! So amazing… but also becoming (thankfully) a regular occurrence here at my base.

Another highlight from the last few weeks is the youth group. I know I’ve mentioned it before, but it’s such a joy working with them. I took a couple of the guys that I disciple out to do outreach at the mall one day, and it was incredible seeing them eagerly pursue what Jesus asked of them. When we got to the mall, I had them ask Jesus if there was any person in particular that we were supposed to talk to, and they had very clear pictures of 3 different people for us to find. As we walked around the mall talking to and praying for people, I got to help coach them in how to approach conversations and praying for people. After we prayed for people at the mall, we went to meet the rest of our team where they were putting on a drama. We were there a little bit early, and the guys were saying that they wanted to see people get healed. Then, we saw a guy with a knee brace who was limping. They ran after the guy, and asked to pray for him. And after they prayed, he was healed!! I’m seriously so proud of these guys and how they’ve grown and the faith that they have that Jesus will show up.

This stuff is absolutely amazing. As we are here trying to start a church-planting movement amongst the refugees, Jesus is showing up in so many ways and we are seeing so many miracles.  Muslim refugees are coming to know Jesus, and a movement is beginning. How lucky are we to be out here and able to be a part of this?