How to even recap one of the most incredible trips of my life. I just spent the last two weeks in Switzerland learning about Jesus and serving refugees. I attended CIMA Schweiz 2018 in Walzenhausen, Switzerland, a conference that focused on the theme of “Jesus is Mission.” While that may sound like a huge theme to cover, let me just assure you…it was! What an incredible jam-packed week it was with lots of well-known and knowledgeable speakers as well as time in small groups and solo for deeper reflection. Christ-followers came from all over the world from Chile and Argentina to Germany and Austria. Each speaker spoke in German or Spanish and had a translator. This was a good push for me and I got some really good practice with my Spanish as I was forced to cling to Spanish as my only means of understanding what was being said. The Lord really blessed this and I enjoyed a week of learning and connecting with people from all different cultures. Most importantly, I learned a lot about the call that each of us has to respond to the cross and the life of Jesus, and it is already helping me refocus in my work here in Granada, Spain as a missionary.
After the conference a handful of us left for various places around Europe, some went to France, others to Greece, and I chose to stay in Switzerland to serve with a ministry that serves refugees. This was the practicum portion of the trip. So many great things happened and I don’t think it would do them justice if I tried to cover it all here in one blog, so I am going to start by listing the main events and diving into a few of the most memorable ones. I know this blog is by far the longest yet, but I think you will want to hear all that I have to say here. Find some time to sit down and digest this. It has been quite the adventure.
An Overview of the Past 2 weeks
- I got to hear from World-renowned speaker Jesús Londoño all week
- I had an opportunity to help a new friend through a difficult time during the week of CIMA
- Our young friend from the youth group here in Granada told us that she is finally starting to believe the gospel (!) She also joined me for the 1-week practicum and got to learn with us how to serve others from a place of joy, expecting nothing in return.
- We had a 24/7 prayer team in the Gebetswagon (prayer camper) at a church in Wil, Switzerland were we lived and worked most of the time.
- We worked on a farm harvesting apples, blackberries, and cabbage
- We cooked food for refugee families all throughout the week, lunch and dinner each day.
- We joined with a local ministry to help share the Gospel with tourist in Zürich who came from countries where even talking about it is illegal or highly discouraged
- We had an incredible worship/prayer night in the Gebetswagen with our Austian/Swiss friends
- We visited two different mosques in one day, getting in inside look at the religion as expressed in the refugee/immigrant community in Wil, Switzerland.
- I had opportunity share some of the heart of God with refugee families from all over Africa and the middle-east through a short sermonette.
I wish I could really go in depth about each of these incredible life-changing experiences, but for now, here is a short summary of a few of them.
Our Young Friend
“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”
(Hebrews 10: 23-25)
The teenage years are so… complicated. Would you agree? Some of us remember constant anxiety about what others might be thinking about us and being overwhelmed with choices about what friends to go with and with which activities to fill our time. The teenage years are the first time we begin to discover ourselves and for most of us this seems to be never-ending. It just so happens that one missionary-kid in this particular stage of life, is starting to think about the most important question in life: “what does Jesus mean to me?” This is the first step to a genuine faith that drives everything that we do for the Glory of God. I was SO excited to hear that our young friend (who will not be named here) says that she is “starting to actually believe the songs that we sing in church.” Wow! The Holy spirit is definitely at work and working hard in the life of this girl. My heart leapt in my chest upon hearing this as this is exactly what I desire to see happen in the lives of the youth in Granada.
We know from scripture that those who begin to commit their lives to Christ need community (Hebrews 10: 23-25), and for me in my baby years of crawling with Jesus… let’s just say I owe a lot to some really incredible mentors who cared for me with such patience and wisdom in love. It was God’s will being done on earth as it is in heaven. So, going forward, this needs to be a priority in said youngster’s life if she wants to have life and life abundant. How rare is it that we get to come alongside someone who is just starting to take their first steps with Jesus or at least who wants to start exploring the idea of putting their hope in Him and Him alone?
When something like this happens, I tend to cling to the person like a fly on… well, you get the picture. There is something so exciting about someone who’s life is changinging or about to change right before our eyes. It is a tiny bit complicated, however, because she is a teenage girl and I am a 26-year-old man. My natural instinct in light of all this is to spend as much time as possible with her and get into the word of God; however, those of you who have worked in any kind of church ministry know the precautions that should be taken in a situation like this. One thing that I discussed with my team leader when I first got to Spain (oddly-enough), is what to do in a situation where I find myself connecting with a young lady who needs a mentor. He suggested finding a woman of God who I trust and who can hopefully begin to mentor such a person as she. I already have a few in mind and will be pursuing them about this. If you have any ideas about how to proceed forward in this, send me an email or leave a comment below. I’d love to hear your thoughts and suggestions. Also, please be in prayer for this girl! And praise God for what He is doing in her heart!
Dinner and a “Show”
“When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.”
(Leviticus 19: 33-34)
We spent most of our time last week in Will, Switzerland preparing food for our refugee guests and spending time with them and their kids. The last two nights, after sharing a meal together, I was asked to share a brief testimony and the girls and I sang a few worship songs as well. I say this was “dinner and a show,” because the real thing that was shown those nights was the love and justice of the Lord (cheesy, I know).
The practicum after the conference was the thing I was looking forward to most because for some reason unbeknownst to me, the Lord had given me a particular passion and curiosity for refugees during the months leading up to the trip. Much like myself now, they are learning a new language and many are still settling in. They left everything they knew for an entirely different world. That being said, they didn’t sacrifice comfortable living and a great, safe community like I had. No, they left their homes because they had to. Most, if not all of them, come from war-torn, desperately impoverished parts of Ethiopia and Eritrea, Iraq and Afghanistan, Syria and Libya. Some of them are even single mothers. Even getting to meet these people was an honor.
One of the most profound revelations of the heart of God that I had the privilege of experiencing and sharing actually came through a history lesson. A three-minute video on YouTube helped me to see something really unique about what was going on at the church where we and the refugees ate and spent time together last week. Ethiopia and Eritrea are two countries that have been at war with each other for over 40 years. Through numerous internal and external conflicts, over the years each country has been left with hundreds of thousands dead and even more displaced because of extreme violence and poverty. There at the table in a small church in a small village almost 3,000 miles away, families from both of these countries were eating together in peace. What a picture!
As I am told from multiple friends and mentors who have worked in the Muslim world or who have studied middle-eastern/North African cultures, justice is usually a big deal to them. So when I was asked to share something with these families on the last two nights of the week, that is exactly what I talked about. We see in Leviticus 19 that God always intended for His people to be welcoming to foreigners. He says “when a stranger sojourns in your land you shall not do him wrong.” He even goes one extreme step further and says, “You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself,” why? “for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.” The Lord cares about justice and in this way, He is bringing justice that we can to see now and give Glory to Him alone. God’s justice came through the dignity and hospitality that was shown to the refugees last week.
What an incredible testimony last week was to God’s justice, and the ministry we partnered with continues all year round. Never before had I seen God in this light and I pray that those who got to hear this message will take it to heart as well. Many do not follow Jesus and many are active Muslims. I pray that the justice of God will be made known to them through the Son of God and that they would witness the ultimate justice He brings, atoning for the sins of for those who put their faith and trust in Him. Amen.
The Mind of Christ
“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
(Philippians 2: 5-8)
Only through the justice of the Lord is something like this possible where those who were once enemies or who were told that they are enemies are now helping take care of each other’s children and sharing food with one another (in a church of all places). We don’t often want to imagine this as Christians, but whether it is through a Christian ministry, a church, a mosque, or a Buddhist temple, God is perfectly capable of caring for His creation- and He does. God can show compassion and bring justice in whichever way He wants (remember the Assyrians in the Old Testament). He is God and He does not need us. The reason we as Christians serve, however, is different than others in the world. Our motivation comes from a response to compassion and justice that has been shown to us. This is all over the New Testament.
“For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world.”
(Philippians 2: 13-15)
We have the Lord teaching us as we read His word and experience Him working in our lives. Ulterior motives keep us from experiencing the glory of God and becoming a greater testament ourselves to His glory. Our motives, if we are one with Christ and seek to have the mind of Christ, are just. This is where the Lord’s will is done on earth.
Oddly enough, this was a major theme of CIMA Schweiz 2018: having the mind of Christ. In the words of Jesús Londoño, our main speaker the first week, the mission of the Gospel isn’t just to respond to a call to go or even to send and be sent to share the good news of Christ. It is to sacrifice. To have the mind of Christ, which was set on the cross. If we don’t “take up [our] cross, deny [ourselves] daily and follow [Jesus]” (Matthew 16:24), we cannot understand the way to think like Christ. Because the way Christ thought was always focused on the cross. When we have motives to gain something for ourselves by serving another, we don’t enter into a place to experience the mind of Christ. It starts at the cross. It ends at the cross. In suffering. We serve for the sake of others.
The mission of the Gospel is to live a life that is transformed by the beauty of the Gospel (props Emmaus Church). This includes everything in our life, whether it is helping someone take the first steps in knowing Jesus or helping care for those who live in a marginalized part of society. This comes about by suffering. Because we have been called to suffer when that person tells you that they don’t want to meet up with you for coffee, or when they toss their dirty plate aside without even a “thank you.” When that person decides to go to a party that they know they shouldn’t be at instead of coming to the bible study with you. When they come grab food and leave without the courtesy of a handshake or a “hello.” How much has Jesus suffered that we will never know. What a beautiful God we serve who calls us to experience suffering with Him, because He knows it is the only way to grasp this life to which He calls us. It is a hard thing to grasp and an even harder way to live, but I am learning that only through a life of serving others through sacrifice (big or small) can we truly know the mind of Christ.
“For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?”
(Matthew 16: 25-26)
Pray with me:
- For more connections between the refugees and the ministry in Wil
- For the good news of Jesus to change the hearts and lives of the refugees in Wil, Switzerland and the youth in Granada, Spain
- For mentorship for my young friend in Granada, whatever that looks like in the Lord’s will
*To support this ministry through financial contribution please see the green link on this page: "Support This Ministry"
** For More information on my specific assignment, see the following link to Avance España: https://gocorps.org/tracks/placements/n/9087556?platform=hootsuite