Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Auf dem Berlin Straßen




We hit the streets this week in Berlin. My team and I. It was bitter cold and rainy, but that didn't prevent the people from being out on the streets. We split up in small teams and hit up all the very touristy areas to spread the gospel, and we received mixed responses. For the most part, the people were all really open to talk, and some were excited and shocked to hear what we had to say. A few of my teammates had a one and a half hour conversation with a Muslim that was very encouraging.

The spiritual climate in Berlin is very dark, with only about 1% of the giant city professing to be Christians. Needless to say it was exhausting spiritual work those first few days. Oh, and I helped Tuukka (our Finnish outreach leader) lead worship for the small church on Sunday, and it went really well. The people were very encouraged by it, as well as the Pastor. All glory to God because we had very little to offer that day, and very little time to prepare.

The church was in a predominately Turkish neighborhood, and Pastor Paul's greatest hope is to start by reaching his neighborhood. On his street alone, there probably live about 2,000 people. Not to mention the rest of Berlin. About half of the congregation in his church is saved, and the other half aren't, but come on a regular basis. We can continue praying for them, and that they would truly come to a relationship with God, with the evidence of changed lives. They run a boy's club and a girl's club which a lot of the neighborhood kids attend. We got to meet some of these boys, and there is real hope in their lives. There seems to be a spark in them for God. The road will be difficult because they come from Muslim backgrounds, but they love the Pastor and being at the church. They are there almost everyday and act as if they own the place. It's a good thing, and they bring great life to the church.

The last day we met up to work with another ministry in their garden. They needed to have a couple fences removed and posts pulled out so that they could have another fence installed. It was totally an answer to prayer, cause they didn't have the time or the manpower to do so before the fence installers came. We had a great time working with our hands after all the spiritual work of the previous days.

All in all, it was a great trip of getting to know the church, helping them out, and being encouraged by the hard work that they are doing. God is surely glorified in their ministry, and it is a place I would love to go back to again.

No comments: