Denglisch & the Tourist Missionary

"You may say that there are still four months until harvest time. But I tell you to look, and you will see that the fields are ripe and ready to harvest."

- Jesus, John 4:35 CEV

“Our God of Grace often gives us a second chance, but there is no second chance to harvest a ripe crop.”

- Kurt von Schleicher

On Thursday, 25 July, the team started an English camp for children eleven to fifteen. (Most of the children were around twelve or thirteen.) The goal for the children was to only speak English. The thirteen- and fourteen-year-olds already spoke conversational English fairly well. We had about fifteen kids on this day. With two exceptions, the children were all from families outside the CVJM; this means that many of them come from non-Christian or nominal-Christian homes. We started teaching them John 3:16, our camp Bible verse. We also played a few games with them, including a water balloon toss, blind-fold obstacle course, and a water collection relay, which we basically made up on the spot and did not making any sense. Still, I believe most of the children still had fun playing it.

On Friday, 26 July, we took the children canoeing on a stream that runs through Meckesheim. I had three of the older boys in my boat, and I was steering. It was rather difficult, because two of the boys were rather strong willed in terms of how to canoe, and all three would randomly stop paddling. Thus, we spent a lot of time running into the bank. Before turning back, we stopped to go swimming in an area of small rapids. The water was rather fast, and there were many drop-offs and large rocks hiding not far below the surface. While we all went away with some minor bruises, the children still had a lot of fun.

On the return trip, I tried asking the boys in my boat if they followed Jesus or knew what it meant to do so. At first, I asked a few times in English and received no response, so I asked in German. One or two answered with a simple “ja”, but they made it obvious that they did not want to discuss this topic, so I left them simply with an invitation to church Sunday morning. I was rather upset about this conversation, because none of my boys, whom I had spent the last two days getting to know, seemed to have any idea what it means to have a relationship with Jesus. We arrive back at the CVJM sooner than expected.

After arriving, I realized that our team had shared two testimonies and taught the children John 3:16, but no one had ever planned to explain the verse and share the Gospel behind it. Being a camp co-planner with two other teammates, I suggested taking advantage of our extra time and doing just this. Those two teammates were OK with the idea but did not want to talk to the children, because they have not previously prepared something. (How well do we actually understand the Gospel if we must formulate how to share it ahead of time, especially on a mission trip?) Thus, I walked the kids through the four points, which I use as a basic roadmap to explain the Gospel. We started with “For God so loved” and how God has loved us from before we were even created. Next, I moved onto “the world”, and how we have all done wrong. Then I continued to “that he gave his only Son” and how Jesus, never having sinned, died to take the death penalty that we all deserve. At the fourth point, I concluded the discussion with “so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life”, explained what it means to follow Jesus and dying to yourself, and left them with the question “What are you going to do now that you know all this?” What I find really sad is that these kids have come to previous CVJM summer camps, and it seems to have made no difference in their lives. Granted, a group fifteen children is not a representative sample of all the children who have attended these camps in the past; however, I find the apathy of some of these kids upsetting.

Me at the top of Heidelberg's Church of the Holy Ghost

I spent Saturday, 27 June mainly running final errands in Heidelberg to buy mainly tourist paraphernalia, because I had saved my tourist shopping for the end of the trip. I was excited when I found a clearanced pair of three-quarter pants, which is a fashion trend in Europe for both genders. (I actually call these pants “Euopean man kapris”.) I visited some tourist shops and bought a Nutcracker Christmas tree ornament as well as a German Christmas pyramid. While buying a shirt at a tourist stand, an employee struck up a conversation and asked why I was in Heidelberg, because most tourists could not speak German as easily as I could. While my teammates shy away from this question and say they are students or tourists, I like to use it as an inroad into sharing the Gospel and giving the questioner a Four Points tract. The employee and I started talking about God, His involvement in human affairs, and why there is suffering in the world. The lady believed that God stays out of humans' lives and expects them to engage in conflict resolution such as war. She said that she had never understood how God could love humans so much and why He would send His Son to die for them. This provided me with an excellent chance to share the complete Gospel with her. She was so interested that she even called an associate over to take her place helping customers. When she had to get back to work, I left her a Four Points tract and explain that many of her questions were also answered in the videos online.

The view from Königstuhl over Heidelberg and Mannheim.

I spent the rest of Saturday at Königstuhl. I also attempted to meet about half of our team at Solution, the Exchange-equivalent for young adults. However, I could not get in touch with them and did not know exactly where Solution was that week. I found out later that Solution turned out to be social hour; so many staff members were at the wedding of a CVJM member and a former Pioneer Venturer that Solution was canceled.

It’s rather sad that many German believers seem to have this same casual attitude towards corporate worship. I can't generalize from just my experience, but Wilfriend, one of my Bremen contacts, told me that this is the case for most of Germany. Some German believers give lip service to praise and teaching, yet services can be canceled on a whim such as with Solution. In addition, the next few weeks are the Baden-Würtenburg school system’s summer holidays, and the CVJM is completely closed and not holding services. I don’t know exactly how many German families are away during this time, but this seems like the time to have youth activities. This is especially true since our CVJM founders’ vision was to have a Christian community center for young people.

Sunday, 28 July, was our last worship service with our CVJM family. Klaus and Trude gave us each a few small gifts and a thank you card. They also prayed over us. One of my teammates preached from Acts about how radically different the apostles lived their lives in order to tell others about the Good News. (For some reason, my teammates have preached four sermons all from Acts.) I was rather offended and upset by the sermon, because the teammate who preached it has been less than enthusiastic about putting words to actions. Although he says he feels called to missions, it seems like he has avoided talking about Jesus more often than not. Although he has had the chance to witness to others through relationships, it doesn't seem like he has chosen to do so.

While I know God wants me here in Germany, I am looking forward to getting home.