Germany and Beyond 2011
Worship Painting a kitchen Muffins w/ bible verses Meeting friends What a variety!
Our outreach was a colourful mix of various actions and elements - there was no time for boredom. We daily met for worship and prayer - a wonderful foundation for all we did as team. We did outreaches to a refugee home, made new friends, helped with painting in one of FCJG's community houses, had prayer times in the Ruhrgebiet (industrial area), took part in a seminar in Hamburg, and had a fantastic time in Olso and Vienna.
This was a very special incident in a refugee home:
Today, when you hear His voice
We were visiting with our friends in a neighbouring town of Lüdenscheid. They live in houses that belong to the town, they are poor, sick and struggle with many addictions. The Saturday before a young man from the Near East gave his life to Jesus. We wanted to show the Jesus Movie to him and his friends. When we asked for an appointment, his eyes were beaming with joy. Arriving at his home we found everything very tidy and clean. As we were a big team we split - some stayed with those watching the movie, the others made themselves comfortable with coffee and cake in arm chairs on the street and met with our friends from next door. The whole atmosphere was tense - they had already had a number of beers, however, we could talk about Jesus. They are open, but not that much open that they would draw consequences for their lives.
Back to the Jesus Movie. Our new friend has an open house, and very quickly his room filled with people from other cultures - Greeks, Irakies, Turkish. Young and old were sitting together and carfully watched Jesus healing the sick, raising the dead ... and dying at the cross for us. Especially the children paid a lot of attention to everything they saw. Because of their remarks we assumed that they must have watched this movie before. They asked questions and we could share the Gospel with them. Suddenly Charles* came in. We have known him for quite a while. He is very sick! So far he has never given his life to Jesus, however, he was open to receive prayer on a number of occasions. But that day everything was different. After the movie we worshiped Jesus. The love of God was in the room ... that moment Charles came in. After a short while he lifted his hands and said: "I am desperate for this love, I am desperate for healing, I am desperate for Jesus. Please pray for me!" He was in tears when he gave his life to Jesus and received prayer for healing. The joy in heaven was great! We continue to pray for healing for our friend.
*Name has been changed
Prayer outreaches to Duisburg, Dortmund and Essen (Ruhrgebiet - industrial area)
Oslo (Norway)
Our foremost reason to go to Oslo was to pray after the terrible assessins in July 2011, to worship God, to bring comfort and hope to the people and to encourage the people of God. What we didn't expect: There are so many addicts in Oslo, so many alcoholics, muslims and in some areas there is so much poverty. While praying for the city we sensed God's heart beat for the people and that he wants to pour out his love over this nation ... and in order for this to happen we want to be his hands and feet.
Our prayer tour through Oslo took us to a number of places. Besides praying at the site where the bomb exploded, the Royal Palace and the harbour, we also prayed at a memorial for the victims of July 22 - as we already did in Duisburg (Germany) at the memorial of the Love Parade victims. The atmosphere in Oslo was completely different compared to Duisburg. The memorial has been erected beside the Oslo Cathedral by the families of the victims. Groups of people and individuals continually come, look at the photos and spend time in silence - there is an atmosphere of love and hope. Looking at the photos, the number 77 suddenly becomes alive and has names, i.e. Nils, Anne, etc. Our hearts were deeply moved.
Vöcklabruck & Vienna (Austria)
These two cities were the final stops of our outreach. Early in the morning we left Norway and returned to Germany and went by car to Austria. Our first stop there was Vöcklabruck - a town with approx. 12,000 inhabitants. Petra, one of our team, lived there. When we planned this outreach her heart was burning to go to her home town to pray an worship there.
Wow, heaven was open, our prayers went right there and when we worshiped we saw many people being touched. A number of them stood, listened and with some we sensed that the Good News in our songs went right into their hearts.
A 'local' joint us on our prayer tour. She was so encouraged after this time together.
From Vöcklabruck we went to Vienna. Something that always happened on our outreach: No matter where we went, the sun was shining. In some places people said that with our coming the sun showed up. And that happend in Vienna, too. On our way there it was pouring with rain ... but when we arrived, the sun broke through.
We stayed with our friends of FCJG/HELP Vienna. The next day we went with them to the Praterstern (an underground station) to worship and pray. A year ago - in 2010 - we went with another team to Vienna and for two weeks we didn't do anything but worship and pray in a number of places. How did the people respond? They were either cautious or ignorant, hardly anyone stopped or listened. After we left, the FCJG/HELP team and rehab guests continued with worship and prayer. When we came this time there was a completely different atmosphere. Again there was an open heaven ... and this time people stopped, listened, some sang along, others just stood and joint our little group ... there was even a blind man who was with us for a while. The presence of God was tangible and this drew people. We had some wonderful encounters with people.
Well, and finally we enjoyed something very special: We went to have dinner at the famous 'Schnitzelwirt' (Schnitzel Restaurant) ... meat until we could eat any more.
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