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| April 2007 | ||||
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| 30 Fruitful Years in Germany | A Drop in the Bucket | President's Desk | ||
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 by Terry Moeller |
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Thirty years ago – on February 14, 1977, to be exact – I and my co-worker
Rocco Panepinto arrived as new missionaries in Germany. We didn’t have much
in the few suitcases we brought with us, but we carried in our heart a large
vision for planting churches in Germany. And now thirty years later we can
see how that vision is more and more becoming reality. In a special church
service on February 18 in the first church planted those years ago I was
presented with a basket containing thirty pieces of fruit symbolizing thirty
fruitful years of ministry in Germany.
“Germany? Why go as a missionary to Germany?” I’ve heard that question many times over these past thirty years. It’s true that Germany doesn’t fit the notion many people have of a typical mission field, but a glance at a few simple statistics quickly shows how needy this modern European nation really is. Depending upon the source, the estimates of the percentage of evangelical Christians in Germany range from 2 – 4%. By comparison almost every country in Africa has a much larger Christian population. There are literally thousands of towns in Germany without a single evangelical witness, and even in the larger cities the evangelical churches are few and far between. The country that gave us the first printed Bible has now become the source of liberal theology, denying the Bible is God’s word. So the main need in Germany today – and therefore the focus of our ministry – is sharing the simple Gospel message so individual Germans can come to know the Lord, and then gathering them together by planting new churches. Although Germany is a needy mission field, it also has the potential of being a missionary sending country. Germany is blessed with many resources, and helping to release these for world evangelism is also part of our vision. Several Germans we have been able to lead to Christ over the years have gone into long-term mission service in other countries and in Christian ministries within Germany. In addition we regularly send teams of German Christians on short-term mission trips. A major focus is on ministry in several Islamic nations in cooperation with partners we have in those countries. (For an example of this type of ministry outreach read the accompanying article “One drop in the bucket”.) We can’t go into a lot of detail without compromising the safety of the partners we work with, but we are seeing Muslims come to faith in Christ and even several churches planted as a result of these outreaches. On one of these mission trips I had the privilege of helping baptize almost 20 new believers, and this in an extremely radical Islamic region!
Back to the statistics we shared earlier about the spiritual state of Germany. In a recent poll only 22% of Germans stated that they had no doubt in the existence of God. (In contrast, over 80% of Americans do not doubt God’s existence.) The 78% who stated they doubted God’s existence were then asked: if God really did exist and they were to believe in Him, would it make any difference in their lives? 76% of those asked this last question stated that it wouldn’t change their lives in any way even if they were to believe in God. We are here to prove them wrong! And your prayers and support for Christians in Action can help us do that. |
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| 30 Fruitful Years in Germany | A Drop in the Bucket | President's Desk | ||
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►At
this baptismal service in an Islamic nation, Terry helps baptize 19 new
believers.