My Easter weekend began with an outreach at Berlin’s Alexander Platz on Good Friday. Thousands of Germans and tourists filled the festive square attending the famous Berlin Easter Market. Despite chilly temperatures and snow, the square buzzed with amusement rides for kids, arcade games, merchants selling their wares and an abundance of food stalls offering bratwurst and beer. It was like fast-forwarding Oktoberfest up to the spring with a few bright pastel colors sprinkled on top.

Our small team consisting of friends from To The Streets shared the message of the cross and the resurrection with many who stopped to listen. We were even filmed and interviewed by a German TV station. Sadly, only one person we met that afternoon had a relationship with Jesus. The majority of people had no interest in hearing about Christ’s love; so profoundly expressed on the cross.

After our outreach we walked through the square to enjoy the festivities. As much as we liked the revelry, it grieved us that there was not one booth that had as much as a cross for sale. In fact there was not one evidence of anything Christian in the entire Easter market. The secularization of this sacred weekend was on full display.

On Palm Sunday I preached at a church in Oranienburg, a city in former communist East Germany. The young adult pastor from the church talked to me afterwards about the astonishing spiritual naivety of German teens and adults in his city. He said that most of them have no understanding of the cross, and some have never heard of a cross. He cited recent conversations with young adults in his city that thought Easter was connected to the birth of Christ. 

According to 1 Cor 1:18, “The message of the cross….is the power of God.” European Initiative will continue to bring the message of the cross and the resurrection of Jesus to Berlin and many other unbelieving cities.  Why, because one of the messages of the cross is a second chance. Just like the thief on the cross-wasted his life, in the end he found it.  Many Europeans don’t believe simply because like those in Oranienburg, they have never heard. We are called to make the cross, the blood stained cross, known and visible to the world around us.

It has been a rough March here...spring seems weeks away; temps hover around freezing, and now there is a gaping hole in the WALL.  The Berlin Wall came down in 1989 and the world rejoiced. The Berlin Wall came down today and the world mourned.

“Dwindling church attendance and dire financial strains are forcing the Protestant and Catholic churches in Germany to sell off their buildings en masse.”


-Der Spiegel

The current condition of the state church in Germany is literally being demolished as many beautiful cathedrals are being converted into nightclubs, restaurants, recreational centers, and even Muslim mosques. These state run churches are being forced to close their doors and sell off their property.

In Germany, there is a glaring difference between the state-supported church and the “free” church. The official state churches; the German Catholic and Lutheran churches are financially supported and endorsed by the government. A person’s religion is recorded on his birth certificate so that upon entry into the public schools, the designated religious affiliation then guides the student into the appropriate religious class - Lutheran or Catholic. Once an individual is registered to a state church, 8% of his annual income tax is automatically given to the church. In my opinion this automatic or “forced tithe” has been a large contributing factor to the perceived negativity of church within Europe’s modernizing secular society. Living in Berlin as a missionary for four years now I can’t even count the times when a German person at an outreach has said to me, “I’m just sick of the church taking my money. They are more concerned with my finances than with me.”

To avoid paying this tax one must fill out a form declaring their desire to leave the church. By doing so, this forfeits an individual’s right to be married or buried by the official state church. The free-church on the other hand, whether it is Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal, Evangelical, etc., represents around 1% of the German population and is solely supported by the voluntary financial donations of its members. 

Friend and partner of European Initiative, protestant pastor of 25 years and now the Director of Gemeinsam für Berlin (Together for Berlin), Axel Nehlson, is quoted in a Campus Crusade for Christ article saying, “Many of my colleagues in the state church have a liberal theology and discount the value of prayer.” He goes on to say that “They don’t evangelize and the Great Commission is not a priority for them.” Of course, not all state funded churches are like this as some are positively impacting their surrounding communities. As I spoke with Axel just recently he spoke of these positive new developments, saying,  “In the last 5 years the issue of mission and evangelization has become more and more important in the state churches. Discipleship Courses like Alpha have become part of the program of many local churches."

The alarming trend of churches closing their doors raises questions about the spiritual life presented inside the four walls. In a 2007 Wall Street Journal article on the state of Christianity in Europe, Eva Hamberg, a professor at Lund University’s Centre of Theology suggests that, “The state monopoly churches get lazy.” I believe this is one of the enemy’s strategic plans: to help facilitate a lackadaisical church that doesn’t see the need of proclaiming the gospel. 

If this article were to end here one might assume that the church in Europe is doomed….but God is in the business of redemption!

European Initiative sent a team to do outreaches at the 2012 Olympic Games this past summer. While there, we met a UK pastor who holds weekly church services every Sunday evening in the basement of a pub. Over 100 people squeeze in to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. According to the same 2007 Wall Street Journal article, “Beliefs in heaven, hell, and other concepts such as the soul have risen in Europe over the past couple of years, especially among the younger generation. Even now Europe, the heartland for secularization, is raising questions about whether God is really dead.”

EI teams hear these spiritual questions on a regular basis as they engage in outreaches all across Europe. Not only are many raising questions about God’s existence, they are asking Him personal questions as they attend church meetings in bars, night clubs, casinos, theater venues, and cafes all across Europe.

Just yesterday I had coffee with a young Berlin pastor who holds his services in a downtown movie theater. A couple of hours before the popcorn is popped for the Sunday matinees, the young congregation is lifting up praise in this unlikely venue. Over the past couple of years the community of believers has grown from 30 to almost 100 people. Many of these converts are not your stereotypical church attendees. They come wearing tattoos, piercings, and possessing a general allergic reaction to anything classified as “business casual.” They would not feel comfortable in a traditional cathedral type setting. This is just one testimony of many! Other EI partner churches in Berlin have recently expanded to multiple services. Some are even in the process of planting new churches, as their membership grows too large for their current facilities.

These developments excite me greatly! They show that God has never dwelled in a particular venue…He dwells in our hearts and wherever our hearts are, there He is too! I see a near revival on the horizon as questions are being raised about truth and eternity in Europe. It is EI’s desire to strengthen the European church and be prepared for the harvest that is before us.

Long before we set foot on Romanian soil (or ice), the intensity of the spiritual battle had been brewing.  The region where we focused our outreach, although beautiful and picturesque to the eye, is plagued by extreme poverty, witchcraft, divisions between races (Romanian, Hungarian, and Gypsy) and religions; daily, there is an utter sense of hopelessness. It seemed that every way we turned, there was a spiritual battle going on. We had issues with lost luggage, missed flights, sickness, and bad weather. The most intense battle was contending for the large container of Crocs shoes/boots. Crocs donated the shoes to EI but they were being held up by Romanian customs in Constanta, the Black Sea port. Custom officials just didn’t seem willing to cooperate. Miraculously, we saw the mighty hand of our God fight on our behalf. The container was released just hours before our first outreach was to begin.

Throughout this outreach, one scripture kept rolling through my mind – 

2 Corinthians 4:7-8: “ But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed;  perplexed, but not despairing;  persecuted, but not  forsaken;  struck down, but not destroyed..”

As we worked alongside our Romanian-Gypsy partners there was a realization of how these precious people must daily endure extreme hardship for the cause of Christ. Leaving their cultural mindset for the sake of the gospel while ministering to their neighbors through their own transformed lives is indeed a miracle to behold. It is not easy being a born-again believer in this dark region of the world, especially one in leadership. Sometimes they are rejected not only by their families, but also discriminated against because of their ethnicity. They have endured much and yet have continued to press onwards for the sake of Christ. We continually saw their commitment in serving the Lord and in serving their community.

At times during the planned outreaches we saw some of the unsaved Gypsies in the villages become hostile. Yet other times we watched the Lord orchestrate spiritual breakthroughs, with lives being blessed and touched. The Gospel was preached to the poor and demonstrated in a practical way by meeting the needs through shoes, boots, and coats and in prayerful encouragement to the needy.

I remember one man who came to us for a new coat. The weather was bitterly cold that afternoon and he had endured standing outside for 2 hours in the extreme conditions with an increasingly rowdy crowd. The coat he was wearing was worn and tattered….much too worn to endure -15 degree temperatures. As we handed him a new coat he told us that just the night before he had asked Jesus for a new coat!  As he looked at me with beaming eyes he said “Thank you for coming! Thank you for bringing me my coat!”

At Belin, another remote village, there was a little girl of around 6 years old who came to the meeting having no coat and wearing tattered clothes and shoes. The temperature was dropping rapidly as the sun was setting and her dirty little face, unkempt hair, and sad eyes verified the neglect in this precious child’s life. As she stood before us we gave her boots, a new coat, a hat, gloves, and a scarf. One of our team members helped her put on her new winter clothing. Tears came to our eyes as we watched her looking at the new clothes with pure joy as she realized that these clothes belonged to her! Through a translator we were able to tell her how much Jesus loved her and cared for her. The woman who translated for us is one of the church home group leaders in Belin and she knows the family’s extreme needs. It was so gratifying to see how the Lord used the items that were sent as tools to open doors for future ministry to the spiritually and physically needy families in the villages.

Thousands were blessed to receive the material things we had to offer… but to me the greatest joy was seeing people respond to the Gospel. The material things were ‘seeds’ that were used to plant God’s love and word in that region. At times the spiritual battle was intense, but in every circumstance our God was faithful to His word. God delivered in a mighty way as we worshipped Him with our obedience and as we built each other up in faith. I walked away aware and grateful that we had experienced divine intervention, protection, provision, and a new level of awareness of just how great and awesome is our God!

The reeds were so dense and high they hid the narrow path that led us to our destination. When we arrived it was a scene I will never forget. Hidden within the reeds on a minuscule clearing of dirt, was a makeshift tent. This tent consisted of straw, along with pieces of vinyl and plastic pulled from the trash. Thrown on top of a limb from a nearby tree, it was a place of refuge, a tent. For 5 Muslim men, it was home.

One of the men, Ramiz, the only one who spoke English, told me their story. Their journey began in northern Pakistan, near the Afghanistan border. They were recruited to fight with the Taliban, but refused to join their rebel forces. In the eyes of the Taliban they were traitors. Remain in the village and be killed, run and you have a chance to live.

As I talked with Ramiz, my father’s heart got the best of me. I asked him his age, and I was shocked to learn that he is only 17. I asked him if his parents knew his whereabouts. He said that he only had a mother, and that she did not know where he was or even if he was alive. He lifted up his shirt in the bitter cold to show me a scar on his chest, a result of surgery to implant a pacemaker. His breathing was heavy and forced in the cold air, revealing lung issues to go with his heart disease. His flimsy coat and ratty gloves caused him to shiver excessively in the freezing cold.

I gave him my winter gloves and cash, hopeful it was enough for several days of food. Other members of our team also gave away gloves, hand warming packets and cash. The Serbian winter can be unrelenting.  Survival in the elements is a day-to-day proposition.

Their hope and prayer is to somehow cross the border at night, seeking asylum in the European Union. In the freezing cold, with nothing to eat and no money, they wait, they endure. Perhaps someone will come and smuggle them across the border.  Even the faintest of hopes enables a man to persevere.

Our Serbian pastor friend Andras has been ministering to the needs of these and many other Muslims near the border for months. Andras cannot get them across the border legally. His heart is to show them love in a tangible way by giving them bread and water in the name of Jesus (Isa). Even though our team of English and German speakers could not communicate with all but one of the men, we were greatly impacted by our time with them.

Before we left we spoke to them about Christ’s love. They consider Jesus to be a prophet; we told them that He is much more.  We ended our time with them in prayer, asking the Lord to be their savior, their helper and their deliverer. And then, after many hugs, we said good-bye.

As we walked away we left a piece of our heart among the reeds. Please pray with us for the survival and the salvation of the Muslim men, hiding in the reeds.

This was EI’s fifth consecutive year to partner with City on a Hill Church and it was our most extensive outreach to date. Generous donations from Americans and Germans enabled us to distribute over 4,000 pairs of new boots and shoes, more than 1,000 coats, and many children’s gifts to the needy.

Winter is no wonderland for many in these third world villages. Just days after last year’s outreach, Eastern Europe’s brutal weather made front-page news all across the world as more than 800 people lost their lives during the most severe winter Europe had seen in 50 years! Our partners in Romania communicated to me right before our departure that “the worst weather is probably just ahead.” February normally sees temperatures plummet to -10 Fahrenheit!!

This year our outreaches were unique in each village we visited. Some consisted of going house-to-house, sharing the life-changing news of the gospel; others were large-scale community events with crowds of up to 800 people.  The community center events included a female acrobat from Switzerland who dazzled children and adults alike. What amazed me most during our ministry was the Lord’s outpouring of love upon these humble and broken people. It didn’t matter if there were 500 people in a community center or just 2 in a small house…God’s presence was felt by all.

The most compelling encounter I had was with Andrea, a nine-year old Gypsy in the small village of Ormenis. Our plan was to go into the gypsy shanties and pass out voucher tickets. These tickets enabled families to attend our outreach in the community center later that afternoon where a gift (shoes, coats, etc.) would be given. Andrea was the first face I saw as she opened the battered door and welcomed us inside. Her shyness was immediately evident as she greeted us with eyes looking down. The Lord gave me a compassionate word of edification and through translation I was blessed to be able to encourage Andrea in her self worth in Christ. I helped her understand that she is a special treasure to the Lord and that He desired to fight for her honor. As she fought to hold back her tears, she thanked us for our prayers and assured us she wouldn’t miss the afternoon event. Upon leaving the house our translator informed me that her home life was a heart-breaking story of neglect - her father had two wives and no interest in his children.

During the afternoon outreach at the community center I noticed Andrea from the stage while I was speaking to an audience of 300 people.  The Lord singled her out to me among the sea of faces! Our eyes met and her face immediately lit up with joy as I waved to her. At the end of the evening a salvation message was given and afterwards I watched Andrea race to the front when our team speaker asked if anyone desired to give their life to Jesus. I know for a fact that many rejoiced in heaven as this young girl decided to follow the Lord!

Whether it was to the few or to the masses, Jesus poured out His love in word and deed as our team ministered in Romania this past week. We estimate that 250 people prayed to receive Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior during the European Initiative outreaches.

I take great comfort in the fact that our God is personally involved in all of our lives. The measure He takes to reach His creation is simply astounding! We praise God for the lives that were warmed physically and spiritually in Romania this past week.

In 2013 EI will mobilize numerous American church teams and ministries to come to Europe utilizing strategic approaches to share the gospel. Our plans include bringing humanitarian aid to the poor in Romania and other Eastern European countries, ministering at the largest Gothic festival in all of Europe, reaching thousands of postmodern atheists in Berlin, Budapest, and Cologne with The MAZE illusionist event, hosting a Christian business conference in Berlin, organizing worship conferences with Gateway Church in Germany, Hungary, and Croatia, and inviting the extraordinary Ballet Magnificat to dance in Berlin’s public squares and theaters. These are just some of the highlights planned for 2013!

European Initiative’s heartbeat is to bring God’s enduring love to the cities, towns and remote villages of Europe.  By God’s grace we continue to impact different facets of European society with the amazing news of Jesus Christ. We are contending for a radical shift of thought in Europe from its mainly secular beliefs to the revelation that there is one true God who loves, cares, and is actively engaged with humanity.  In essence we desire to see revival and reformation poured out upon this continent. Our vision continues to be a strategic plan of mobilizing the American Church to Europe with the desire to serve the European Church as well as to impact the spiritually destitute throughout Europe.

European Initiative believes that 2013 will be a year of new beginnings for many who call Europe their home. We place our hands on the plow knowing that the Lord’s mighty plan will continue to unfold.

Buckle up! Out of the box and into the world is where we’re headed this year!  The adventure is just beginning in Europe!

In January 2013, European Initiative will take more than 4,300 brand new pairs of shoes to six Gypsy villages in Romania! We will also give away hundreds of coats to children, teens and adults – clothing which is essential for their survival during the freezing winter months. PLEASE PRAY FOR US, AS THIS IS EI’S MOST EXTENSIVE OUTREACH IN ROMANIA TO DATE!

Reality in the Transylvania region of Romania is survival, especially for the Roma, or Gypsies. Clinging to life during the harsh winter months can be tricky as many families use turn-of-the-century wood burning ovens to heat their modest shanties. Just days after European Initiative’s 2012 team delivered shoes and coats to snow covered villages, temperatures plummeted to record lows of  -31 Fahrenheit! Last year’s brutal winter weather made front-page news across Europe and the world; more than 800 Eastern Europeans lost their lives during the most severe winter in the past 50 years. Imagine trying to survive such bitter cold while living in shanties with holes in exterior walls big enough for your fist! To say the least, the Fiscal Cliff and the current recession within the EU are not hot-topics of conversation as most families stay in bed all day just to keep warm.

One of European Initiative’s core values is to bless the poor of Europe. Our international team will once again work with EI partner church, City on a Hill, based in Apata, Romania.  During last year’s outreaches more that 80 Gypsies came to salvation and many have connected to City on a Hill’s extensive home groups, which are planted in the local villages. Amazingly, several Gypsies who have been saved in the past winter outreaches are now leading these ongoing discipleship groups!

Thousands of Gypsy lives will be impacted by this outreach. This operation will be an extensive one, but it will be an adventure of a lifetime! Hearts will be changed forever and many Gypsies will be spiritually and physically warmed.

“Truly, I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even to the least of them, you did it to Me.” (Matthew 25:40)

We are expectant for a great move of God during this outreach!

Brendo, along with 19 students and staff from Charis Bible College, ventured to Serbia and Hungary with European Initiative this December. Their mission was multi-faceted:  to perform dramas in subway stations, share the gospel in public schools, bless the poor in remote villages, and teach in the local churches. 

Wherever the team went, things would usually kick off – literally – with Brendo doing a kick flip on his board. The Serbian and Hungarian kids loved him from the first jump, but the fun really escalated when they became part of the action. Starting with just one person lying on the ground, one by one, other kids and adults would get on the ground, defying the odds. Within minutes he was jumping over 7 people.  Could he jump over just one more?

Brendo, facing the crowd, raised his index finger, beckoning the kids to push a schoolmate to the front. Sure enough a daring “volunteer” was pushed to the front and went to the floor. Brendo revved the crowd into a frenzy and launched at full speed before lifting off, barely clearing the eighth person. Catching his breath he turned back to the crowd, asking for one more, just one more.  He was about to go air-borne beyond a distance he had never gone.  One more!  Could he jump over 9 people?

After clearing his ninth person, with a meager two inches to spare, Brendo took a gasp, and stepped aside. It was time to turn things over to the other Charis team members. The high flyer had done his job – he had gathered a crowd and now it was time to present the gospel. Over the next few minutes, Charis team members presented the gospel through dramas, dance, puppets, or through personal testimonies. Hearts were open to the fun loving, high-flying Americans. The Charis team impacted thousands of lives during their 10 days of ministry in Eastern Europe.

“One more, just one more!” One turned into two and two turned into thousands, beginning with a skateboard and ending with changed lives. Definitely not conventional evangelism, but I am confident that there were cheers in heaven for “Just one more!”