I learned that a man I met in Berlin was baptized on Sunday. I won’t use his name because I don’t know how to connect to share his story. I first met him at church and then he would come into the library once or twice a week. He worked on repairing books in the reference section. I don’t think he had any training (not did I) but we did our best. If I spoke German we would have visited more for certain. He is mature and tall but I’m not sure of his faith story. All I know is that he has taken a step in announcing his faith by being obedient in baptism. Now I know I am sure to see him on the other side. I have met so many more people since my retirement in 2022 than I would have had I gone home and sat down. What I mean is that we are all meeting and mixing with people but there has been a deliberate desire to have faith conversations where they are not as common. One of the most delightful things I have heard about my daughter’s family moving to Idaho is that a common question is, “What church do you go to”. Because I have lived in more blue states than red (and sorry for the political reference but I have been a minority my entire life), I’m not used to this transparency. If you discuss religion or politics, people guess you are intrusive where in fact it’s a mission to save lives for eternity. In the US we have few excuses except for our own choice to ignore the good news. In these post- and pre- Christian cultures, there is a dullness to the light and a darkness enfolding people. I know the statistics are encouraging based on the work of Perpectives which recently celebrated 50 years of training people in the full (Genesis to Revelation) plan revealed in scripture. We have favorite phrases like; the GO message, the 10/40 window, Urbana, the rapture, and we talk about Heaven vs hell. Wikipedia calls Christian mission, “…an organized effort to carry on evangelism or other activities, such as educational or hospital work, in the name of the Christian faith. (I’ve just been volunteering in a Christian Library in Berlin and Prague.) Missions involve sending individuals and groups across boundaries, most commonly geographical boundaries”. There is a lot more but I consider Wikipedia to be an uninformed source. This business is heart to heart. The gentleman who demonstrated his faith on Sunday was not staging an initiation to a club but was giving his whole heart. I’m walking on air today. Scenes from the city.
