This week has opened my eyes more to the lostness of our world. On Wednesday as we walked through the city, we learned how the people idolize education in the schools, tradition of the church, money in the shopping centers, and lusting after self pleasure. On Friday when Bethany and I were walking through the neighborhood of Altona passing out surveys, it was burdening as some of the people said that they did not believe in God or they did not want anything to do with us as we mentioned God. I was surprised when one of the ladies we went up to said that Jesus was her Lord and Savior and mentioned the sacrifice He made. She kept the survey card. Also, an older lady we went up to said that she believed in Jesus, and she kept the survey card, too. Hamburg is in darkness, and it is just one city out of the world. We should pray for the missionaries here right now and in the future that God would work through them greatly. As Hamburg is in darkness, we know that only God can change this city. We have tried to plant seeds in these people’s lives, and we just have to trust God because He will take care of the growing.
I wanted you to hear from one of our students, I’ve collected the reflections of several of them, these were Callie Cooley’s thoughts on Friday.
Reflection
The world is a dark place. I don’t say that in the scary, “Quiet Place,” movie kind of way, it is just spiritually dark. There are billions of people whose eternal destiny is not heaven while there is a God willing and ready to forgive. Here, in Hamburg, that darkness is even more prevalent, but I believe that there is a lot of darkness at home as well. As much as we are on mission this week and as much as these professionals we work with here are missionaries, we are missionaries at home as well.
Following Along
Today we went out into the city in our teams. We went into two different areas and tried to engage in spiritual conversations through Spiritual Surveys and through conversations. This was met with mixed success. Some of the younger people we talked to were more interested in answering the questions related to the survey. But many politely declined spiritual conversations. A few were hostile or at least very resistant, but most were just disinterested. We spent the afternoon in our neighborhoods doing our best to engage with people in spiritual conversations.
Prayer Requests
Please pray for the health of our team. We still have one not feeling well and now two of the missionary team we are working with are under the weather including one who needed a clinic visit. Pray for the conversations we might have tomorrow and the people we might encounter. Pray that God will give us his eyes and his words to see the people he would have us speak with and the to use the words he would have us use.
