After several days in Switzerland, we climbed into our three vehicles and began our road trip - the first leg of 5000 kilometres across Europe. Our first destination was the quaint little town of Altensteig, where we were meeting up with the young people of the local King's Kids group for some days of worship, prayer, friendship and outreach together. It made for a fun time of fellowship, as the German kids did their best to speak some French, and the Swiss group tried to speak as much French as they could remember from lessons at school. On the day we arrived, a local minister took us on a short tour of the old village (picture above shows us at the castle) and told us something of the history of the town, and in particular how Christianity had developed there over the centuries.
When the Reformation in Germany made the Bible available in the language of the local people and not only in Latin, the rich landowner who founded the town discovered the gospel and built a church and a school for the people. We heard how other churches and denominations grew up over the years, with each group thinking they had the right gospel, until it came to the point where the people of different groups didn't even greet each other in the street. In a village as small as Altensteig (only a couple of hundred people at the time) everyone knew who belonged to which group.
Some hurts continued to the present day, as Altensteig became a small town with several churches that didn't really relate much with each other.... until one of the local ministers said, let's put a stop to this and have a joint service for reconciliation. This will happen in November this year, and we realised that the passage of our multi-faceted, interdenominational team this month is like just a forerunner of the unity still to come. Part of our time in Altensteg was spent going to different church buildings to pray blessing and proclaim Bible verses about Christian unity.
On Saturday morning we had worship and outreach, together with the German team at the open air marketplace in the centre of town. Two of our group were able to pray with a man who himself used to preach the gospel right there, but after being wounded by church dealings, he hadn't been going to church for fifteen years. He was in tears as our young people prayed for healing and invited him to the special reconciliation service this year.
On Saturday afternoon, our mixed group of French and German speakers split into two teams. One group stayed in Altensteig, while the other group went to the nearby town of Nagold, where they partnered with a local church to reach out to refugees.
In the evening, we all gathered by the river for our last time together. A big barbecue, a time of goodbyes, and some moments taken to thank and pray for our wonderful hosts. It had been fun to see our Swiss kids making friends with the German group, even despite the language barriers. Everyone had to do their best with the French or German, or a little bit of English, that they'd learned in school, and it was amazing to see how God built us into a united team for these few days together.
Many hours in the vehicles lie ahead for us today, as we drive northwards to the part of the country that used to be East Germany, before the wall came down. There, we'll partner with KKI Hainichen, and take time to visit Martin Luther's city of Wittenberg. More adventures lie ahead.
