A Roman sprint...

During the Reformation Tour, we travelled more than 5000 kilometres across Europe in three 8-seater vehicles. During our few days in Rome, however, we used the public transport system. The photo above shows our team members waiting at the bus stop that was just outside our accommodation, about a half hour trip from the centre of the city. The buses didn't exactly run according to schedule: we usually didn't have to wait too long to catch the bus into the city in the morning, but we often had a long wait to catch the bus home again in the evening.

One adrenaline-rush moment happened on the Sunday evening. Our group had split into two teams that afternoon, and I was with the group that included many of the younger team members. After eating an ice cream (at a place reputed to sell the best ice cream in Rome) and having a time of worship in front of the Pantheon (you can read more about that in the post above) we decided it was time to head home. Someone checked online and saw that the bus we needed was due to leave in 22 minutes and the next bus would be only two hours later. Our challenge was that the GPS said the bus stop was a 28 minute walk away.

We set off at a brisk pace, the 7 and 8 year olds keeping up admirably, and a 15 year old offering to carry my bag for me (as my damaged lungs don't cope too well with a sustained sprint!!) On the way, we passed several of the locations we had prayed at in the afternoon, and were reminded of the way that God had led us during those times.

Amazingly, we arrived at the bus stop just in time.... only to discover that the bus was late, and then cancelled due to fire engines rushing around the city to put out a blaze. In the end, we waited another hour and a half for our bus, the young people singing, playing games and eating their sandwiches while we waited at the bus stop. 

Everyone was ready for bed when we arrived home at 9. 30 pm, and many of our younger ones were already asleep when the other team (the intercession group, who also had a long wait for their bus) arrived back an hour later. But there was an encouraging sense in both teams that we had heard God's voice and had accomplished the things He had asked of us that day.

Adventures in Austria

After leaving Hainichen, we drove seven hours southwards until we reached the beautiful Salzkammergut region of Austria, where we stayed at the Kisi house in Traunkirchen. There we joined them in a camp that they were running for Catholic young people. The above picture shows evening worship in the open air - which was followed by a time of baking bread around the campfire.

The Kisi team led us in a time of learning a song and dance that expressed a prayer for unity, and we led them in a time of listening prayer, where several of their young people heard God's voice for the first time. Some of our kids had shared testimonies about times when they'd heard God speak to them, and this raised the faith level for everyone.

 

There was also some relaxed time down by the lake, where some of the young people went swimming, and some of the adults got together to pray about our onward trip to Italy.

 

Walking in Wittenberg

On Monday, we spent the day in Wittenberg, the town where Martin Luther lived and preached five hundred years ago. Our mixed team (a mix of ages, denominations and nationalities) walked around the city, praying at various locations that God had put on our hearts.

Our first stop was at the Schlosskirche, sometimes known as the All Saints church, which is where Luther is reputed to have nailed his 95 theses to the church door. In those days, the doors were used as a kind of bulletin board, where university staff could pin up notices and messages. Today the doors are made of bronze and have the 95 talking points engraved on them. (Here I am, under the umbrella, explaining to our group what is meant by the "95 theses.")

There, in front of the doors, we prayed that there would be people nowadays who are not afraid to take a stand for truth in our modern world, where many have lost a moral compass and issues like transgenderism and abortion are being championed and promoted by governments and education systems.

One of our later stops was at St. Mary's church, where Luther is said to have preached more than two thousand sermons. (Every day for six years!) We had a time of worship in the church, singing songs that proclaimed the goodness of God; then we went outside and prayed into various things that God had shown us previously (including the "poppy" prayer described in the post below.)

After a break to eat our picnic lunch, we went to visit the house where Luther lived with his wife, his six children, and a variety of interns and students. It now houses a museum and it was interesting to learn more about how they lived in those days and how they made the Bible (newly translated into German) a key part of their everyday lives. Knowing that thousands of people will pass through the house in this special anniversary year, we took time to pray that the glory would not all go to Luther... but that people would find their attention drawn to the truths of the Bible and that God would get the glory - just as Luther had desired and promoted so many centuries ago. 

Praying at the Poppy

Yesterday, we drove two hours from Hainichen to Wittenberg - the town where Martin Luther lived and where he is reputed to have nailed his "95 theses" to the door of the Castle Church. We drove through torrential rain; in fact, rain and thunderstorms were forecast for the whole day - something that was a real concern for me, as walking around in wet clothes is risky for my lung condition.

To make good use of our journey time, we all had our "quiet time" (devotional time alone with God) in the bus. Our readings, from John chapters 15 and 17, were about what it means to bring glory to God - by obeying the things He asks us to do, and thus bearing good fruit in our lives. So we also had a time of listening to God and asking Him what He wanted us to do that day in Wittenberg.

In each vehicle, someone wrote down the different impressions that the children, teenagers and adults received. Some were impressions about what He wanted us to do or to pray in Wittenberg; several were impressions that we should hold on to God's joy and not allow ourselves to get tired or discouraged because of the heavy rain. One of the more mysterious prayer impressions was when 10 year old Mélodie saw a picture of a poppy. No one was sure exactly what it meant, but we wrote it in our notebook, anyway.

On arrival in Wittenberg, we had to dash through the rain to the first church we'd felt we should pray at. But, amazingly, when we came out of the church fifteen minutes later, the rain had almost stopped, and the weather remained dry and sunny for the rest of the day. The torrential rain only started up again when we were getting into the vehicles for our journey home... and it was really heavy the whole way. I think I was the most thankful of all that God seemed to have held back the rain for our time in Wittenberg.

At one point, as we were praying together outside another church building, someone noticed a little coffee shop called the poppy café. "Look," they said, "It's just like the picture that Mélodie had while we were praying." The café was closed, but we gathered in front of it to ask God what we should do or pray there. While four small groups took time to pray the things that God showed us, Mélodie's group rang the doorbell, hoping to meet the owners and ask them if we could pray a prayer of blessing for them.

It was only a small detail among the other things we did and prayed yesterday, but one 10 year old had her picture of God enlarged, being reminded that she too could hear His voice and bring Him glory by a simple step of obedience.

Days in Deutschland

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.

Some days in Switzerland

 

On Monday, I was up at the crack of dawn for my flight to Geneva, Switzerland. Our "Reformation Tour" outreach has begun. We're a team of almost thirty people - young people and families - and we'll be travelling 5000 km around Europe over the next couple of weeks, following in the steps of the Reformers who played such a key role in the development of church history five hundred years ago.

Arriving in Switzerland, I immediately noticed how different everything is from southern Spain. Everything is so green, while down in Malaga things are already dry and brown from the summer heat. Although it was a lovely sunny day, there was a noticeable drop in temperature. I slept with a big feather duvet for the first time in many weeks. And, because we're further north, it was strange to go to bed when it wasn't yet completely dark.

On Tuesday we had a full day in Geneva, walking around the city on foot and learning more about what the Reformation had meant historically. God had warned us in prayer that there would be surprises in store and that we shouldn't feel put out when unexpected things cropped up to "mess up" our planned schedule. Sure enough, there were some interesting "divine appointments" in the course of the day.

The first of these happened when we were in the cathedral. We had been hearing about how the Reformation helped the church recover the understanding that salvation comes through faith alone and not through anything that we can do to earn it. Someone in our group proposed that we sing a song of thankfulness and worship to the Lord, so we lifted our voices and sing right there and then - most in French, some in English, some in German. Suddenly we were joined by a Korean lady, and then by a full choir, who invited us to sing with them. As the strains of, "How great thou art" still echoed around the cathedral, we also spoke out the Lord's Prayer together. Their cameraman also interviewed a couple of us about what we were doing there. (Perhaps I'll unknowingly appear on Korean TV.)

The second surprise encounter happened in the afternoon. We were visiting Geneva's Reformation Museum and had heard how the invention of the printing press had made it possible for the Bible in their own language to be spread more widely to the people of the day. A huge replica of the first printing press had been set up, and some of our kids were enjoying inking the text and printing a page from the Bible. Suddenly, one of the museum staff came up to me and said, "Could you move aside for a moment, please? The King of Egypt would like to print a page."

The King of Egypt, as you may know, has been in exile since a revolution in 1953, and currently lives in Switzerland. As he printed his Bible page, our kids huddled two by two in the next room, taking time to pray for him and for his nation. Then, as he finished printing,  we asked if we could sing for him, and he said yes, he'd like that. Once again our music filled the building, but this time is was the museum and not the cathedral.

That evening, debriefing the day in small groups, we reflected on how the effects of the Reformation had reached the whole world.. and how, on the first day of our tour, we had met people from all over the world.

Having heard a lot about the Reformation on Tuesday, we took some time on Wednesday to learn more about how Catholics express their faith in the 21st Century. Finally, we took the team to the town of Rolle, where we had a time of worship, a picnic and a swim in the lake. That concludes our days in Switzerland, and on Thursday we take to the road, travelling northwards into Germany.

Fun and fruitful

A full, fun and fruitful week lies behind us. Young leaders from different parts of Europe and beyond (Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, Netherlands, Wales, Canada, USA, Nigeria, Brazil, Australia...) were with us for the B2b seminar - a fun interactive week designed to help emerging leaders "be the leader God wants you to be."

Hands-on spiritual workshops, creative worship and intercession, teaching and interactive group processing, an outing to the beach, question times with a panel of experienced leaders.... All of these things made for a stimulating and inspiring week, and we were encouraged to hear many of the young leaders give testimonies about the various ways they had grown and met personally with God.

As they all return home to their own nations, I too am leaving Spain at the beginning of July and will be travelling 5000 km though Switzerland, Germany, Austria and Italy for our Reformation Tour outreach. You can read more about that in my July newsletter.