Statement that you heard a refugee say to you:

• They cried because we prayed for them in name of Jesus.
• Thanks for making us feel human again.
• In reference to the Bible: this is my greatest treasure now.
• The Bible gives freedom.

How has your view of refugees changed?

• We are more connected to them than I thought.
• The refugee crisis is not just negative as most media portrays but it is God’s kindness and grace to them to hear gospel in a new country.
• Their journey is not necessarily the worst part of their story. What were they running from?

How has your view of God changed?

• In midst of difficulty, He is there.
• He is calling us to engage the crisis of the ages but we are ignoring it.
• I have more confidence in prayer. He answers in specific ways and abundantly.
• We are called to be an ambassador for refugees back in USA not just be an American ambassador to refugees here.

Guest Post by Jonathan Jones

My prayers are usually filled with lifting up my needs to God, the needs of people close to me, and asking Him to reveal Himself to people I have been sharing the gospel with. Do I think to sit in silence before Him much to see what He has to say about all these things? Usually not. However, God taught me the importance of waiting upon Him this week and tuning my hear to listen to guidance He gives through the Holy Spirit.

We had only one week to spend in Germany, and I felt a slight pressure to make the most of every moment I had during that short span. One emphasis our leaders had brought to our attention was looking for the person of peace in any context who would listen to the gospel and show you to their sphere of influence. We went through several passages in the Bible regarding finding a person of peace such as the woman at the well, Jesus sending out the 72 followers, and Peter coming to Cornelius. We knew on the second day that we needed to spend much more of our time in prayer before engaging the people in the apartment complex we were headed to. Our leaders gave us specific things to pray for as we went and one of them was that God would point us to the people who would have open hearts and had a spiritual hunger. During our morning worship times, there was a time where we simply sat before the Lord and allowed Him to say to us whatever He wanted to say. With this in mind, I wanted to spend plenty of time in prayer before talking with the people there and listening for any guidance or word from the Lord. We split up into two groups to walk around the block a few times and pray for the people we would meet. My wife and I were a pair and we began to walk and pray that God would lead us to the right people that day. As we were walking along, I began to just be silent and listen for anything God had to say. Like I said earlier, I am usually the one doing most of talking but I was filled with a sense of expectancy in what God was going to do this week. Then a name and a place came into my mind as I was listening for the Lord to speak. I thought it was odd at first that I received a specific name and place, and at first I figured that I could have just come up with that in my own mind. As I reflected on it, I sensed that the Lord really had given me a specific name and place for someone He wanted us to meet. I told my wife that I believed God said we were going to meet Ahmed in front of a specific building.

We finished our time of prayer walking and met back with the rest of our group. They asked me what the plan was, and I told them that God said we were going to meet Ahmed in front of a specific building. My wife and I went to the apartment buildings to find some people to talk to. We did not find many people open to listening to the gospel at first, or there was a language barrier that was difficult to overcome. We even met a few guys named Ahmed, but they were not in front of the building God told me he would be. We went inside the building one more time with a person who invited us in. We stayed and talked with him in limited English for a few minutes but decided it was time to leave when he only wanted to show us some videos on his computer. As we were walking out of that building, there was a man standing right outside the door. I stopped and asked him for his name and where he was from. Our translator spoke his language and we began to talk. I asked him if God could do a miracle in his life, what would he want Him to do? We prayed together after he told me what he wanted God to do for him, then I told him that God did a miracle in my life. He asked what the miracle was and I began to share my testimony and the gospel. As I was sharing with him, I noticed another man standing close by who seemed to be listening very closely to what we were talking about. The man kept moving closer until he was right beside us. I had not met him yet but he obviously seemed to understand the language our translator was speaking. After I finished sharing the gospel with the first man I met outside, I asked him if I could share with him another story about Jesus. He agreed and I shared the story of the prodigal son using some pictures on my phone. At this point, the other man who had been interested in what we were talking about was right beside us as I showed them the pictures and shared the story with them. When I asked the first man I was talking to what prevented him from following Jesus, he told me he was muslim and couldn’t consider following Jesus. The man who came up during our conversation though was still there and he wanted to invite us up for tea. I asked him what his name was, and he told me it was Ahmad and we were right in front of the building God told me he would be in front of. We went up to his apartment to have tea and talk some more. I asked him if we could come back and share more stories about God and he told us he wanted to learn more.

Listening to God during our time in Germany helped me see the real importance in prayer. I was amazed at what God was doing there and how He was giving us His guidance as we waited and listened to Him. This experience has transformed my time in prayer and my realization that I cannot do anything apart from Christ. Waiting on the Lord and listening to Him will be essential to the way I spend my time in America as I seek to share the good news with my neighbors from around the world.

Guest Post by Kacie Jones

The power of prayer is the biggest “take-away” that I have from this experience. Over and over again during our week in Germany, the Lord reminded us of His faithfulness through answering prayers.   On our first day, the training was long, and we did not have as much time to visit the refugee centers.  We’d been encouraged to prayer walk for an hour or so first, but because we only had about an hour and a half we did not spend as much time in prayer.  We jumped straight in by sending two pairs into the center while one pair prayed outside the center.  Though we met people and were able to share the Gospel with them, something was off. Feeling a little defeated and uneasy about our time that day, I didn’t say much to anyone about it.  Later that night, my husband and I talked about how we should have definitely prayed more before entering.  As we joined with our small team, everyone seemed to agree.

The next day as we met with our larger team, one of the members spoke up that she’d been impressed upon to pray for unity within our groups.  This was the beginning of a day filled with prayer for our group as a whole.  As we arrived to the neighborhood we’d work in, we prayed more than ever for very specific things, and then we would listen and wait.  He would answer.  During one of our walks around the block of our center, my husband was given an extremely clear name and location of a man that we would meet. Later that afternoon while sharing with another man who lived there, this individual- the one God had shown my husband, walked right up and joined the conversation in the exact spot told to my husband.  Our team was eventually invited to his apartment to have tea and continue sharing with him and his roommate. Everyone we’d met was invited to a picnic at the park the next day, and though he did not come, his roommate did.

At the picnic our friend’s roommate enjoyed conversation and a lot of soccer. Through conversation we found out that this man had some influence from followers of Jesus in his life.  Another man that came to the picnic was a friend we had briefly met as we were leaving the center.  As he arrived to the picnic he immediately greeted us by name.  He had certainly seemed to be a person of peace, which is something we’d been praying for.  My husband was able to share with him, and he asked to hear more.

The next day, we went to our center again to see this man who was eager to hear more.  Everyone around the center was busy painting, as it seemed to be a workday.  Though we did not see the friend we intended to meet, we were able to meet with the roommates again.  They were eager to learn and read from the Bible, but we did not have an interpreter and communication was limited.   We left that day not knowing for sure if we’d be able to return the next day.

That night we were told of two guys, who were believers, that could possibly meet the next day with my husband and these men that we’d come to love as friends. That evening we got the text that everything was worked out, and my husband joked that God had already answered his prayer before he’d voiced it.

Though this only scrapes the surface of what I saw God do in Germany, it still amazes me how easily we forget His faithfulness. Sometimes we get so busy trying to do the work, but He gently reminds us that it is all about Him. We must abide in Him. Maintaining constant communication with our Father is the only way to serve Him effectively.

“Prayer does not fit us for the greater works; prayer is the greater works.”
–Oswald Chambers

Guest Post by Andrew Schniepp

They used to be so far from my mind. I saw them on TV. I experienced them from afar with my friends and family. However, I never understood the full magnitude of those days. I would always think to myself… it’s only one day.  Germany, for me, was much like a wedding day. It was an incredibly special time with the Author of my life. It was one of those moments in life where I offered everything I had to God. And He didn’t leave me hanging at the altar.

Months before Germany, I spent time prepping, praying, and learning different ways to talk with others about Jesus. People asked about Germany and what I was going to be doing while I was there. I simply responded, love people and talk to them about Jesus. Basically, I was saying, “I do.” to what Jesus commands. But like any bride or groom, I’m not sure if I knew what I was getting myself into.

In Germany, God was and is on the move. We prayed and He spoke. He told us where people were going to be and what their names were before we even met them. He opened closed hearts to His goodness. People who once totally rejected the notion of Jesus as King expressed desire to read what is true in His Word. Someone even decided to make Jesus the Lord of their life in the middle of a train station! In short, when we offer all we have to God, He responds.

Germany was a time for me much like a wedding day. It was a sweet, tangible time where I can look back and see how much God loves me and the rest of His children. However, our relationships don’t stop at wedding days. We are in relationship with a living God who speaks and loves us on days that we are angry, sad, and question whether He even cares. It is in these wedding day moments where we truly offer it all to Him that we hear His voice. It is not because He loves us more in these moments, but because we depend on His voice to guide us in these moments so we actually end up listening.

There is an advertisement campaign in Germany that continually presents the question, “What is your next move?” These advertisements are for cigarettes and they all come with a disclaimer that “Smoking can kill.” After wedding days like Germany, that is a great question. Are we asking ourselves what our next move is? Are we willing to kill ourselves and depend on God for the days after the wedding? He promises to continue to show up.

Guest Post by Sarah Brubaker

I hate writing.  If you ask me to put my thoughts about my time in Germany into a painting or a piece of pottery I can easily do that, but to try to put everything onto a piece of paper feels near to impossible. There are many stories, challenges and joys that I could write about and I almost always choose to focus on the story of an individual but I think this time the thing that sticks out more than anything else is the power of prayer and God’s ability to give clear and precise answers.

Getting ready for this trip I watched a sermon, where John Piper said that for some reason God has ordained for prayer to cause things to happen that would not otherwise happen.  One of my favorite stories in the Old Testament is of Elijah and the prophets of Baal.  Elijah comes up against over 800 prophets of Baal. He calls together all of Israel and says you know what, you choose.  I’ll go up against this group of 850 prophets and which ever God shows up and rains down fire on the altar that is the real God and we will follow Him.  So the hundreds of prophets cry out and even cut themselves and nothing happens.  And then Elijah making sure that everyone knows it is God, pours buckets and buckets of water onto his altar, says one quick prayer and God rains down fire that consumes all of the altar, the sacrifice and dries up all the water.  God doesn’t need us. Our God cannot be compared to any other god. God doesn’t need us to prove He is whom He says He is, we just proclaim His name and let Him show up in mighty ways.

The God of this Old Testament story is the same God we serve. We started out the week with prayer and with a time to listen to God and ask Him to guide us in whatever way He desires.  Over and over God showed up.  Each day just the right person with just the right language ability would be at just the right place.  Our group was filled with stories of God giving us the name of a person and then finding that person, of individuals being exactly where God told us to find them, praying to meet women and then minutes later refugee women showing up.

There was one day I felt God encouraging me to speak to a woman sitting near our group and as I begin talking to her she told me right before I came up to her she was praying that good things would come to her; another day we couldn’t find refugees to talk to and so we sat a bit a way from the area we were supposed to be in and began to pray, for the rest of our afternoon every time we finished speaking to a group of refugees another one would show up. This kind of thing happened so many times I can’t possibly list them all.

If I had to sum up my whole trip into one theme or one challenge it would be that I need to pray more and I need to listen more.  Let’s set the stage for God to show up in undeniable ways and point thousands to Himself.

“Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. They collapse and fall, but we rise and stand upright.” Psalm 20:7-8

Note: for nearly 20 years, one woman named Carla has cut my hair. Needless to say, this next story is an adventure.

Last month, I need a haircut so I asked some friends here where to go. They suggested a place and all went well. They did tell me that most of the barbers are Turkish and they can be stylish and somewhat excessive in their hair care. I did not experience this issue last month.

Today is a new day.

As I walk out the door to go back to the same place to get a haircut, Angela simply says, “I hope you enjoy your haircut.” I respond, “That is odd to say. Why would I enjoy a haircut? I just hope all goes well.” This, my friends, is called foreshadowing. My wife might be a prophetess.

I walk into the empty place to be greeted by a woman. She tells me that her colleague will be with me shortly and to have a seat. She proceeds to speak in Turkish to her colleague who is in another room.  There is no one in this place so I wait. I wait about 5 minutes before I see the man who is coming to cut my hair appear. He dusts his hands off from apparently eating and then wipes his mouth with his hand. I think, “I hope that he washes his hands before cutting my hair.” This would be the least of my worries but definitely the first warning.

He motions for me to sit down. I ask his name which he reluctantly gives me in his broken English. I tell him that I want him to use the 12 guard on the clippers. He says maybe the 9 guard is better. Second warning that things might not go well.

All is going well with the first set of clippers. He then proceeds to grab a different, smaller pair of clippers for more detail work. No worries. Just trimming up around the ears and back of the neck.

At this point, he grabs a third pair of clippers. Not sure why. Before he can actually use them, his phone rings. He just pauses. Takes the phone out of his pocket and talks to whomever. Says his sorry and back to work with the third pair of clippers on the back of my neck. Seems excessive but no harm so far.

Oh, boys and girls, now the fun begins just when you thought it was over.

I seem him pick up a foot long thin metal rod with what appears to be a white Q-tip like ending. The white is somewhat black in areas. My first thought, “he is going to try to clean my ears with this nasty thing.”

But he pours a clear liquid on the end. I think, “Oh, it is alcohol or cologne that he is going to rub on my neck.” Not my preference but maybe I will smell like flowery goodness.

He moves back so that I cannot see him without having to strain my neck. He is doing something behind me but I cannot tell exactly. I then notice that he place a lighter on the table next to me.

What is happening?!?!

He just lit this thin medal rod with a quasi-white Q-tip ending. I have a flame, yes a flame, next to my face!

In my fear and utter shock, I let this man place this flame by my face. Once again, it is a flame next to my right ear. He burns off some hair apparently. He then puts the flame across my face to burn hair off my left ear.

It is not flowery goodness that I smell but burnt hair. My burnt hair.

What just happened?!?! How did this happen?

He blows out the flame. I still cannot believe that I am typing the word: flame.

We are still not finished.

He grabs scissors now. What does he use scissors for? To trim my apparently bushy eyebrows. This dude is trimming my eyebrows.

I am now ready to go. I tell him thanks in that universal tone that says, “Enough is enough.”

Before letting me out of the chair, he reaches for clippers #2 that he used for detail work. He looks at my mustache. So I naturally think that he is going to trim my mustache even though I already asked him not to do it.

Not the mustache. Nope. He shoves clippers #2 in my nose! In. My. Nose.

The same clippers he used to trim around my ears and the back of my neck. Immediately, I think, “Gross!” My thoughts move to, “Wait. If he uses these clippers on my neck AND in my nose, he probably does this for other people. I now have someone’s boogers on my neck and someone is now going to have my boogers on their neck. Gross!”

We have officially moved beyond “stylish and somewhat excessive in hair care.”

Lesson learned from A Turkish Haircut: flexibility.

*For a video example of Traditional Turkish Singeing, click here.*

How does it come about that 14 people from 10 different countries from 3 different German cities get together for 2 ½ days? The short answer: God’s grace. The longer version is as follows.

It starts with a desire to offer trauma (pain, loss, suffering) healing sessions. A desire to equip those living in Germany with tools to better assist others (especially immigrants and refugees) dealing with trauma. (Side note: we all have trauma in our lives. We all have experienced pain, loss, and suffering on one level or another.)

On Thursday, June 23rd we had no location. We had no co-facilitator coming. Angela and I prayed that night. We had to make a decision by Friday the 24th due to our schedule.

Friday comes. God responses.

Friends from 17 years ago were in town just for a week. Over lunch we discuss the need and value of trauma healing. Afterwards, the husband connects me with a woman interested in the training. She has five people interested.
So I merely ask her via email at 7:35AM on Friday the 24th if she has space to host the sessions.

I wait. Not so patiently but I wait.

She responds back in 8 minutes with a yes. The location is confirmed by 8:25 a.m.

Saturday the 25th we confirm the travel for a co-facilitator coming from the States named Robin. An enormous thank-you to her for literally hearing and deciding to travel to Germany within a 48-hour timeframe.

Now all we need are people to actually register within two weeks for 2 ½ day equipping sessions starting July 11th. These equipping sessions will be the first of its kind to be offered in Germany.

First person to sign up is the woman offering the space for the sessions. She is Canadian living in Frankfurt for several years. She invites three friends that live in the city. One is a pastor from Holland who has lived here for one year. Another two are women from the US. One of the women invites a young Afghan man. He is a refugee who has recently come to know the Lord.

We have 5 registered. Combined they speak 5 languages and represent 4 countries.

Another woman from Berlin registers. She is German. I met her last month on my travels. She expressed interested then and followed through once we had details.

A man that I work along side signs up. A Pakistani man who fled to Germany.

We now have 7 registered from 6 countries.

From June 26th to July 3rd, Angela and I were out of the country so it seemed difficult if not merely impossible to advocate and recruit others to attend the sessions.

But God . . .

While out of the country, we attended a leadership and professional development conference. At this conference we are able to connect with old friends and meet lots of new friends. One day Angela was dropping off our son at childcare and the elevators were taking too long for me. In my impatience and frustration, I told her that I am taking the stairs and walking the four flights.

As I am walking the stairwell, I overhear a man talking to a woman about Germany and refugees. I stop. Look at the man and say, “I do not know you but I heard you say that you live in Germany and work with refugees. So do I. We need to talk.”

Long story short, he and his wife are from the US and moved to Germany within the past year. They register for the training even though they live 3 ½ hours from Frankfurt and have family visiting during the same time. Not only do they attend, they bring along a summer intern who is only around for 6 weeks.

Thanks Jesus for using my impatience and frustration to connect me to others.

We have 10 and counting.

Also at this conference, I run into a man that we met last year while discussing the refugee highway. He tells me that one of our mutual friends now lives in Frankfurt. This friend is someone that I have worked with and known for 14 years. We worked along side each other in Central Asia. He is the one that told us last year that now is the time and Europe is the place. I had no idea that he was in Frankfurt currently.

After returning from the conference, on July 5th , I connect with my friend and his wife. They have lived in Frankfurt about 2 months now. I tell him about the training. He rearranges his schedule so that he can attend the sessions that start in 6 days!!

11 with 3 more to go.

Word starts to get out at this conference that some of us are offering trauma healing sessions to different people in various places. A couple working in the Horn of Africa for nearly 20 years asked to have lunch with us. During this time, they say that we must meet a pastor that lives in Frankfurt. Sounds simple enough.

However, the man wants to introduce me to this pastor in person. So he makes plans to fly to Frankfurt to introduce us over lunch then fly back to another European country in the same day. He stresses the need to make face-to-face introductions within this culture.

So on July 6th I meet this man and the pastor at a restaurant. We eat and talk about life, family, and other matters. At the end of the conversation, the pastor tells me to send him the information because he will be attending the sessions.

Now the final two.

On July 3rd God brings to my mind a Syrian woman that I met back in November at a conference in Florida. I email her and simply asked her, “Do you know people in Frankfurt or other parts of Germany? Love to talk with them.” She responses within hours and introduces me to a Syrian pastor living within 2 hours of me.

From July 5th – 8th this pastor and I talk a couple of times. He decides to send two men from Berlin to the sessions that start in 3 days!! One is from Syrian and one from Palestine. Both have been in Germany less than a year.

14 people, 10 countries, 13 languages, 3 cities.

The Frankfurt 14.

May Jesus use them to help others heal from pain, loss, and suffering.

Steve and I enjoyed a wonderful night in Koln (about an hour away from Frankfurt) to celebrate my birthday. We had a scrumptious dinner and got to see Band of Horses (one of our favorite bands).

While we were waiting for our train back to Frankfurt, I spotted a man who looked African. I leaned over to Steve and said, “I wonder where he’s from?”

Steve glanced in his direction and then walked over to the man to see if he needed any help since he was looking up at the train timetable.

Steve found out that he was from Ghana and then started asking additional questions.

I waved when Steve explained he was traveling with his wife, but since the man was by himself I stayed standing a few feet back and didn’t think it appropriate to participate in their conversation.

I first thought, Lord, this would be a great time for me to talk to someone as well. Please send a woman for me to engage with gospel stories. 

I looked and looked. It wasn’t very crowded and I didn’t see an approachable woman anywhere. I realized I wasn’t going to be talking with anyone anytime soon.

When short term teams are here, we send them out in groups of four.  Two to engage and two to hang back and pray while still in eyesight of the other two.  So I thought to myself, “Well, I guess I can do what we ask our teams to do and pray for Steve’s interaction.”

Jesus, I pray for their conversation. I pray for Steve to clearly communicate truth.

I ask God, to give me a word.

Silence.

God, a word any word.  How should I pray for this exchange?

And then. A song.

“There may be pain in the night but joy comes in the morning.” Ok God, great. I really like that song.  But I asked for a word.  What specifically can I be praying for in this moment?

“There may be pain in the night but joy comes in the morning.”

Hmmm.  Joy, Lord? Am I supposed to be praying for joy? Shouldn’t I be praying for him to know You? For him to see truth? For a million other things? Joy, really?

I give in and just sing the song over and over in my head.

I am close enough to Steve and Dr. Mustafa to overhear some of their conversation. And then Steve starts talking about . . . you guessed it . . . joy! The joy that comes from Christ being Lord of his life.

Good thing there weren’t too many people around because I’m sure I looked pretty awkward as my jaw dropped in awe of this encounter with our Living God.

Oh, this was such a sweet reminder of how the Creator of the Universe loves his children and speaks to us through prayer.

This Oswald Chambers quote immediately came to my mind, “Prayer is not preparation for the work. It is the work.” I am grateful Jesus brought to me a place of prayer in this moment and allowed me to be part of the conversation with Dr. Mustafa, even from several feet away.

I pray I will be quick to remember this interaction in moments when I feel removed from the action of meeting and engaging individuals with the gospel.  Prayer is vital and IS the work!

This map shows the estimated net immigration (inflows minus outflows) by origin and destination country between 2010 and 2015.

Here’s an animated immigration map of Everyone Who’s Immigrated to the U.S. Since 1820.

Migration Flow into Europe.

President announces Call to Action for US Private Sector to stand with refugees.

Supporting refugees in the United States and Abroad by the White House.

Upcoming Events

August 1-4
Cross and Crescent Conference – A Gospel Response to the Challenge of Islam, Louisville, KY.

August 5
Concert by Finding Favour at Bartlett United Methodist, love offering for World Relief Memphis will be taken up.

August 26-27
Reaching the Nations in North America Summit, Brentwood, TN.

September 12-16
Initial and Advanced Trauma Equipping Sessions, Charlotte, NC.

September 13-16
Initial and Advanced Trauma Equipping Sessions, Philadelphia, PA.