In August we joined with Students for Christ for their annual training of student leaders from across Europe. S.F.C. (the European equivalent of Chi Alpha the US Assemblies of God university outreach) was launched in 1981 by our missionary colleagues, John and Anita Koeshall. Each August and September in Brussels Belgium, they hold the "College of Student Ministries" for university student leaders. The courses offer practical and Biblical Christian ministry skills. Marti and I taught a 45 hour course Peer Counseling to assist and equip these leaders for ministry on their campuses and in their churches. Students attended from as far away as Vladivostok and Kernerova. Siberia where a Students for Christ fellowship was organized last year. These students were bright, enthusiastic, fluent in English and burdened for their campuses. 12,000 students attend the university. Our missionary associates there pioneered the student ministry. Within a short time 25 students were saved and baptized. Discipleship sessions led to the planting of a church.
In September we travelled to Holland for an all church retreat and also to Germany for a youth retreat in Munich. Again eager young people responded enthusiastically. Christianity is waning and Islam and New Age religions are gaining influence in Germany's inner cities. Young people are searching for the supernatural. There are more fortune tellers, hypnotists, astrologers, and witches in Germany than pastors in all the churches combined. Thirty seven per cent of the people claim to be atheists. Sixty six percent believe in some form of reincarnation. Sixty percent say they are absolutely sure there is no devil.
We have just returned from ministry in Kosice. Slovakia. We were asked to do Lay Counselor training for a dynamic church in that city. In the past six years since democratic reforms came to the country, the number of evangelical believers has grown to 10,000 (3). With so many new Christians there is a great need for many leaders in the churches to be equipped to nurture and counsel people . What a joy it was to teach more than 100 packed into the church facilities. On Sunday and Wednesday they rent a school auditorium to accommodate over 1000 worshippers. Our hosts in Slovakia kept our schedule loaded, but how rewarding our time there was.
At Thanksgiving time we share our family news, thankful to the Lord for the love and support of our children.
We have just concluded ministry in 5 countries which include a Pastor's Conference and citywide Evangelistic Crusade in Belgium, Youth Seminars in Sweden and Finland, and Church Conferences throughout Holland, Sweden, and Finland. Like Paul and Barnabas, we are reporting what God has done, as we travel from country to country "strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying., 'We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God."' (Acts 14.22) The pull against the body of Christ in Europe is intensifying. Islam, New Age and the occult is the gaining ground. Equipping our fellow believers is a joy! Pray with us that the church will not only endure, but grow! Thanks for praying. Blessings....
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