RIP to our car

In mid November we received the news that the office car which we normally drive had been deemed too old to be fixed. When it went for its bi-annual inspection, rust was found in the frame, and the estimate to repair it was 2000 euros. However, the repair shop felt it was too old to put that much money into.

Suddenly, we find ourselves without consistent transportation.

We live in a village with a small convenience store about the size of a 7-11. There is no doctor or pharmacy here, no movie theater, and no normal-sized grocery store, no coffee shops, no household supply stores, no fast food. The two restaurants which are here are way too expensive to eat at except on a special occasion.

What do you do when you just need a pencil sharpener, a quick bite to eat, or want to go see a movie or pick up a prescription and you don't have a car?

One might ride the bus, but the bus doesn't go to the neighboring town where many of these everyday errands are located. We could ride a bicycle there, but our bikes don't have lights on them and thus we could only legally ride there during the few hours of winter light we have here. Additionally, you can't stock up on a groceries for a week when riding a bike.

One good thing: The office has another car which many people share, and we've worked out an agreement to use it on Friday afternoons and Saturdays. Sometimes businesses are closed at those times, though, which means we may not be able to make it to doctor appointments or other businesses if it's a holiday or they take the afternoon off.

Our director and the personnel coordinator have said that it's just not possible to live and work here without having reliable transportation when you need it. So we've been encouraged to raise funds to purchase a car. The estimated cost to purchase a quality used vehicle, along with money to pay for winter and summer tires, taxes and an inspection will total roughly 12,000 to 15,000.

It's possible that a reliable used car will not only bless us, but be a blessing to missionaries who come after us.

We will be going on home assignment April - June next year and hope to raise all the funds required for the car during that time. But we don't have to wait until then. We can accept gifts toward this need right now.

Those who feel God leading them to help us with transportation can make a tax deductible (in the U.S.) donation in one of two ways:

1. Through check.

To give by check, make it out to "General Treasurer, Church of the Nazarene" and write "Andrew and Gina Pottenger/Mission Corps" in the memo line. Then send it to:

     General Treasurer
     Church of the Nazarene
     PO Box 843116
     Kansas City, MO 64184-3116

2. Or by credit card through our Ministry Fund site.

To give securely through your credit card, visit http://web.nazarene.org/site/TR/Events/MissionCorps?pxfid=2740&fr_id=1090&pg=fund

These funds do not come to us personally but to the accounting office of the Eurasia Region, which manages our fund in compliance with all relevant policies and procedures.

We also welcome prayers that God will provide this need in His own perfect timing, or else come up with another solution that will enable us to not only make it to practical locations such as a doctor's appointment or grocery store, but to simply get a change of scenery on occasion from our small and sometimes isolating village setting. :-)

Thanks again for all your care and support!

Blessings,

Andrew and Gina

Christmas, new and old

I am sitting at my office desk with the sun glaring painfully in my eyes and heating up my clothes and desk. But I'm not going to lower the window blinds. This is the first time I have seen direct sunlight in about 4 to 5 weeks. I'll admit the constantly leaden skies did nothing for my mood -- I'm a person who really needs regular sunshine. Maybe I do photosynthesis, like a plant. Anyway, I was thrilled when the fog burned off this morning to a cobalt bowl of a sky and piercing white sunlight stabbed through my window.

We've been enjoying the Christmas season a bit more in our normal tradition this year than in the first two years we were here. We hadn't had room for any Christmas decorations or Christmas music in our four suitcases when we arrived February 2010. So that year and last year, we had no seasonal decorations in our apartment, nor any Christmas music to listen to.

This year, my mom sent us a few inexpensive and small decorations that really livened up our apartment. My dad visited us for two weeks to tour Germany and Switzerland's Christmas markets, and he brought Christmas music with him. And then it began snowing and has been snowing off and on for about two weeks. It's so cold that it is still blanketing the ground and rooftops, and I love that. I baked cookies and listened to Christmas music, like I would normally do about now. It has been so lovely.

We were also exposed to a German Christmas tradition for the first time this year. I'd heard that different cultures celebrated Christmas or facets of the Christmas season on different dates than Dec. 25. Well, here they have something called St. Nicholas Day on Dec. 5-6. On the night of Dec. 5, children put out their shoes by the window; good children receive oranges or citrus fruits, nuts and chocolate in their shoes the next morning, courtesy of St. Nicholas (Santa Claus). Bad children receive a whip from St. Nicholas's sidekick, a devilish-looking beast called the Krampus. (People also receive gifts on Dec. 25, but these come from Christkindl, or "Christ child.")

We didn't put out shoes, or receive a whip. But we did get to visit the home of our Swiss friends on Dec. 7, and they spread out on their table candles as well as the traditional goodies of clementines, chocolates, nuts, dried figs and dates, as well as a homemade loaf of bread made in the shape of Knecht Ruprecht, another character associated with this holiday. Translated as "servant Rupert," this helper aids St. Nicholas on St. Nicholas Day.

We enjoyed spending time with our friends Thomas and Cornelia, eating homemade soup and bread, then snacking on the fruits and nuts, while slicing pieces off of poor Rupert and eating them with butter and jam or honey.

On the actual St. Nicholas Day, our English class ended with a table spread with the loaves of bread shaped like Rupert and the nuts and goodies, as well. Until then, I had no idea about this tradition. I really like it: Christmas goodies that are actually health foods. Ha ha!

While we miss home and the traditions we grew up with to celebrate Christmas there, it sure is fun to encounter and enjoy new Christmas traditions with our new friends here!

Care packages

I think any missionary would say that care packages from home are some of the high points of living overseas. They come at unexpected times, from unexpected sources, and that's some of the fun.

My friends at the NMI office where I worked for 3 years before we moved abroad surprised us with a fantastic package on Halloween. It was filled with fun candy, fun objects (handmade bookmarks, a coffee mug, a hand-crafted scarf, etc.) and some of our favorite things that we can't get here, including canned pumpkin, Starbucks coffee, cream cheese frosting, chocolate chips and American brown sugar for baking.

Let the fall baking (and eating) commence!

Thanks, NMI friends!!!

Other awesome care packages have had fireplace-scented incense, peanut butter cream Oreos, white chocolate chips, Progresso seasoned bread crumbs and more cake frosting, to name a few things.

You all are the best. :-)

Prayer request

PRAYER: Please pray for a miraculous healing for Martha Wielk, the infant niece of Eurasia Region NYI Coordinator, Sabine Wielk, whom we work and hang out with here in Busingen.

Martha was born prematurely in August and is fighting for her life against an aggressive bacterial infection in her intestines. She is currently hospitalized in Frankfurt. Doctors are treat
ing Martha with antibiotics prior to surgery on Tuesday (today). It is hoped this plan will save her life.

Please pray that the antibiotics will work and that God would miraculously touch and heal the diseased tissue. Pray also that God would guide the doctors during Tuesday surgery.

Pray for peace for Martha’s parents and for Sabine and the family.

Not alone

I should have noticed right away: I am closer to God than I have ever been; I shouldn't have been so surprised, then, that things seem to get exponentially harder.

Everybody has bad days or weeks. That includes missionaries.

People do things we don't comprehend. Sometimes it's cultural. Like when other drivers force you off the road to yell at you in words you don't understand. And then it happens again. And again. You don't know what you are doing wrong and so you can't fix it. Other times its just a simple misunderstanding that still cuts deep. Maybe it's the worry and strain of wondering where provision for needs will come from, and when. It might be feelings of failure, self-doubt.

The days seem especially difficult when you feel disconnected from your support system back home. You want to call someone up and just vent or pour out your heart of disappointment, frustration and hurt. But no one there is going to be awake for hours or they're all out about their daily business. In the interim, you feel guilty for contacting a friend or loved one just to complain. So you hold it in.

Whatever the cause, the end result is you just feel... isolated. Cut off. Alone.

It's this aloneness that drives us ever deeper into the arms of Jesus. I realize my temptation is to run to my friends or my family first. God wants me to run to Him. I am discovering the joy in recognizing that God is my rescuer, my protector, my defender. It has become a deep comfort to know that Jesus stands ready and waiting to hear my prayers, my heartache, my fear. That when the many other people who love me are out of reach, He loves me more than anyone.

As servants living far away from home and support, we depend on expressions of love and prayers from those in our home country. Yet, we can also experience the profound abundance of God's love and care when no one else is near.

Summer and Fall

It has been a month since Gina posted an update, and even longer since I have written so that I thought I would take a few moments to bring everyone up to speed on life and work in Büsingen from my end.

The last three months have been pretty busy. Around the end of May, I picked up three large projects - each of which needs to be completed before Sept. 1st. I am making great progress on each one, and anticipate that I will meet the deadline coming up in about three weeks.

First, I received an offer to teach Church History II online beginning at the end of August. This will involve four students from the Netherlands (all of whom I've worked with before, and look forward to doing so again) and one from Denmark. I had developed a large portion of the course already, but after taking the Introduction to Online Learning class my mind was filled with new ideas regarding how I could improve delivery of the material and harness the available technology for a more visual, less text-based experience. So I spent most of the summer re-building Church History II from scratch. The material is mostly complete, and students already have everything they need to begin.

Also, I began my studies with Nazarene Theological College in Manchester, UK this summer, enrolling in a single M.A.-level course that begins my preparation for admittance into the University of Manchester as a PhD student next year. The same September 1 deadline will complete the first half of the course. My third project involves writing a section of material for Nazarene Missions International (NMI) in Kansas City, and, yes, is also due on or before September 1! Despite a new school, new professor, and a switch from the American to British education systems (which is indeed pretty different), I am doing very well.

Working on each of these projects simultaneously has been quite the challenge, but everything is going well by this time and I anticipate meeting every deadline. Continue to keep me in prayer that God will provide wisdom, strength, and motivation to keep working hard each day until these things are done.

Throughout the fall, I will be teaching the Church History II class. Gina and I are both hoping to return to our long-neglected German language study as well. I will be preaching at our local church on Oct. 28. I did not end up mentoring the young man who visited our church earlier in the summer as they decided to attend elsewhere. There was also no time to pick up the Latin study as I'd hoped, and now (obviously) German is more of a priority anyway. I also have that major paper to write for my class with NTC, which will be completed before Dec. 1.

So, it will be good to be busy throughout the remainder of the year. I'm enjoying each project, and am excited about continuing to serve the Nazarene church in Europe through these various ways.

- Andrew

Wrapping up in India

Well, the days since Wednesday have been a real blur. We arrived in Aurangabad, said to be the fastest growing city in Asia, around noon on Wednesday. We met with a pastor and his family for lunch and to hear their amazing story of heartache and sorrow and how God turned this into new joy and a new church. We also met with a group of women and children who meet in their home for prayer and worship on a regular basis.

That evening we joined a youth group at another Nazarene church, who had invited Dolphy to come and present information with them about the Nazarene Youth International in the rest of the country as well as the rest of the Eurasia Region. Their hunger to be part of something bigger than themselves, to join in with their peers across the region, inspired a bunch of ideas that Dolphy and I will talk about in greater depth this Sunday.

Thursday, a young man from the church was kind enough to take Dolphy and I on a worldwind tour of the Ellora Caves (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellora_Caves), a cluster of 34 caves with Buddhist, Hindu and Jain temples cut out of the rock between the 5th and the 10th centuries. The ancient sculptures and architecture was absolutely amazing.

After this, we enjoyed a drive through the dry, sandy plains, surrounded by high mesas and lots of Moghul ruins to get back to the city.

In the city there is a large monument that was built in the 17th century, intended to be a copy of the Taj Mahal, which is in the north of India in a city called Agra. However, the funds were too limited and eventually they built the monument with less quality materials and made it a little smaller. However, this is as close as I may ever get to the Taj Mahal, so I really wanted to see it. I loved it. :-) It was beautiful and impressive.

We rushed back to our hotel around 5:30 to meet a young woman who had volunteered to share her testimony for publication. All I can say right now is that after 2 hours of listening to her, I was shocked, emotional and in awe of what God can do in making someone a brand new creation, transforming them utterly and renewing and reconciling broken relationships. I can't wait to get this story written up to share.

Every day of this past week, when I've gotten back to my room (around 11 p.m. or 12 a.m.), I've then worked online with our intern communications team back in Germany to assist them in putting together their first edition of our regional monthly newsletter, Where Worlds Meet. I felt badly that they only got started working with us a couple of days before I left for India, and I hadn't had much time at all to get them oriented and trained. They've done a great job managing on their own, and so I just spent a few hours each evening in the room editing the stories and advising them on the newsletter. That generally kept me up even later every day.

Friday, we flew out of Aurangabad to the farthest east side of the country to Kolkata (Calcutta) which is Dolphy's home town. Her family helped me get settled in a hotel about 5 minutes from their home last night. I was so relieved to be able to sleep from 11 p.m. to about 9:30 a.m. today, however I didn't sleep well at all. I woke up about once an hour until maybe 6 a.m. and after that I began waking up every 15-30 minutes. Finally about 8 a.m. I gave up and got up. I've been relaxing in my room and got some breakfast.

I'm really looking forward to my first full day off since I arrived. Dolphy and her mom will be meeting me about 11:30 a.m. and we'll first stop at the Missionaries of Charity, where Mother Teresa gave her life in ministry to the poor of India, which spawned branches in 133 countries.


After that, we're going to New Market, a famous, historic marketplace with over 2,000 vendors selling everything from jewelry and saris to home decor, vegetables and foods and even raw meats. It is said to be an amazing experience, where you bargain with sellers and just take it all in. It was first established by the British in the 1800s.

If there's time later, we'll go to see the Ganges River and a few other sites in the city.

Tomorrow I'm looking forward to worshipping with Dolphy's family in their church and just resting. Then, Monday, I will be flying from Kolkata to Mumbai (Bombay) where I will catch my connecting flight at 1 a.m. local time Tuesday to Zurich. I am thankful that it's a direct, 8-hour flight, as the first flights we were looking at booking would have had me doing anywhere from a 9- to 18-hour layover in  one of several Middle East countries. At this point I am too tired to consider something exhausting like that.

I expect to arrive in Zurich at 6 a.m. local time where Andrew will pick me up (man, I have missed him!!!!). I plan to go home and sleep for the rest of the day!

Thank you so much for all your prayers. I realize God has done even more through this trip than I ever expected. I thought I would simply be offering some training and gathering lots of stories. Not that these are in any way insignificant objectives. However, I did not realize how encouraging and inspiring our visit would be to young Nazarenes in these corners of India where they at times struggle with feelings of isolation and disconnection with the greater Church of the Nazarene. Dolphy tells me that these amazing young leaders are feeling really boosted, empowered and inspired for their ministry. I really loved hearing their testimonies for how their eyes were opened to all the ways that God can use their stories and the stories of Nazarenes in India to touch the lives of Nazarenes all the way across the world in the United States, or in Europe, or in Australia or Asia or Africa.

Meeting with and talking with these young people has gotten my creative juices going and I'll be going home with more ideas that I hope to develop in consultation with colleagues both in Europe, in India and in the U.S.

The communications leader for the South Asia Field, which includes Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, has been communicating with Dolphy and ever since we met in Turkey last October, has been talking about conducting a similar training there to establish their own field communication team. They are consulting about setting a deadline to establish this by November. I am excited to see how India may be an inspiration and model for other fields to follow their example and establish field and district level communications teams.

Thank you for your all your prayers for this trip and for me and Dolphy. I think it is impossible at this point to anticipate all that God has done and will do through our time together and your prayers.

Monday in Chikhli

This morning, Dolphy and I were privileged to go and visit the home of a family who were willing to share their story for publication. I spent about an hour with help from someone interpreting to find out how this family had accepted Christ and how He had been faithful to them through so many hardships. I won't give away the plot just yet, but it was good. :-)

They have a rooftop terrace and I went up there to take some pictures of the surrounding slum. If there's one thing I've noticed about people in India, it's that you cannot sneak anything by them. They are incredibly observant. It was just moments before people all around the area who were outside working, walking, eating, talking with other people, hanging up their clothes to dry, were shouting and waving. By the time I got back down to the ground floor and outside, the house was surrounded by people, mostly kids. I made some videos of them and they thought that was awesome.

Back at the district center, about 20 people had arrived to participate in the Central Maharashtra District's two-day communication training. We met in the chapel on campus. I taught three lessons out of the five I brought with me. Dolphy did a live interview with one of the participants so everyone could observe how it is done.

We had a good time with the group, who will come back tomorrow afternoon having had an assignment to write a short article about the district's new church planting and leadership strategy.

In the morning I am expecting to visit another family with a beautiful story, as well as to interview the previous district superintendent, and the parents of the current field strategy coordinator. We will continue with the training around 2:30 p.m.

Wednesday, we'll be saying goodbye to the wonderful people here as we travel a few hours away to Araungabad. Already I'm dreading that goodbye. I've enjoyed all the family meals and casual chats here, getting to know the welcoming and loving hearts in the families here.

The Rat Race

Enjoy this video of the drama that unfolded in our room in Chikhli last night. :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8K1WaMf6hyc&feature=youtu.be

Sunday in Chikhli

Yesterday I enjoyed a great time of worship with the Nazarene church in Chikhli. They invited me to share my personal testimony with them, which I did through an interpreter. Dolphy preached. They honored us with flower leis (not sure what they are called here) and also took a love offering for the field's new communication ministry and presented that to Dolphy. They even prayed for Colorado Springs and all those who are affected by the fires there last week.

After the service, we returned to the district center for a big family meal, eaten while seated on the floor which is a more common way of eating here. In the afternoon, Rev. Yangad took us with his family on a drive around the area, while a monsoon storm rolled in, cooling everything down. While we were out driving, we passed a number of ox-powered carts, which were loaded with people and objects. Rev. Yangad asked one passing cart if they would let me ride with them briefly. The family in the cart thought this was hilarious and agreed. I really enjoyed that experience.

We visited two families from the church in their homes and I got a first glimpse of their amazing stories. We plan to go back for proper interviews and I can't wait to find out more of what God has done in their lives. We also prayed with them.

After a typical Maharashtra dinner in Shada's home (Rev. Yangad's sister who lives with her husband and their son in another house on the district center property), we came back and I went to bed early.

It's Monday morning now and today we'll be going back for the interviews with the families and then at 3 p.m. we'll begin a two-day communication workshop here for about 20 people from the Central Maharashtra District.

The weather has been great -- very cool and not too humid, most of the time. My digestive system is still trying to adjust to bigger meals spread farther apart, and all the spices. But I'm enjoying the food a lot.

Well, time to get ready for the day. Thanks again for your prayers!

Friday India update

This morning we had our final session with the group of 18 new field communications team members. It was a great climax to the conference. They continued with their strategy plans, and also conducted interviews for putting together their first articles for their field news.

Dolphy chose to close the session by asking for evaluation and feedback from everyone so that she and I can learn how to improve the materials as well as the way the conference was conducted so that other fields or regions could possibly benefit in the future. The feedback was more genuinely positive than we expected. The new team members each expressed in turn how, before they came, they had no idea how much work goes into communications, storytelling and broadcasting, yet how much more they now believe in its importance in serving the Kingdom, serving the Church and reaching out to those who don't yet know Christ. They expressed dedication to carrying out the plans, while acknowledging they have a lot more to learn.

They surprised us at the conclusion by draping both Brian and me in enormous and aromatic fresh flower leis, giving us several beautiful gifts to remember the field by, and thank you cards. Then we had the opportunity to join Dolphy and the field strategy coordinator, Rev. Sunil, in handing out certificates of completion to each participant.

Following this, we had lunch and everyone began to go their separate ways. Just out in the hallway of the hotel, a Hindu wedding was taking place. Dolphy explained that due to the lunar calendar and other factors, right now is the last time that Hindu couples can marry until 7 months from now when the right conditions occur again. So there are weddings going on all over the city and the country. I stepped into the hallway to try to get some pictures or video. Despite the fact that there are millions and millions of people crammed into these cities, it is impossible for me to go anywhere here and photograph anything without being immediately noticed. The singing group of celebrating family members stopped what they were doing to pose with me for pictures on their own cameras. This has happened to me a number of other places; if they don't ask me straightforwardly, then they try to sneak up next to me and have a friend take their photo when they think I won't notice.

Well, I'm normally the one doing things like that to other people when I travel, so I suppose it's only fair that I become the object of a lot of photography with strangers now. :-) I guess this is what it feels like to be a costumed character walking around at Disney World. And I certainly don't mind it, just as I would hope others don't mind when I take pictures of them. Thankfully, the people here easily accept my snapping photos of them as a compliment, which is what it is. (People in the photo left wanted their pictures with me.)

This afternoon we had the opportunity to visit a campus on the outskirts of Nagpur where Mahatma Gandhi began his movement. It started in 1934 as his simple hut where he took in a scholar who had leprosy, and cared for him. There are a number of simple historic structures to look at as you walk through the history of the place.

When we returned to our hotel for the evening, another Hindu wedding was unfolding outside, as the happy couple rode to the door in a silver-plated, horse-drawn carriage. I joined the group's photographers and videographers for some pictures, and unfortunately attracted a lot of attention. A man -- perhaps a father of the bride or groom? -- shook my hand to thank me for photographing their happy moment. Really, it should have been the other way around. So, I think I will leave the weddings alone from now on.

I am still having digestion problems today, but am thinking it will iron out in the next few days. My routine eating patterns have been happily but very extremely disrupted, so I think my body just doesn't know what to do with it at the moment. I am also more tired today than I have been since I arrived.

Tomorrow, we will rest in the morning, then depart around 11:30 to begin a 7-hour drive to an area called Chikhli. We will be there for several days to enjoy worship with a Nazarene congregation, spend time with people there doing interviews and hearing stories, as well as to conduct another short storytelling workshop. Please continue to pray with me that God will direct us to the stories He would want us to tell, as well as to bring the right people to the training. Please also pray for our safe travel. As you can imagine, the drivers here are a bit less organized than I'm accustomed to.

And praise God with me for the great things He has already done in India during the past week!

Thursday conference update

Hi everyone,

The conference is winding down in a great way. The team is now working really hard on a field-wide strategy representing 13 districts, setting goals and outlining a detailed plan of how to achieve those goals. They are talking about lots of exciting ways to use media to both serve the church and reach those outside the church.

For myself, my first stomach issues are making themselves known. :-) I was prepared for this to happen and brought stomach and digestion medications. I also got my first migraine this afternoon on the trip, and was able to take some medication that is effective in stopping these in their tracks. It is not recommended to use this medication more than 2 times in a week, so I am hoping I won't have another migraine this week. Fortunately I was not teaching today, and so I was able to slip away and rest and have been able to relax while listening to the group's planning and strategizing sessions.

Tomorrow morning we leave this conference center around 7 a.m. to wrap up the training at another venue, since this one was previously booked for Friday through the weekend. We'll do a morning session there, have lunch and then everyone will head their separate ways.

I continue to appreciate your prayers for the great people taking up this critical ministry in India, and also for my health and energy as I travel in the next 12 days.

Training conference update

We had a long and packed teaching day on Wednesday, but we managed to finish up all our lessons on both radio broadcast and journalism. I even came up with a 15-minute impromptu lesson on photography basics.

We threw a lot at them, but they stayed engaged all the way through, asked excellent questions in each section, and even put together three 60-second radio spots with the radio broadcasting equipment. The group is smart and savvy about this stuff.

Their homework was to interview one another and get notes to each write one story by the end of the week. Then we’ll critique and help polish them up and our hope is to have 18 stories ready for publication in July.

This morning morning they’ll do one more radio practice session, finish up their interviews and begin writing. In the afternoon they’re going to begin working as a team on their overall field communication strategy, starting to tie together all the skills and techniques we introduced this week so far.  It’s really neat to see all the individuals beginning to think and work together in teams and to exhibit a growing sense of ownership over what their field will do.

We’ve mostly stayed inside the conference center this week, so while it’s warm and humid, there are fans blowing and it’s really not bad. I probably won’t really go outside much until Friday, when we need to move to another location, and when the conference ends at lunch.

I am happy to report that I have had a high energy level, not a single migraine or even the hint of a headache, and no major tummy problems. The food is delicious. While meal times are far more spread out than I’m accustomed to, with my routine 3-small-meals-and-3-snacks eating schedule, it’s not a problem.

At the end of the day today, the group took about 10 minutes to pray for our families and friends and our home city, Colorado Springs. I was really touched by their impassioned prayers in four different languages on behalf of the city, the firefighters, those who have already lost homes, those who may be experiencing fear or distress at being evacuated, and for our families’ safety, as well as Andrew’s and my peace of mind as we are so far away from what is happening. They also prayed for the Christian ministries affected, since Compassionate International – which is near the evacuation area – is well known and has strong impact in India.

Friday afternoon we may get to visit a leper colony that Mahatma Ghandi founded in this city. And hopefully Saturday morning we’ll get to see a bit more of the city before we head on to our next stop.

Thank you again for all your prayers and support. It’s such an encouragement to me, and I believe you are part of what we’re doing here through your prayers.

First report from India communications conference

Hi everyone,
I'm taking some down time at the India Field communications conference today to give you all an update on what's going on so far.

I arrived without any travel problems on a direct, eight-hour flight from Zurich to Mumbai (Bombay) on Saturday night. Here we are 4 1/2 hours later than Switzerland, and 11.5 hours ahead of Central Standard Time.

Dolphy Biswas, the India Field communications coordinator, was there to pick me up. Brian Utter, a volunteer missionary with World Mission Broadcast, based out of Olivet Nazarene University, did not arrive as scheduled that evening. His flight from Chicago to Newark was delayed due to a technical problem and when he finally got to Newark 10 hours later there was a severe thunderstorm and also a fire at air traffic control that delayed things further and he missed his flight to Mumbai. They could not get him on a flight for 24 hours.

That left Dolphy and I in Mumbai, a city of 20 million people, for an unplanned free day. She was kind enough to give me a tour of this coastal city on the western side of India. The city is very modern and growing more so. There is immense wealth in Mumbai, as well as poverty. We passed a 25-story highrise that is actually the house of one four-member family; the man is the owner of the Reliance Group. The sixth floor is an indoor pool. There were high-end stores selling recognizable brand names like Levi

Anyway, we saw the main tourist stops, including the Victoria train station, Gateway of India, the Marine Drive, the Sea Link bridge and a famous mosque. I really enjoyed getting a feel for one of India's most famous cities and a first taste of the flavorful culture.

It wasn't as hot as I had expected and weather forecasts had predicted. The monsoon rains are late in much of India, including Mumbai, and the rain is what cools down the 100+ (F) weather. The rains came briefly and intermittently and so it was nice.

Brian made it in last night, not too much the worse for wear after a night in the Newark airport. He brought three backpack radio studios with him, as the field hopes to launch radio broadcasts in five major languages, and he plans to provide training not only on how to use the equipment but how to accomplish field and district goals for reaching people with radio.

Today we flew from Mumbai to Nagpur, which is in the center of the country. Nagpur is a developing city, with a population of 2.4 million. We are meeting in a small Christian conference center that we have to ourselves.

Everyone who is going to make it has arrived. Eight people did not get reservations on the trains and were unable to come. So we have 14 here. We started the orientation and introduction this afternoon and broke the participants into groups of three to talk about what their hopes and objectives are for being here and what they hope to accomplish as a result of what they've learned.

Thank you for your prayers for this time. It is really important to us that the group here will take the subject matter seriously, that they will develop dreams and visions for what God can do through them in communications in their districts and in the field, and how they can begin to make their voice and stories known more widely in our global church family. And we pray that we can be a resource to equip them to do achieve those visions.

-- Gina

How summer is shaping up

Things are moving along in lots of ways for us as summer begins.

• Andrew and I are both taking up side projects to raise extra money for when we need to start paying for Andrew's tuition at NTC Manchester, and for my hoped-for German-language classes this fall. My project is a missionary book for children about a school in Lebanon where children are learning how to put Christ's love and forgiveness into action in their relationships with people from other religious backgrounds. Andrew is writing a section for Living Mission, a mission education curriculum used in many Nazarene churches. Both of our projects are due this fall and will take up a lot of our spare time this summer. It looks like we'll also start babysitting twice a month in September for a moms group who need childcare, and possibly for a friend, as well. These odd jobs will also help us stretch our dollars, as our Mission Corps account right now is empty. I continue to enter photography contests and investigate freelance travel writing to earn a little extra, as well.
• I am just a week away from leaving for India. I have all my shots now, and my plane ticket. I am starting to purchase things for my trip, like snack food, some basic medicines, wet wipes and things like that. I am also putting the finishing touches on the curriculum for the writer's conference. After starting to write this in September, I CANNOT WAIT to be finished with it and see how it works in a real training setting. I am also very excited to meet all the great people there and to see and experience a culture I've only heard good things about from others.
• I have an appointment with a neurologist in the middle of July regarding my continuing battle with chronic migraines. I would appreciate prayers that this specialist can finally get to the bottom -- if there is an identifiable cause -- of this problem so that I can prevent migraines much more often. After five years of reading about migraines, talking to many others who have them, cutting out many of my favorite foods, trying homeopathic remedies, drinking more water, taking lots of expensive multi-vitamins and supplements, regulating my sleep patterns, limiting stress, doing deep breathing exercises, exercising regularly, trying a variety of painkillers and now two preventive daily medications since last fall, I am still getting migraines anywhere from one every two weeks to 2 and 3 in one week, in addition to regular headaches. I would appreciate prayers also that this will not be a big problem while I am in India.
• Two trips that we were trying to plan for capturing powerful stories on video have fallen through this summer. I am trusting in God's timing for these and hope we can reschedule them later in the year.
• Two interns are joining the communications team June 19 through mid August. This is great timing for us, as Laine and I are busy with trips to India and Tiki is taking a break from communications work to study the German language through an intensive, 8-hour a day program. It will be great to have them on board, continuing our story writing and publishing throughout the summer.
• The campus that was formerly European Nazarene College is alive again with students and faculty from MidAmerica Nazarene University. Most arrived late last week and are coming and going throughout the summer in a cultural immersion experience that will take them around Western Europe. Another set of students are anticipated to arrive this fall for a semester of on-campus studies. It will be interesting to have them around and be our neighbors!

I think that's all the big news. We always love to hear from you as well. Feel free to drop us a line when you can! And if you did not see our May newsletter, let us know and we'll be happy to send it to you.

Thank you again for all your support and prayers and encouragement. You are a critical part of our lives and ministry here through your quick emails, whispered prayers, Skype calls, donations and care packages. Thanks for joining us in the adventure.

The Engage team is growing

Some of you who have been following me for a while know that I've been praying a lot for God to send more people to help carry the load of Engage magazine. For a long time, it has been me and a missionary in Kenya named Amy who do most of the work of gathering content and publishing it on the website day to day. Amy focuses her story-gathering on the Africa Region, but also contributes lots of interesting and creative ideas to improve the publication as a whole. She has been a huge asset.

I have been praying for more help with the load we've been carrying. Some of you were praying with me. Well, God is answering.

A few months ago, a young woman named Mandie, living in Kansas, answered our ad seeking a volunteer assistant editor. She is devoting herself part-time -- without pay -- to write articles, manage and streamline our production flow, and to post and edit stories in the Engage system. I'm so thrilled that her heart for missions is leading her to give so generously of her skills and talents in journalism and storytelling!

Just a few weeks ago, another person answered our advertisement seeking someone with skill in designing PowerPoint presentations. Sondra, who is a local NMI president in Pennsylvania, is joining the team as a volunteer dedicated to producing quality PowerPoint presentations based on stories in Engage. We will make them available to people who want to share in their church or small group a powerful and compelling story from a fully-assembled, pre-packaged presentation with accompanying script.

It's exciting to see how God is bringing the right people to fill a very great need.

Right now we are advertising for another part-time volunteer editor who is a native Spanish speaker. Ever since we launched Engage in 2009, we have wanted to incorporate other languages. We want to find someone who will be able to translate existing articles into Spanish, but also to be a reporter who can conduct interviews and research and write quality articles in Spanish. Keep praying with us for this door to open for making our awesome publication more widely available in other languages.

Thanks again for all your support in helping to carry our needs to God in prayer.

Prayer for provision

With Andrew starting up master's studies this fall in order to be considered as a PhD candidate with Nazarene Theological College in 2013, we have some additional expenses that we have not had to plan for until now. Additionally, Gina would like to continue German language studies this fall. Costs for language study range between 350 and 500 euros ($440 to $629) depending on which track she would take.

We keep meeting Nazarenes from different countries who had no way to pay for their training or education, but trusted God to make a way, and He always did. These stories encourage us that He can and will provide for what we need, as well.

Please pray with us for God to provide for these new needs in His perfect way and timing.

New village pipeline

Just as a matter of interest, a new, more economical heating pipeline is being installed in our entire village of Büsingen. This is the first whole village in the country (maybe in Europe, I don't know) to switch over to this heating system. Currently, it is a natural gas system. However, the cost of natural gas continues to increase, while burning wood is cheaper.

The village will buy firewood from elsewhere in Germany (which is heavily forested) and the heat generated from burning this wood will be pumped through the pipes to every home and business in the village.

The changeover is quite messy, though. I imagine we will have some growing pains for a while.

Next to the European Conference Center's (formerly EuNC) main building.

This used to be the sidewalk in front of the campus.

Sidewalk looking the other way through the village.

In front of what was originally EuNC's administration building, classrooms and dining hall.

Re-Defining My Role

My activity level changed abruptly following the students' departure and campus closure last June. For the first six months, I maintained contact with several of the students via e-mail, Facebook, and Skype. I also began shifting toward increasing my involvement in our local church by organizing/leading a number of worship services, as well as preaching a couple of times. I devoted a fair share of time toward thoughtfully, prayerfully, and actively considering with Gina what our next steps would be.

It became clear that now was the time to seriously pursue further education at the Ph.D. level, so with the full support of EuNC leadership, I devoted time to investigating numerous programs, studying for the GRE (which I took twice in Geneva), and completing the application process. By the end of January this year, all of that was complete and I returned to making the bulk of my time available to EuNC. However, there has not been a great deal of regular activity to keep busy every hour of each day. During the last five months, I've taught a couple of online directed studies in Church History I and spent most of my time developing Church History II. I've also kept busy supporting Gina in her role; as my activity decreased, hers seemed to increase. There has been plenty to do, but there was also time to rest, reflect, and enjoy the increased amount of time and mental space to devote to personal study and spiritual formation.

I'm proud of my inherited work ethic. But an important lesson I had to learn is that my value did not come from being busy, performing my job well, high-powered networking, or what anybody else thought of me - contrary to a great deal of what Western culture drills into our very souls so that the church is often indistinct from society in that regard. I had to learn in a more everyday, practical sense what our Protestant doctrine of justification by grace alone through faith really means: that my value did not depend on my efforts or image; that God's love for me, His ability to speak to me, and His ability to work in the lives of others through me are just as strong and present when I have very little to do as well as when my schedule is full of even God-centered activity. In short, that I had nothing to prove.

I was recently reminded of Luke 12, which mentions the ravens God feeds and the flowers God clothes. Creation is valuable to God, simply because He is the Creator. He did not create out of any need, but out of love. Even the mere fact of its existence is not something on which to base its value, because (by definition) God created everything out of love before it existed! If a rock can just sit there and be valuable to its Creator, how much more valuable to Him are we - living, breathing, growing, moving creatures whose chief uniqueness is in bearing our Creator's very image and likeness? While it is certainly no excuse for being lazy, it is a huge relief to know that I matter to God simply being who I am apart from any talent, achievement or recognition.

That may sound like this volunteer missionary with a master's level theological education is re-taking Basic Christianity 101. Personally, I think it would do all of us good to get a reminder of such basic concepts as grace and forgiveness, regardless of how many letters are behind our names or what kind of work we do. So while I've generally found ways of keeping busy during this season of decreased activity, I've learned or re-learned some important lessons, however basic they may be. Western society does a poor job of listening, but the Gospel remains relevant and vital even for developed, enlightened cultures like ours, and the church still needs to hear and respond as well as proclaim it. I'm thankful it has worked its way deeper into my own heart over the past few months.

I do have a number of things to look forward to this summer and fall. I've just begun taking a course with other EuNC instructors in developing and teaching online courses. While this may seem redundant since I taught myself on the job a couple of years ago and am more familiar with this method, it's important that each instructor is on the same page and applying the same standards. This course will run through the beginning of June. I will also be teaching Church History II as an online course toward the end of August, and will spend a fair amount of time this summer completing the development of that material. There's a possibility that I may be mentoring one of the young guys who has visited our church recently: he mentioned the idea yesterday, and I quietly leapt at the opportunity by expressing interest and passing him my contact information. I will begin pre-doctoral level study through Nazarene Theological College (Manchester, UK) this fall, and will spend time over the summer introducing myself to Latin -which will be one of two languages I will need in my research subject. I've joined a small prayer team at church, and may be preaching again in October. There are several other potential areas of involvement opening up around the same time, and I will carefully consider each one where the need is apparent and my gifts are able to address it.

It's good to be busy, and it's good to rest. There's certainly a time for both. I'm looking forward to having more to do, and waking up in the morning with a bit more on my schedule during the day. But I'm glad to know that I don't need any of it in order to prove to God that I'm important or valuable.

This is also PURE coincidence, but I suddenly remembered that it was 17 years ago today that I responded to the Gospel for the first time. I did not exactly pray the traditional "sinner's prayer," but I have never entirely forgotten a little request I made that night: "Show me this Christian life I've learned about since I was a kid is actually real, and that Christ actually does make a difference in someone's life. Show me that it's not just stories, or some creative way of trying make us be better people." I couldn't have known what I was really asking (and risking), but neither have I ever regretted it. The Gospel is true, Christ does indeed make a profound difference, and there is definitely so very much more to it than mere moral improvement with a religious basis.

- Andrew

Sowing seeds

As Andrew and I have traveled around the Eurasia region for both ministry and vacation time, we have encountered interesting people and held unexpected conversations, making ourselves open to "divine" encounters.

We have talked about religion with a Hindu doctor on a train in England; discussed faith with an Italian hostel owner named Leonardo in Florence; prayed for a Canadian foreign student named Joanna who spent a day sightseeing with us in Rome; and most recently I talked with two young Nepalese men in Portugal who fled political upheaval in their home country to bounce around Europe seeking jobs.

Sometimes it is tempting to wonder what good such brief encounters might do in the lives of the people we met. Does God work in their lives through chance meetings? Are seeds planted deeply enough as to produce fruit sometime later? Can God really do transforming work in someone's heart through a few minutes' conversation with a stranger?

I have learned recently the answer is yes.

In this month's issue of the regional newsletter, Where Worlds Meet, we received permission to reprint a blog written by a pastor in the United States, who reflected on a chance meeting with a missionary while he was vacationing in Austria. The writer was an atheist at the time, and avoided Christians at all costs. Yet, after meeting the Nazarene missionary, Dan, on a train, the two young men realized they were both traveling alone, and decided to spend a day or two sightseeing together for some company.

The writer said that God used this brief encounter with a respectful Christian to lead him into a believing relationship with Jesus Christ many years later. Although they had little in the way of conversations about faith, and Dan didn't try to "sell" the young traveler on Christianity, the Holy Spirit was at work anyway. And all these years later, this former atheist is now a pastor.

Recently I was also encouraged when I heard from my friend "Jenny." I met Jenny in Colorado Springs, shortly after she'd arrived in America from South Korea to be a nanny for a year. She was struggling with her English and so I suggested she attend church with me sometime to practice.

"But I'm a Buddhist," she protested.

"That's OK," I replied. "Anyone is welcome. It would just be a good way to meet more people and practice your English."

She agreed to come.

After the service, we went out for lunch with a mutual friend and Jenny gushed that she had "felt love" the second she walked through the door.

Over the following months of our friendship, Jenny came to church with us occasionally, began listening to Christian music radio and gratefully received our prayers as she went through some difficult experiences. She never expressed a direct statement of faith in Christ, but I knew that at least it had appeal for her.

When her student visa was not granted, she was forced to return home. I tried to reconnect with her over the next 5 or 6 years, but because of the great distance we lost touch. During this time she got married and had two children.

A few months ago, she found me on Facebook and joyfully shared that in the past year or so she had connected with a group of believers in her home city and begun to worship with them, study the Bible and enjoy a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. She said that her new faith in Christ has replaced sadness and hopelessness with joy, and that she has new purpose and pleasure in her life.

I was thrilled to hear that the seeds we planted with Jenny so many years ago had been nurtured by the Holy Spirit, even in the absence of any other believers in her life for several years. God was faithful to continue His prevenient grace to Jenny so that when the time was right, she could plug into a community of believers and enjoy a personal relationship with God.

If you would like to read the original blog by Pastor Scott on how God used a divine appointment to reach him years later, visit http://theunexpectedpastor.wordpress.com/2012/04/13/sowing-seeds-in-vienna/.

Never underestimate what God can do with our brief encounters.

Successful workshop in Portugal

Gina here. I just wanted to thank you all for praying for me as I prepared my presentation and then gave it to a group of about 40 mission leaders from around the world who were receiving training in Portugal two weeks ago.

I am really grateful to have had the opportunity to talk with them for about 45 minutes on the power of storytelling, and how God uses our stories to shape our identity as a church, to unify us as one Body in one mission, to foster an environment for the Holy Spirit to work in our hearts, and to motivate us to participate in God's mission.

While I am not a polished and experienced public speaker, through your prayers, God helped me to say what I wanted to say and I saw that the leaders were taking in the points and information. (He also sent someone to my rescue when I got stuck in the bathroom -- the door handle came off in my hand -- just minutes before I was supposed to begin speaking.)

Now I pray for ways to continue resourcing them and their fields to help them share with our global church family the stories of what God is doing around the world.

Storytelling and effective communication are two of my passions. I keep seeking opportunities to assist our church in perfecting and expanding our work in these areas. I have dreams and ideas for communications that I continue to lay at the feet of God, and wait to see if He is moving in those ways and directions. I also continue to pray for God to raise up and send out more people from many nations and in many languages who will share my passion for storytelling and communication in our church. We really can't have enough of these folks involved in the mission.

Join me in these prayer requests if you feel led to do so.

Thanks!

- Gina

Büsingen election

Next week, there is a big election in our tiny village. It is to elect a new mayor. This is a big deal to the residents, as well as to the Eurasia Regional Office and European Nazarene College. Büsingen has had the same mayor for many years, and he has been well loved by the community, as well as by our ministry teams and our local Nazarene church. The mayor has been a big advocate for our presence here.

In Germany, of which Büsingen is a part by law, anyone from anywhere in Germany can be elected a town's mayor. The candidates don't actually have to live here. And this is the first time that there are no candidates who are residents of Büsingen. The candidate who lives closest is in the neighboring village.

Büsingen is a very special place, due to its status as an "exclave" of Germany, completely surrounded like an island by Switzerland. There are many complications that exist in this village that don't exist anywhere else. The next mayor will need to navigate these and understand how things work. And rising and falling currency values, as well as the recession, have hurt many of those who live here. So people are concerned about the future.

We have come to love this village and the people who live here. Our office teams and our church have been praying for God's hand to be in this election, so that Büsingen can continue to thrive. If you think of it, join in prayer with us, too.

Upcoming conference

Gina here. This weekend I am heading to a conference in Portugal called One by One IberoAmerica. It is a conference that started out as directed at Nazarenes on the Western Mediterranean Field (Italy, Portugal, Spain, France, and the Azores). Then, they welcomed Nazarenes from all Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries. Then, they opened it up to anyone.

A variety of meetings and trainings are taking place in conjunction with the weekend conference. One of them is a three-day training for field strategy coordinators -- people who direct and/or support denominational ministry at the field level (each region is made up of "fields" and within the fields are "districts" made up of the local churches). We have about 35 fields around the world.

I have been given 45 minutes to talk with these wonderful and hardworking people about storytelling -- why we do it, how it helps to shape and unify us as a global church family, and ideas and discussion on how we can do it more effectively. I am working on a PowerPoint presentation, along with a resource CD to distribute.

Then, during the conference, I will be interviewing different people about what God is doing in their lives or their part of the world, as well as reporting on the conference itself.

I would really appreciate your prayers now through April 29. Please pray with me that God will help me use the time and opportunities effectively, that I can connect and collaborate with those who share my passion for telling more of the stories of our church, and that I can come away with new relationships on which we can build better communications in the future.

Please also pray for the conference and all those who will be attending: for safe and smooth travels, the Spirit's work of renewal, refreshing, unifying and empowering, and for more effective ministry across our church as a result of this gathering.

Remember in prayer those who have been planning the event -- for their sanity, and for strength and endurance during this very busy and stressful time.

Thanks again for being part of what God is doing in our church and in us through your prayers and support!

Learning to make a Swiss bread

If there's one thing Americans will rave about after visiting this region, it's the amazing bread and the fantastic cheese (or general dairy products). Bread and cheese are among the many things that Swiss and Germans know how to do right.

Our favorite bread here is called Zopf. It's a braided, dense white bread that is traditionally made on a Friday or Saturday and eaten on Sundays. From what I've read, it may be similar to or the same thing as Challah. It's just mouthwatering.

And since one part of being a missionary or a resident in another culture involves doing your best to learn about the culture and adapt to its ways, learning to make this bread seemed like a good way to appreciate this culture in a more up-close way. :-)

I was fortunate that my Swiss friend, Cornelia, knows how to make this and offered to show me how. One evening she walked me through the process and allowed me to practice the braiding technique in her kitchen. The next week, I tried on my own and it was a rousing success! I made it again last weekend, and I must say, Zopf makes an incredibly rich French toast, too. :-)

The ingredient list is short, and making this is actually not too difficult, although it is time consuming and makes a mess. It's worth it: the outcome is a little piece of heaven.

(Makes 2 large loaves)

Ingredients

1 kilo (2.2 pounds) of white flour

250 grams cold butter (1/2 cup

3 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons sugar

1 block (42 grams or 1.5 ounces) yeast (in the refrigerated section)

0.65 liters of room temperature milk (0.7 quarts)

1 egg

1. Crumble the yeast into milk and whisk until blended

2. Pour the flour into large mixing bowl and add sugar and salt.

3. Cut in cold butter (you can use room temperature butter, too)

4. Pour in the milk and stir until a dough forms, pulling away from sides of the bowl.

5. Dump dough onto floured surface and knead 5-10 minutes, adding more white flour as kneaded so that it becomes elastic and no longer sticky.

6. Place dough in a large bowl and set in warm place to rise for 1 hour. Dough should double in size.

7. Return dough to floured surface and cut into quarters. Roll out two pieces into long cords.

8. Follow the weaving procedure on this website, www.about.ch/culture/food/zopf.html.

9. After two loaves are formed, cover on a baking sheet for another 15 miutes.

10. Beat one egg in a small bowl, and use a basting brush to brush egg onto the top surfaces of the loaves.

11. Bake in the oven at about 200 celsius (about 400 F) about 30 minutes, or until the bottom of the loaves are hard when you tap them. Enjoy!

He KNOWS

In what I think of as Stephen Lawhead's pinnacle novel, Byzantium, Aeddan was a young, inexperienced monk in Celtic Ireland, chosen for the prestigious post of helping to carry the Book of Kells to the pope in Constantinium, in hopes that the Eastern Pope, during a time of divided Christianity, would offer protection for the Celtic Christians, who were experiencing pressure from Rome.

Along the pilgrimage, Aeddan and his companions were captured by crude, violent Vikings from the far north, and experienced many sufferings, persecutions and the loss of many of their gentle companions. Somewhere along the way, the Vikings were also taken captive, and similarly abused, beaten and pushed near to death. Many of them died.

In this unexpected turn of events, captives and captors became equal, so that Aeddan and his former captors were forced to work together to survive, and through these trials, they even became dear friends.

But it was because of all this suffering that Aeddan lost his faith in God. How could a God who is supposedly good allow so much evil and pain? Only when his Viking friends questioned him on points about his strange and foreign God, because they knew he was a priest in another religion, did Aeddan reluctantly answer their questions. He didn't know how to tell them he didn't believe the Bible stories himself anymore.

After all their adventures ended, and Aeddan came safely back to his monastery in Ireland, and the Vikings returned home to their northern forests, Aeddan gave up the cloth, but found himself in misery, lost, without a purpose.

He was surprised then, when suddenly a Viking ship was seen off the coast, and his friends rowed up onto the shore. Gunnar, his closest friend among the Viking men, grinning, exploded with what he thought was the good news that he and his companions were going to worship Christ now, and to build Him a church in their village. They had come to ask the monastery to send a priest back with them to teach their families and friends about this new God.

Aeddan was deflated. He had to finally admit to his Viking companions that he no longer followed this God.

In the final pages of the book, the two men sat side by side to talk. Gunnar sadly reports that his beloved wife and many family members died of a fever while he was gone.

"But everyone dies, and I will see her again in heaven, heya?"

Despair cast its dark cloak over me, and I said, "You see how unreliable this God is, and yet you still want to build a church? Truly, Gunnar, you are better off without it."

Gunnar regarded me in disbelief. "How can you speak so, Aeddan -- especially after all we have seen?"

"It is because of all we have seen that I speak as I do," I retorted. "God cares nothing for us. Pray if it makes you feel better; do good if it pleases you, but God remains unmoved and unconcerned either way."

Gunnar reminded Aeddan that his people have long prayed to gods who did not see, hear or care.

"But I remember the day you told me about Jesu who came to live among the fisherfolk, and was nailed to a tree by the skalds and Romans and hung up to die. And I remember thinking, this Hanging God is unlike any of the others; this god suffers, too, just like his people."

"I remember also that you told me he was a god of love and not revenge, so that anyone who calls on his name can join him in his great feasting hall. I ask you now, does Odin do this for those who worship him? Does Thor suffer with us?"

Aeddan was stunned at this interpretation of the stories he had told Gunnar, who continued, "Do you remember when the mine overseer was going to kills us? There we were, our bodies were broken, our skin blackened by the sun -- how hot it was! Remember?"

Gunnar went on: "I was thinking: I am going to die today, but Jesu also died, so he knows how it is with me. And I was thinking, would he know me when I came to him? Yes! Sitting in his hall, he will see me sail into the bay and he will run down to meet me on the shore; he will wade into the sea and pull my boat onto the sand and welcome me as his wayfaring brother. Why will he do this? Because he too has suffered, and he knows, Aeddan, he knows." Beaming, Gunnar concluded, "Is that not good news?"

This passage is why I rank this among the very few books that have changed my life.

We Western Christians talk often of something we call the "Problem of Suffering," or the "Problem of Pain." In our affluent culture, we can afford to avoid all kinds of everyday pain that is a way of life in developing nations or among the poor. Because we can, we try to.

If we are sick, we can go to the doctor and get treatment. Not always can our human medicine fix every problem or dull every pain, but we can get rid of a lot. If you have ever experienced a brief time of life-stopping pain, either a back spasm, a migraine, a cyst, a urinary tract infection; if you have ever had a bacterial infection that you could quickly treat with a visit to an urgent care center and a trip to Wal-greens or some other ubiquitous pharmacy, has it ever crossed your mind what you would do if suddenly all those treatments we take for granted didn't exist?

Imagine if we didn't have access to medicine for migraines, or back pain; imagine if we couldn't put antibiotic fluid on an open cut that had been exposed to soil or a contaminating agent? What would you do if you had a severe bladder infection and no means to treat it?

Much of the world lives with these periodic or chronic physical pains everyday. Some of it is not life-threatening; some of it is. People around the world have learned to live with pain.

In affluent countries, like everywhere, we also experience the unavoidable pain of tragically lost loved ones, divorce and broken relationships, abuse, sexual molestation, even less "serious" but equally painful experiences as teasing and rejection in school, failed dreams, lost jobs, lost homes, lost pets.

Just because we are affluent doesn't mean we don't suffer. Our pain is very real, but we have ways of dealing with it. We have counselors. We have the advantages of understanding some levels of human psychology and how to more effectively deal with traumas and damaged emotions than if we did not have what knowledge we have. We have mood-altering medications such as anti-depressants, anti-anxiety pills and more -- which recent studies show we are taking advantage of in greater and greater numbers.

When we experience natural catastrophes such as tornadoes and earthquakes, the pain of devastation and loss is very real, but government programs, insurance companies and teams of volunteers swoop in to clean it up and make it disappear as fast as we possibly can, paying out checks for what damage can be measured in dollars, and then rebuilding.

My point is not to say that affluent Western Christians don't experience suffering and pain. We do. What I'm saying is that culturally, we are oriented toward doing everything we can to make it stop. That's why we see counselors, spend time listening to friends; that's why at the very first pang of pain or ache, we pop painkillers or call a doctor's office for an appointment.

When a loved one dies or is torn from our life, our friends and family members are oriented toward helping us heal and move past it. We pray for healing. We pray and try to make the bad feelings stop.

And so, perhaps the one advantage that people in developing countries have over us is that they have learned to dwell and live in suffering and pain. They have learned to take it for granted. They have come to understand that suffering is part of life.

And in this way, they can not only accept a God who suffers too, but they can find immense relief and peace and joy and hope in this knowledge.

For us Westerners, I believe the suffering God is often a stumbling block. A God who allows suffering leads us to question His character and His goodness. Because we, in our Western orientation to ending pain as quickly as possible, assume that to be good -- and to have power and resources -- means God should do the same.

But what if that's not how God is oriented? What if one of the central joys of our Gospel message is that our God is one who has suffered? That our God can understand our pain because He has experienced the greatest pain of any conscious entity in the universe? He has not lost just one or two loved ones. He has lost billions. He has not been rejected by some people. He has been rejected by billions. He is forced to watch his living loved ones self-destruct in the most horrible ways, blind to the hope and joy and peace that He offers, and -- indeed -- the healing.

Our God suffers. He has suffered, He suffers now and He will continue to suffer.

His suffering is not forced upon Him, either. While we cannot avoid pain in this life, He can. For God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the worst suffering imaginable -- no, beyond our imagining -- has been a choice. And that choice has been 100% on our behalf. Because God wants to know what it is like to be us. And He wants to know that because He wants to be there in suffering with us.

This concept of simply dwelling in suffering is not something I could understand until 2010, when I came with Andrew to Europe, leaving behind our familiarities, our families and support systems. I quickly became very sick. After seeing doctor after doctor after doctor and finding no answers, getting test after test after test that showed nothing, and therefore having no knowledge of what to do to get better, I realized I had no recourse but just to dwell in a season of sickness.

One difficulty with being sick for several months, with no hint as to when it may end, is that it brings depression. You begin to wonder and lose hope that you might feel better. You can't go to work normally, you can't make plans with people in case you relapse and have to cancel, and you sense or assume that people won't want to spend time with someone who is depressed and sick. So you fall into some level of isolation.

There was added stress from my American cultural orientation that whispered to me I needed to force a positive, happy attitude on myself, and not let this problem get me down. But I knew I would be lying to myself and others. I didn't feel positive or happy or hopeful. I felt depressed.

That's when God seemed to be saying to me that I needed to just stop trying to feel better, both physically and emotionally, and that I just needed to accept some suffering for a while. Strangely, this harsh-sounding message did not feel cruel to me. In fact, it gave me a great sense of peace. I felt God saying that it was OK for me to hurt, and that it was OK for me to feel bad. It was time for me to simply experience this without my end goal involving doing whatever I could to make it stop.

After this experience, I have begun to have the faintest glimmer of understanding about suffering. Not much, because in 2011 I mysteriously got better. I have some theories as to why, but nothing concrete that I can "prove." My point is that while I have not suffered much compared to many people in this world, God showed me a little something about suffering: that He understands. That He wants to ENTER into suffering with me, and He does so out of His own experiences of suffering -- more suffering than I will ever experience or comprehend.

I also understand a little bit better that as a follower of Christ, I am called to enter into the suffering of others. While I think all Christians have a desire to bring an end to suffering and pain in any way that we can, and I still think we should do all we can toward those ends, I also think that first and foremost, before trying to prescribe solutions and raise campaigns and dole out advice to end all the world's forms of suffering and pain, we need to simply enter into it with others. We need to just BE with them in their suffering. That is what God did for us in the shape of Jesus Christ. FIRST, he ENTERED into our suffering on earth. The death and resurrection came AFTER that.

This is why I love more than ever, Gunnar's words in Byzantium: "He too has suffered, and he knows, Aeddan, he knows. Is that not good news?"

Isaiah 53:2-4, 7, 12c

New International Version (NIV)

He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,

nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

He was despised and rejected by mankind,

a man of suffering, and familiar with pain

Like one from whom people hide their faces

he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

Surely he took up our pain

and bore our suffering,

yet we considered him punished by God,

stricken by him, and afflicted.

he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,

and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,

so he did not open his mouth.

For he bore the sin of many,

and made intercession for the transgressors.

-- Gina Pottenger