KEEPING TRACK OF ERWIN & GAIL: This time from Switzerland

This time I’m not sitting at an airport and Gail has not gone shopping but I seem to have come across some time with which to bend your ear.

Last time I told you all about our time in Ireland and how we started our time in Germany and since then there has not been a moment I could spend time with you. I am sorry for the neglect because I know by some of the comments I receive that there are some of you who actually read this stuff. So without further ado, here I sit once again at my key board trembling in the fear that I might once again bore you to tears.

After I posted the last blog we traveled on into Germany to at city called Neumunster where we visited a Betel center called Casa Betel. Now before I go any further let me explain to those of you who are not aware of the Betel ministry just what that is. Betel is a ministry under the WEC umbrella that ministers to the lost and broken people, of many nations, that are addicted to drugs and alcohol. At Casa Betel we were amazed at the way God has worked in the lives of many of these broken people as well as in the lives of the entire staff, and the lives of the churches and the people of that area of Germany. When we arrived, there were seven clients in the men’s house there and while we were there two more arrived. The ministry is supported by its very large used furniture store and by many local donors who feel that they benefit from what Betel does. We were told how God has miraculously provided the store along with the warehouse, the men’s house and the women’s house. This is a ministry needed everywhere in every city in every town all over the world. Even where you are, one need only to look around, with open eyes to see the need, with open hearts to feel the hurt and with open hands to help. The staff at this location, and it’s the same at all Betel locations, is worked hard. They work 24/7 with these people and in these stores and in the offices. But if you asked them they would not trade it for anything else. You see it’s not for the money of which there is little, it’s not for fame of which the is none, it’s for the joy they feel when they see even one of these lost and broken people come out a survivor, re-enter the world as a new person, reunite with families and loved ones. But even more than that it’s the overwhelming, unexplainable peace and joy they feel when one of these lost and broken people have an encounter with Jesus. To watch Jesus work the miracles in the lives of these people is all they need to carry on. If you are considering a life as a missionary, that is my desire for each and every one of you, and someone has convinced you that we missionaries are all on a lifelong holiday then Betel might not be where you want to go, but if you are looking for fulfillment and joy, if you are looking to experience real revival or to see a church explode into existence before your very eyes run, don’t walk, to your nearest WEC Sending base and tell them that you want to work with Betel. Ok, enough preaching. I can’t tell you anymore about our time in Neumunster Germany except that it was the experience of a life time.

From Neumunster we went to visit Jonathon. Now, once again, for those who don’t know Jonathon, he is a young man from Germany who came and worked with me as a volunteer at Gateway. He invited us to spend some time with him and his family at their home in Freudenberg. We did just that, it was an awesome 3 days. On Saturday, Jonathon, along with his mom Elvera and his dad Martin, took us to the absolutely most awful, the most morbid, the most unbelievable place I have ever been in my life. It was to a place called Buchenwald. It was a concentration camp in East Germany. A place designed and constructed for the sole purpose of causing death in the most excruciating and humiliating way, conceivable to the human mind. While we were traveling there it was a reasonable day, some sun along with a smattering of rain now again but when we arrived at the place a fog descended on it. A fog so thick you could hardly see from one destroyed foundation to the next and there were many of them, each one a memorial to the lives destroyed there. A crematorium still standing with 8 large ovens, that were not enough to keep up with the death that occurred by the moment. An infirmary where the only reason you went there was so you could be injected with a fatal disease so they could try to find a cure and most the time they didn’t succeed. Yes, the fog was appropriate for the place and time; it brought to reality the evil of the place. From there we went to a castle, of course, on the top of the highest hill in the place but the significance of it was that it was the place where Martin Luther spent time translating the New Testament from Greek to German, an event that was significant to the complete reformation of the church as it was at that time. The most wonderful thing about that visit was that the sun was shining most of the time. God provided such a contrast so we could appreciate both. Sunday morning we went to church, an Evangelical Free church, all in German of course,but with some translation by Jonathon we were able to grasp some of the message which was “We know that Jesus cried, but did he laugh?” Someday I’d like to hear about it in English. We then walked around just one of the many old cities of the area with streets not much wider than a broom stick and some houses older than any building in Canada and still occupied, even in some cases, possibly, by descendants of the original builders.

We traveled along Autobahns (freeways) at times at speeds in excess of 140 kms per hour while BMWs, VWs, and Mercedes Benzes passed us like we hadn’t yet got started. Monday morning we left Freudenberg to drive to the WEC sending base in Switzerland where we are now. So once again I bid you a fine farewell.

God Bless. With love

Erwin & Gail