20 years ago today

Why are the nations in an uproar?...the kings of earth take their stand against the Lord and against His Anointed...He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord scoffs at them. Psalm 2:2,4

The Wall: A Generation Later from Jim Southard on Vimeo.

It was 20 years ago today when the Berlin Wall fell. In one moment, God brought down a barrier that kept a significant part of the world in isolation and spiritual darkness. May we never forget the sense of awe that came upon us all when we heard the wall came down!

Many missionary efforts have today skipped past Eastern Europe and are heading toward China, Africa and even the Muslim Republics of Asia. Praise God for these missionary efforts! However, the belief that Eastern Europe is “reached” with the gospel is wrong. Although there are many religious expressions in Eastern Europe today, most countries of Eastern Europe have less than 1% of their population as Christ-followers.

There are probably more evangelicals who attend services at your local mega-church on a given Sunday than evangelicals who are in attendance in churches across some ENTIRE countries in Eastern Europe. However, the vast majority of Eastern Europe, including several Muslim countries, is wide open to Christian missionaries. We need your help; we need your church’s help. The Lord deserves the worship of the people of Eastern Europe.

There is no greater cause than the work of His harvest field. May we lay aside the weaker causes and the idols that drain away our vitality, rob us of our vision, and distract our focus on Him. As the Westminster Catechism reminds us, “the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.”

Thank you for helping our family to glorify God in Eastern Europe. Please take a moment today and thank Him for bringing down the wall 20 years ago and please pray for the missionary effort across Eastern Europe and Russia.

"As long as I see anything to be done for God, life is worth having; but O how vain and unworthy it is to live for any lower end!" David Brainerd, missionary to Native Americans

A Photographic Look Back on October

EB turned the riser at this meeting into a beautiful living room. EB is called upon more and more for similar tasks. If there is a spiritual gift called "beauty" (to make beautiful) then she has it. EB added beauty to the evening of celebration honoring Larry and Debby Thompson for 33 years of service with Campus Crusade in Eastern Europe.



Even Vonette Bright (Bill Bright's widow) aged 83 made the trip to Budapest from Orlando to honor the Thompsons.



The next day we commissioned Marek and Ala Wyrzykowski (seated) as the new Campus Crusade Directors of Eastern Europe and Russia. Marek and Ala are Polish and speak great English; EB and I have become good friends with them. On the far left of this photo are Steve and Judy Douglas, Campus Crusade President and on the far right are Larry and Debby Thompson.



Meetings with Campus Crusade leadership from Western Europe to discuss national staff support crisis took me to a meeting location near Zurich at a Catholic monastery To my delight, the meeting site was high in the Alps. This was the view from the deck where we had our coffee breaks.



Before Zurich, EB joined me in Geneva where we toured all things John Calvin (please see essay in the next blog entry). EB is standing outside the main door into St. Pierre's church where John Calvin's preaching sparked the Reformation in the 1500s.



While outside the UN facility in Geneva, I was able to capture with my camera this car with EB's name on it!



During October I made two trips into Romania to lay the ground work for church partnerships with our campus ministries. It seems that almost each trip into Romania is like a trip back in time, as I try to capture with this photo.



Here I am as the old man trying to be relevant among a group of hip, Jesus-lovin, English-speaking college students in Timisoara, Romania.

One of my main goals the next few years is to connect our campus ministries in Romania, Albania and across Eastern Europe with USA churches. We believe we must partner with USA churches in order to fulfill the Great Commission in our part of the world. I really want to talk to you and your church!

Oct 31, Reformation Day: the debt we owe John Calvin

Inside St. Pierre's Church in Geneva where Calvin's preaching sparked the Reformation in the 1500s.



St. Pierre's in Geneva

“Calvinism, cousin to the Reformation's other pillar, Lutheranism, is a bit less dour than its critics claim: it offers a rock-steady deity who orchestrates absolutely everything, including illness (or home foreclosure!), by a logic we may not understand but don't have to second-guess. Our satisfaction — and our purpose — is fulfilled simply by ‘glorifying’ him.”

from the October 21, 2009 issue of Time Magazine, where it says the “New Calvinism” is one of the “10 Ideas Changing the World Right Now.”

I was on my way to Campus Crusade meetings in Zurich, Switzerland last week, so I convinced EB to join me for a few days prior so we could visit Geneva. It was with a sense of awe that EB and I walked the streets of Geneva, Switzerland. I remember thinking, “These are the streets that John Calvin walked.” It was with great anticipation that I entered the lofty sanctuary of St. Pierre’s Cathedral where Calvin preached; it was with great interest that I toured the museum dedicated to the Reformation Movement that Calvin started in the 1500s.

John Calvin in Switzerland and Martin Luther in Germany, contemporaries born only 25 years apart, were twin pillars for what we call today the Reformed Movement from which sprang the Protestant branch of Christianity. Calvin and Luther protested many things against the Catholic Church, including the selling of indulgences (purchased to supposedly spring the recently deceased out of purgatory).

If not for John Calvin, Christianity today would be just another religion focused on man’s attempts to please God through religious good works. Calvin and Luther took the spotlight off of man and put it squarely back on God. While Calvin emphasized the sovereignty of God in all things, Luther emphasized justification by faith alone.

Life was very difficult in the 1500s. And Calvin suffered greatly during his time on earth. He outlived his wife and son; he had death threats from the French king (that is why he fled Paris and came to Geneva) and he had enemies both within and without the institutionalized church. He was sick most of his adult life (as were many in that day) and he worked ceaselessly under conditions that were barbaric by today’s standards.

Many people today associate Calvinistic theology with fatalistic sour-faced religious piety. However, I find joy and rest in the thought that my heavenly loving Father rules sovereignly from His throne over the affairs of men including the circumstances of my own life.

October 31st is Reformation Day on the Christian calendar and 2009 marks the 500th anniversary of John Calvin’s birth. It would serve humanity well to remember this quote from John Piper, one of the pillars of "New Calvinism," a quote which has had a huge impact on my life: “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.”

Embracing the Glory of God in Revelation 3:20

"Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him and he with Me." Jesus in Revelation 3:20

During the early years of my ministry I wrestled with Revelation 3:20. Should I use this verse evangelistically? Was this verse written to believers or non-believers? The conclusion I came to would not allow me to use this verse when sharing my faith. Now my attitude has totally changed about Rev. 3:20.

Yes, this verse is from a letter written to a church, a dead church at Laodicea. This church makes Jesus even want to vomit! (Revelation 3: 16). And this church is wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. (v. 17) Never does Jesus use this kind of language with His redeemed, the sheep of His pasture.

As we dig deep into the Biblical text, lets not miss the forest for the trees... Embrace the glory of God on display in this verse!

Imagine, the One who speaks the stars into existence, the Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God (Revelation 3:14), wanting to dine with us! We are sinful, rebellious, helpless, ungodly, even enemies of God (Romans 5:10). Yet here we receive an invitation to dine with the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords!

Dear friend, no earthly pleasure will delight your soul like fellowship with Jesus!

George Sheldon Ladd, in his commentary on Revelation, says this: “A shared meal in the ancient Jewish world had far more significance than it has today. It was a symbol of affection, of confidence, of intimacy.”

Imagine, the Lord Jesus Christ seeking entrance into a place where He has been shunned, neglected, ignored and even despised! All Jesus has to do is to call down His wrath and this lukewarm church would disappear into a cloud of judgment and smoke.

Jesus does in fact use harsh language with this dead church. But He also beckons them, pleads with them and gives them a heart call to repent. Beautiful. Just like my Jesus.

Charles Ryrie says , “How incredible that Christ should be kept outside His own church! How gracious that He should still seek entrance!”

Why in all my frailty and flesh do I follow Jesus? It is because of verses like Revelation 3:20.

For this verse is gospel; it captures the core of our faith; it is the end result of the Cross: restored fellowship with our Creator!

When that day comes and you read my obituary, do not weep. For then I will be at the marriage supper of the Lamb! For then I will be complete, lacking in nothing, more conscious and alive than at any moment in my existence. I will experience the reason for which I was created!

Is the door shut between you and Jesus? Do you hear Him knocking? It doesn’t matter if you are a Christian or not a Christian; the invitation is the same. Jesus’ death on the Cross for our sins is the key to the door. Open it. And dine with the Great God of the Universe, the Lover of your Soul!

Albania: glimpses of its history, culture and faith

We wish you could have joined us.

(from left: Dima and Svetlana Brovko from Ukraine; Mariana and Eugene Simonov from Moldova; EB and me)

The other night here at our house we had two couples over for dinner. These couples are Eastern European and on staff with Campus Crusade. They are spending this school year on a one-year assignment working out of our office here in Budapest. Our office here in Budapest oversees what Campus Crusade does across all of Eastern Europe and Russia…11 time zones!

The two couples are Dima and Svetlana Brovko from Ukraine and Eugene and Mariana Simonov from Moldova. All 4 grew up in typical Soviet Communist homes; their homelands were not the countries they are now. Under Soviet rule, Ukraine and Moldova were a part of the USSR. All 4 became Christians in the 90s when there was a wave of missionaries who poured over the crumbled Iron Curtain. That wave of missionaries has either gone home or moved on to other places in the world. However the needs remain great in this part of the world. Evangelicals in most countries of Eastern Europe are less than 1% of the population.

It was fascinating to hear their testimonies and to hear them tossing around the Russian language among each other like a rubber ball in a racquet ball court. Even though all 4 of our guests speak English and their mother tongue, they all had to learn to speak Russian in school. Russia still holds great (and sometimes scary) influence in this part of the world.

This November marks the 20th anniversary since the Berlin Wall fell. The euphoria of the event has long ceased and most people are trying to figure out how to make life work. Most governments of Eastern Europe lean strongly toward socialism and operate a “command and control” economy.

With some exceptions, freedom of religion exists in Eastern Europe. In some places like Bosnia and Albania the gospel is being heard for the first time in 1000 years! However, for most religion is only a cultural expression; the primary god worshipped is materialism. Eastern Europe and Russia is a land of great gospel need; our Lord deserves not just their religious activity but He is worthy of their hearts and their worship.

Our ministries across Eastern Europe and Russia took another heavy blow when we learned that our outreach and operating budgets were cut by 2/3rds. In a land with so few Christians and so many open doors, it breaks my heart to see monies either directed elsewhere or just plain no longer available. And we don’t qualify for a government bail out. Perhaps this is our Gideon moment.

Anyway, we wish you could have been our guest at dinner that night. The “EB food” was excellent, our company was wonderful and our God is holy and sovereign! Thanks for walking this journey with us; your partnership keeps us in the mission field out here in Eastern Europe and Russia.



EB and her friend Deb Olson host at our home a "young mothers" luncheon for those associated with our missionary community. Some of the countries represented here are Poland, Ukraine, Romania, Belarus and the USA.



These next pictures are from a Hungarian culture festival held in our village of Diosd. This first picture is of a big basin full of grapes. The barrell dispenses fresh grape juice. What happens between is anyone's guess.



Hungarian horsemen




Quentin looks into a big pot of Hungarian goulash.




Yup, this is the real thing! Notice: no feet. Also, notice where the rod goes in and where it goes out.




Quentin and his friends sampling some of the food. Quentin does not express a lot of confidence that he can identify what he is about to eat!

Sending Liz to college

Sending your oldest child off to college is always a monumental event. Yet even more so when one is separated from that child by half of the globe. We tried to capture just a little of that sentiment with this brief video. Liz is a freshman at Manhattan Christian College in Manhattan, Kansas.