1000 missionaries from over 20 countries, all under one roof

“I cannot imagine why anyone would not want a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.” Shirley Hinkson, at the mic, serving as a missionary in Eastern Europe for over 55 years. 

Several weeks ago we traveled to coastal Slovenia (a small country wedged between Italy and Austria) for a gathering of 1000 Campus Crusade missionaries from across Eastern Europe and Russia.   It was a great week of fellowship, Bible teaching (Dr. Douglas Moo, New Testament scholar from Wheaton and Dr. John Lennox, professor of Mathematics from Oxford), training and planning for the future.  The worship was exceptionally encouraging as believers from 21 countries, from many different languages, cultures and societies, all raised one voice in praise to Jesus Christ.  It was a foreshadowing of Revelation 4 when one from every tribe, tongue and nation will gather before the throne in praise!

For me the highlight was honoring those missionaries who had served the longest in Eastern Europe.   At the top of the least was Swede Anderson and Shirley Hinkson, having served with Campus Crusade in Eastern Europe for over 55 years.   Shirley, along with her deceased husband Bud Hinkson, pioneered the work of the gospel in this part of the world during the Communist years.   As Shirley addressed the convention, she said something so simple yet so profound: “I cannot imagine why anyone would not want a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.”  In my mind, that captured the essence of the missionary heart.  

Maciek and Mariusz, two good friends of ours and leaders of the evangelical movement in Poland

Elvis, Alina, Ramona and Julian, good friends and leaders in our ministry in Romania

Our kids’ school had their annual invitational tournament last weekend.  This year schools came from Austria, Hungary, Ukraine and Bulgaria.  For 2 ½ days it was wall to wall high school basketball.  I loved every moment of it!   I helped coach our girls high school team and they did great.    They made it to the championship round but they were the walking wounded with bruised shoulders, sprained ankles and swollen knees.  Still, they left everything they had on the floor but came up short.  The school from Kiev, Ukraine won the girls bracket.  Our boys walked away easily with the championship for the 2^nd year in a row. 

Savannah's knee, the morning after the championship game

Sure, I would not expect these kids to win against a 6A school from Atlanta or Kansas City.  But they show great talent for a school with a 4 year high school enrollment of 75, a third of whom are Asians.   And they routinely whoop up on teams that have 10x the enrollment they have.   

Above is a highlight video of our girls’ team in the qualifying around against a school from Salzburg, Austria.  It was the best game our girls team had played in 2 years, including one of our girls who had a 5 pt play!