"Bringing in the Hungarian Harvest Project" 2007

Praise God! Wow! The activities of our Budapest campus ministry during September, including BHHP week, has generated over 1300 evangelistic contacts (students who expressed a desire to talk with someone about knowing Christ personally)!

On the first day of the project we set aside time to seek God’s face together and pray for our week of outreach.

My good friend Brent Harrison, of Experiencing Missions Intl (www.experiencemissionsintl.org) is essentially an honorary member of our staff here in Budapest. He is probably the loudest cheerleader for Campus Crusade's work among Hungarian students. He led the charge when the project spoke in classrooms. Here he is posing with some of the Hungarian students with whom he interacted. Any doubt as to which one is Brent?

Mara, one of our favorite Hungarian staff, married Gabi. Their wedding was during the project week and many of the BHHPers attended the wedding. Gabi is joining his new bride as a member of our Hungarian staff team! After a brief honeymoon to Turkey they will be helping with the follow-up of the evangelistic contacts.

Here is the Evangelical Lutheran church where they were married.

On several occasions we had the visiting American missionaries over to our house for fellowship and a good meal. Here is Scott and Rick from North Metro church in Atlanta hangin’ out with the old man.

EB and I celebrated with the visiting Americans and Hungarian Campus Crusade staff what God did during BHHP week with a dinner at Hemmingway’s restaurant here in Budapest.

Our three teenagers are in full swing with their fall activities. Ben is playing soccer, Savannah (middle) in the school play and Liz is playing volleyball.

Quentin and Rebekah fishin' for something sweet! EB is homeschooling both of them this year.

Equipping Laborers in Poland and Czech

It was a privilege to have at least some of my family with me while I traveled. Here we are (sans Elizabeth, Benjamin and Savannah who were all in their first week of school) enjoying the crisp air and green hills of eastern Czech while at a conference where I was asked to teach.

EB and I just returned from a week of ministry in Poland and the Czech Republic. It was a blessing to not travel alone but have EB, Rebekah and Quentin with me. I wish you could have met who we met, seen what we saw and experienced what we experienced.

Our first stop was in southern Poland for Campus Crusade’s Polish staff conference with 100 Polish missionaries. It was so encouraging to hear how the Lord is using this select group of Poles. EB and I both observed how the Polish people are more like Americans than most of the ethnic groups we have worked with in Eastern Europe. We found the Poles to have an American-like sense of humor, to be gregarious, optimistic, and hard working.

Saying "thanks" after the Polish ministry of Campus Crusade honored EB and me for our work on their behalf.

Even though Poland has upwards of 95% Catholic Church-goers, it is still predominately a secular society. Consider this quote I found recently in a publication from “Pioneers,” a missions agency like Campus Crusade: “As a percentage of population, there are fewer evangelical Christians in Poland than there are in Saudi Arabia—four times fewer! Roughly 90 percent of the counties in this country of 38 million have no evangelical church of any kind.”

On a free day, EB and I toured Krakow, the site of an outreach we are doing in early October with some American Christians. We visited the location of the WWII Jewish ghetto, where Hitler corralled all the Jews in Krakow before shipping them off to death camps. How do you explain the heaviness and hurt you feel while standing on the site where such evil happened?

This was the gathering place in Krakow's Jewish ghetto before the Jews were put on trains bound for the concentration camps during Hitler's reign. Today the square remains clear except for some vacant wooden chairs as an artistic way to say, "Everyone is gone; the ghetto has been emptied." I felt as if I was treading on a thin crust covering a worm hole from hell that regurgitated indescribable evil during World War II.

A short distance from the Jewish ghetto train station in Krakow is Oscar Schindler's factory, the subject of Steven Speilberg's movie.

On Monday we traveled a short distance across the Czech border to a beautiful retreat site in the extreme eastern reach of Czech. The location was high up in some rolling hills looking down on valleys with horses, farm houses, small villages, gurgling streams, fresh, clean air and green (even in August!) pastures and fields. It was picturesque! We spent a day with the staff of a Czech evangelical ministry called KVZ, the abbreviation translates loosely as “Christian and Education Outreach.” I taught on proper attitudes and Biblical basis for support raising. (Another ministry passionate for Jesus Christ but with great financial needs.)

For breakfast we were served cucumbers and hotdogs. For dinner one night we ate strawberry jam-filled potatoes with chocolate sauce and whipped cream!

EB and I really enjoyed our time with these 25 Czech brothers and sisters in Christ, all of whom share Jesus on campuses in the most atheistic country in Europe. 81% of Czechs do not believe in God, according to a recent study done by Pew Research. In terms of belief in God, in the spiritually dark continent of Europe, Czech is the darkest place of all.

While we split up to pray in small groups with our Czech brothers and sisters in Christ, I did notice a difference in style in our small group between Americans and Czechs. Which pair of feet above belongs to EB?

It must be noted, however, that while larger percentages of “deists” exists in other European countries, the percentage of evangelical believers across Czech, Poland, the countries of the former Yugoslavia, and other Eastern European countries, is lower than in many Middle Eastern countries. All the same, why are there more hard-line atheists in Czech than in the other countries of Europe? EB and I posed this question over lunch to Dave Patty, the American director of Josiah Ventures in Eastern Europe, whose facility hosted the conference in Czech at which I spoke. Dave explained why there are so many atheists in Czech.

Me, on the left standing, addressing 25 Czech missionaries, along with my translator, Josef Pavlinak, the director of KVZ ministries.

To quote Dave loosely, the Protestant Reformation actually began in what is now the Czech Republic under the leadership of Jan Huss 100 years before Luther. Yet the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, who claimed those lands at that time, was militantly Catholic and demanded that all the “Hussites” either flee or return to the Catholic Church. For those that did neither, they were imprisoned or even killed, including Huss who was burned at the stake as a heretic by the Catholic Church in 1415. (It must be noted that in 1999 Pope John Paul II expressed "deep regret for the cruel death inflicted" on Huss and suggested an inquiry as to whether Huss might be cleared of heresy.)

Mandatory membership in the Catholic Church continued for hundreds of years until the late 1800s and for 40 years there was religious freedom among the Czech people. Then came Hitler followed by two generations of atheistic Communism. Religious freedom returned to the Czech people with the fall of Communism but the Czechs have chosen to stay away from their churches.

However, God has not forgotten the Czech or the Polish people. He has raised up Spirit-led, forward-thinking laborers for both countries. God in His mercy continues to reveal Himself to these people who have ignored Him. Yet isn’t that what God is doing for the ENTIRE human race?

Can We Trust the Bible?

The Bible is the number one internationally best selling book year after year. In fact, the British Times newspaper in 1996 said:

"Forget modern British novelists and TV tie-ins, the Bible is the best-selling book every year. It is wonderful, weird ... that in this godless age... this one book should go on selling, every month."

However, the Bible is also much maligned. A major theme in movies today is that the Bible has been changed in order to benefit corrupt church leaders and suppress some alleged liberating truth (i.e. “The DaVinci Code”). Other religious voices, such as the Muslims and the Mormons, need a corrupt Bible so they can venerate their own religious writings to the loft of truth. For those who are genuinely seeking after God, it is easy to be confused.

But the evidence shows us that Bible is a very trustworthy historical document and carries authenticity unlike any text of ancient history. In this article we will explore some of the reasons we can trust the Bible.

The Bible is not one book but a whole library of books written under many different circumstances by many different authors. The Bible was written by many different authors from kings to shepherds and uneducated fishermen. The Bible was written in many different circumstances from palaces to prison cells. The Bible was written using many different literary styles from poetry, prophecy, prayers, personal letters to history. The Bible was written over the course of 1600 years.

Yet even with such wide variety of circumstances, the Bible tells one story of redemption between God and man. And the Bible stands tall as an accurate historical document. Evidence for the Bible’s reliability can be broken down into two different camps: 1) External evidence and 2) Internal evidence.

1) External Evidence:

Manuscript Authority: When historians examine the reliability of an ancient text, one of the first things they examine is the manuscript evidence of that text. They ask questions such as: How many copies of the ancient text are there? What is the time period separating the earliest copies from the original document? Are those copies accurate?

Ancient authors, such as Caesar, Livy, Herodotus, Thucydides, average from 1000 to 1400 years separation between the earliest copies we now possess and the time of the original writing. And we just don’t have enough copies (8 to 10 copies) of these author’s writings to determine if those copies are accurate representations of the originals. However, of Homer’s work Iliad we have over 640 copies. This many copies allow historians to have some degree of confidence in what Homer’s original writing said.

For the New Testament, there is only two hundred years (at most) between the earliest complete copies and when the originals were written. We have copies of portions of the New Testament that date within 100 years of when the originals were written (the John Rylands the Chester Beaty and Bodmer manuscripts). And we have 5000 copies of the New Testament in the original Greek language, many that pre-date Mohammad, that confirm the accuracy of over 99% of today’s Bible. (source: Ron Rhodes, “Answering the Objections,” and Norman Geisler, “Answering Islam”)

If one adds into the mix early copies of the New Testament translated into other languages, including Ethiopian, Slavic and Armeniac languages, “the total approximates 25,000 manuscripts that cite portions of the New Testament. This far exceeds the number of manuscripts of other ancient documents, which, in most cases, numbers less than ten,”
so says New Testament scholar Ron Rhodes, in his book, “Answering the Objections,” p. 140.

Non-friendly sources: Historians from the first two centuries, who were not friends of Christians, mentioned Jesus Christ and the early Christians in their writing. This is a list of some, but not all, of these ancient authors: Josephus, The Talmud, Tacitus, Thallus, Pliny the Younger, Suetonius, and Lucian. From their writings alone we can gather these early facts about Jesus and His followers:

1. Jesus lived during the time of Tiberius Caesar and had a brother named James

2. He was the acclaimed Messiah

3. He was crucified under Pontius Pilate on the eve of the Jewish Passover

4. His disciples believed He rose from the dead

5. His disciples were willing to die for their belief

6. Christianity spread as far as Rome from Jerusalem

7. His disciples denied the Roman gods and worshipped Jesus as God.

(Sources: Gary Habermas, “The Historical Jesus,”; Lee Strobel, “The Case for Christ”)

Sounds a lot like the Jesus of the New Testament, doesn’t it?

Friendly Sources: The early church fathers quoted the Bible extensively in their writings. If the Bible we have today is different from the Bible of the first couple of centuries, then these early Christians as they quote the Bible in their writings, would certainly testifying to these changes. However, we can reconstruct the Bible we have today, all but eleven verses, from quotations from the earliest church fathers. (source: Ron Rhodes, “Answering the Objections”)

This has led Dr. J.P. Moreland, who has his doctorate in philosophy from the University of Southern California, to say that, “Most historians accept the textual accuracy of other ancient works on far less adequate manuscripts grounds than is available for the New Testament.” (from his work, “Scaling the Secular City”)

The Bible was not compiled by one man; it was not subject to merely one man’s biases or preferences. The Bible was compiled by many voices within the early church. Each writing that was considered as part of the New Testament canon had to pass a series of tests. These tests included the following: Was this writing written by an apostle? Was it already in use by the church? Was it consistent with the other writings of the Bible?

Many people look to the Council of Nicea in AD 325 as the point where many doctrines we consider controversial today first entered the Christian church: Doctrines such as the deity of Christ, His resurrection and the sinfulness of man. Yet historians report that the Council of Nicea merely allowed the Christian church to affirm and speak with one collective voice these things that the church already believed and taught. There were many competing ideologies even then, such as Arianism, Lucanism, and Samosotianism to name a few. Many people wanted to know where the church stood in light of these ideologies. (“Our Legacy,” Dr. John Hannah, p. 82.)

Josh McDowell wrote in his article, “the Da Vinci Code, the Companion Guide to the Movie,” of the 20 rulings made at Nicea, none of them dealt with the contents of the New Testament.” The claims by many whether in Hollywood or in other religions that the Bible was changed or corrupted during the Council of Nicea just does not jive with the facts! Sorry, Dan Brown!

Archeology continues to confirm the historicity of the Bible. Over 25,000 finds and sites in the Holy Land have been discovered that affirm the Bible’s historical claims. (Ron Rhodes, “Answering the Objections”) World renown archeologist Nelson Glueck has made this statement, ““It can be stated categorically that no archeological discovery has ever contradicted a biblical reference.”

2) Internal evidence

One can not only look for evidence outside of the Bible for its historical authenticity, but inside the Bible as well. The Bible contains eyewitness material as well as embarrassing material, fulfilled prophecy and reliable reasons to date the gospels within a generation of the time of Christ.

Eyewitness material: The four biographies of Jesus (commonly known as the Gospels), as well as the Book of Acts, contain an unprecedented amount of eyewitness material on historical events. Most historians would salivate over this kind of source material!

Matthew’s and John’s Gospels are written directly by eyewitnesses to Jesus while Mark’s and Luke’s gospel are interviews with the eyewitnesses. Luke’s sequel to his gospel is the Book of Acts which chronicles the birth and growth of the early Christian church.

While consistent in core truths, four different eye-witness accounts each provide a different vantage point from which to view many of the same events from the life, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. If each biography was exactly the same, with the same emphasis on every event of Jesus’ life, there would be no need for four different biographies. While some difficulties exist,, they are however reconcilable. In fact, the differences add credibility that the gospel writers were recording only what they experienced and heard and not collaborating to get their stories straight. These difficulties should increase our faith that the gospel accounts are true eye-witnesses accounts; the presence of difficulties does not justify rejecting what the Bible says.

For example, in the American Civil War in the battle of Gettysburg, there was an event known as “Pickett’s Charge” where the Confederate Army charged uphill into the entrenched Union forces. General Lee of the Confederate forces gave his command to charge to one of his officers named Pickens. Yet some historians believe that General Longstreet relayed the message from Lee to Pickens. Some reject this claim. A discrepancy exists; Historians cannot agree if 3 commanders or just 2 were involved. But all agree that Pickett’s Charge happened even though historians cannot agree on the number of commanders involved.

Some of this eyewitness material spills over into irrelevant, even embarrassing, material included in the New Testament canon. Consider these examples:

“And a certain young man was following Him, wearing nothing but a linen sheet over his naked body; and they seized him. But he left the linen sheet behind, and escaped naked.” Mark 14:51-52

The example of Peter: “Upon this rock I will build my church,” Jesus said of Peter in Matthew’s gospel (16:18). Yet Peter is called Satan just a few verses later (v.23) and Peter denies Jesus three times (26:69-75). Not the way to paint a hero of the faith unless it really happened that way!

Women, who had no legal credibility in Biblical days, were the first ones to find Jesus’ tomb empty after his resurrection (Matthew 28:1). Jesus’ resurrection would have been more credible if men were the first ones at the tomb.

Yet if the writers of the Gospels and the New Testament wanted to just capture what actually happened and not fabricate a story to promote a cause, then one would expect these sort of embarrassing episodes.

Prophecy Fulfilled: More internal evidence giving historical reliability to the New Testament is the existence of fulfilled prophecy.

The Old Testament contains nearly 300 references to the coming Messiah. All of which were fulfilled in Jesus Christ. (Josh McDowell “New Evidence that Demands a Verdict,” p. 164) The prophecies foretelling the Messiah are direct and specific; they are not clouded in vagueness or multiple possible interpretations.

Micah 5:2 states that the promised Messiah will come from the small village of Bethlehem, which was precisely were Jesus was born.

Isaiah 53 describes Jesus in much detail, particularly his death by crucifixion, which was unknown in Jewish law at the time of Isaiah’s writing. It was a practice learned from the Romans hundreds of years after this passage was written! Jews had always used stoning as their method of capital punishment.

This is a list of just some of the many prophecies regarding the Messiah fulfilled in Jesus Christ:

Born of a virgin; Isaiah 7:14

Called “Lord”; Psalm 110:1

Called “Immanuel”; Isaiah 7:14

Cleansed the temple; Malachi 3:1

Sold for 30 Shekels; Zechariah 11:12

Hands and feet pierced; Psalm 22:16

No bones broken; Psalm 22:17

Christ’s “forsaken” cry; Psalm 22:1

What are the odds one person fulfills just 8 of the hundreds of prophecies?

Cover the USA state of Texas 2 feet deep (66 cm) in coins. You will need 10 to the 17th coins. Mark just one coin. Send someone into Texas blindfolded and have them pick up one coin. What are the chances they will pick up the marked coin? The same as one person fulfilling 8 of the prophecies.

(Josh McDowell, “Evidence that Demands a Verdict”)

Early dates for the writings of the gospels: Some critics believe that the New Testament books were written 100s of years after Christ. Yet here are some reasons to believe they were written within the first generation after Christ.

Lets start with the book of Acts, which chronicles the growth of the church right after Jesus.

We know from extra-biblical sources that Paul was killed AD 64, Peter AD 65 and James in AD 61 (One source is the Annuario Pontificio as well as the early church father Clement.) Yet Acts ends with Paul very much alive and in prison. Acts does however record the deaths of Stephen and James, the brother of Jesus.

Therefore we can assume that Acts was written before 64 AD. Since the Gospel of Luke was the prequel to Acts, we can predate Luke back to about 60 AD. Since Mark was the earliest of the Gospels, then we know that Mark was written in the 50s, less than 20 years after the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. Too soon in an orally transmitted culture for legends and errors to creep in!

Another line of evidence supporting an early date for the Gospels regards the fall of Jerusalem. This was a monumental event that shook the whole Jewish world since the temple and all of its genealogy records were destroyed. This event is predicted in Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21.

Titus and his Roman army ransacked Jerusalem and destroyed the Jewish temple in AD 70. Yet none of the Gospels or the book of Acts record this event. However, these gospel writers mention plenty of other fulfilled prophecy. Therefore it is reasonable to date the Gospels from before the fall of Jerusalem!

Sir Isaac Newton said this: “There are more sure marks of authenticity in the Bible than in any history.” Princeton Scholar Benjamin Warfield also said, “The New Testament (is) unrivaled among ancient writings in the purity of its text as actually transmitted and kept in use.”

Go and find your Bible, dust if off and read it. Start with one of the Gospel of John in the New Testament. Not only is the Bible unrivaled in its historical reliability, it tells the true story of God’s love for mankind. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

25th high school reunion, Shawnee Mission South class of 1982

Pictures from Kanakuk

Heat Wave and Health Care

"It is finally cooling off!" Our car measuring the outside air temperature. We saw it register as high as 106 degrees, the highest we have ever seen our 10 year old car measure outside air temp!

It has been the hottest in 100 years here this week in Budapest, so the locals say. As is true of most Hungarians, we do not have air conditioning and the nearest pool is nearly 30 minutes away. Here are some unique coping skills we have learned.

We learned the value of the “siesta,” an idea that most Americans despise or don’t understand. But when you have no air conditioning, you learn to get up early (4:30am to 5am), get the work done while it is still cool and take it easy during the heat of the day, only to re-emerge with the cool of evening.

This began as a water balloon but was left in the full sun on our deck. It melted into something consistent with blue latex paint.

Get the cool air into the house early but by 10am, close the house up, draw the curtains and keep out the heat. This worked early in the week but after 5 days of 100+ degree heat, it just wasn’t cool anymore in the mornings. I could not even sleep outside at night on our deck because the tiles on our terrace even at 2am were still radiating enough heat to make me sweat as I was out there.

The big grocery stores all pulled their frozen foods from the freezers. The freezers displaying the frozen foods could not keep the food from thawing.

I would pull a t-shirt out of my closet and it felt hot as if it had just come out of the dryer.

5 AM: The sun rises menacingly over our Hungarian village.

On another note, I had an outpatient procedure done at a local hospital here in Hungary. It was very clean, the paint was fresh and pretty, the staff smiled and were courteous, no one mocked me for my need for further testing and everything was professional. EB accompanied me and we waited for the procedure to start in a private room. That room had your standard hospital bed as well as a single normal bed next to it. Not bad for a country with socialized health care.

But wait! Before you call Michael Moore; this was a PRIVATE hospital independent of the socialized health care system of Hungary. You have heard plenty of horror stories of our experience with socialized medicine. Before you become a fan of government run health care, please come spend a week with us and we will give you a tour of contrast between private and public health care here in Hungary.

I must give a “shout-out” to this private hospital. Google “Telki Hungary hospital” and surely you will find the hospital we visited. My procedure? Well, lets just say that George W and I had a lot in common medically this past weekend. I’m fine; everything checked out okay.

Seeds of Change in the Balkans

Is a country worth our missionary efforts where evangelical Christians across the entire country are outnumbered by those in attendance on a Sunday morning at a typical American mega-church?

If so, I would like to present you with TWO such countries in Southeast Europe: Serbia and Montenegro.

One can find plenty of religious expression across SE Europe but personal faith in Jesus is the only answer to the despair and emptiness of her people.

Although stunning in its beauty, these countries are spiritually dead. EB and I, along with Savannah, Rebekah and Quentin were in the small city of Sutomore on the Adriatic along the Mediterranean Sea. We were in Europe’s newest country of barely 15 months: Montenegro, which seceded from Serbia, what is left of the former Yugoslavia.

Our Serbian ministry was having an English language camp for students there at a 2 star hotel along a beach covered with Eastern European tourists. In the context of teaching English, we were able to build friendships and share Christ with the Serbian students attending the camp. Some gospel conversations I had went deep into the night. Please allow me to introduce you to a couple of Serbian students with whom I shared.

Anton (on the left) did a mean Frank Sinatra on karaoke night.

Anton: (not his real name) Anton once studied to be an Orthodox priest. Most Americans categorize Christianity into either Catholic or Protestant. There is a third category: Orthodox. Yet the priests who were training Anton led him into all sorts of sins. These sins were so damaging that Anton does not like even talking about it.

But it didn’t quench his thirst for God. Anton heard the gospel many times at camp and he told me that the friendships he developed at camp, particularly with the American Campus Crusade college students who were helping to run the camp, were more important to him than his Serbian friends.

Speaking about Jesus with Fedor at a coffee shop along the Adriatic.

Fedor: Fedor has his doctorate in Film and Movies and is a member of Mensa, the society for the “super intellectual.” Fedor said he heard that this English camp had a religious twist to it and he came expecting to be preached at. He also came ready to do battle with the “religious zealots.” But, he told me, he was disarmed by the kindness and genuine faith of the people he met.

When I gave an optional seminar on the Historical Reliability of the Bible (same as I gave a two weeks before in Sarajevo), Fedor sat in the front row and asked honest, seeking questions. I explained the gospel several times to Fedor and he said he found the gospel message “very attractive.” Fedor, to the best of my knowledge, has not trusted Christ yet but seems oh so close. Please pray for Fedor! He text messaged me after the camp was over and said, “I count this time spend at (the English language camp) as best summer experience ever. Thank you for being an important part of it…”

Teaching American culture to Serbian students, like country-western dancing, was part of our English camps.

There are many city blocks in America with more evangelical churches than all of Montenegro, which has only 3. Please continue to pray for the Balkan countries of Southeastern Europe. Many Christians chalk these countries up as a part of Christendom but there are more Christians in Middle Eastern countries than exist in many of the countries of the European Balkan Peninsula.

Quentin and Rebekah at the beach and EB and Savannah celebrating the 4th of July.

EB and I felt like this English camp might be a great place for families to bring kids and do evangelistic missions work. It is right on the beach and in a beautiful part of the world. Let us know if this even might be a possibility for you for next summer.

In addition to significant ministry, there are beautiful cities to explore such as Budva, Montenegro and Dubrovnik, Croatia. Its beautiful but there is much work to be done for the sake of the gospel along the Adriatic Sea. The Balkans need authentic examples of the gospel and they need laborers who will live it out. Please come!

Dubrovnik: A jewel of a city along the Adriatic coast.

A few cultural notes: At the border into Montenegro, the border guard examined our family’s passports, noticed the Georgia plates on our van and asked if we were Americans. Reluctantly, based on cool responses elsewhere in Europe, I said yes. He gave me an enthusiastic thumbs-up and waved me into his country. Throughout the country we saw signs announcing USAid, referencing the fact that America is helping this country get started in its tenure as a sovereign nation.

A truck wondering if it can get through a hand-dug tunnel on a Serbian highway.

I am also learning that I can measure the “sophistication” of a culture based on how many Coca Cola options they have. For example, a trek into any Super Walmart or Super Target in America gives you a whole aisle of Coca Cola varieties to choose from. Yet in Montenegro, we felt fortunate to find a place that sold good ole normal Diet Coke, known as "Coca Cola Lite” in Europe. The Americans at the English camp were frequently asking each other, “Do you know where I can buy a diet Coke?”

While looking for a parking place, a tiny Eastern European car (a Pulski Fiat) was straddling two places. I tried in vain to wedge our big ole minivan into the spot. But waiting behind me was a silver Audi with Romanian plates (read: Mafia), the kind of car that usually travels 100 mph on the highway and flashes its headlights at any other car that dares to drive in the left lane. So I let the parking place go and searched for a new one. However I was flagged down immediately and waved back to the parking spot. It seems the occupants of the silver Audi with Romanian plates got out of their car, picked up the tiny Eastern European car, moved it 3 feet and ushered us into the new parking place they just created!

Our van in its parking place next to the Pulski Fiat

Hey! If you have read this far, drop me an email and let me know. I always wonder how much of what I post gets read.

“I have never taken the Bible seriously. But because of your message tonight, I will start reading it," a Bosnian student said to me after my talk.

This mosque stands proudly at one of the major intersections in Sarajevo.

This represents a pictorial history of Sarajevo for the past 25 years. Sarajevo hosted the 1984 Winter Olympics. (The tower in the photo is displaying the Olympic rings.) Yet when Communism fell, Yugoslavia plunged into a civil war. The Croats, Serbs and Bosnians all were at war with each other. Sarajevo was one of the places hit hardest during the civil war. Both Christian and Muslim cemeteries are found throughout the city.

The room was stifling hot. The fact that the room was filled with people did not help to cool things. Even though it was evening, it had been well into the 90s earlier in the day. The windows were open but it just brought in the heat, noise and dirt from the street. Most everyone was trying to cool themselves with little hand fans made from paper. My shirt was soaked in sweat. Air conditioning was a luxury no one remotely expected. I had been speaking for almost an hour through a translator. I thought, “Too long; maybe I should just stop.”

But as I looked around the room all eyes were on me; the body language of my mostly Muslim audience said, “Keep going; we are listening.” I could not believe it! It was under these conditions I was lecturing on the Authority of the Bible.

To be in a Muslim country and to speak on this topic and share Christ was a dream come true and a highpoint of my life as a missionary!

I was in Sarajevo, Bosnia. Bosnia is part of the former Yugoslavia with nearly 4 million people and at most 500 born again believers throughout the entire country. Mosques can be found throughout the city of Sarajevo the way Southern Baptist churches pepper a small town in Georgia.

Friday noon prayers at a mosque in Sarajevo. What 11:00 am Sunday is for American Christians, noon on Friday is for Muslims.

Campus Crusade has teams that rotate in and out of the city on one year cycles (STINT) as well as an extra influx of manpower during the early summer. I was asked to come there and speak three consecutive nights on three topics, “Creation vs. Evolution,” “Truth vs. Relativity,” and “the Authority of the Bible.” Instead of just presenting facts, I tried to connect with the heart of my audience, telling personal stories and showing movie clips to help illustrate my points.

“They came because they wanted to hear about the topic; no one is forcing them to be here,” one of the Campus Crusade staff told me. “They don’t hear this truth about the Bible or Jesus in their mosques, on TV, or from anywhere. They equate Christianity with MTV since both are from America. Or they equate Christianity with the crusades of the middle ages or the Serbs who rained shells down on their city during the Yugoslav civil war in the 1990s.”

During the Q & A time, one older man, who sat on the front row during all 3 lectures, said, “I have been searching for God for 25 years. There are 2 big hurdles keeping me from the Christian God.” He went on to cite classic Muslim arguments from John 14:16 (does Jesus predict Mohammad's coming here?) and the apocrypha writing, “Gospel of Barnabas,” which presents a very Muslim Jesus. Through God’s grace, I was able to give the Christian view (and the accurate historical view) of both topics. When the meeting ended, he was quickly talking with several of our summer missionaries.

One of the many Muslim cemeteries in Sarajevo. It is a reminder of all the Muslims daily that enter eternity without Jesus Christ.

During the Q & A, questions were asked implying a myriad of misconceptions ranging from the Trinity to exactly what happened in the Council of Nicea in AD 325, damage largely propagated by the movie, “The Da Vinci Code,” and snatched onto by Muslim apologists. I found it incredulous that the majority of Muslim arguments against the Bible are rooted in misinformation, urban legends and down-right lies. For many Muslims (not all) their style is to deny, deflect and to argue with a loud, intimidating voice. Only a few of the objections raised dealt with the content of what I had shared; rather many were pre-packaged arguments against Christianity.

Scott Moffatt (right), a life-long friend and staff member with Campus Crusade in Jacksonville, FL, brought his wife Katrina and 4 kids with him to Sarajevo for the summer. Here he is witnessing to Delvin after one of my talks. Delvin is a Muslim and has been associating with our work there in Sarajevo for years. Everyone likes Delvin but he is stubborn toward the God who loves him. Pray for Delvin!

When Paul preached in Athens in Acts 17:32-34, there were 3 reactions: 1) some sneered 2) some said, “We shall hear you again about this,” 3) and some men joined Paul and believed. This was a passage we could certainly relate to last week in Sarajevo.

Teams have labored in Sarajevo for years with little fruit. Yet many feel that is about to change. Here are two men who came to Christ just this past month through our work there. Ahmed (left) from a Muslim background and George (right) was saved from a background of drug abuse and organized crime. Pray for both of these guys!

When the lecture session finally broke up, conversations continued at a nearby outdoor café late into the evening. A college student nicknamed “Bookie” came up and hugged me and said, “I have never taken the Bible seriously. But because of your message tonight, I will start reading it.” One of our staff serving in Sarajevo who witnessed to Bookie during the past month said that Bookie is close to receiving Christ as his Lord and Savior.

After one of my lectures, a group that had sat in the back came forward to talk to me. They were believers from the local "Seventh Day Adventist" churchplant. Their pastor told me, "Anytime the gospel is being preached in this town we try to get there and encourage our fellow Christians." When Christians are the minority, denominational differences are quickly set aside.

There is a beauty, a simplicity, even a purity that continues to attract me to these Balkan (Southeastern Europe) cities where Christ is not known to contend for the gospel among Muslims and other lost students. Thank you for empowering us to do just that!

Men playing chess with life-sized pieces at a park in Sarajevo. The men watching were quick to either cheer or boo at each move made by the players.

This is me with both the Sarajevo summer team and the STINT team made up of mostly students from the Atlanta area. They faithfully shared Christ often to hard hearts in a tough setting.