CHURCH PLANTING IN EUROPE

We had an awesome time in Europe: 3 cities – Vienna, Sopron, Hungary and the region around Venice Italy. It involved 5 flights, 4 train rides and numerous bus rides, all without a single mishap. Praise God!

The first two days in Vienna and the last week in Friuli, Italy we were with our dear friends Tom and Maureen who are in their first term of missionary service there doing ESL, evangelism, and helping with administration. Linda helped teach ESL and we participated in their first Bible study in the town of Valvasone.

Most of our time was visiting, learning and encouraging each other in God’s work. We also met several Italian church planters and attended a church plant on Sunday. Sam Spatola who has planted churches in Southern and Northern Italy and now leads a church planting Mission said it this way: “6/10 of Italians have the daunting challenge of reaching 60 million people and planting churches in 32,000 towns and villages without a gospel witness. The average church is under 50 people, can’t support it’s pastor, and is having a hard time having an impact in the community.”


We don’t believe God has given up on Europe and want to do everything in our ability to see Gospel seeds sprout and spread throughout these lands. Please pray for more national church planters for the harvest and coaches to come alongside them!

Our good friends Tom and Maureen.

The center piece was a church planting training institute in Hungary at which we met around 150 people involved in church planting from about 25 countries – mostly European but we also spent time with someone working in Jordan. I did not have to teach (my friend Craig did that) but they introduced us and had me explain my new role and vision. That opened a lot of opportunities to meet with people, join the discussion groups, and make appointments around meals. The day went from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. so we had no time to visit Sopron but that was OK. We loved meeting church planters and learning about each unique situation.

Praise God! We have found our main point person for Europe and others who can become church planting coaches in their region. He is a missionary in the Czech Republic who is already coaching and teaching and comes with high recommendations.

About 50 national church planters and leaders participated. The president of the church in Slovakia asked: “Can you help us train a church planting coach for our country even though we don’t have any missionaries there?” And he introduced me to a church planter who could be prepare for that role. The welcome was wonderful and there is SO MUCH to follow-up on and we need wisdom and direction to follow-up on new relationships and openings.

Thank you for your prayers. Let me give you an example of God’s intervention. On Thursday I woke up at 4 a.m. and God brought to mind four people I should try to get together with between meetings the last day. I knew time would be short and asked God to lead me to those people. In each case I ran into them at a break or at a meal and was able to have the conversations that were needed. It was reassuring to know that those were divine encounter not haphazard meetings. The last supper was with a missionary in Jordan building his church planting team and it was neat to see how our years leading a team in Montreal and working with teams in Latin America allowed us to speak into his situation. We thoroughly enjoyed meeting and working with such a great and diverse group of church planters!

Who says missionaries don't have fun! Linda celebrated her birthday there and we had a great time discovering new tastes and sights as a couple. Her favorite taste treat was chocolata - pure thick hot chocolate without milk, like liquid gold to the taste buds! Mine was the delicious mixed seafood straight from the Adriatic . A highlight for us was visiting Venice. The city is one immense and magnificent work of art. We took a water ferry to a charming fishing village called Burano where they make lace. God is so good to us.

Jesus- Hope for Europe!

150 Church Planters and Church Leaders at the Church Planting Training Institute in Sopron Hungary