Challenges without and challenges within

WarburgSome people seem to be always looking for new challenges in life, a stimulating task or even a problem. In church life one never needs to look for new challenges. The challenge of going and evangelizing the world next door is as old as it is new every day – at work, in the bus or the underground, the kindergarten or wherever. It is at the same time a truly stimulating task when we are then challenged by those who don’t believe to explain our faith and our hope. And, what about problems? Well, in a church context we are not talking about a mathematical problem but about moral problems – and at times it looks as if they thrive well in church. Here we have what I am happy to classify as challenges without and challenges within. We are facing some particular challenges in both categories here in Warburg, Germany. Continued…

Continuing the ministry in Wodzislaw

Church at WodzislawDear readers of the Vision of Europe, it is my privilege to share with you something of the present situation in the Wodzislaw Church and also from my personal life. The end of 2007 and beginning of 2008 marked a change in my activity in the work among the churches, and also in my own church. That change was due to a diagnosis and later major surgery. I hadn’t been a patient in hospital for more than thirty years, but then I had to stay there four times. It was a very new experience for me, but at the same time an opportunity for witnessing about the greatness of our Lord Jesus Christ. I could not only speak with people, but also offer good Christian literature. Continued…

Church planting in Southern Spain

AlmunecarAlmuñecar today

Almuñecar is a small town of around 27,000 people. There is a considerable number of foreign residents who stay for some months in the year and have their second house here, or come often for holidays. So the town is cosmopolitan and you can easily find people from a variety of countries. Continued…

'A very vague religion'

CarcassoneOur small Bible literature stand is set up each Saturday morning at the top of the steps which mount from the cathedral to the car park where the Saturday Rag Market is held. This is quite a strategic position on the direct path from the food market in the town centre to the general market on the boulevard. One week last October while I was at our stand I was suddenly joined by a colourfully dressed imam, accompanied by three young men carrying a large drawing of a mosque. They had come down from Commercy in the north of France to collect funds for their new mosque. A week later – same place, same occupation – two young men arrived to sell bilingual Islamic calendars to whoever would buy one. I was wondering how long it would take for Christians to do something more public. I had forgotten that the following Saturday was 1st November! Continued…

When Calvin didn't pay a visit to Bologna ...

Long, long ago, one day in 1536, two young Frenchmen arrived in Ferrara, a town near Bologna. They were hosted by the Duchess of Ferrara, Renée of France, cousin and sister-in-law of the King of France, Francis I. She was married to Duke Hercules of Este, Lucrezia Borgia’s son. Renée knew that the two Frenchmen ‘had left their homes on account of that Gospel of Christ which she herself had learnt to love… As these two Frenchmen were about to sojourn in the states of a prince, a vassal of the Pope, they were compelled… to appear under a false name.’ One of them, who introduced himself as Charles d’Espeville, was none other than the 27 year-old John Calvin, who had just published his Christianae Religionis Institutio in Basel. Calvin preached in the castle chapel, increasingly gathering reformed French speakers and also many Italians hungry for the Word of God. This caused a bitter reaction from the Duke and especially the Curia. The presence of this ‘Reformer of Noyon’ became known to the Inquisition and he was arrested. They were determined to have him tried at Bologna, at that time a city in the States of the Pope, where they would be in complete control. Yet, recalling Luther’s escape returning from Worms, Calvin was freed by an unknown army (likely that of Renée) and was somehow able to make his way to Switzerland, never to return to Italy. ‘At this epoch so glorious for Italy… when Juan Valdes, Peter Martyr, and Occhino filled Naples with the Gospel; when Christ’s truth seemed to be gliding even into Rome itself, a Frenchman, under the patronage of a French princess, was announcing in Ferrara the same Gospel, but with a voice even more distinct. What a future for Italy, if Rome had not extinguished these lights!’ (D’Aubigne, Merle J. H., History of the Reformation in the time of Calvin, Volume 5, Book 9, Chapter 15, in The John Calvin Collection, CD-ROM, Albany, Ages Software 1998, pp. 342, 346) Continued…

In Belarus today

Orthodox Church, BelarusLittle by little the Belarusian nation is coming back to God. Only 27% of the population of Belarus can say that religion has any part in their life. In our society it is just becoming a tradition to attend church, but mainly people do not like to see religious symbols because they feel uncomfortable. Continued…

Tenth anniversary of the opening of the church building

La ManchaThe 29th November 1998 was a milestone for the Evangelical Church in Alcázar de San Juan. On that day we had the official opening of our new church building, located in one of the main and busiest avenues of the city. Therefore it was right to remember such an event ten years afterwards! This is not to say that we have not remembered it before in other anniversaries, but we thought it was good to use this round number to reflect again on the Lord’s goodness to us in granting us such a plot of land and such a fine building. Continued…