My church is adopting an unreached people group and this past week they sent a group of five others and I to go check out where we felt God was calling us. We went to Brussels, Belgium with original concentration on the Moroccan immigrants there. Just the legal immigrants make up 26% of the population and it is quickly rising. But we soon realized we wanted to adopt the entire city. It is a city of people groups and I am so excited about what God is doing there. Multiple churches have recently been called to go and plant churches and the believers there are so faithful in such darkness!
We did lots of prayer walking to seek what God has for us there and ask him to move in Brussels. Also we distributed Bibles in the market places. We visited all the American missionaries in the city and went to various churches. Visiting with all these different believers and missionaries was very insightful for my present and my future. The small but faithful churches were so inspiring! I realized more how much short-term missions is not my passion but going, living with the people, becoming apart of their culture, and making disciples! I cannot think of anything else I could ever do with my life but go to the unreached people groups and tell them about Jesus!
Also we had lots of meetings to combine different ministry opportunities we were each seeing. We went to a couple of different youth groups and I loved seeing the youth packed in a small room- out numbered on the streets but overflowing the room. Some of them bused 2 hours to get there. God did a lot of work while we were at the youth groups and it was definitely one of my favorite parts of the trip. For the first time God was able to use my education to discuss literature and stuff as tool that He has armed me with to share his light to all the nations. It was also my first cold and European mission trip.
Highlight 1:
We also did some work in a couple of different food banks. The first food bank we went to was a part of a Congolese church that has this ministry of typically just giving people food and then they leave. But because we came they wanted to try something new. They actually invited all these people into the church to wait for their food with soup, coffee, and tea. My friends Lucy and Nate led worship and then Lucy and I told our testimonies. We both felt that it was probably bad because we didn’t even remember what we had said but we came to find out the Holy Spirit had just talked through us! The pastor kept talking about how simple and clear it was! Total God move!! I realized how much my testimony of coming out of a bit of depression in Middle School to the fullness of joy in Christ is such a big thing for the people of Brussels to hear and I would love to go back and tell more people!! Here is the email I sent home describing the event:
Oh my goodness!!! I can't contain my joy when I get to see God working in the nations especially in Europe where it's not expected!! The spirit moved so so so much today you could just feel it!! Just like God told me He would in Jeremiah 1 and Isaiah 49 He used me in to bring His glory to the nations and it was totally not me!! I got to share my testimony with tons of Muslim women and children today as we let them come out of the cold to wait for their free food! Haha some people wouldn't come into a church but it was a breath-taking site to see all these veiled women in this church with a huge cross!! We did worship songs, which none of them had heard anything like and told people it was so beautiful not knowing the glory filled words that were being sung! Then what happened next shocked them so much that they unexpectantly stopped what they were doing and intently paid attention- 2 young educated women got up and full of the spirit started talking to them about what Jesus was and has done in their lives! You could just feel the spirit planting seeds and the Belgium believers were so shocked about it like they were like you don't understand how big all this is to have Muslims in a church and to have them listen and one girl from the Congo (Brussels in like NYC with all the different nationalities I love it!! Haha) got up, grabbed the mike and started talking to me in French and I was so caught off guard and had no idea what she was saying so they translated that she was asking me for tips for teenagers here in Belgium to find joy because depression and suicide are so high here probably cause of all the rain she was like what did you do?? I don't even know what I said I just prayed real fast and let God speak through me and I’m so fired up about all that God is going to do in this city and am honored to get to be a part of it!! Mike warned us he has never left Europe encouraged but I'm so encouraged and filled and ready for what all else God has I store!! I wanted to share with you guys what happened today!:) Thanks for praying!!
Highlight 2:
Another food bank we went to was more advanced in their ministry. They definitely are in need of some younger workers cause all the workers were old. Their joy was so radiant and they had their minds set on things above and not on earth. It was an honor getting to work with them. I got to tell my testimony at this food bank also and met a 12 and 14-year-old girls who are new Christians and have to hide their faith from their Muslim family.
Highlight 3:
Another highlight was going to the big, Vatican City like mosque of Belgium. We thought that as girls we were going to have to kind of sneak in with a head covering and stuff but the opposite happened. We told them we were a group studying religion and they were so excited Americans came into their mosque that they kindly welcomed us in and weirdly tried to act like they were just like us. Making excuses for Islamic stuff they did like that they didn’t shake the girls hands because in their culture that was respectful and they respect girls- what a joke! Haha The head guy took us on a tour and we ended up in their huge room of prayer, sitting in a circle talking about religion and politics. It was seven Christians and one sadly highly deceived Muslim. He went on and on about different 9/11 theories like that it was impossible for planes to do that and our government probably did it to start the war (kind of like how some people say FDR planned Pearl Harbor I guess). People also said the Jews did it because their were Muslims in the building too. Everybody we talked to didn’t know Oklahoma but we would say “its by Texas” and they would be like “Oh Bush!!” He had super bologna, memorized answers to every challenge we threw at him, but I know that all the people around us praying to Allah especially these 3 teenage boys were listening to everything that was being said and it was a glorious time. I was surprised how many challenges were flying out of my mouth- I couldn’t keep the comments from coming out of my mouth and I know it was totally God. Thee gave me a Qur’an and his business card so I’m going to be praying for him and maybe emailing!
Challenge:
In just a short time of being in such a dark place, my nature tendency to doubt the truth of the gospel crept in. How do I know that my beliefs are true and not these people? Maybe I just believe because I have grown up in it. If everybody that has always told me about Christ and said they were Christians suddenly said they were not and gave me reasons would I still believe? I was challenged in many ways this trip realizing that before I go to a mission field as dark or maybe darker than Brussels I need to know, know, know what and why I believe what I do.
