Last Saturday, we drove 10 hours from Marseille to Rothenburg, Germany, for the 49th Annual Euro-American Family Retreat for the Churches of Christ. On the way, we passed through Switzerland and Liechtenstein!
The Euro-American retreat began as a retreat for families in the military and over the years has morphed into a retreat for American missionaries and military personnel working in Europe. It is put on every year by a church in Texas that sends speakers, song leaders and Bible class teachers for the adults and children. This year, there were about 100 people, including 10 CEMistes, four of whom were hooked up to headphones for an English to French translation.
To me, entering a room full of people singing in my native tongue, with the songs I grew up with, and speaking with the same kind of folksy idioms and love for “sermon illustrations” as the church where I was raised, was like entering a little oasis in the desert. To be able to sing again with my eyes closed and knowing what every word means greatly encouraged my spirit.
During the 5 day retreat, we were encouraged to break our CEMiste group into smaller, more manageable chunks, and visit, talk and eat with as many different people as possible. There were all sorts of missionaries in attendance: families with kids, single women, internet outreach-ers, old-style campaigners, camp counselors, preachers, chorists, pub evangelists, short term and long term. Ireland, Germany, Albania, Switzerland, France (us), Romania, the Netherlands and Austria were represented.
During the “break-out session” time, I attended a class on “Transitions,” particularly applied to the transition of changing cultures.
During the copious free time during the retreat, I went on a hike down to the valley surrounding the town with tour-guide Wayne, a member of the church in Stuttgart. I walked along the ancient wall surrounding the town, went in bookstores, ate a "SpaghettiEis" and a “Schneeball”. As a group, we went on the Rothenberg “Night Watchman” tour, hosted by a sinister character who kept the city safe. I had a great time meeting people and learning about God's laborers in Europe.
After the retreat in Rothenburg, we went to Geneva, Switzerland. We were hosted by Lorine’s family, who live on the border of France and Switzerland. We had a 2 day, 6 HOUR PER DAY, seminar on evangelism, instructed by Doyle Kee. Doyle and his wife have been missionaries in Geneva for over 30 years. Doyle’s evangelism seminar was very different from what I expected; the other evangelism trainings I've attended focused on methods of getting people talking about faith and how to lead Bible studies. We did discuss some popular Bible-study approaches, but the main crux of our seminar was WHY and WHAT of evangelism: why we need to evangelize, and what message of salvation we are spreading.
Doyle's illustration of a complicated-but-yet-simple response to the question that our non-christian friends may have for us: "If I become a christian, and then I mess up by sinning, what happens?" For the response, we have this illustration. A bomb is about to strike your hypothetical country. You can either quickly get on the lifeboat, or stay and be blown up. The lifeboat represents the church, and the gangway is baptism. You're hurrying on the boat, so you're not entirely ready; you don't have your sea legs, and you fall down all the time (falling down=sin). If you stay on the boat, your friends will help you walk. If you give up on staying on the boat, because it is too much of a challenge for you (leaving the church) then you are no longer saved by the lifeboat. But you can still grab onto a life-vest and return to the lifeboat (God/the church) if you decide you want to give the lifeboat another try. CONCLUSIONS: 1. People in the church still sin and make mistakes. 2. You don't have to be saved if you don't want to be. 3. God will always take you back, if you decide to return after leaving.
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