Europe #1: Hospitality and Worship
by Tom Boone, Associate Director for Mission
“Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert” (Isaiah 43:19)
From October 4-8 The Outreach Foundation heads to Europe, showing up as encouragers and friends to the church dispersed among lands far from their homes. We want to see with our own eyes and hear with our own ears how God is fulfilling His promise to Isaiah made long ago. Through faithful servants in the UK, Germany, and Lithuania people are encountering Jesus Christ as their living Savior and Lord. Through hospitality and worship, people are experiencing the embrace of the God of love.
This first visit to Europe is an important step in a conversation we have been having with friends there for several months, in some cases for years (some pictured here). Over the four-day visit, we will be meeting more than ten church leaders and walking into neighborhoods where the church is making God’s name known among refugees from Iran, Afghanistan, the Middle East, and Central Asia. We will witness their vision in action, hear about their dreams our friendship might accomplish, and pray with them over their most fervent needs, sorrows, and joys. Also, we are visiting with Presbyterian missionaries in Europe who know the diaspora context very well.
Our team members are Tom Boone, Sasan Tavassoli, and Caryl Weinberg. Tom is heading to Lithuania early to visit with former students who are now church planters in Eastern Europe, preach at City Church (Lithuania’s largest evangelical church), and on October 4 he and Pastor Saulius Karosas from City Church (pictured here with his family) will join the team in Frankfurt.
Each day (October 4-8) we will post what we are learning and offer prayer points. Yes, you can share these! For today please pray for…
- traveling mercies for the team as we journey to Frankfurt, and
- Dariush Golbaghi (Safe House ministry) who is traveling from Amsterdam to meet us.