Scott's Euro Missions Journal #4

Hello Everybody...

THE POPE WAS ONLY 8 FEET IN FRONT OF ME...THEN HE TURNED AND LOOKED RIGHT AT ME AND GAVE ME A "THUMBS UP" SIGN. At least that is the story i will be telling my children 15 years from now. We were in Krakow last Friday when the new pope Benedict XVI (called B-16 by some polish people) came to town.

The main square was packed with travelers eager to see the Pope. There in the midst of them were us 20 Protestant believers caught up in the event. It felt more like a rock concert to us than a spiritual pilgrimage, especially when the helicopter showed up and the pope came rumbling into the square in his "pope mobile" (a special display car with bullet proof glass). The crowd began to roar and we roared along with them. We screamed and took pictures and were so excited about the opportunity to see a world famous person that the Polish believers just laughed at us.

The Pope was in town for three very important days for the spiritual future of Poland. He even led mass for an estimated 900,000 people on Sunday. For several of the days we were in Krakow, we prayer walked around the large field where this took place. Our prayer is that God would use the time that the pope was in Krakow to start a fresh move of His Holy Spirit.

The Polish people as a whole have a real precarious future. They have been predominately Catholic, especially since the last pope was Polish, but now many Poles are leaving the Catholic church and searching for other answers...materialism, buddhism, atheism...our prayer is for a new generation to radically change Poland by giving their hearts to Jesus. The Polish people are very independent and have a strong sense of confidence in themselves as a people...if that was coupled with the love and power of Christ, i truly believe they could impact much of the rest of Europe...we will see.

The first part of this week we traveled to a little town in Slovakia called Bonovce. We have been to Bonovce three times before...so it was good to see friends and Pastor Rasto, who we had met before. While there, we mainly focused on ministry to Gypsies. They are people who have been mistreated over their history by Europeans. They have a very different culture and values than the rest of Europe and they don't integrate very well, in many ways they are a forgotten people.

A gypsy woman in Bonovce gave her life to Jesus two years ago. Now she is slowly reaching and influencing other Gypsies for Jesus. She developed a kids choir with some Gypsy kids and on Monday they gave a concert. This was great because these precious little kids were singing worship songs with all of their hearts, but also many of their fathers and mothers and uncles and aunts came out to listen. Our team also played music, shared testimonies, performed dramas and then a girl named april from our group gave a simple salvation message using her life story. It was a beautiful time to plant seeds for Jesus among the gypsies of Banovce.

Now we are in Banska Bystrica a bigger city in Slovakia. It also has a University here so there are college age people all over. Last night we spoke at the mid-week service of an Evangelical church here in town. Then today we helped a missionary couple move out of their apartment. It was a long day since they had a lot of stuff and lived on a 5th floor apartment. There are 20 of us in our team so we made a snake (or a "little house on the prairie fire line") in order to get all the stuff down the stairs. We worked for almost 9 hours. But we cleaned out their entire apartment, which was an incredible help to them. They are now headed to Greece for the next 5 years.

Tomorrow we will resume with more street ministry, playing music in the square here and trying to form relationships with the people we attract. Live music is a very big draw here, because they do not have a lot of chances to hear good music. It has been fun having some more musicians on this trip. Sylvia our violinist has added a bit of class to our jamming, that we've never had before. Last night the other guitarist Peter sang a worship song in Slovak and English. (Open the Eyes of my Heart) The Slovak people were so excited to hear him singing in Slovak they all started clapping in the middle of the song :)

Well it has been a great trip so far...God is doing some great things in every place we have been. Please pray for the young believers in Poland like: Igor, Gregori, Ewa, and Bartek...that God would continue to fill them with His Spirit...pray for the young believers in Slovakia like: Tomas, Mayo, Mario, Katka and Lubka...that God would give them His power...and pray for the Poles and Slovaks that we have been able to share Jesus with like: Maria, Barbara, Simon, Martin and Adam...that they would give their hearts to Christ.

Thank you for your prayers and support,

Scott