we visit one friend, and find 7 more believers!

A few months ago, we sadly had to say goodbye to a good friend, a refugee and new believer, who was getting relocated to the other side of the country. Plus, it was to a small town in a nook of Austria where we did not (yet) have a church to recommend. Thankfully, we did stay in touch with him via Whats App messages, and this past weekend Jeremy and I (Ken) were able to visit him in person. On Friday, I traveled by train to meet our friend. He greeted me at the station enthusiastically, and off we went to the facility where he is being housed. It is five hours away from Vienna. About 25 refugees live there, waiting for their next interview (it usually seems to take 2 to 3 years for their case to be processed!). As we were catching up over dinner, other refugees joined us at the table. Some of them had been actively studying German, and as we talked, I learned that several of them were followers of Jesus! Soon, it was a group of eight of us around the table -- several from Iran, our good friend from Iraq, and one Afghani Muslim who is curious and visiting church. We spontaneously had a short Bible study that evening on Psalm 62 and Revelation 21, I did my best to answer their questions, and then prayed for them. It was a really special time together, and one of them mentioned that they have very few visitors, so they were super thankful. One of the men had to flee Iran after his home group was investigated by police; some of his friends were arrested and their whereabouts are still unknown. He is further heartbroken as his wife and two children are still in Iran, but Lord willing, they will get to join him here one day. He has not seen them in two years now. There was another father in the group as well, also apart from his wife and two children. As a father of two myself, I cannot imagine the heartache that they experience as wait indefinitely for the case to be decided upon. 

The next day, five of us welcomed Jeremy at the train station, and then he and I invited the believers over to our hotel for a Bible study. Jeremy and I were so amazed by it all, because we were there to visit one friend, but instead it was a group of ten of us all together in the hotel room for a Bible lesson and time of prayer! And not only that, but we found out that they attend the Lutheran church in town, and they were given the key to the church so that they can go there for prayer meetings on their own! So the next day, Sunday, although the Lutheran pastor was out of town on his teaching rotation, we had church on our own and myself and Jeremy did the preaching! (see photo below) It was a truly memorable time, and while the church building was impressive, it was a great reminder that WE are the church, the body of Christ, treasured by the Lord.  Afterwards, back at their facility, we had a long, slow and kind of dragged-out goodbye, and headed to the train station with our friend who parted with us there.  Before leaving this special group of guys, I created a Whats App group with them, as a type of Bible-reading group "together" and so we are now reading through John. Please pray for this group of eight believers, that they might grow in Christ and that their cases will be processed soon.