The Real Responsibility

"My job was to plant the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God, not we, who made it grow." -1 Corinthians 3:6 (NLT)

an excerpt from my latest and final newsletter--some closing thoughts about the mission work here

Two years have come and gone and I am overflowing with gratitude to each one of you for helping me along the way and making it possible for me to be here in Dresden. I have learned so much about God in this new culture and have become familiar with a people who at one time built grand churches with towering steeples but now find no reason to trust in anyone beyond themselves, despite the lingering religious history and daily sound of the church bells that once served as a reminder of something greater. It is a special challenge to bring the word of God into the lives of Dresdners, much less claim to choose a relationship with God and seemingly admit a weakness. This country doesn’t suffer as others do from physical poverty or starvation and so many people remain wealthy and fed, not eager to search for anything more. There is the real danger of becoming apathetic toward the lack of religious interest of this culture, or at the very least let one’s Christianity slip into the background of relationships with an unconscious effort to not make things uncomfortable. Missionaries on these mission fields are in such need of constant encouragement that they are not alone in their faith and that what they are doing does matter, because the results don’t show it. That’s when I’m just so glad that God asks us only to plant the seed and not feel the pressure of if it grows or not. I pray I have been a consistent seed-planter!