“The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (Romans 8:16). Last Sunday, Rev. Christian Rehr of St. Peter’s Lutheran Church (SELK), Stelle—a small town near Hamburg—invited me as their guest preacher and speaker on Mission Sunday. Afterwards I got to meet church member Rainer Rudloff, who runs a unique service for immigrants in the area. Over the last few years, Germany has taken in millions of asylum seekers. Refugee camps are scattered all over the country, even in Stelle—in this case, however, two miles outside of town. The local refugees are isolated from shops and have no chance to integrate with the town folk. To address this issue, St. Peter’s decided to offer inexpensive bicycles to refugees and asked Rainer, a mechanic by profession, to head up this ministry. Over the years, the church team has received hundreds of bicycles from the community. Rainer and his team bring them up to snuff and provide them for a nominal fee. One day, a refugee from Pakistan, who desperately needed a bicycle, asked him, “Why are you helping people you don’t even know?” Rainer replied that providing inexpensive bikes to refugees is something that his organization is chartered to do. “Hmm, I get it: Jesus…!” he responded, breaking into a wide grin. “You’re Christians and you’re doing this because Jesus told us to love one another. I’m Christian, too.” The two men looked at each other for a second—and hugged. Unbeknownst to them, a lady in the corner overheard their conversation. After the refugee had left, she stepped up to Rainer and said: “I’m an atheist. I don’t care a lick about Jesus. But I must say that did you just did something really big for Christianity.” Indeed, we Christians live in a fish bowl. But thank you, Lord, for all the opportunities You provide so we can witness to people, even by simple actions. Yet in reality, it is the Holy Spirit in us who bears witness that we are the children of God, even if we might not realize that He is doing so (Image: Rainer with a bulletin board depicting St. Peter’s bicycle ministry).
The Tiews in Germany 