I didn’t get a chance to talk tonight and I really wanted to. It was very humbling to have people publicly say that they are thankful for my ministry. It only confirms in our heart how much we are grateful for being here in Romeo.
I am thankful for a lot of things today. But I want to highlight just one.
I am thankful for the ministry of Dan and Barb Evans and the two sending churches that sent them to me. It was 12 years ago this week that me and my mom endured the low point of our lives. We were brand new to Hanau, Germany in November 1992. Our household goods were still in transit from the states. We were sleeping on weird beds and I was living in a new and strange room in a new and strange country.
I’ll never forget the cold that seeped into my bedroom. It was a cold dampness that chilled you in a way I was unfamiliar with. My radiator barely worked and I barely slept at all. This took my loneliness to a new level and I was often near tears during my first days at a new school. On Thanksgiving Day we were restless and homesick. So we spent the day in the car driving the 2 hours to Strasbourg, France. It was a nice adventure for us when we were feeling so far from home. It was an excellent distraction. The plan was to go early, shop and explore the square area during the morning, have nice dinner in the afternoon and head back home by early evening.
The morning was filled with exploring the shops and strolling the cobblestone streets. I remember thinking that everything looked the same. I learned that everything looked the same since most of the city had been bombed to dust during World War II. Little else remained in the city except the cathedral. We went there that day. I was amazed by it’s soaring ceiling and stained glass windows. I was amazed by it’s vast emptiness. There were only a few chairs in the front of the sanctuary and a couple other instruments. Besides this, the church was dead. Near the front, on one of the pillars, there was a large inscriptions. I only noticed it because it was in English. It was a dedication to the soldiers who helped liberate the city from the Nazi’s and gave praises to them for their duty.
As the afternoon wore on we made our way to a part of the town where we had hoped to find a nice place to eat. To our dismay and embarrassment, everything was closed. We didn’t fully understand the culture of eating in France, but the restaurants there were closed between lunch and dinner. We were starving and our American brains were begging for some poultry and carbs. We were all bummed as we regrouped. We all decided that we were too hungry to wait for the eateries to re-open in a few hours and we needed to get back home. So we decided we would make the best of it and eat our first Thanksgiving dinner away from home at the local McDonald’s. It was the worst big Mac of my life and it was the embodiment of how I felt… I was in the pit of hell.
This is the beginning point of what led to me giving my life to the Lord. Before Christmas I started attending the youth groups headed up by Dan and Barb. I am thankful today that when I was in the pit, I was lonely, I was homesick, I was looking for something to fill the hurt in my life that they were there for me. They didn’t have to be there. They were they by choice and by design. I owe them a debt of gratitude that cannot be repaid.
For this, I am thankful today.
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