A letterfrom Burkhard Paetzold serving as Regional Liaison for Central and Eastern Europe, based in Germany
June 2014 - Europe Round-Up
Dear friends,
Peace be with you all. I hope you all had a great spring and are able to enjoy the beginning of summer.
Thank you all for your continuing support and prayers. Europe doesn't get much media coverage. So each email asking about or encouraging our work in Europe as well as each check in our ECO account means a lot to me.
These days Soccer World Cup activities in Brazil makes the news in Germany. People cheering their German soccer team. Some church initiatives point out that behind the glamour of the soccer stars and their teams social conditions in the host country Brazil are hidden, and that one should think in terms of “Fair play for fair life.”
Protestant churches in Europe prepare to celebrate Reformation anniversaries. Not many people know that Reformation history started in what is now Czech Republic. Jan Hus and others encouraged a community of believers long before Martin Luther or John Calvin started their Reformation movements.
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Karen Moritz, seated far right, with the travel seminar group in Wittenberg.
The Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren (ECCB) sees itself in this tradition. Karen Moritz took the opportunity to prepare a travel seminar for international guests, including PC(USA) members, to learn about the Czech Reformation and spend two more days in Wittenberg, Germany, to learn more about the Lutheran Reformation as well.
Wittenberg is very close to where I live, so I decided to meet and greet the group—and after that brief meeting I felt sad that I did not have time to attend the whole travel seminar. It obviously was very instructive and it looked like a great group of travel companions.
Karen returned with me to Berlin since right after the trip in April my Berlin colleagues and I were able to welcome the Director for World Mission Hunter Farrell and communications officer Kathy Melvin. They came to visit for a few days of a stopover after their trip to Madagascar.
It is noteworthy that many of our mission workers in Europe are residents of Berlin right now: Ellen and Al working in Russia, Sadegh and Aziz as well as Ryan and Alethia working among Iranian refugees.
We all are lucky that our colleague and PC(USA) mission co-worker Jane Holslag, after ending her service in Klaipeda/Lithuania and a farewell tour to supporting congregations, has decided to start retirement in Berlin. (My hope is that I can ask her to come and preach in my home church. I know that Jane, like other PC(USA) mission workers, is very inspiring when they come as visiting preachers. We all need the global perspective and words of hope in this globalizing world.)
Hunter and Kathy, from Presbyterian World Mission headquarters in Louisville, had a chance to see the work among Iranian refugees. We visited several shelter homes for asylum seekers and were able to talk to the inhabitants.
In an earlier letter I have described the situation for asylum seekers coming to Germany and PC(USA) ministries that are addressing their social and spiritual needs alike.
Our visit in temporary homes for asylum seekers allowed us to see the human face behind the growing numbers of asylum seekers arriving: We got to talk to young men and women who seek refuge after dangerous persecution in Iran or elsewhere or after life-threatening war and civil war situations. Some describe the betrayal of close friends, even pastors, in their home countries. Many are traumatized by the embarrassing situation of depending on a mafia of traffickers, the dangerous ways of many border crossings, and families divided. And then after arriving in a “free society” all of them describe new hope as well as many new difficulties of dealing with German bureaucracy and an unwelcoming asylum policy or even imprisonment pending deportation. All of them say it means a lot to them to be visited and not left alone. Our PC(USA) mission worker Aziz Sadaghiani cares and, most important, makes it possible for them to consult with him in their mother tongue, and he finds legal advice for them. Moreover, they are welcome in the Iranian fellowship in the Bethlehem church, where pastor Sadegh Sepehri and now also Rev. Ryan and Alethia White address their spiritual needs and where they can share in a community.
Let me point out for you one other mission project in Europe I was unable to join, unfortunately. Jay Adams, who works as a Presbyterian World Mission long-term volunteer in the BFA (Black Forrest Academy), organized for a second time a Habitat for Humanity project to support Roma families in Romania. The uniqueness of this project is the way BFA kids collaborate with a German school in fund-raising and organizing the project.
I ask your prayers for our mission co-worker Nadia Ayoub in Ukraine, who is still working to finish construction of a Roma preschool for Roma kids in Peterfolvo at the western edge of Ukraine, while everyone in Ukraine is suffering from economic decline and a political instability. Please pray for peace and wise leadership in Ukraine, where civil unrest in the Eastern parts is turning into more and more violence.
In my spring letter I told you about two conferences with Eamon Anderson on Children with Trauma. The conference in Tulcea/Romania was obviously meeting a need and created a momentum for exciting changes. Following this conference and with the great commitment of Liz Searles and local and U.S. leadership, NOROC gained more professional support for follow-up workshops and a strategic planning process. Please read Liz Searles' most recent letters about the latest developments In NOROC.
These days I stay home: The last weekend in June will be filled with activities around the 300th anniversary of one of my home churches. Early in July I will attend an Assembly of Central and Eastern European Churches in Wroclaw/Poland and will report to you on common and different perspectives.
Thank you for your faithfulness in supporting me with your prayers, notes, and financial gifts. I invite your continued support as we work together to accomplish God’s mission in Europe.
In gratitude and hope,
Burkhard
The 2014 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 312
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