The home group I am privileged to be part of here, contains a young woman who works with the Birmingham City Mission and another young woman who is a primary school teacher.
Both have entered into the Christmas season in their jobs.
It is so great to hear how the primary school teacher is trying to share the real Christmas story in her environment even though she has to be very careful because of the various religions represented in her classroom.
She shared that is has been kind of shocking to her that some of the other teachers have never heard the real Christmas story.
The BCM worker shared how she and a small team get to go into schools to take part in the annual Christmas assemblies. They get to bring the story of Christmas to 100s of students and teachers!
It is these kinds of stories that break my heart and give me hope.
They break my heart as I think of how in America we think that Europe is taken care of as a mission field. And it gives me hope to see Europeans doing what they can to still share the gospel.
Each country I have spent time in here, has less than 1% of the population professing faith in Jesus Christ. Even the UK. Europe is still the least responsive continent to the Gospel. Breaks my heart.
We all need Jesus. We all need to have the Gospel impact our lives daily.
I am grateful for these young women who are trusting God to use them in the schools in Birmingham, UK.
The nativity scene pictured is one that I purchased in Spittal, Austria on a snowy, journey with a dear Finnish friend in our New Zealand friends' car in 2006. Good memories.
