Based on an update by Don and Sarah Jones, Alliance international workers in Berlin, Germany
As Alliance international workers in northeast Germany seek to plant healthy, multiplying churches, one of their strategies for reaching people with the gospel is hosting summer camps. With the help of a German parachurch organization, they started a family and friends camp in 2012.
One particular family has come to the camp all four years, and this year, Alliance workers Don and Sarah Jones are happy to announce that the dad (H) “is now not just our friend but also our brother in Christ.”
H was a professing atheist, but during his first year at the family camp, he began asking questions about spiritual matters. This past spring, he attended Emmaus, a spiritual foundations course taught by Don.
“At the end of that time, we knew that he had made big strides in his openness to the gospel,” Don said. As additional time passed, Don sensed that Christianity was making more sense to H.
At camp this year, a speaker used the illustration of either “being in the boat with Jesus” or “swimming alongside the boat on our own” to describe the life of a believer and unbeliever. H recently told Don, “Yeah, I’m in the boat!”
Pray for H as he grows in his faith and considers being baptized in the future. Pray also for his wife, B, who describes herself as still “swimming alongside the boat.” She expresses a desire to make a decision for Christ but is being held back by fear. Pray that God helps her to overcome her fears and that she soon decides to follow Christ as well.
“This story is why we continue to serve here,” Don and Sarah said. “We know there are many like H and B who still need to open their hearts to the good news of Jesus. Thank you so much for your support and your perseverance in prayer. Stories like this remind us that the investment is great, but the result is eternal.”