This Past Year and After: June 2009

June 2009
Dear friends and family,

As many of you know, I have spent the duration of this past year in Germany. While I was there, I was attending a Bible School called Bodenseehof, which was in a town called Friedrichshafen in southern Germany. The past six months have been the best time of my life thus far. I learned so much about myself, but most of all, I learned a lot about God and the person of Christ. The time was also one of the hardest times of my life, mostly because of the convictions that were put on my heart; every individual day challenged me in my faith. I will give you an idea of what my average day was like: this school is a lot different than any university or college that students would normally go to. We didn’t have classes for math or science, but only lectures. Every week, we would have a new lecturer come in from around the world to talk about a different topic such as a book of the Bible, Matthew or Proverbs, or on a more general subject like the Holy Spirit or Abiding in Christ. Each week, we would then have about five lectures a day. Each lecture was a sermon in itself; so everyday we would leave having been challenged in some way. We would also have some homework, such as reading the whole Old Testament, writing a Bible Study on one chapter in the Bible, or reading different books and writing papers on those. This would keep us busy during our free time in the afternoons and if we weren’t doing that, we would hang out and get to know each other better. We also had sing teams and drama teams which were formed at the beginning of the year. With these teams, we would go on outreaches around Germany and other areas. In the fall, we had an all-school outreach for one week. During this time, every person at the school either went somewhere for an outreach or stayed at the school and held different camps there. There was one team that had the opportunity to go to Serbia. My sing team and I had the opportunity to go on this outreach.
Serbia was one of the highlights of my year, so when someone asks me what the most memorable experience was; this is the first thing that pops into my mind. To put it simply, it was life changing. For the first three days that we were there, we helped put on a retreat for Gypsies that lived in or around Belgrade. The Gypsies are the “untouchables” of Europe. They are the poorest of the poor and are spat on by most of the people that live in the countries where they are from. This was the best thing to do first because we were able to see the kids for who they were, not for where they lived. Even though we did not speak a word of their language and they only spoke a little English, we were still able to communicate through simple sign language and through love. This was only possible because of God. It showed me that you don’t need to talk to be able to love people and get to know them. During this retreat, we played games, songs, and activities. Also, we would have two messages a day that Heinz Spindler, who is the director of Bodenseehof, did with a translator. Everytime I say this, I have a smile on my face because all of the kids who were there gave their lives to Christ. It is amazing how God works.
After this retreat, we went to Belgrade. When we were there, we went to three different settlements. The first was an area about a half an hour outside of Belgrade. At this place, there was a little building where there was help available for schoolwork. In this little building, there were about 30 people packed in there seeking help. Outside of the building was a sports court with basketball and soccer. There a bunch of kids were playing so some others and I went to play with them. Right away, there was this connection between all of us. We were able to get to know each other so much in that half hour even though we didn’t speak the same language. This just shows how much these kids need the love of others. When we left, everyone left with tears in our eyes because we had to go so fast. This was really hard for me to see.
The next place that we went was about an hour away. This was where the pastor, who helped put on the retreat, started the church he pastors. After that, we went to the settlement where most of the kids were from. This was almost in downtown Belgrade. When we got there, we parked in the parking lot of really nice theatre and right across the street was the poorest place I have ever seen. This was crazy to see how great the contrast was from rich to poor. The settlement was put together under a bridge and the houses were made from scraps of wood, sheetrock, metal or anything else that was available to them. As we were walking through, my emotions were everywhere. I didn’t know what to think or feel. Seeing these kids in their home was hard for me. Seeing the living conditions was even harder. But what made things better was seeing how happy they were. They didn’t care that they lived there because that is all they knew. So they grabbed our hands and showed us around with smiles on their faces. They took us to their homes and lastly, their church. This church that they met in was no bigger than the living room in my home. It was put together by scraps of sheetrock and had holes everywhere in it, along with a dirt floor. Later that night, we put on the service there. Our sing team did a couple songs and Heinz spoke again. While we were worshiping with them, I was able to look out on the crowd because I was facing them. This was the most joyful sight that I have ever seen. These people lived in scrap metal houses, didn’t have much food or clothing, many didn’t have jobs, and they are hated by society, but none of this mattered to them at that moment. They were praising God for what they did have and for loving them. I couldn’t help but smile as my eyes welled up with tears. I learned so much from them. So often, I complain about what I don’t have, I don’t have the new phone or ipod, new clothes, a computer, and so often I complain about how I am hungry and yet I go to church and try to praise God but can’t, simply because of all these things that are on my mind. I have no clue what it is like to be hungry; they do. I have no idea what it is like to only have one pair of clothes for months; they do. I have no idea what it is like to live in these uncomfortable conditions; they do. Yet they praise God with more joy than I ever have. This night will be with me for the rest of my life and whenever I complain that we have no food in our fridge, I will think of these kids.
Before I left to Germany last September, I had no clue what I was going to do the following year. All I knew was that I did not want to go to school right away and I told myself that I would figure things out around Christmas time. Christmas came quickly and I had to make a decision. When I first got to school, I wanted to work at Bodenseehof or another Torchbearer’s center the next year such as Holsby Brun, in Sweden, or Tauerhof, in Austria, or Capernwray Hall, in England. After Serbia, I really wanted to work with Eastern European kids, but I didn’t know how I was going to do that. As Christmas came closer, I decided that I would have Peter Reid, my uncle and the principal of Bodenseehof, email different directors to see if they would need any help for the next year. When I asked him, he asked me if I ever thought of going to Albania or Romania to work at one of those centers because they needed a lot of help. I thought about it, then quickly dropped the idea because I didn’t want to go to one of those countries. After a lot of thought and prayer, that idea grew on me more and more. I realized that God was calling me to be uncomfortable and go somewhere where they needed a lot of help and these two countries fit that. So I decided to have him email those directors. Both responded quickly but the Albanian school seemed to interest me more and after a lot of prayer, I thought that one would be best for me. I emailed the director back and he told me I had the job there at the school. In the summer, I would help out with camps and when school started, I would be a RA (resident assistant). But before I went out there, I wanted to come back home and work for the summer to earn money and see family.
I got back home on April 2nd. It was wonderful to see my family and friends. When people at school would ask me if I was nervous and scared about going home, I would always say no because of the family and friends that I have there to support me and be there for me as I adjusted back to life in the states. I thought that coming back, I would just jump back into my group of friends, get involved in a church and do a bunch of outreaches around the cities that I really wanted to do. I wish it were that easy. The first two weeks being back were probably two of the hardest weeks of my life. From culture shock to seeing friends change. It was really hard for me. When I left to Germany, I jumped off the merry-go-round that was life at home and went onto different things while friends back home stayed on, which was not necessarily a bad thing. When I came back, a lot of them were still doing the same thing. Once again, not a bad thing. But since I changed so much while I was gone and learned a lot and grew in my faith, I figured that everyone would have done the same. A lot of people grew in their faith but some went different ways and this was hard for me to see and come back to. The staff at Bodenseehof told us when we left not to go home expecting things to be as they were at school. Well, I should have listened because I wanted things to be back to what I was used to. I felt myself trying to get things to go back to how I knew them and I kept catching myself judging people, which was not right of me. This is what made life coming back too difficult, but as the weeks go on, things get better and better. I realize that those friends that I have are there for me and have helped me so much in coming back.
When I left Germany, I had a job lined up and a bunch of outreaches in mind to do around the cities. I am now painting houses again like I have been doing for the past three summers and did my first outreach that I had in mind a couple weeks ago. The Lord has blessed my life back at home and will continue to bless it as I get ready to leave once again on July 8th to go to Albania. I am still challenged everyday in my faith and continue to grow, as well.
One verse that I read as I was getting ready to leave was Philippians 1:3-11. It reads: “3I thank my God every time I remember you. 4In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
7It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God's grace with me. 8God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.
9And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, 11filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.”
This reminded me of the people that I met a school and the way I feel toward them. As I was sitting in church this morning, the pastor said that Philippians is sort of Paul’s support letter to the church of Philippi. Then I realized that this is a great verse for my letter, as well. This is my support letter and I ask that if you feel led, to support me in prayer as I embark on this next journey in my life. It is going to be an adventure and will have lots of great times, as well as times where I may feel alone and down. It will be those times during which I will need prayer the most. So I ask that you would pray for me as I am getting ready to leave and as I am in Albania serving our Lord. Paul is thanking the Philippians every time he thinks of them and I do the same when I think of you, my friends and family. Some prayer requests that I have right now are: That I can trust in God to provide funds for this next year, that I can make myself available to Him everyday to do with me what He wants, that I can take advantage of this time I have now at home to build those relationships with friends and family, and that God would give me self-control and wisdom in how I spend my money because I have had a problem with that in my past.
Thank you so much for everything that you have done for me, whether it be prayers or listening to me. I am blessed so much by God and that is so that I may be a blessing to others, which is what I am trying to do in Albania. I want start a newsletter while I am there and do that by means of email. If you want to be apart of that, email me (abes08@aim.com) and I will add you to the list. This way you can see specifics in what I am doing and what I will need prayer for. One more thing that I learned this past year was how important it is to be a good receiver. This is something that has been hard for me in the past but something that I am working on. If God has put it on your heart to give financially to this experience that I am about to embark on, I would be more than happy to receive support in that area also. Thank you again for everything and hope to be in contact.

In Him,
Luke Abrahamson

Address:
4110 W 145th St.
Savage, MN 55378

“The one who calls you is faithful and He will do it.” 1 Thessalonians 5:24