As a freshman in college, I spent May of 1985 touring Europe with the Wartburg College band.  It was an expensive trip, but my parents scraped the money together for me.  It was also a challenging trip in which I would be forced into all kinds of unfamiliar situations without the foggiest idea of what to do next.  It was a long trip.... nearly a month.  I’d never been so far from home for so long. But it turned out to be an amazing experience.   That trip changed my life in many ways.

Staying with European families in their homes, I realized that Dutch, German, and Norwegian people are full of hopes, sorrows, and dreams... just as I am.  I understood better the history of the Church as I stepped into ancient cathedrals and felt the presence of spaces where people have been worshiping Christ for centuries.  Martin Luther became a real person for me as I walked around the same castle in which he hid for his life from the pope. 

I learned what a blessing freedom is when we went behind the “Iron Curtain” into East Germany.  I experienced an unforgettable swell of patriotism as we played “America the Beautiful” for people in faraway lands and received standing ovations.  And, on that trip, I began a friendship with a woman who, 3 years later would become my wife.  

I can’t imagine what my life would be like today if I hadn’t gone on that trip.  I might not be married to Susan.  I probably wouldn’t have had the courage to travel alone to Tanzania 2 years later and then go back for internship 3 years after that.  And without all that fascinating church history and global experience of the Body of Christ... who knows.... I might not have become a pastor, either. 

We like to stick to familiar places, talk to familiar people, and do familiar activities.  It’s hard to leave our comfort zone sometimes.  And yet, it’s in those uncomfortable places that God often seems to work most powerfully in our lives.

Whether you’re talking to the stranger across the globe or the new person across the church....  whether you’re sitting in a faraway land or just a different pew, taking the risk to step outside of your comfort zone can be tough...... but your life may never be the same!

Peace,

Pastor Russ