Missions Textbook 12
Learn New Ministries

We Never Saw It Coming: An Introduction to Christian Missions (textbook)

The Mauerhofer Method

I could write a whole book on the Mauerhofers. Walter and Esther had five wonderful children, several of whom were friends with our boys, once they met. They were from Switzerland, and spoke German with a lovely, lilting accent. At home they spoke “Schwietzer-Deutsch” – Swiss German – unintelligible to us. They were the most hospitable family we have ever met.

Walter’s trade was Organic Gardner. He had discovered that Austrians, who cared deeply about their land, were very interested in organic gardening. He had also learned to take professional photographs. He would print up thousands of attractive invitations and mail them through the post office to every home in the area of one town or small city. He would also put up posters wherever it was allowed. The leaflets invited the people to a free organic gardening seminar. He rented a huge public hall, and his older children and one or two college interns from Germany came to assist him.

On the evening of the seminar, between 300 and 750 people showed up! Yes, you read that right: between 300 and 750.

The seminar began with a gorgeous slide show accompanied by music (some Christian hymns, such as “How Great Thou Art”) about the beauties of Austria and its land and the beautiful God who created it all. (Remember, there were no DVD’s, PowerPoint, or computer slide shows back then.) Then Walter gave the people some really helpful tips on how they could care for their gardens without chemical insecticides and chemical fertilizers. He showed them pictures of his gardens and vegetables, and then told how grateful he was to God for teaching him all of this.

On each chair was a card. If the attendees filled out the card and turned it in to one of the young people, then they would receive an invitation to the second seminar, where he would tell them his life story and give them more gardening tips. Usually, at least half the people turned in a card.

After the seminar, there were teas and cookies, made by Esther. There was also a table with gardening books and organic vegetable seeds for sale at a reduced rate. On another table were Bibles and books about the Christian life, all free. Believers – at the beginning, Walter’s family, Floyd and the interns – mingled and chatted and invited them to come back for the second seminar.

Those who had filled out a card, received an invitation to the second seminar, where the numbers were lower, but sometimes still in the hundreds. Walter would have another beautiful slide presentation, this time illustrating the parable of the four soils in Mark 4. Then he would give his testimony, which was a story of physical as well as spiritual salvation. Finally, he would give them more gardening ideas, including how to make their own fertilizers from compost and how to plant gardens that are insect resistant. For example: onions and marigolds, planted around tomatoes, keep the bugs away, and ducks eat slugs. Warning: don’t eat the ducks.

Walter would introduce Floyd, and he would enthusiastically tell them how Floyd would teach them how they could understand the Bible for themselves. If they filled out the card on their chair, they would receive an invitation to the Bible study.

Walter repeated this in five or six towns and small cities each spring, holding several seminars each week all over Lower Austria.

The Bible studies were usually set up in restaurants that had a meeting room. They met every other week because Walter knew that eventually there would be too many Bible studies for the evenings in one week. At the first study, Floyd often had between 10 and 50 people. At that point, he used the method he had discovered way back at the beginning in Graz. Start with the Gospel of John. Read a passage. Ask questions to get the people to look at the text and wrestle with answers. Everyone was given a Bible if they wanted one.

Floyd was skeptical that two Bible studies per month would be enough. It turned out that when the Holy Spirit is at work, it’s enough. Walter also wanted to give all the people the same Bible, so that Floyd could just tell them which page to turn to. The version Walter preferred was, in Floyd’s opinion, a poor paraphrase – not even a real translation. However, unless Floyd ran into a theological issue in the text, he agreed to use it. Sometimes, others had their own Bibles, and he would ask them to read the same passage to get another perspective. People came to know Christ, and we learned that the Holy Spirit can use any version of the Bible; it is “living and powerful” (Hebrews 4:12).

August 1990 – Moving – Again!

The little apartment was – well, too little. We had had so many visitors from the States and people coming to dinner or coffee, and the place was just too small. I wrote to my mother:

One of the reasons I haven’t written is such a long time is that I was just too unhappy in our apartment. Many letters I started just expressed my blue moods too clearly, and so they were never saved on the computer. Perhaps they were good therapy for me, as I realized how ungrateful I was being, and I’ve tried to do better. Right up to the last night though, I still awoke in the middle of the night trying to figure out what the strange rumbling noise was. The trains would wear us down, if we stayed.

Scott and Leslie heard of a large apartment in their complex south of Vienna. The rent was reasonable, and we would still be near a main train line, but not near enough for it to shake the apartment. We would be a little further from St. Pölten, but the country was building a new four-lane highway and soon it would not be a problem. We signed the contract and started to pack.

In the midst of the moving chaos, the missionary couple who had introduced us to the Mauerhofers left for a visit back to the States. They lived in a big house on a lake near Salzburg and offered it to us for a vacation. We had a lovely two weeks, playing tourist in Salzburg, Munich, and the surrounding area. The most memorable time, however, was linked to the opening of Eastern Europe.

One day, a couple knocked on the door, and introduced themselves as friends of friends of the people who usually lived in the house. They were surprised to see us, and said that they were responding to an invitation to spend the night. They had driven from former East Germany in a tiny, rattletrap car called a Trabant. The car was famous all over Europe for being the worst quality car in Europe. (In fact, a comedic movie had been recently made about the adventures of East Germans putt-putting through Western Europe in their Trabant. It was called “Go Trabi, Go.”)

This couple had no maps, for there were no maps worth having of Western Europe in Eastern Europe. The communist line had been that there was nothing worth seeing in the west, so the maps west of Austria were mostly blank. They wanted to see Paris and thought they had to drive through London to get there.

They were lovely believers, and we had a good time with them. We fed them, gave them a map, let them spend the night, and thought, perhaps, we might have “entertained angels unawares” (Hebrews 13:2).

Then we probably went to the European Christian Workers’ Conference, but I have no record of that.

We moved into our new digs in August.

Our new apartment is on the third floor of a four-story building. I have more windows and closets than I’ve ever had in our entire married life. The guys each have their own room, and right now the place is kind of echoey, because we really don’t own much furniture. It’s great – a really nice change. A sleeper couch is the only thing we really need, so that we can have overnight guests. We do have a table and lots of chairs for Bible studies, so Floyd’s all fixed for the one study that will meet here.

We’re in a location very similar to what we had in Graz, in that all the shopping and conveniences are within walking distance. Plus there is a basketball court, soccer field, bicycle paths and a huge park. Last Sunday Erich and a friend from school played basketball with a bunch of Austrian guys from the apartment complex. He had a blast.

Refusing. Nicely.

As it often seemed to happen to Floyd, even people that he was not too sure about were calling him up and asking him to begin a Bible study with them! He was soon teaching Bible studies with people from Graz and with people who had heard of us from people in Graz. Eventually, we had a small group of believers who wanted to start a church like the one in Graz. We told them we would have a trial run. The group rented rooms in an office building and began to meet on Sunday mornings. I taught Sunday school to about 15 kids, and Floyd taught 15 adults.

Floyd was also giving advice to an Egyptian believer, who had married an Austrian. They wanted to gather all the Middle Eastern believers into a church. This couple came to the new little church and sometimes brought others. They would then interpret the teaching to the Arabs who did not know German.

This little church ran well for a several months, but it soon became clear to Floyd that patching together a church from people who have been believers for a while and who were unhappy in previous situations was much more difficult that starting from scratch, even if their reasons for the unhappiness were valid ones. Also, most of the people attending wanted him to bring people in, build up the numbers, and do all the teaching, but they had no intention of doing that themselves. When Floyd suggested that they ask their friends, neighbors and family members to read the Bible with them – or even with Floyd – they balked. They did not want to risk those relationships. They thought evangelizing was Floyd’s job; after all, that’s why churches in America sent him to Austria, right? We have never believed that you can just gather a group of un-churched believers and make them into a church. The Mauerhofers met with us for a short while, but finally Walter and Floyd decided that the church was going nowhere, so they gently told them the trial run was over. The believers were not terribly offended, and I know that because we continued to have those people in our lives for years to come.

Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)

I had always been a stay-at-home mom, and getting up on my three “workdays” was a new experience. We lived an hour’s drive from the school. Sometimes Floyd drove us in, but more often the boys and I took public transportation, which was a train, a U-bahn (subway), another U-bahn, and a walk.

My TESOL program at Vienna Christian took off. Right away, I taught beginning English to several elementary school children and one middle school boy from Taiwan. I also had a fairly large group of third to fifth graders whose mother tongue was English but they had been in the Austrian schools and their reading and writing skills needed boosting. The time I had spent in Portland, taking courses and teaching my own boys had prepared me a bit. Some of “my kids” were the children of diplomats or businessmen, but most of them were missionary kids. The director of the school found some volunteers to help me, and I began to train them, even before I knew much of what I was doing. Then I flew to London and took the train to Hastings for a month of training at the International House.

It was a hard month. The course was very intensive, and the small class of 18 students was divided into three teaching teams. From the first day, we attended classes all morning, and then in the afternoon we taught international students who paid the equivalent of about $1 per day to learn English. We did lesson preparation all evening. We were taught and supervised by some of the best teachers from whom I have ever learned.

I roomed with two other younger women. We cooked for ourselves and studied almost all the time. I was very lonely, but I knew I was just homesick and suffering from culture shock. Again, the fact that I had to mail letters back to Floyd and the boys, and the fact that long distance phone calls were expensive contributed to my loneliness. Most of the students were freshly graduated from college, and they were learning to teach English to foreigners so they could travel around the world. They probably smoked too much and drank too much, and they were always asking me to come to the pub for a drink.

None of them shared my faith. I did attend a church I found within walking distance of my apartment, after I spoke with a man from the Salvation Army at a newspaper shop. It was such a relief to find believers. One couple even invited me home for Sunday dinner.

While I was there, the annual reenactment of the Battle of Hastings took place, and one of my roommates and I were able to attend the dress rehearsal. William of Normandy (France) invaded the British Isles in 1066, and they were celebrating the 924th anniversary of the event.

Another weekend, an American friend from Austria also happened to be passing through London, and we met in London and had Afternoon Tea at Harrod’s Department Store. It was certainly classy.

I got a good grade in the course, although the instructors cautioned me that I was not ready to teach children. I had no choice, however, and I couldn’t afford another course. I did return to Vienna with a much better understanding of how people learn languages. I had done it, of course – learned German, that is – but now I had a better grasp of where the lessons should go and how to put together lesson plans.

When I took my course, International House[1] was one of the few organizations in the world that was preparing people to teach English to Speakers of Other Languages and offering the Cambridge Certificate. Now, in the 21st century, many colleges and universities offer Bachelor and Master’s degrees in TESOL. Teaching English has become, for many missionaries, a superb tool to draw people into contact with the Gospel. English is a world language, and people in most countries want to learn it. And although schools in North America will not allow a person to teach English to foreigners unless they have a teaching certificate, many countries in the world are not so picky. Often the four-week course with the Cambridge Certificate is enough. It would have been enough for me to teach in any International House in the world, as long as I agreed to take another course.

Do not assume that just because you speak English, you can teach it. That is what drove me to take my course and to take over the department at Vienna Christian School. It is very easy to teach mistakes into another person’s learning, if you don’t know why we say what we say. And one of the most frequent questions of an English-learner is: “Why do you say it that way?”

Missionaries in Poland, the Czech Republic, and other countries organize English camps in the summer with the two-fold purpose to teach English and to befriend people so they can present the Gospel to them. Taking into consideration the laws of the country in which you are living, teaching English might even be a source of income. With the proper degrees, you could teach in an international school or a language school. You could offer classes to people who want or need to learn English for personal advancement. And learning how to teach a language will better prepare you for learning their language.

Floyd at VCS

Our second year at Vienna Christian School, Floyd, who didn’t have enough to do, agreed to be the chaplain and to teach New Testament Survey to the freshmen and Romans and Hebrews to the seniors.

Floyd’s Story:

Vienna Christian School was growing. I had taught chemistry one year with four students. They had to bring vinegar and baking soda to class for our labs. The second year was different. I had met a German believer who managed a textile plant in Vienna. He was downsizing the company, and at my request he donated two chemistry cubicles with all the glassware, equipment and a few simple chemicals for carrying out basic experiments. This second year we had a small bottle of HCl (hydrochloric acid), which increased the variety of experiments we could perform.

Vienna is one of the four headquarters of the United Nations, along with New York, Geneva and Nairobi. “UNO city” was opened in Vienna in 1979 and facilitates numerous international organizations, like the Atomic Energy Agency, Outer Space Affairs, Narcotics Board, Migration, International Trade, Sustainable Energy, Political and Peace-building Affairs, among others. They employ around 5,000 people from 125 countries.

Vienna was also the home of eight International Schools at that time: Japanese, British, American, French, etc. VCS was the smallest and number eight. One day, Dr. Eric Stricker, our school director handed me an envelope from the UNO addressed to the science department of VCS. It was an invitation to a UNO-sponsored science fair. When I called to get more details, they said that all the international schools on their list were invited. We were on a list? What’s a science fair?

As allowed by a high school science teacher, a student would apply the scientific method to research some aspect of science, and then present that research to the UNO panel of judges. The judges then awarded the contestants with ribbons: blue for first place, red for second, white for third and a thank you for participating for the rest. In addition, the judges would award one student the highest award for the entire fair. That student would receive a blue ribbon and two nights in a hotel in Switzerland for two.

The lady at the UNO said that they weren’t sure that a Christian school had a science department, but they sent us an invitation anyway. I politely thanked her, walked into the principal’s office and announced that we were going to take home as many blue ribbons as possible. Eight students signed up, including Michael, one of my sons, and Tylie, one of Dr. Stricker’s daughters. The event was a spectacular success. The other schools were surprised that a Christian school had a science department, and a couple of professors complimented our students on their work. Michael presented his research on electrical conduction but admitted that he deserved second place because the gal who took first place understood the science behind conduction much better. Out of scores of presentations, he still brought a red ribbon home!

The entire assembly of schools and UNO officials crowded into the room to hear the judges’ choice for the awards. I think that every one of our eight presentations received a ribbon for their category. Teachers and administrators from the other schools and the UNO officials had noticed us. It was a good day. Then the judges announced the Grand Prize. It was Tylie! From the Christian school! We were on the map.

Two consequences emerged almost immediately after that science fair. I had made friends with a Russian interpreter who lived in the Russian compound in Vienna. VCS ended up inviting the International Russian School to visit our campus. We gave them the red-carpet treatment, and we were able to give them Russian Bibles. They thanked us and said that they wanted more connections with us, like basketball games between our schools, because they realized that VCS was the only other international school that believed in God. I managed to start a Bible study in the translator’s home, inside the Russian compound, and he eventually sent his daughter to VCS for one year.

The second consequence came in the form of an invitation from the UNO. They initiated a luncheon, once a month, with well-known scientists as speakers, and the teachers at the international schools could bring their students for free. I showed up with a number of students every month. The lunch was top quality, and each student was allowed to sit at a table with someone they admired in the field in which the student was interested.

Through his chaplain duties, Floyd was able to visit all the parents of the diplomats and businessmen and talk to them about our faith and the education their children would be getting. A girl from Jamaica had become a believer, and she invited us to her birthday party so Floyd could assure her parents that her faith was not going to destroy their family. Her father was the head of security at the UNO building. We gladly attended the Jamaican barbeque, and Floyd laid the foundation for several more meetings with her father. Although we were not able to start a Bible study with them, they did hear the Gospel several times.

First Gulf War

Much has been written about the First Gulf War which lasted from August 1990 to February 1991. The dictator of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, had ordered his armies to invade the tiny, oil-producing country of Kuwait on the Persian Gulf. Gas prices soared, as the Iraqi armies set fire to the oil fields. The response from the Western world, led by U.S. President George H. W. Bush and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, was swift, strong, and decisive. It was the first war to be tracked minute by minute, with television viewers around the world able to watch hourly developments from a distance. Austrian television had special reports at 6:30 am every day. Brave reporters were imbedded with the troops, and news stories came out every day. The Western world – Europe, Canada, the United States and Australia – was united and involved – 35 nations in total. The goal was to drive Iraq back into Iraq and to free and secure Kuwait.

Austria was a neutral country, with factions from both sides of the war able to roam the streets freely. Fear spread because although no one feared the West, they did fear radical Arabs from Iraq. The American children at international schools, including ours, were told to keep a low profile. Some, however, demonstrated against the West, and said that the Arabs should not be attacked.

We told our boys not to speak English on the street. When they came home on the bus or train, they should sit with Austrians and speak German. The time was intense but short. In six months, it was over. In December 2006, Saddam Hussein was found and executed for crimes against humanity.

Energy Vacation

Every year in February, the government shut down the schools for a week-long vacation. They called it Energy Week, but we could never figure out if it was to save electricity by not heating the schools or to expend energy on the ski slopes! Different areas of the country took different weeks off so that the ski areas were not over-crowded. Although we had gone skiing a couple times, it was very expensive, particularly as the boys grew and needed new equipment every year.

I don’t know what we had planned for our Energy Week this particular year, but skiing was not an option. Then a church in Salzburg called and asked Floyd to speak at a Bible conference for that week. The boys saw Floyd little enough as it was; to be gone during their vacation was also not an option. To accommodate Floyd, they invited us all, found us a place to stay, rented ski equipment for us and bought our lift tickets. We were able to ski during the day – and had lovely weather – and Floyd spoke at night. It was a wonderful vacation, although Floyd was exhausted. The best part was that Floyd’s challenge during the conference for them to ask a friend to read the Bible resulted in ten new Bible studies in their area!

Discipleship Suppers

When it became evident that some of the people at the evangelistic Bible studies in Lower Austria had given their lives to Christ, they were invited to a Sunday supper at the Mauerhofers. Regular attendance was between 20-25! Esther and the children would rearrange the living room furniture and prepare the typical, Austrian supper of cold cuts, cheeses, breads, and lots of tea and coffee. This is where the new believers could mingle with other believers, and Floyd taught a different kind of Bible study to help them grow in their faith. This first group became the foundation for the planting of a church in St. Pölten.

Meanwhile, Floyd and Walter led three weekly Bible studies each, and many people drove from villages up to 35 miles away. The local priest in one of the villages instructed the children during religion class to tell their parents that they should not go hear Walter speak because he was a cultist. The next meeting was so crowded that Floyd thought they were coming out of curiosity to see what a cultist looked like. Floyd wanted to write the priest a thank-you note, but Walter didn’t think that was such a good idea!

During the summer, Walter invited interested people in each town to one of several Days of the Open Door, where they could roam through Walter’s beautiful yard and gardens and see what could be done in their own. Walter had several wonderful young men who were trained in gardening and they did their gardening internship in Austria. They were from churches in Germany and Switzerland, and they lived with the Mauerhofers during the summer and did a lot of the gardening. Some of them loved it so much that they stayed, and inevitably got married and raised their families in the area.

The entire process, from the first seminar to the prospect of beginning church meetings on Sunday morning took about eighteen months. The next spring, when it began all over again in new towns, the new believers were now at the seminars to chat with the curious newcomers. Many of the believers also helped Esther with Sunday supper and worked with Walter to prepare the gardens for the Days of the Open Door. It thus became a ministry of that church.

Hansi and Edith lived with their teenage daughter, Silvia, in a tiny apartment in one of the villages. Their marriage was going downhill, and they felt that divorce was inevitable. They had heard of Walter’s organic gardening seminars, and that Walter was some different kind of a Christian. As a last resort, they decided to attend the seminars, and filled out the cards for the second seminar and for the Bible study.

That study was held in a castle that had a restaurant. Floyd drove up every other week, and got to know Hansi and Edith. Their dialect was particularly difficult to understand because they were committed to preserving the language of the tiny village where they had been born and raised. Walter also attended the Bible study, and I think they would say that his care and love of them was what drew them to Jesus Christ. They took seriously everything they were learning from the Bible study, and began to work on their family relationships. Silvia, their teenage daughter, came to the Bible study, and she got saved as well.

They became one of the first couples that helped Esther with the Sunday suppers, and when Walter needed help with his gardens, Hansi was always at his side.

Floyd wrote about another Bible study:

Children often think more clearly than do their parents. Adults have built up such a hodge-podge of mental blocks that they can’t see even the simplest answers. I’ve started a study in John with Franz and Gerlinde and I was surprised to find their two daughters (8 and 11) sitting in as well. My questions are always very simple in the beginning weeks of the study. These two girls were coming up with the answers left and right. Their parents took longer to understand the text. In the middle of the study I wanted to scream out, “Lord, these two young girls are seeking you! Save them!” All four of them want the study to continue weekly.

It is extremely difficult to reach children in Austria. If you have a kids’ club, the kids will come once, but if they take any literature home, the parents won’t let them come again because they think that evangelical believers are in a cult and will brainwash their children.

Walter’s method was perfect for reaching the whole family. How thankful we are that we were able to work together!

Sadness in Graz

Spring of 1991 was overshadowed by two events in Graz.

The first involved the young American couple who had led the first team to Graz back in 1984. They had stayed on for a couple years and had done a fairly good job of leading evangelistic Bible studies and discipling those who made decisions. Then they returned to the States to figure out how they could come back to Graz permanently. The husband had quite a few allergies that were seriously affecting his life, and he was looking for solutions. While in the States, he and his wife heard and met with a faith healer, who “healed” the young man of his allergies.

At that time, the new wave in the evangelical world was called “Signs and Wonders.” Very briefly, their thesis was that conversions could never take place unless the unsaved saw signs and wonders such as those Jesus Christ performed during His life on earth. There were books and seminars and people who became famous doing miracles and teaching others to do them. “Speaking in tongues” – which did not mean literal languages – was an integral part of their training. As a spiritual gift, “tongues” was elevated to the most important gift that every believer had to have to prove his or her salvation. Some even claimed to have raised people from the dead.

This young man and his family returned to Graz, full of enthusiasm for this new-found “faith.” He had told me years before that his faith as it was then was “not enough.” Now it seemed to be “enough”, and he began inviting people in the church to his home and explaining that Floyd and the elders had not taught them everything they needed to know. He also warned them not to tell the elders about this because the elders weren’t ready for this yet. He was trying to learn how to “speak in tongues” and how to heal, and he wanted them to learn as well.

Eventually the elders found out and talked to him about his sneakiness in trying to circumvent the elders. They also spoke to him about his and their views on miracles and speaking in tongues. The elders definitely believed that miracles were possible, and that missionaries could also be miraculously given a gift of a language if they needed it for evangelism. What this young man was demanding was that he be allowed to teach the people in the church how to babble in an unintelligible “language.” The first account of believers speaking in foreign languages they had not learned is recorded in Acts 2. The account makes it very clear that 1) it was a foreign language, understood by many who were in Jerusalem for Pentecost, and 2) it was a gift given by the Holy Spirit to make the Gospel clear in their own dialects; the disciples did not have to learn it.

The elders asked him to stop causing dissent and confusion. When he refused, they called Floyd in Lower Austria for advice. Finally, they wrote to the missionary’s home church in the States and told them what was going on. That church agreed with the elders and invited him back to the States with a year’s salary so he could sort things out and figure out what he believed. He went, but he spent all his time with the “faith healer.” He learned how to “speak in tongues,” and his wife learned how to preach. (As you remember, she was always annoyed that I was too small to control Floyd!) They returned to Graz, against the advice of their church in the States, supported instead by the “faith healer’s” organization.

At that point, they went to those people in the church in Graz whom they had led to the Lord and did everything they could to convince them to leave and join with him. There were many discussions between the elders and the man and his wife. They especially made the point that those who did not “speak in tongues” were lacking in faith; therefore, the elders were not mature enough to be leading a church. During that time, Floyd had several phone conversations with the elders, but they always felt they didn’t need Floyd to come to Graz and “solve things.” In the end, the man and his wife took several people and one prominent couple from the church and started their own group, as they wanted it.

Why do I tell you this story? Two reasons: First, in retrospect, Floyd wished he had gone to Graz and confronted the man and his wife. The reason he didn’t was that he didn’t want to usurp the authority of the elders, in whom he had unwavering confidence.

Second, we need to beware of religious trends, especially since most of them come from the lukewarm churches in North America. “Signs and Wonders” was the “wave” of the 1980’s and 1990’s. After the year 2000, another idea swept the evangelical world – “The Openness of God.” It was an attempt to explain how a loving God could continue to allow suffering in the world when He was obviously strong enough to do something about it. Their conclusion – and this was their teaching point – was that He could not see the future and therefore was not really omniscient.

As I write this book, the newest thing is “Social Justice” and “The ‘Woke’ Church.” It is an attempt to right past wrongs and to make Christianity less objectionable to a society steeped in violence, immorality, and arrogance. Actually, in all of these “waves”, we see the church trying to find a way to make following Jesus more palatable to the world. It’s almost as if we are looking for a shortcut to evangelism. “Make the Gospel less objectionable, less ‘the only way is Jesus,’ and perhaps more people will come into our church.” The problem with this is that evangelism is just hard work, and the church is not working very hard on it. The Gospel, however, doesn’t need tweaking. It demands humility, confession of sin, and repentance to God for our sin.  Belief in the Gospel results in commitment and obedience, which brings about the changes many would like to see. But there is no shortcut. The church needs to preach the Gospel, pure and unadulterated by the demand that we remove what society considers the distasteful parts.

Missionaries need to keep a watch out for aberrations in teaching. They need to stay in Scripture and work hard to keep their theology orthodox. They need to be careful not to drag North American “Christian” trends to the mission field. Any “new and wonderful” theology that deviates from orthodoxy should be subjected to the clear, literal interpretation of Scripture. A humble and obedient commitment to the Bible is enough to solve the problems of society. We just don’t spend enough time in it to really see the Holy Spirit change lives.

The second incident was bittersweet. One of the Bible studies in Graz had begun through the efforts of Reinhard and Barbara and Hendrike from Mureck. They had a number of friends who were very influential in Graz – lawyers, doctors, etc. They convinced them to read the Bible with Floyd, and a few of them came to know the Lord Jesus as their Savior. One of these men was Gernot. Gernot owned a glider airplane and while we were still in Graz, he took Floyd up one day. Floyd was “ausser sich vor Freude” – beside himself for joy. He said it was incredible because it’s completely silent once the plane that towed them up dropped the towline. They glided like a kite and could see all of Graz, and above the smog they were able to look down on the Alps. From above Graz, he was also able to see how brown and dirty the air was – a thick beige smog of coal and oil smoke. No wonder we were sick with respiratory ailments so much!

Gernot and Floyd became friends. When we moved to Vienna, Gernot’s mother died, and Gernot needed some comfort from Floyd, whom he looked to as a pastor. He came to visit and asked Floyd if his mother was in heaven.

“She told me that she believed in Jesus and that she was going to see Him.”

“Well,” said Floyd, ”Then you must believe that what she told you is true, and you will see her again someday if you, too, believe in Jesus and all that He did for you.”

This, by the way, is Floyd’s standard answer to believers – or those considering becoming believers – when a relative dies. There is nothing to be gained by telling them, “So sorry, but your beloved family member is in hell, burning for eternity for their rejection of the Savior.” Honestly, we don’t know what may have happened in their last moments on earth. We simply can’t know for sure. After all, the thief on the cross accepted Jesus in the last hours of his life. So we encourage them to think of their relative or friend as being in heaven with Jesus. And then we suggest that they get their own life in order so that they may have assurance that they too will spend eternity with Jesus in heaven. If they someday get to heaven and discover that their friend isn’t there, they will be thinking like Jesus and will realize that rejecting God the Father’s gift of His own Son to pay for their sin was the worst thing their friend or relative could have ever done.

But back to the story: Gernot had a best friend (whose name I can no longer remember), who was also in the Bible study. One day, he called Floyd with horrific news. He and Gernot had been going gliding, and Gernot took the plane up to check a few things. The plane crashed, killing Gernot. His friend was heart-broken, but also adamant that Floyd come to the funeral.

Because none of those in the Bible study had been saved very long, the funeral was performed by a Catholic priest. Floyd was pretty broken up about Gernot’s death and went outside during the service to pull himself together. Around the corner of the church building, he found Gernot’s friend sobbing. They cried together, and then went back in. The priest was talking much about Gernot’s good works and about the necessity for all who loved him to give of their money and prayers to assure that Gernot would not spend very much time in Purgatory. Several people got up and talked about their relationship with Gernot, and then toward the end, Gernot’s best friend asked Floyd to speak. The priest objected angrily, but Gernot’s friend and other of his friends insisted that Gernot would have wanted Floyd to speak.

Floyd was able to tell everyone there about Gernot’s relationship with Jesus, how that relationship came about through reading the Bible, and that Gernot was already in the presence of Jesus. He was saved by his faith in the atoning work of Jesus, “. . . not of works, that no one should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).

How Much Money Does a Missionary Need?

My mother sent us a card from a missionary family we did not know who was working in Vienna. The card was asking that my mother consider supporting the family, and on the back of the card was a breakdown of how much money they needed monthly and where the money went. I was shocked.

The total they needed to be fully supported was $8000 per month. That’s $96,000 per year! Granted, many of the missionaries in Vienna lived in the 19th District, the prettiest and most expensive area to live. Some mission organizations have the missionaries buy a new car every three years to avoid maintenance costs. They also are required to build up travel and retirement funds. Mission organizations usually – there are exceptions – take a percentage of the missionary’s funds for home office expenses. On the card were amounts designated for food, clothing, children’s education, medical, travel, vacations, and miscellaneous.

I looked at the miscellaneous figure. That was our entire monthly “salary.” From that we had to pay our rent, eat, clothe ourselves, and save for our travel and retirement. And as you have by now come to see, we were hardly suffering from poverty.

My mother decided not to send money to those missionaries, who made three times as much as she did.

Quick Trip to the States

Dear Mom,

We have been invited to speak at a conference on the East Coast this summer. When people on the West Coast heard we’d be in the States, but we weren’t planning on going west, one family sent us airfare to Portland.

We’ll arrive in Portland the second week in June and have to return to the East Coast the last week of July. Since God has provided this opportunity, we’re going to use it to do a few important things. Erich’s going to take a summer driver’s education course, since he turned seventeen last week. (Seventeen! I graduated from high school when I was still 17!) He also is going to try to get a job to begin saving for college. Michael wants to go to camp, since he’s never been before.

Floyd’s book on Bible study evangelism had been published in England about a year before we left Graz. It seemed to be doing all right – although books on evangelism will never be best sellers. And then the unthinkable happened. The publisher called Floyd to tell him that the warehouse had burned to the ground, along with all the books from three different publishing companies. Although Floyd’s book had sparked interest, the publisher was sorry to inform Floyd that they could not afford to reprint his books. Floyd’s English agent looked for another publisher but couldn’t find one. “There are not enough people with an interest in evangelism. If you write us a book on ‘signs and wonders,’ we can easily sell a million of them.”

Well, Floyd had no interest in doing that, so he decided to try self-publishing the book. Nowadays, with the internet and Publishing-On-Demand, self-publishing is fairly easy. Back in the mid-80’s, it was complicated. While in Portland, we had to find editors, printers, storage for the finished copies, and people willing to mail them out for us once we returned to Austria. We also had to do all the marketing. Floyd was certain that there was a market for his book, even if it was just with all the people we would meet at all the meetings at which he was preaching. Being in the States was a huge advantage, and with help from English-savvy friends and artists, we were able to print a thousand books. Then Floyd took them with him everywhere he went.

Life Flying By

Floyd wrote:

We’re finally back in Vienna. Our Russian friends are sending their daughter to Vienna Christian School this year. I will start a Bible study with them on Mondays. They are going to teach me some Russian as well. We’re not sure where this is going to lead, but we hope it isn’t Moscow!

While we were in New Jersey, we found a high school math teacher for Vienna Christian School. It was only a month from the time we met her until she arrived at Vienna’s airport as a fully sent-out missionary from her church near Philadelphia. She’s a very nice girl. She lived with us for six weeks before moving out and in with one of the single teachers. We’re so thankful for her, not only because she’s a good math teacher, but because I was going to have to teach math and chemistry. We see now that it would have been too much. Praise God that He knew!

Walter Mauerhofer has evangelistic Bible studies planned in eight towns. Two are already running, and I already have two studies in Vienna. We’re getting together this weekend to discuss how to put eight Bible studies on seven evenings. The Lord made the sun stand still for Joshua. I wonder if the Lord would give us three more evenings each week until next summer? Fridays are usually bad times for a Bible study, and we’re starting a youth meeting in St. Pölten on Saturday evenings (Erich will be leading sometimes). We’re also planning leadership training meetings one Sunday afternoon a month at Walter’s house.

Car Trouble

A friend at Christian Missions in Many Lands, who was in charge of the vehicles the missionaries used, once said, “When you have one car, you have troubles; when you have many cars, you have many troubles.”

Since our return from our year in the States, we had been driving a very old, used, red BMW sedan. It was fun to have a BMW, as they were considered one of the most prestigious cars in Europe. However, did I say it was old? Well, it needed a lot of maintenance, and it became quite a trial for Floyd who had to drive hundreds of miles every week to Bible studies all over Lower Austria. We were fine for getting to school, as we could take public transportation, but eventually the car quit altogether.

For some reason, Gernot’s friend from Graz came to visit Floyd, and in their conversation, the man said he would love to have the car, since it was a classic. He arranged to tow the car back to Graz, but he had only towed it a few kilometers, when a rear wheel fell off the car! We were thankful it hadn’t happened when Floyd was driving.

But what to do about the Bible studies? There were a few where Floyd could hitch a ride from someone who was traveling to the Bible study because they had a friend there. Floyd began to pray and ask God just what He was doing. “Lord, these are Your Bible studies, and I’d really like to lead them, but I can’t go without a car. Please provide a car for Your Bible studies. And I’d like it to be red.”

Two believers came to the rescue. One of them was a lawyer, who had made a profession of faith in Graz. He and another man told Floyd they would buy him a car, and he could pay them back with no interest over three years. What kind of car would he like? A diesel, manual transmission, four-door.

On the day he picked up the car, the two men arrived at the dealer’s, and the dealer was very apologetic. “I’m sorry I don’t have the color you wanted. But everything else is what you asked for. I only have a red one.”

As it turned out, red cars get ticketed for speeding more than any other car. Did you know that?

Why We Don’t Write More Often

Vienna Christian School was a huge part of our ministry. I wrote to Sue:

Since September, I have been working two days per week at Vienna Christian School. It doesn’t sound like much, but I have been put in charge of the most confusing – if not the largest – department in the school. Although I’m trained only in TESL, my department is also handling those with learning disabilities, those who need remedial reading help, and anyone else who needs special tutoring in any subject. There are eight tutors. I teach the most hours – 12 per week – and some of the tutors teach 2 hours, but altogether we’re teaching around 35 hours per week. Organizing was – still is – a nightmare. Although I’m actually teaching fewer hours than last year, I think I spend a lot more time at home in planning, thinking, brain-storming, and sometimes worrying. I have to work out with each teacher in each classroom when they would like each child who needs extra help to come to tutoring suited for that child. Some are individually taught, but I’m even teaching an English class for five high school students whose English ability is not advanced enough for Jane Eyre and Charles Dickens. I love it! But my family has had just about enough. They tell me that I’m crabbier than I used to be, so I’m really working on that – not being crabby, I mean!

Since returning to Austria, Floyd’s also been juggling priorities and trying to understand what God wants us to do. Walter Mauerhofer. . . has so much for Floyd, that Floyd doesn’t really have the time to teach at VCS at all. He drives us all to school every day – about fourteen miles/day, round-trip. Then an average of four times per week, he also drives 60 miles round-trip to Bible studies in towns all over Lower Austria. Most Bible studies are held fortnightly, as he has eleven every two weeks. They’re going great, but Floyd is tired of the long trips. We are very thankful for our beautiful new Mitsubishi.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I’m also leading an evangelistic Bible study in the Gospel of Mark. I really enjoy the preparation time and the actual meeting. One of the other missionary wives invited all her neighbors, and she asked me to lead it because she says that my German is better than hers. It may be, but I plan on missing one of the studies in the next few weeks, so she can lead it. I know she can do it.

When I realize how many things I haven’t written about – like teaching Sunday School in our new church in St. Pölten, cooking dinner for company, having over-night guests from England, and letting the whole ninth grade come over for a party – it’s no wonder that I don’t write as often as I’d like to!

Be assured that you are thought of and that we love you. We do wish you a peaceful Thanksgiving. Most of the missionaries use Thanksgiving as an opportunity to invite Austrians for an “American Thanksgiving.” It helps build relationships. We make pumpkin pie out of cooked carrots!

[1] International House, https://ihworld.com/

We Never Saw It Coming: An Introduction to Christian Missions (textbook)

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