One Changed Life is all it Takes to Produce a Great Harvest

Please take a moment to read a personal testimony from one of our Short-Term Workers at Haus Edelweiss.

Over the years there have been a number of people who have changed my life. Probably the greatest impact on my life in recent years has come from the students whom I met at the Haus. Their determination to grow their potential as ministry workers for the kingdom of God is evident in their dedication to their studies. While drying plates and glasses at the dish table, I was able to learn how God was developing bi-vocational believers. He was leading them to invest their time and efforts in Bible study so that they could share the gospel message in their home countries in Eastern Europe.

For years I had talked about taking Bible college classes, but I lacked the motivation to begin. In September of 2008, I discovered that a number of the students at TCMII were my age or older when they began their studies at TCMII. When I realized how they squeezed one semester of graduate school work into a few weeks of overwhelming effort I was convicted. I could no longer use the excuses: "I'm too old to go back to school" or "It's too much work". A few months later, I enrolled in an online New Testament Studies certificate program.

In September of 2010, I returned to the Haus as a short-term worker. Part of my time there was spent reading and writing for the class I was taking that semester. I was about to enter the last semester of the certificate program and the students of TCMII, by example, continued challenging me to excel.

During a summer class in the states, a 24 year old college student asked me why I was tackling such a lofty goal at this stage of my life. After all, the classes have been difficult and I’ve had to make radical life changes to fulfill the reading and writing demands of the program. Yet I told the young man that I felt led to follow this difficult path. I believe the better equipped I am for ministry the more God will be able use me in His kingdom work. It was the TCMII students I met and whose stories I've read over the past few years that taught me that lesson – and it is the students who continue providing the inspiration I need to not be comfortable with what I already know, but to search for ways in which I can continue to grow in the kingdom.

So I say "thank you" to my brothers and sisters in Eastern Europe. Your encouragement has introduced me to a great adventure – one that I may never have encountered if it weren't for you.

Grace and peace,

Stuart