Germany: God opens doors before we get to them

Before my co-worker, Kasey, and I even arrived in Germany, God was opening doors at the University of Mainz, where we will spend our summer doing outreach. 

Machenzee Clevenger,Our supervisor, Nick Howard, went one day to check out the campus at Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz to get an idea of what we could do when we got there. He went to the Amerikanistik (English) Department and spoke with a secretary. He explained who he was and told her we would be arriving in the summer. He thought it might be of interest to them to have native speakers with whom students could practice English. 

As he was doing this, a girl named Carolin overheard their conversation. She asked Nick if she could visit Immanuel Baptist Church. The following Sunday, Carolin visited the church and stayed connected with Nick. 

A couple of weeks ago, we met Carolin for coffee and got to know her. She even introduced us to some of her friends, and we plan to hang out with them again. God opened doors before we even got here, and now He is using Carolin as a way for us to meet new people. Hopefully these friendships will help the people we meet stay connected to Immanuel Baptist Church long after we’re gone. 

Most importantly, the Lord is using Carolin as a vessel to connect us with unbelievers so we can share the gospel. It’s amazing to me that God uses broken people like us to show the world who he is, and God is using Kasey and me to do that this summer. God doesn’t need us to do anything, but the Lord allows us to be a part of his ministry. And we are so grateful and humbled to do so.

Machenzee Clevenger, a student at South Plains College, is serving with Go Now Missions in Wiesbaden and Mainz, Germany.