My husband, kids and I, I guess we arrived at ministering in Europe a bit backwards compared to most people here-- we moved to eastern Germany years ago for work-related reasons with my husband's job but we started missionary work later. It's made our lives more fulfilling than we could have imagined before.
I'll say something here that might be a bit surprising at first since we're conditioned to think the opposite, but IMHO Europe is a better place than North America to live as a Christian-- just my own personal observation of course but I've met a surprising number of other people who agree.
Before we left years ago, and even more so now, I just had the feeling that the United States culture has become so obsessed with work and profit, that it's difficult to actually devote oneself to the faith. I've seen this have painful consequences.
Three of my close relatives, one on my side and two on my husband's side, had once been very devoted Christians, intent on raising their children in the faith and spreading the Gospel themselves. But they worked difficult jobs in computers, contracting and health care, and their employers worked them to the bone. Even as they were trying to start families, they had to constantly put in 80-100 hours a week just to make ends meet financially, let alone afford a home and consider college for their kids.
I noticed them changing from cheery, happy young adults filled with the joy of their Christian heritage and involvement, to embittered, frustrated, and frankly just exhausted and burned-out people who stopped caring about the things that really matter. Not only did they cease ministry work, for the most part they stopped attending church or working the Bible into their lives at all. Some began smoking, drinking-- getting into car accidents after leaving work exhausted. One almost filed bankruptcy, the marriages of two of them broke up-- it's just been terrible to see this, to see how their belief in themselves and their faith has fallen apart and been so shaken due to the pressures, financial and cultural, of the American society where they live. And those are only the 3 closest examples I know, I can name dozens of others among friends and acquaintances.
I just feel like there's some part of the USA today that is so dedicated today to profit and wealth, that ordinary human beings and employees become viewed as commodities and expendable ones at that-- to be replaced with fresher hands and outsourced replacements at the first opporunity. So the ethic of society has become that companies and public employers accomplish the most, when they squeeze as much labor as they can out of their workers while exhausting them and denying them as human beings, then tossing them aside with replacements.
This in short, goes against everything that I see would be proper in a Christian society. I know this may vary a lot in different places, but my husband used to work in many places across the country, especially the Midwest and West Coast where we still visit family often, and even in Toronto, Canada. And he encountered this obsession with long hours and exhausting workloads everywhere he went in North America. The stress was unbelievable everywhere he went, even among accomplished and confident people, and it had the effect of turning even fellow Christians against each other. This obsession has taken hold at great cost to personal health, relationships, family, community and one's ability to become involved in Christian worship and ministry.
My husband got an opportunity years ago to work in Erfurt in eastern Germany-- he speaks German fluently from school as well as the German-Scandinavian roots in his family from Minnesota-- and we relocated there, also spending time in the regions around Halle and Rostock.
It was difficult for a while and one shouldn't play down the challenges of going to a foreign country, we had some tough periods after the move, but overall, after a brief period of adjustment (and plenty of German lessons for me and our kids), it's been a dramatic improvement to our quality of life and our desire to both live as Christians and to convey the Gospel.
The perspective on the best kind of life to lead, and the way one should interrelate with society, is just so different there than in North America.
We've still had to work hard in Germany, very hard at times while my husband was getting his business afloat, and the people around us are very industrious too. But work and profit don't consume our lives, the way they consumed the lives of my relatives and friends in the US, who are now desolate and destitute. In the Europe heartland, it just seems people view their work as a means to a better end, toward personal enrichment and betterment and to improving their communities and environment. Granted, much of this has occurred in a secularist context, but the backdrop of life here makes it much easier for a Christian lifestyle to later make room for itself and flourish, and for those who want to engage in ministry to spread their word to others.
One has weeks of vacation in Germany from one's job, easily 5-6 weeks even for high-pressure jobs, fair but decent pay for good work and an absence of the punishing hours that ruin people in North America, plus-- to my pleasant surprise-- a lot of support to those trying to start their own businesses. And the offices aren't anywhere near as cutthroat as in the US, there's competition and intensity in Erfurt certainly, but it's more collegial and friendly.
In contrast to his relatives in the USA who are burned out and too worn down and embittered to lead a Christian life, my husband found the time and support he needed not only to thrive financially, but more importantly, to re-connect himself to his roots in the Lutheran Church, to engage in some amazing discussions on both theology and the Church's role in the world. The Germans in Erfurt bring a special intellectual flavor to their explorations of Christianity and how we can spread the Gospel further, which has been enriching beyond belief to us and for our kids. He also had time to engage in Christian community activities and even to become more involved in ministry, something that his relatives' work schedules in the USA prohibited. As his German has improved and he becomes more engaged in his surroundings, in turn, he has been able to bring in further members to the Church, both native-born Germans and other emigres to Germany like us wherever they're from-- Czechs, Russians, Canadians, Hungarians, other emigrants from the USA.
I do still love the USA and we visit here very frequently even today (the Euro-dollar exchange rate makes that blessedly easy to do), but we'd never go back to live in the States. I know this will vary from person to person, but this is just what we've experienced. Financially, spiritually and in regard to our health, both physical and emotional, living in Erfurt and elsewhere in Germany has been one amazing blessing after another to us.
I know most of you here have ministry in mind in the first place-- this came to us after we'd settled in Europe for other reasons-- but for those who are considering a move to a place like Germany, Belgium, Greece, Italy or Austria, it can feel difficult when you're first adjusting, but eventually, your potential for personal growth and for ministering will be glorious. The work-leisure balance around here, and the more measured view of work in relation to the rest of one's development as a human being, it just makes for an incredible place to develop as a Christian. It also makes the dissemination of this experience, and the roots and modern relevance of our faith, much easier to accomplish.
Just my own two cents, I humbly hope it's helpful.
Yours in Christ and with love to all my brothers and sisters here,
Mindy
I'll say something here that might be a bit surprising at first since we're conditioned to think the opposite, but IMHO Europe is a better place than North America to live as a Christian-- just my own personal observation of course but I've met a surprising number of other people who agree.
Before we left years ago, and even more so now, I just had the feeling that the United States culture has become so obsessed with work and profit, that it's difficult to actually devote oneself to the faith. I've seen this have painful consequences.
Three of my close relatives, one on my side and two on my husband's side, had once been very devoted Christians, intent on raising their children in the faith and spreading the Gospel themselves. But they worked difficult jobs in computers, contracting and health care, and their employers worked them to the bone. Even as they were trying to start families, they had to constantly put in 80-100 hours a week just to make ends meet financially, let alone afford a home and consider college for their kids.
I noticed them changing from cheery, happy young adults filled with the joy of their Christian heritage and involvement, to embittered, frustrated, and frankly just exhausted and burned-out people who stopped caring about the things that really matter. Not only did they cease ministry work, for the most part they stopped attending church or working the Bible into their lives at all. Some began smoking, drinking-- getting into car accidents after leaving work exhausted. One almost filed bankruptcy, the marriages of two of them broke up-- it's just been terrible to see this, to see how their belief in themselves and their faith has fallen apart and been so shaken due to the pressures, financial and cultural, of the American society where they live. And those are only the 3 closest examples I know, I can name dozens of others among friends and acquaintances.
I just feel like there's some part of the USA today that is so dedicated today to profit and wealth, that ordinary human beings and employees become viewed as commodities and expendable ones at that-- to be replaced with fresher hands and outsourced replacements at the first opporunity. So the ethic of society has become that companies and public employers accomplish the most, when they squeeze as much labor as they can out of their workers while exhausting them and denying them as human beings, then tossing them aside with replacements.
This in short, goes against everything that I see would be proper in a Christian society. I know this may vary a lot in different places, but my husband used to work in many places across the country, especially the Midwest and West Coast where we still visit family often, and even in Toronto, Canada. And he encountered this obsession with long hours and exhausting workloads everywhere he went in North America. The stress was unbelievable everywhere he went, even among accomplished and confident people, and it had the effect of turning even fellow Christians against each other. This obsession has taken hold at great cost to personal health, relationships, family, community and one's ability to become involved in Christian worship and ministry.
My husband got an opportunity years ago to work in Erfurt in eastern Germany-- he speaks German fluently from school as well as the German-Scandinavian roots in his family from Minnesota-- and we relocated there, also spending time in the regions around Halle and Rostock.
It was difficult for a while and one shouldn't play down the challenges of going to a foreign country, we had some tough periods after the move, but overall, after a brief period of adjustment (and plenty of German lessons for me and our kids), it's been a dramatic improvement to our quality of life and our desire to both live as Christians and to convey the Gospel.
The perspective on the best kind of life to lead, and the way one should interrelate with society, is just so different there than in North America.
We've still had to work hard in Germany, very hard at times while my husband was getting his business afloat, and the people around us are very industrious too. But work and profit don't consume our lives, the way they consumed the lives of my relatives and friends in the US, who are now desolate and destitute. In the Europe heartland, it just seems people view their work as a means to a better end, toward personal enrichment and betterment and to improving their communities and environment. Granted, much of this has occurred in a secularist context, but the backdrop of life here makes it much easier for a Christian lifestyle to later make room for itself and flourish, and for those who want to engage in ministry to spread their word to others.
One has weeks of vacation in Germany from one's job, easily 5-6 weeks even for high-pressure jobs, fair but decent pay for good work and an absence of the punishing hours that ruin people in North America, plus-- to my pleasant surprise-- a lot of support to those trying to start their own businesses. And the offices aren't anywhere near as cutthroat as in the US, there's competition and intensity in Erfurt certainly, but it's more collegial and friendly.
In contrast to his relatives in the USA who are burned out and too worn down and embittered to lead a Christian life, my husband found the time and support he needed not only to thrive financially, but more importantly, to re-connect himself to his roots in the Lutheran Church, to engage in some amazing discussions on both theology and the Church's role in the world. The Germans in Erfurt bring a special intellectual flavor to their explorations of Christianity and how we can spread the Gospel further, which has been enriching beyond belief to us and for our kids. He also had time to engage in Christian community activities and even to become more involved in ministry, something that his relatives' work schedules in the USA prohibited. As his German has improved and he becomes more engaged in his surroundings, in turn, he has been able to bring in further members to the Church, both native-born Germans and other emigres to Germany like us wherever they're from-- Czechs, Russians, Canadians, Hungarians, other emigrants from the USA.
I do still love the USA and we visit here very frequently even today (the Euro-dollar exchange rate makes that blessedly easy to do), but we'd never go back to live in the States. I know this will vary from person to person, but this is just what we've experienced. Financially, spiritually and in regard to our health, both physical and emotional, living in Erfurt and elsewhere in Germany has been one amazing blessing after another to us.
I know most of you here have ministry in mind in the first place-- this came to us after we'd settled in Europe for other reasons-- but for those who are considering a move to a place like Germany, Belgium, Greece, Italy or Austria, it can feel difficult when you're first adjusting, but eventually, your potential for personal growth and for ministering will be glorious. The work-leisure balance around here, and the more measured view of work in relation to the rest of one's development as a human being, it just makes for an incredible place to develop as a Christian. It also makes the dissemination of this experience, and the roots and modern relevance of our faith, much easier to accomplish.
Just my own two cents, I humbly hope it's helpful.
Yours in Christ and with love to all my brothers and sisters here,
Mindy
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), but just in the interest of giving a leg up to my Christian brethren: 
