EEA Newsletter December 2017

EEA Newsletter December 2017

In this issue:

EDITORIAL

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Do you feel heard?

Dear EEA News Readers,  In a Regional Meeting with National Alliance Representatives we considered the following question: Do you feel heard by your brothers and sisters from other parts of Europe? The answers were quite sobering:
  • Our countries often get blamed for bad things happening
  • The impression conveyed is that we are lazy and an arguing people
  • We feel neglected and insignificant and yet this is an opportunity to let the gospel shine. Come and help us heal this land!
  • Why do you not want us in Western Europe and refugees from far away are welcome?
  • We have lived under Ottoman rule and have experience living with Muslims. We are experts in understanding, sharing the good news, seeing possible threats and the more. And yet you do not ask and involve us but rather train your own experts!
We claim to live in a highly connected world. And yet there are still the old disconnects. One can get a letter translated electronically. Soon we will be able to speak with people of other languages and a sophisticated piece of software will do the translation. Sounds all grand and clean. But will it heal the disconnect? One of the three emphases of the EEA is to connect. We constantly run into disconnects. It has to do with our job which cuts across countries, cultures and languages. We are committed to connect because this is the only way we can get unity. Even if connecting first means uncovering disconnects, hurts, feeling unheard and side-lined. That’s where it starts, where the love Jesus talks about gets into action. But it will not go without bruises and dirty hands. God himself has demonstrated this through Jesus Christ, his beloved son. He did not just send a letter from heaven. He became flesh, became one of us and got mightily bruised in the process. Just to make us connected with him again. Have a wonderful advent, remembering the reason for the season. And may this knowledge get you off to a good and blessed start into 2018. Let’s connect! Yours, Thomas Bucher EEA General Secretary

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