Intensive seminar from September 22–24, 2017

Last weekend there was a double reason to travel to Glasow, because a seminar with embedded live broadcast took place in our “House of Mission”. “Christ4Afghans” was the name of the evangelistic programme, which was broadcast in Persian with music and contributions from Afghans for Afghans under the auspices of Pamir Productions from Friday to Sunday evening. The programme motivates Afghan Christians in Germany and Europe to share their faith in Jesus Christ with their fellow countrymen.

In the morning, about 20 seminar participants met together for breakfast and then went into the teaching units, strengthened. Here – as at every seminar – questions could be asked, and a lively exchange of ideas took place.

Until the evening, teaching and self-study of the Word of God alternated. The topics that were dealt with this time went much deeper than usual, since most of the participants had already had their experiences with God and the Bible for a long time.

Seminar contents:

*Supernatural experiences in Islam and Christianity

*Characteristics of false prophets

*Guidance by God’s Spirit

*Confession and forgiveness

*Respect for the body as God’s temple

*Rules for a victorious life as a Christian

and 4 hours of guided group study OT: Daniel 1-12

*Examples of political, religious and social persecution and their spiritual conquest

At 7:30 pm the one and a half hour live program started. That was the “crowning finale” of each day, so to speak, if you leave out the following dinner (late meal) …

At each seminar one can observe again and again that the participants increasingly “thaw out” during the time spent together and get into conversation with each other. In this family atmosphere they have the opportunity to tell each other their life stories, to build each other up and of course to enjoy each other’s company.

The times of prayer and singing together must not remain unmentioned, because they are valuable and also noticeably intense. For me it is a joy to see that despite the threat, people want to come closer to the heavenly Father.

At the end of the last seminar unit, a decisive biblical passage came to my mind: “It is clear to me that I have not achieved all this by a long way and that I have not yet reached my goal. But I am doing everything I can to seize it, because I am seized by Jesus Christ. As I said, my dear brothers and sisters, I know exactly:

I have not yet reached my goal. But one thing is certain: I want to forget what lies behind me and look only at the goal before me. With all my strength I am running towards it to win the prize of victory, life in God’s glory. For this is what God has called us to do through Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 3, 12-14)

A contribution from K. Atzrodt