Living Sent in Germany
From Biloxi to Hamburg
by Molly Hopper
The first mission trip I ever went on was to the distant land of Biloxi, Mississippi. We provided hurricane relief. It was almost a full year after Katrina hit the coast, but the effects of the storm were still jaw dropping. We helped people who looked and sounded like us. Some were members of the church we were staying with, and others were neighbors we shared the Gospel with along the way. I was in the 10th grade and probably not all that helpful when you get down to it, but everyone was so grateful it felt like we were making a big difference.
A few years and a few trips later, I served as a summer missionary in Ireland. We got off our plane in London, where our leaders picked us up in a van and drove us into Ireland. On our way, we stopped at a big, beautiful, old church (that had been turned into a McDonald’s.) We were there for lunch. We quickly learned that all over the country, churches were being sold off to businesses. The church in Ireland was dying.
My team worked at a camp on a mountain. Groups would come in, and we would serve as leaders, cooks, janitors, outdoor sports teachers, or whatever they needed us to be. It was a lot of hard work and not a lot of sleep. It rained ALL the time, and while we discipled a lot of believers, not a single person came to know Jesus as their savior while we were there. When we got home, I was nicknamed the “Vacation Missionary” by my friends who had served in other areas. It was one of the best summers of my life.
During that summer, God opened my eyes to just how lost the whole world is. Even today, when closing my eyes to draw a picture of missions, the image that comes to mind is not a picture of a busy European street, but it should be. Europe is the most spiritually lost continent in the world. With less than one percent of evangelical Christians, 23,367 Europeans die daily without knowing Christ as their savior.
Most, if not all, western countries are now known as Post-Christian, which means that while these countries were once considered traditionally Christian, that’s no longer the case. Even in Mississippi, only 38.5% claim a personal relationship with Jesus. And we’re the buckle of the Bible Belt.
In nature, we use the terms cold and warm climates to refer to typical temperature patterns of different locations. In missions, we use these same terms to refer to the openness of different people groups to the Gospel. “Warm climate” groups are generally open and accepting. “Cold climates” are not.
I didn’t have the words for it at the time, but looking back, I now realize that God was using that mission experience in Ireland to develop in me a deep love for Post-Christian, “cold climate” people.
For the past year and a half, I have been in the application process to be an IMB missionary. During this process, they ask you to share your call to missions a lot, and I never really know how to give a brief answer to that question. Partly because I’m a talker but also because that was a very gradual process for me. There was never a big Damascus Road moment where God startlingly changed my heart. What I had was a lifetime of people pouring into me and encouraging me and subtly—and sometimes not so subtly—pushing me where I needed to go.
That was you.
I grew up here. Although I moved away several years ago, First Baptist Starkville will always hold a special place in my heart. From Mission Friends in preschool, where they had us make placemats to remind us to pray for our missionary family serving in Burkina Faso (you may know them, Clifton and Cathy Curtis), you all taught me the importance of sharing the Gospel. “Jambo” is a Swahili greeting. You taught me in the VBS song: “Say Jambo, It means Hello, To Jesus, My best friend.” And we learned that God speaks to every person in their very own language. And I still get that song stuck in my head.
First Baptist Starkville Girls In Action (Molly is on the front row, far right)
My pastors were Ray Lloyd, Lloyd Humphreys, Kermit McGregor, and Chip Stevens. I was in GAs; Acteens; kids choir’ youth group when it was on the first floor of Applegate, then the top floor of Applegate, then the Loading Zone, then the Van Landingham, and finally the OC (which I believe is now known as The Warehouse),;college and even young adult ministries. During seminary, you hired me for a summer as a youth intern, and I worked in the old offices behind the baptistry. After graduation, while waiting to leave to serve overseas in Australia, I worked as a church secretary in the new offices.
You might find it hard to believe, but it was important to my parents that their kids were involved in church. As a result, this church has played a large part in my life. I think I’ve been involved in everything except senior adult ministry, but we’ve got time. I remember seeing this church go through good times and also bad times. More importantly, I watched this church heal from the bad times and grow to be more faithful through that process. All of it shaped me profoundly. Whether working at the MS Baptist Convention Board serving church leaders, talking with BSU students about missions and ministry, or serving as a church member, this church had a large role to play in training me for each of those tasks.
Now, I am preparing to go to Europe to share the Gospel once again with Post-Christian, “cold climate” Europeans. This time I’ll be in Hamburg, Germany, working with a team that is already established in the area to disciple believers and witness to non-believers. Germans are serious and private. Many will spend their entire career working alongside the same people and never even mention that they are Christian. It’s not professional.
Please pray that God will open the hearts of the German people and that the Holy Spirit will prompt German believers to share the Gospel with their loved ones. Pray that God will work through my team and me so that we will lovingly and patiently disciple growing believers, just as you lovingly and patiently discipled me.