Transcription downloaded from https://sermons.wartracebaptist.org/sermons/60274/hunter-schmiedes-missionary-trip-report/. Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions. Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt. [0:00] I just want to say thank you for everyone to come out here, and also I want to say thank you to the church in supporting and your prayers and just help funding for the mission that me and my team was able to go on in Europe. [0:11] I just want to also say that I know whenever I first mentioned that we were going on this trip that it was only going to be England and Netherlands, but you also did see us go to Paris. [0:22] That was because when we were supposed to leave four days actually right before we were supposed to get on the train to go back to London, the pastor called us and said, hey, a pipe bust in our house and the church also was having damages and we can't have y'all come stay with us. [0:41] And they actually canceled on us, which we were in shock. We went to the Lord especially in prayer, and we asked him, well, Lord, if we're not supposed to go to London, where do we go next? And we ended up getting a call and an email from Paris Connect, which was a YWAM base out there that was just hosting the team that was in Amsterdam. [1:01] And they said that we were there, and they said that we should message out to them. So when they respond, they said, hey, we heard that you're in Amsterdam. We didn't know if y'all had any plans afterwards, and we said, actually, we're looking for plans. [1:13] And we said, is there any ministry that we could do? And they said, well, the Olympics is actually coming up this summer. It's supposed to be the biggest Olympics in history actually for the summertime and also with the refugees. [1:25] And they asked, would y'all be more welcome to come up here? And we said, sure enough. And so we went out to there. But I just want to start off by saying a lot of y'all knew back in September I went to YWAM Nashville, which was a DTS. [1:42] It was a discipleship training course that I've been a part of. My training was to equip me and my team on this trip to be able to put what our tools are and what we've learned in Scripture. [1:52] So then we left out on December the 28th. And there we go. We left out on December 28th. We flew out from Nashville all the way out to I think it was Massachusetts to Boston. [2:06] Stayed there for a bit. And then we took a layover. And then we make our flight to London. It was a nine-hour flight. Very interesting, especially seeing the sun and then being on the plane. [2:17] And then you land again the next day with the sun coming up. So it was an adjustment to get used to. But we stayed in London for about nine days, ten days. We were in the center part, more kind of towards the west area. [2:32] But we were connected with a YWAM based out there called Urban Keys. Our mission being out in London was a refugee ministry that was supposed to be there. [2:43] They ended up having postponed us. So our next move was to do street worship, evangelism, and just being able to speak to the community that was around there. [2:54] I don't know if many of you all know this, but Europe does have a very high number of Muslims in the area. It's very high. They actually, from what a gentleman told me when we were in Amsterdam, I asked him, you know, how big of a population is the Muslim community here? [3:11] And he said by the year 2050, if there's no more missionaries of the faith of Jesus Christ coming, by 2050, most of Europe will be Muslim. And that really shocked me because Billy Joe has mentioned, you know, that's where a lot of our beginning of Christianity coming here started over there. [3:30] And now it's becoming so darkened by another religion and it's taken over. So knowing this, even before a little bit about the Muslim community, we started to go out among the streets and go into different stores and speaking about Jesus Christ. [3:44] And most people are very interested in conversations, wanting to know what we know about Christ and about our faith with the Lord. We also did some mercy ministry. [3:55] So we would walk down the streets. There were some parks that we ended up working with. The community was very open to that. They actually came up to us asking, you know, why Americans are here, picking up trash and helping out clean up houses and stuff. [4:10] And we just said that we wanted to reach out and that's what we're here for is we just love you and we care for you. And Jesus loves you as well. And we ended up having a couple of people come to Christ from our time in London. [4:24] We even had a church that we went out to, which was it was the first picture of a church that we went out to. It was in a King's Cross, which is north end of London. Very small church. It's up in an attic space, actually, and everyone was shoulder to shoulder because not many Protestant churches were up there in the area, which was an interesting conversation with some people being in the area. [4:47] But we stayed there for a couple of days. And then we ended up going to, after doing our evangelism street worship and stuff, we ended up going and taking a train up to Nun Eaton in Coventry, which is on the Midlands of England. [5:01] Kind of towards heading to Wales or Birmingham, England. So we stayed with the King's Lodge, which is another YWAM base. They offered to let us in and to have lodge there. [5:13] They told us about two ministries that we worked with, which one of them you probably saw was the Saints. That's a cafe. It's owned and run by a group of young ladies that work with the council, which is the government seating of the town. [5:28] They get funded to help with after-school youth. Youth there don't typically have the easiest time with their families. They have a rough time going back home. [5:40] So the girls there, the women, excuse me, they started this after-school program to allow kids to come and find tutoring space, to find time with their friends, to be able to have a free meal, a place to just relax and enjoy without going back home. [5:59] It kept them focused with their schoolwork and what they want to do. It kept them from having bad behaviors and stuff. So with that, we worked with that community and was able to set up for a fun day for the kids. [6:13] A lot of people in the community were there, a lot sharing the gospel. A little bit about none-eaten is none-eaten is also known as like Jesus of Nazareth. [6:26] Like everyone said, oh, if you're from Nazareth, there's really no, nothing good comes from there. I mean, it's a little bit of nothing. That's how none-eaten is. So whenever we were there as Americans, we were sometimes the first Americans any of these kids have ever met. [6:38] They've asked the same questions. Why are you here? Why do you want to come see us? We said the same reason. I don't have many testimonies about that. I was more of like helping set up with the organization. [6:49] We had an upstairs attic space, probably about as big as the sanctuary. It used to be a dance hall. We actually changed it into a gym for the kids so they could play football, soccer upstairs. [7:02] But there was one kid I know for a fact that gave his life to Christ. His name was Jack. That was one of my teammates, Daniel. He helped speak about that on his testimony. But from that, we went to, on our weekdays every Wednesday, to a church in Coventry, which is south of Nuneaton. [7:20] It was a Carriers of Hope. It's an organization that helps. It's basically a food drive, but it doesn't give out the food. It mostly just sells it for a short price. [7:32] A lot of people, especially in the Muslim community, they like to have the honor of saying, I bought my own meal. So it's not expensive. It's very cheap. But they can honestly go home saying, I bought my own meal. [7:43] And it wasn't just giving. It shows them that they're, it's honoring, I guess. It's also showing that, you know, I'm a worker. I'm getting by like everyone else normally does. I don't have a bypass. So we worked with that community. [7:54] We had a lot of bags that we set up at the beginning. We had a lot of teammates that would set out by the meat stand or the milk stand or the egg stand and just hand them out to the people that were coming in. [8:07] A lot of great conversations, a lot of great moments. We even did in lead worship there. But Coventry is a very shut off community, the same as Nuneaton it is. [8:20] But we had a lot of great ministry there, a lot of mercy ministry. We ended up working with the DTS that was coming there, which is another discipleship training course. But it was a worship class that was coming to King's Lodge. [8:31] We worked with their team and our team to go to Hinkley, which is a town over one day on a Saturday and led worship on the streets in the town square. And that was a great opportunity to be able to share the gospel and to see people come close to about questions and curiosity of Jesus Christ. [8:49] And they opened up their hearts. And we ended up going from that point to... Give me a second. [9:01] Oh, we went back to Saints for one more time, which was another free day that we ended up having with the community. And then from that, we ended up going and getting our train tickets for Amsterdam. [9:13] So we basically went from Nuneaton to London, from London to Amsterdam, and got there extremely late, about one in the morning. [9:25] So carrying the luggage across town, about a mile and a half walking. We were pretty sore, but we got through it with the rain and all, which that was especially something being wet and cold everywhere we went. [9:36] But it never stopped us or slowed us down. I know that. A little thing I want to say about Amsterdam, I don't know if you all know, but Amsterdam is known. It's known for its history of the church. [9:47] It's known for being the longest... I could be wrong, Billy Joe. May correct me if he knows. But from what we were told, it's been the longest city to be a Protestant. [9:58] It wasn't mostly Catholic. It was mostly Protestant for a very long period. It was supposedly one of the first cities to be more Protestant than a Catholic base. So it wasn't hard to see churches of different denominations there. [10:12] And the founder or the person who started the Baptist denomination, supposedly John Smith, I believe, he was from England, moved to Amsterdam, and actually, he was actually buried there, actually was able to go to the cemetery, which was interesting to know the history, but supposedly was the first founder of the Baptist church there before it was passed down to another gentleman who started the first Baptist church of England. [10:40] So there's a lot of history behind that, but also a lot of wickedness in that city as well. Amsterdam at the time was the biggest trading route from the west side of Europe. [10:55] So instead of going towards the east side of like in Egypt and stuff or in India, they started the first major company, which was the East Trading Company, which is a Dutch company that's based in Amsterdam from the 1600s. [11:11] They actually had a lot of people coming in with different beliefs, different hearts and minds, and because of that, they became more liberty, more freedom-based. So because of that, they said, I'm who I am, this is what I think, this is what I stand on. [11:27] And doing so, they become more open to different things. One of them, the places that's in Amsterdam, which we never walked through, but we walked around, is known as the Red Light District, which I'll share a little bit. [11:42] The Red Light District is a very, it's a, I'm trying to think of a word of this, but it's a prostitute area. It's open windows. [11:53] It's a red light, afternoon kind of deal. And it's legal there in Amsterdam, which is the history of saying where sailors would come there and then afterwards go to the church, which was the Catholic church that's in the center of town, and then go on the ship and leave. [12:11] That's a lot of history, a lot of history with cannabis and drinking. It's very open and public. There's no laws really against it. No one gets in trouble. So while we were walking around, we did experience a lot of, a lot of members on the team did experience a lot of spiritual warfare, a lot of hardships with temptation and troubles. [12:33] And we had a lot of great opportunities, however, to be able to speak into the city. And I don't know if y'all saw in the video, there was a building that said, I can't say it's in Dutch, but it says God and then you, it says God calls you. [12:47] And then on the right side of it, it says Jesus loves you. And that building is actually right in the town square. Once you get off the train, which is the only train that can get you into Amsterdam, basically. [12:58] And once you get off, you have to see that building to go to the red light district and also into the center of town. So people honestly already know that Jesus is already out there for them. [13:08] And that building is owned by the YWAM Amsterdam team that we ended up lodging and staying with and working ministry work a part of. But we stayed there. We met a guy named Jonathan. [13:20] He told us about the community and about the history of Amsterdam and told us the great opportunities we can have with the refugee camp. I wasn't a part of that team. Daniel, Bella, and some other members of mine, they were. [13:32] I got to work in a soup kitchen, however, which was on the east side or the, excuse me, the west side, south end of Amsterdam, which was full of a bunch of different denominations and religion groups. [13:45] I got to sit down and have soup with and get to open and talk with. A great couple I actually got to talk with. They've never been to America but plan on in the future. They were very open. [13:56] The first day they were very closed off, but over time they very opened up. And they ended up asking about more about Jesus Christ, which I was able to give them scriptures and a QR code on a little device that we had. [14:09] And they were able to take it and download it on their phone and started reading the Bible, which was a great thing to see. And they actually ended up coming up to me at the very last day at the soup kitchen and said thank you. [14:19] And they wished us luck on our next travels. And then from that we also went to a church and started to help out with worship and leading on. [14:30] We did more street evangelism. We did more street worship especially. I got to get on some buses and whenever the doors were closed we'd sit there and talk to them because they couldn't get off. [14:43] They just had to sit there and listen to me. But it was really great to just have great conversations because whenever you go to Amsterdam, the Dutch people are very blunt. They're like, why are you talking to me? [14:55] What is your gain from this? What do you want to know? And that's where you just come with an honest heart saying, you know, I want to speak the gospel. I just want to tell you that Jesus loves you. And I'm just here to help you out in any way, which is very great to bring to Europe, especially with how. [15:10] And that's something I should have said at the beginning, but like just because of the weather and the climate it is, it's always wet. It's gloomy. It's very depressive. It's very, no one comes with a smile. [15:24] Nobody does. Nobody wants to really talk to you. You have to start conversation. And if you do start conversation, they honestly know that you're already American because they don't do that to each other. But after we stayed at Amsterdam or while we're in Amsterdam, that's when we had the call about the pipes busting. [15:41] And from that, we ended up calling or Paris called us and we ended up agreeing to that. So we bought train tickets. We changed them from London and our plane tickets in the future from London to Heathrow all the way to Paris. [15:55] And we ended up taking the train down there. And when we got there and arrived, we honestly knew that the Lord definitely made that turn because we were having just moments of like, Lord, you know, we just want to have a good push. [16:10] We just want to have one more great push while we're here, you know, just give us something. And we prayed that on. And sure enough, he did. We ended up getting there in the first day. We worked with the team about saying, hey, let's go to this train station. [16:21] And, you know, one gentleman who played a piano really well, he was like, I'll play for y'all as long as y'all need me to. So we ended up all going there. There was about 30 of us ended up going there. And there was almost 300 people surrounding that entire piano, hearing the gospel and singing Yahweh and singing about Jesus Christ and everything. [16:41] And we had more conversations than we ever had. So many people. I got to meet some great dudes. A gentleman named Muhammad, a young boy named Chris, and another young lady named Anna. [16:52] They all gave their life to Christ that night. And it was a great opportunity. And I never would forget their faces whenever I spoke to them. When I spoke to Muhammad, he was like, he's like, man, I've been running with the world. [17:05] And I just feel so depressed and everything. And, you know, I just don't know. And I'm like, do you want to know how to get better? And I'm like, it's Jesus. I was like, he will take that for you. He is pure. He is peace. [17:15] He is love. He will give you that sense of peace. And sure enough, he like looked down and he looked right back up at me. He's like, will you help me? I said, sure enough. And I got to pray over him right there. [17:26] And he gave his life to Christ. I said, do you believe Jesus Christ down on the cross for your sins? And, you know, that you will be saved believing in him. And he's like, I do. And I said, well, you're saved, brother. And he gave me the biggest hug around my neck, crying down. [17:38] I felt the tears coming down on my neck. And it was like amazing just to see how God can move in so many different areas that we were standing at. And great opportunities at the Eiffel Tower. [17:49] We led worship there. So many people stopping from different nations. So many different religion groups asking us questions like, why are we standing out here in the rain? Why are we standing out here in the rain just worshiping? [18:00] And we said, because we love you. And we had more great conversations and more great people that were coming to salvation with Jesus Christ. And we ended up finishing with a sports group we worked with. [18:13] That was Daniel and Luke. Luke is one of my leaders. They ended up going to a sports camp and had greater conversations with young men out there playing football. And then we ended up going back out towards the train station another night and leading up some more worship ourselves and had some really great conversations. [18:32] And some people ended up returning to talk to us about Jesus Christ and asking us questions, which we were able to answer to them. And then afterwards, we ended up having a little bit of a debrief. [18:45] We ended up talking with our staff, ended up debriefing after our whole nine weeks of mission trips. And we finally prayed it over and we said, Lord, I think it's time that we come home. And we left March 2nd. [18:58] And I think I said the right, March 2nd. Yeah. March 2nd, Saturday in the morning. And it was about a total of 15-hour flights. We went over to Detroit, ran and booked through Detroit because we only had 40 minutes to go on the next plane. [19:11] And I was not missing my chance to come back to Nashville. But we ended up making the plane flight. And we got back home and that was my one week of debrief at YWAM Nashville. [19:24] And then just yesterday, I was able to graduate my certificate of completion with the discipleship training course with the University of the Nations at YWAM Nashville, which was a great thing. It was very hard, though. [19:35] I will say, definitely say bye to my friends and close brothers and sisters in Christ that I've been with for the past six months. But it was a wonderful opportunity, again, to see Jesus move throughout the nations and especially all different countries that we were able to and different faces and different languages that we were able to see. [19:54] And, man, it wasn't just beautiful just to see Jesus speaking to us, to be able to speak into them and just his love pour over them. [20:05] And so many people coming to Christ and that nations and different places. But I honestly just want to say thank you to the Lord for allowing me to have this opportunity to be going through this. But I do want to say thank you for the church for helping me and supporting me, not just with this mission trip, but also whenever I did go to DTS. [20:22] And just also as a member of this church and last week with just with my baptism as well and rededicating my life in Believer's baptism. I just want to truly do say thank you from the bottom of my heart to the church and the people and my family around me and just for helping me. [20:39] And, you know, I just want to ask if you all have any questions or if there's anything else that you all want to know about the mission trip. I try to explain as well as I can. Hopefully I show enough videos and pictures on there. [20:49] But if you all have any questions, I'm open to them. Brooklyn. [21:05] The red light district or the church in Amsterdam. Yeah. So Brooklyn was one of our classmates in our group. [21:17] And I do remember now we went to a church. It was actually part of the Salvation Army. And this church only had the father, the wife and their two kids and only two other people. [21:30] And that was it. That was it. That was that was that was the church right there, which more than two is already a church and part of the spirit. So we sat there. We went over. We'd led worship. And we actually asked, could you all share a testimony? [21:43] And we said, sure enough, we will. And Brooklyn, she agreed to it. She said, I'll have a testimony to share. And she also gave a prophetic word at the very end, because afterwards, when we were speaking to that church and the pastor, she was saying, I feel like y'all are going to be blessed with the church. [22:06] Like y'all are going to be blessed really soon because they were renting this place and they just moved from Africa to set up this church. They said God told them to come to Amsterdam and to start a church. And they've only been there for two weeks. [22:17] So they're just renting out the space to be in. And not even a second, that pastor, after she was finished, he said, I just got a text message while you were talking five minutes ago of a friend of ours here in Amsterdam that says he wants to give us a church. [22:34] And it was an old church that was just about two and a half miles down. And he said, I want y'all to have it. And whenever we were about two weeks later, this was the beginning of Amsterdam. After them, two weeks more, and we're about to leave, we got a picture and got to see the church. [22:48] And they said, this is our church now and our own, which was a great thing to get to see how God definitely blessed them right there on the spot. But yeah, that was Brooklyn Wolf. [22:58] I do remember that, giving her testimony and prophetic word to the church. Yeah. And she said, was she the one, I'm saying she's the one that shared, when y'all were praying for the red light district, that she asked the Lord to give her his eyes for those people, that to give her his eyes. [23:21] And he said, I can love these people because I see them through their childhood innocence. Yeah. I see them before sin took over. I see them in their innocence, so I can love them. [23:34] And so she said that just changed her whole perspective on those people, that there's an innocent child inside there. Yeah. And so she could love them and pray for them. [23:46] So I don't know if that was powerful. Yeah, she shared that yesterday at our graduation. Yeah, she was talking about, because of the red light district being how it is and the prostitution and stuff, it's really hard to look with your eyes. [23:59] So you've got to ask, just like that one song, Lord, give me your eyes for just one second. And you've just got to see how people truly are. Like, that's not who they are. They still are a child of God, and they still can be saved no matter how far they've been. [24:12] You can easily plant that seed in them, and Jesus can definitely work into their lives. But, yeah, when you walk through Amsterdam, you definitely have to look with God's eyes especially and pour your heart out to these people. [24:26] And I totally forgot about sharing, because I've only been here for about a week and a half, but the tabernacle. I ended up forgetting about talking to the tabernacle. So the tabernacle is actually part of the YOM. [24:38] We only went there about two times. But the tabernacle is a 24-7 prayer house right at the cathedral, which was the first church built in Amsterdam. [24:49] And then right across from the canal right there is the entrance to Red Light District. Right there on the outside of the Red Light District is the tabernacle, which is that 24-hour, 24-7 prayer house, where staff and other people of the same beliefs of Jesus Christ come there, and they pray constantly. [25:08] It's a nonstop prayer. So if someone's praying and it's their time to finish, someone will start praying, and then they'll leave. So there's a constant prayer, always being blessed over the Red Light District and the women there and the men there as well. [25:20] And as well, on the left side of the tabernacle is a food and shelter house where if women that are having struggles want to leave this, they easily can come to the door and knock, and then we'll answer, and they'll come in, and they'll clothe them, and they'll feed them. [25:36] They'll talk to them, ask them, you know, what is it that you're looking for? You know, what do you need from us? Like, how can we help you? And they'll take them off of those. They've had one woman, because it's very hard for people to leave that. [25:48] It really is because they have a bond made by somebody or they have something like a blackmail behind them. Because I got to talk to one lady that was coming in to – she was once part of that Red Light District. [26:03] She ended up leaving about – it would be now seven months since she's left the Red Light District. But I asked her, I was like, you know, what makes it so hard? And she told me, because people will blackmail you, you know, and it's just something that you have to do. [26:17] And the YWAM base was able to help her get off of that and able to help her out, and so she left it and ended up getting a nice job and a nice house and actually got to be in reconnection with one of her kids that she has and started to go to church. [26:33] And then she said about three months ago she gave her life to Christ and baptism. So it was a great thing to get to see and hear. And, yeah, but the Tabernacle is a 24-hour prayer house, and they help from the YWAM base in Amsterdam. [26:48] But, yeah, I do remember where Brooklyn was saying that she was asking for the innocence and for a childlike on all the areas of the Red Light District. I do remember that. So how does, like, those that you shared in the Middle East, you saw respond to the messenger? [27:14] Like, do you just follow him? Are they intentional with the follower? Are they connected with the local churches there? Or how do they do after that? Are you talking about, like, the bases that are in the areas that we went to? Right, right. So you shared with Muhammad. [27:27] Yeah. Is he connected to the church now? Were you all able to get the little information on how you're in the church? Yeah. So... Have you had that on the board of the scholarship? Yes, sir. Yeah, we were able to... So people that we had that were coming to Christ are more interested because we were only there a short period of time. [27:42] We ended up giving them a longer-term connection with the people that were staffed there. So I would introduce one of the guys was named... I may say his name wrong. Samala. But he is a gentleman who was part of the Paris Connect with Muhammad when we met. [27:56] And I ended up introducing to him. And I spoke to him two days before we took off on our departure to Nashville. He said that he helped him find a church and was able to get to connect with him and speak because I think Muhammad ended up asking a few more questions like, you know, why does it say this in scriptures? [28:14] And, you know, what does Jesus mean by these? And, you know, it's a lot easier being able to connect with people that are from there because they've already spoke the same language, you know. In England, it's not that hard. We speak English. But whenever you go to Amsterdam and Paris, you know, you've got French, you've got Dutch. [28:27] And sometimes they even carry, because of their Maslin backgrounds, and most of them were from their Middle Eastern stands that they were speaking Arabic. But we had some people that already understood Arabic to be able to interpret it and translate that for them. [28:41] But, yes, I ended up helping with Muhammad. I know that Chris ended up, when I last spoke to the staff member, I gave to him, which was Kill. He ended up not giving that connection, I believe, to Chris. [28:59] Chris ended up, I don't know what he was through. I did offer him to come to the church that we went to in Paris, but it was a short term. So we, you know, I said, this is a church that you can go to. [29:09] But I said, you can always come to YWAM Paris Connect, and they'll be more than welcome to talk to you and help you with a better connection if you need to and any questions that you have. And I even would offer my phone number and be like, if I can, I will talk to you all the way from the U.S. when I get back, if that's what it takes. [29:26] But, yeah, we would usually connect with the people in the area for long term so they can have a longer connection, and someone close and base so they can be able to be in person and get able to go to a church that they attend or to find them a church that they want to go and attend. [29:42] So. Andrew, what's it like doing all these things and witnessing in a foreign country versus here? Here in the States. [29:55] Yeah. I would say one thing I definitely noticed, I don't know if this answers, but one thing I definitely noticed that's different from Europe and here is whenever you go there, people that typically you get to open up to are hungry for it, you know. [30:13] People here, it seems, I may be going out, but it seems like whenever you speak to them, they've heard it so many times, you know, and they're just like, oh, okay, Jesus Christ, yeah, I was once part of a church, this. [30:24] People there, they hear such a different area because we're so used to the Protestant base being here in the U.S. It's, you know, there's not much of a Catholic or any religion group like that. [30:36] You know, there's, it's more over there. So whenever they hear the terms that we speak of Jesus Christ, they typically are more like, oh, that's interesting. Like, tell me more. [30:47] Like, they want to know. They want to know, like, what do we see in our Christianity here in the U.S. versus that is in Europe. But, and Chris was the gentleman who ended up coming up to me, and he saw me praying for a gentleman over there when I was at the train station, and I was praying, and Chris came over beside me, and he was like, are you a pastor? [31:11] And I was like, no, I'm no pastor. And he's like, well, you prayed. He's like, you got to be if you're praying for people. I was like, well, you don't have to be a pastor to pray for people. And he was like, really? [31:22] And it was just the curiosity that he saw me praying over somebody that made him so drawn and be hungry to knowing more. Like, oh, what is this? Like, why is this? Like, whenever you see it here, people already know it, you know. [31:34] But whenever they see you do something like praying or worshiping out in public, it's something that's not normal to them. So they're more curious. They're more drawn. They're more hungry to it, which is why we did it in public, because you would be more open to having conversations, because they would see you doing something that's out of the norm for anyone else. [31:52] Like, for instance, saying good morning to somebody, whenever you're at the streets of London, people would literally stop and turn and look at you and say, why are you saying that? Like, they're very interested. They're very drawn to curiosity in why you think this and why they think this. [32:07] And you try to work on that bridge of where you can meet in the middle. But it was very interesting to see how interested and, like, how curious some people would be, which is why I would have to carry a notebook with me all the time and be like, oh, well, this is that and this is this. [32:22] Like, why we have these different things. But it wasn't just also with, you know, religion. It was also, like, governments here in the U.S. [32:33] And, like, curiosity of how we live our lives and they live their lives that people were just very curious. Because I guess I spoke to one of the staff members from Paris or, excuse me, Amsterdam. [32:46] And I ended up saying that a lot of Americans that come here are just tourists. So they're not going to talk. They're not going to open conversation. They're not going to say good morning. They're just here to see one thing, to go do one thing, and that's it. So when I see Americans stop and say, can I pray for you or can I talk to you for a second or you're just doing worship, it's something that they're so drawn to and they think, well, why is this person, you know, so caring to me, you know. [33:12] And the one thing I would honestly say is, and I know it's true, I would say, you know, whenever I would have a conversation with someone, I'm like, you know, I think God brought me here 4,800 miles just to talk to you. [33:24] And that would instantly just get to them because they're like, wow, this one person that God took from his life to bring all the way 4,800 miles to another country just to say Jesus loves you. [33:36] And that would instantly just draw them to being more hungry and conversations and questions about Christ. So I would honestly say the biggest difference I saw was just the curiosity of knowing more. [33:46] And also just the way of living, you know, you didn't drive at all. I never drove or never got in a car at all. I was in a metro or a bus or a train or a plane the entire time, or I was walking. [34:00] And the way of people, how they eat and how they have their days, and one of them is being tea time, which I did not know what that was until I was halfway through Europe already. [34:11] But, yeah, I would say with, you know, our mission trip, the one biggest thing I can say a difference is that people seem to be, at least from what I've seen going out in Nashville and evangelizing while I was doing my training of DTS, it seems that more people in Europe were more drawn and more hungry for the faith of Jesus Christ. [34:30] How did going overseas like that change your view of foreign missions? [34:46] I would say one thing, and I guess it's because this is my first mission trip, and it is in Europe. [35:00] I would say it's like the beginning when I spoke, and Billy Joe said too, that, you know, our foundation was mostly started in Europe and stuff before it came here to America. [35:11] I think it was because most Americans, when you think of Christianity needing to be spread, like the gospel, the great commission that Christ gives us, you know, you think of going to some remote island, you know, somewhere off course saying this is where they need to hear it, this is where it needs to be spoken to. [35:27] So whenever we heard we were going to Europe, I was already with the mindset, well, they already know, they have churches there, they have denominations, they have the religion. So in my mindset, I was like, okay, this should be easy. [35:38] But actually, it turned out, it was the hardest to be able to just have somebody stop. Like in London, it was really hard. I was having troubles with just saying like, hey, can I speak to you? And they would just walk by, shove me by my shoulder, don't even stop. [35:51] You know, I would have to almost jump in front of somebody just to say, can I speak to you for a second, you know? And I think it was like I understood at that point like how broken Europe has gotten with the faith and how lost they really are, how depressed it really is throughout the streets of London and Amsterdam and Paris and Unheaton that I went to. [36:12] And I would say like the one biggest change in my heart was, and it's kind of going back to what Brooklyn was saying, but like, Lord, give me your eyes, give me your ears, give me your hands. Like, let me see what you see here in this place and let me be used as an instrument for you. [36:27] And it really changed me ever since from, it was right after London I asked the Lord, just give me a spirit of boldness, just give me the ability to push through and be able to just speak out in public. [36:37] Because at that point when we first got there, we were just trying to say hey to people and stop. But then we had to switch and go all the way to street worship and then being able to like just praise and speak of God's name on the streets. [36:48] And then when I asked the Lord, just give me a spirit of boldness, he sure enough did. I was running down the streets. I was going in front of people. I was sitting at bus stops and sitting there and talking about God. [36:59] And then some people would walk off or start getting in the bus. And I didn't even know where that bus was going. So I would just step onto the bus with them and start talking. And they're trying to show away on the corner of it. And I would just sit there and keep talking and talking and talking. [37:10] And sure enough, they'll finally be like more interested. And then they'll start to rest and actually be more comforted by the words of Scripture and stuff that I'd bring to them. And one gentleman I can honestly say that I did that or had the opportunity to talk to was Henry. [37:24] He was a French man from Amsterdam. He was about to fly out. He's a flight attendant. I remember I was sitting at the bus stop talking to him about just personal life and stuff. [37:34] And whenever I brought God, he was like, oh, well, this is my bus. And I was like, oh, it's mine too. So we just sat down next to each other and had open conversation and stuff. And he ended up actually opening up and was more curious of how, because he was once Catholic, a Roman Catholic base, he was more interested on like what do we see and what they see. [37:52] And, you know, just having those conversations too with people, you don't even have to just like, you don't have to always just hammer down like this is my belief, you know, this is faith. And I think sometimes just opening up that question and asking them, like, where do you stand? [38:07] Where do you think? Like, where's your heart at? And it really opens up like someone honestly cares. You know, you want to start a conversation. And Henry ended up shaking my hand and said, Hunter, I wish you a safe flight and travel wherever the Lord takes you. [38:19] And I said, same for you, Henry. But going back to the question, you know, what's the one thing I saw in me from this mission trip? One thing that's changed, I would honestly say, is my heart. [38:31] Seeing that, yeah, there needs to be more missions out there in Europe, like a lot. Because a lot of great minds, a lot of great speakers and pastors were once from them, same lands that I got to walk to. [38:44] I probably got to walk past one of the houses of Charles Burgess. Because when I was down there in London, I mean, one of the great known men who spoke about Christ. And now it's just this broken down city that doesn't know much about the faith and doesn't want to keep a heart with it. [39:00] And we have to send missionaries now out in those fields, the same streets that they once walked in, the great revivals that once happened on those churches and train stations those years ago. [39:10] So I would honestly say my mindset and my heart on my entire mission trip from London all the way to Paris and back home was just how broken and how many missions need to be sent out there. [39:23] I have two questions again, I'm sorry. [39:33] Oh, you're good. Were you ever scared, it's one, and the other one is, what would the street worship like? Did you just start to pull out a guitar and start singing, or what did the people do? [39:43] We would, yeah, just pull out a guitar. And I guess a guitar that we have here is completely different from what they have because they would most likely look at the guitar and just look at it and not the words for a bit. [39:55] But, yeah, we would just, we would find old hymns and stuff to play. We would usually take a keyboard or something that we can play a piano on, sing some hymns or modern songs. [40:06] As a group along a street area that was pretty busy, one of them was being Williston Green. It was a metro stop from where we were staying at about a mile and a half away, about a mile and a quarter. [40:17] And we would sit there at that metro stop at the entrance with a keyboard and a guitar and just stand along and worship. And most likely some people just hearing the lyrics would just come into their hearts because then they have, you know, and that's what we were trying to do is either start a conversation or just letting them know what God thinks of them and, you know, what Christ is to us. [40:37] And just hearing those lyrics while they're going down, you know, God loves you, that instantly, like they may not, you may not think that they're hearing it, but they honestly are and then they're going home and that's in their hearts. [40:48] And then that one day whenever Christ just speaks into them or there's a question about Christ, they instantly remember them, people that were once there in the streets of London that were worshiping and they hear that words that Christ loves you, Jesus loves you. [41:02] And, you know, that's all we were doing is either starting conversations and we would do it anytime. We would say, you know, do you want to sing here? We would instantly, our leader Luke would always have his guitar with him, so he'll just pull it out and we'll just start playing the guitar anywhere that we're at. [41:17] We were at the Louvre, which was the museum in Paris, or the Eiffel Tower or the Metro Station or we were at Big Ben in Westminster in the streets of London and it was a great opportunity to get to worship and just to get to praise God among those places. [41:33] And one, being scared. I wasn't really that scared. I pray. I honestly don't think I was. I think I was mostly homesick to be honest at one time. [41:44] I will be honest about that, being the first time out of the country, first time on a mission trip. But I don't think I was scared because I prayed about the Lord. Because most of my classmates and teammates were girls, and I was the oldest and the biggest guy, so I was like, you know, I had a lot of my leaders saying, you know, we won't be there all the time. [42:03] Could you be the guy for the group, you know? And I prayed to the Lord. I was like, Lord, just give me calm. Just let me be calm and to be able to know where my mind is, to know how to keep them safe and stuff. [42:16] And honestly, I don't remember a single time I got scared going through London in Amsterdam, none of it in or Paris. I just would be walking and be happy because I know the Lord's with me at every step and every path I took and every life that was in front of me was okay. [42:29] But I just remember, you know, that I was there for the Lord and the Lord was going to keep me safe because, honestly, the safest place on this earth that you want to be is where God tells you to be. Because if he tells you to be there, then he's going to take care of you and provide. [42:42] But, yeah. The people that you say, do you get their names? Do you have people come back and make sure or enforce their religion? [42:59] Is there a backup plan? Yes, ma'am. Yeah, like to keep a conversation with them and communication or? Do you have people come back home? And those people are over there. Is there anybody else that's going to come in and help you to say anything? [43:13] Do you encourage them? Yes, ma'am. Yeah. That's with the teams that we were a part of, like the YWAM bases. That's the organization I was part of. The bases that we were located at in the many different cities, we told them the people that we would talk to and connect them in person so they can have a partner and someone to be with to pray over them and to watch over them and to keep them, you know, going. [43:39] Yes, ma'am. Yeah, so they would be able to hook them up with a church organization or even offer them to come to the base to be able to know more or even go to school with the University of the Nations, which is the YWAM base. [43:53] But, yes, ma'am, they would keep a conversation and contact. Yes, ma'am. Yeah, they would make sure they're there. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. [44:31] And, honestly, I would love to. But, yes, ma'am, so the DTS, the discipleship training, was a six-month course, and it was to help equip us to know God and then make him known. [44:42] And that was our job as we were missionaries on the field. And so whenever we came back home, we had our graduation. We told everyone bye. We had one student, one classmate go to Norway. [44:53] We had two go to Canada. And all of us dispersed throughout the U.S. But really what it's supposed to do is help equip us to be able to make disciples in the areas that we're at. [45:03] It's supposed to help us know how I can bring the tools and learning and the stuff I saw while overseas for two months to be able to speak about Christ even stronger and better once I'm here at home. [45:14] And also not just that but able to help in the church better or know where I can serve better in different areas. And, yeah, it is hard to say bye to all my friends and classmates I got to spend time with. [45:28] I honestly did look to all of them as sisters and brothers. And, you know, we had a great moment, though, yesterday in saying goodbyes to each other. But, yes, it is to make disciples of all nations and, you know, to go out and disperse back to where you once were. [45:43] But that doesn't have to end. YWAM does offer, after you do your DTS, to go into the organization and be either a staff member, to be a leader, to be a volunteer, or to go in for another understandings like being a worship leader or being able to teach about the biblical scriptures better, like the story of Christ. [46:03] Or even to go to the University of the Nations, which is in Kona, Hawaii, and actually do an in-person classes, you know, at the campus and learning more about Christ, but also how to start your own DTS in a location. [46:19] So how to be able to take a larger group of missionaries to one nation that doesn't have a YWAM base and establish it there to be able to make disciples and train them and then go from that area and keep going on. [46:32] But, yes, ma'am. Thank you. [47:03] Thank you. Thank you. [48:03] Thank you. Thank you. [49:04] Thank you. Thank you. [50:03] Thank you. [50:33] Thank you. [51:03] Thank you. [51:33] Thank you. [52:03] Thank you. [52:33] Thank you. [53:03] Thank you. [53:33] Thank you. [54:03] Thank you. [54:33] Thank you. [55:03] Thank you. [55:33] Thank you. [56:03] Thank you. [56:33] Thank you. [57:03] Thank you. [57:33] Thank you. [58:03] Thank you. [58:33] Thank you.