Willkommen in Hamburg : Mini Outreach

by


So last week I had the privilege of tagging along with the DTS Students and Staff to Hamburg on Mini-Outreach! This was the second mini outreach that I have been on and it was absolutely amazing. It was such a breath of fresh air to be in a large city again. I love little Herrnhut, don’t get me wrong, but there is something so amazing about being in a large city, especially such a beautiful one.

We left last Saturday in 3 groups, mine being the first one at 8:30 in the morning, which was nice because that means that we wouldn’t get there too late. My travel group consisted of about 50 students and 6 staff that would all stay together at one church (the other two groups would stay at another church). It was about a 9 hour travel day (which was super nice compared to the 48 hour travel days last year in India haha), and we got there without missing any trains or any major confusion, which was nice for traveling in such a large size.


Outreach started basically as soon as we got onto the train. Kaleigh and I sat next to this elderly woman, and we hit it off her (with the help of a translator). We learned about her kids she eventually told us that two of the four were Atheists, and that she prayed for them every night. We got to pray for her and she was really moved and blessed by it. I saw how happy she was, and it was in that moment when I got really excited for this outreach. The fact that all you have to do is talk to people and relate to them and show them Jesus through your actions makes it super simple.


We got to our church and it was super nice. We noticed that it was just off a street called Hamburger Straße (basically Hamburger street) and that there was a McDonalds across the street. Taylor, one of the students, made a comment about how funny it would be to eat a Hamburger in Hamburg on Hamburger Straße... So obviously, me being Trinda and by definition absolutely up for anything ridiculous, that happened within the hour with photo evidence. Getting to hang out with the students this past week was such a blessing. Because I am not actually school staff, but base staff, and my job is in the back office, I don’t really get to interact with them and make friends with them as much. This week I got to know some amazing students and got to participate in a plethora of shenanigans. Some really memorable ones included the floor turning to lava at 7pm until midnight (that was really fun to get groceries across to the kitchen haha), an epic dance party happening randomly, and a HUGE pizza party out in front of the docks. I had so much fun and hadn’t laughed that much in so long!








Mini Outreach was such a blast, not only because of the fun, but also how inspired I was to see these students in action. Within the first 24 hours, they burst into action and were touching people’s lives right from the get-go. After the first night, our church shared stories of what they did to encourage each other to keep pushing. These stories blew me away. People were entering the Reeperbahn (Hamburg’s Red Light District) and praying there. They were praying for people and lies were being broken already. People could feel Gods presence tangibly and dark atmospheres were being changed. Within 24 hours. I was so taken aback and amazed. They also planned a worship/intercession event close to the Reeperbahn, we participated in powerful prayer walks, and people blessed others through arts. Personally, this was the first time for me that I have seen such powerful evangelism in a big city. I was inspired, and challenged to step up my game, but at the same time not to strive, but to let God really use me how He wanted to. It was amazing.




My most memorable evangelism day included talking to people around the red light district and entering bars to do “bar ministry”. Haha. If you know much about me, then you know that I have been into very few bars in my 21 years. But myself and the 3 other students that I went with had a blast. We got to have some really good conversations with some amazing older German locals. Three of us ended talking to a German school cook, who had been to India. I had been there as well, and the other two students will be going there soon. I could tell that he was really enjoying the conversation, and we were able to bless his day. While we were talking, the other student was talking to the bartender when someone sat down next to her. They started a conversation and she learned that He just came from the country that she will be heading to! Talk about divine appointments! Turns out he runs a ministry in the Reeperbahn and they got to talk about that and her dreams for her future. Another older man that we talked to also treated us to another round of Cokes as well. Time flew by and pretty soon we realized that we were late to meet the final person in our travel group who had left to shoot for her video. We left the bar, but before exiting I told the bartender that she was beautiful in German [pretty good German in my opinion ;)]. She smiled so huge! I could tell that we really brought the presence of the Lord into that place. We were 10 minutes late to meet Justyna, but while she was waiting she had the chance to talk to someone who I had met earlier that day. Because of the language barrier I couldn’t talk to him, but he was Polish and so was she, so they were able to talk and she was able to pray for him. All-in-all it was an amazing day of many amazing days that I had in this beautiful city.



On Thursday night, the OBJECT Conference started. It was a 3 day conference that was put on by Hope Dies Last, a ministry run out of our base that is dedicated to “Transforming culture through media and missions to counteract human trafficking and sexual exploitation.”  I learned so much about human trafficking and the sex industry. There are so many things, and so much information that people need to know. There are so many crimes and people being hurt daily. We learned about the effects of pornography, buying sex, and being sexually exploited on the human mind and how God views it. Personally, I got really fired up. I think that eventually I want to be involved somehow in the fight for this freedom. We’ll see what that looks like in the future. God has His plan for my life, but I have this new passion that I never knew existed in me before. I love it when God shows you something new, that you and Him can have a passion for together.


The week that I got to spend in Hamburg was really amazing. I learned a lot, had a blast, and really saw God move. I am so excited to hear the stories from when these students come back from Outreach, and to see them realize even more how God can use them for such great things!