Prayer for the World - Belgium And West Germany

By Roz Dymond

As I spent most of last year living in Belgium and West Germany, I grew to realise that both of these countries have great needs, which we, as Christians, can help to fulfil through prayer. Prayer of this kind can be an exciting thing as we discuss the problems with God and look forward to the ways in which He will change things. So, I'll describe my impressions of both countries and I hope that this will inspire you to pray for them.

BELGIUM

In the south, French-speaking area of Belgium, I found that there was a very oppressive atmosphere wherever I went. It seems to be a very dull and desolate country with a black cloud over it. The Belgians themselves are very inward-looking and very wary of strangers. The family is very important to them. Most parents demand extreme loyalty from their children, even after they have reached the age of consent, so many young adults feel very oppressed by their families and have little independence. It is especially difficult for the young adults who have become Christians and are therefore torn between loyalty to their parents and loyalty to Christ. I knew of one girl who had become a Christian through a friend at university and whose father forbade her to go out in the evenings or at weekends. As a result, she couldn't go to church or prayer groups, and so did not grow as a Christian. However after prayer by her Christian friends, her father suddenly and unexpectedly allowed her to go to church one Sunday. God can change similar situations by prayer.

Belgium has been evangelised fairly often, but the gospel message has apparently not had much effect. There are even fewer "live" churches in Belgium than in France in proportion to the population. In Mons, for example, there is one evangelical church, attended by about fifty to sixty people in a town of a population of 100,000! The Christian Union at the university is small, but through a few Christian students witnessing, several other students have become Christians.

Belgium has encouraging signs, but so much more needs to be done. Jesus cares about each person in that country and wants them to be saved... Do you?

WEST GERMANY

In West Germany, the situation is quite different. Many people are a member of either a Protestant or a Catholic church. The churches are packed to the doors on Sunday mornings. Sounds encouraging?

Since so many people consider themselves religious or "good enough", they tend to be blinded to the fact that they need to be saved. The governing political party calls itself Christian, but the fact that it is not actually Christian at all sums up the state of Germany as a whole. They claim to live by Christian values (which they do to some extent), but very few people know God personally. It is in being religious that they have a false sense of security.

Essen, the fifth largest city in West Germany, has two small evangelical Churches. In both of these, the majority of the congregation come from the older generation. The proportion of Christians under forty years old is very small. The Christian Union at Essen University has between ten and fifteen members. They seem to have little effect on the university, which contains 17,000 students. Most of the members come Christian backgrounds. I only know of one girl who became a Christian whilst at university.

I think the major hindrances to the spreading of the gospel in Germany are that generally, the Germans are very self-assured and therefore do not see their need for God. They believe they have such a good standard of living, they can buy everything they need to make them happy. However, loneliness and isolation is a widespread problem, as is the pressure to achieve. People may come to see their need for God through these problems. They are very rationalistic, so they find it hard that a supernatural world exists. One of their philosophers said "God is dead and has abandoned the world that He had created."

Prayer is needed for all the churches in Germany. Pray that the evangelical churches won't die out, and that God will rebuild His Church within Germany. Pray that people remember God, and that the blindfolds of religion and philosophy are removed so that they may see Him. I'm looking forward to seeing a great number of Germans become Christians. There will be even more if we pray for them!

All articles are (c) their respective authors, and appeared in, or were submitted for the Christian Friendship magazine published in Immingham, England, 1989-1990.
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