COMFORT ZONES – we all have them; those areas of our lives where we feel safe and secure. However, in my now 25 years as a servant of Jesus Christ, I have come to realize that God laughs in the face of comfort zones. In fact, it was Christ Himself who said, “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for My sake, the same shall save it” (Luke 9:23-24, KJV). As hard as it is for Christians to accept sometimes, we are not called to a life of ease. Instead, we are called upon to struggle against this world, sacrificing comfort and even our own lives if necessary to share the truth about what Christ has done for sinners. Often times, Christ has to yank us out of our comfort zones suddenly and unexpectedly. We rarely volunteer to give them up. However, for the members of Reign Ministries’ summer missions program Royal Servants that is precisely what takes place each year.
I am privileged to personally know three of those who answered the call to serve Christ through Royal Servants this past summer – Grace Christian School’s own Ryan Binder (10th grade) and Jake Reesman (9th grade), and Brian Wissehr the youth and young adult pastor of Cornerstone Church here in Anchorage. This month I sat down with these three men of Christ to find out more about this amazing experience.
Ryan got me started with some background information on Royal Servants. As a division of Reign Ministries, Royal Servants sends teams of junior high, high school, and college-aged students all over the globe each summer. The particular trip that Jake, Ryan, and Brian participated in was called EuroQuest and took them to the European nations of Holland, Denmark, Germany, Poland, Slovakia, Croatia, Austria, Switzerland, France, and England. The purpose of Royal Servants is to develop disciples for Christ that will not only serve Him on the foreign mission field, but also take the skills they have learned back home and share Christ there with their friends, family, and classmates.
The whole two-month long mission trip began with a period of intense training. A total of ten Alaskans, including Jake, Ryan, and Brian traveled to Pardeeville, Wisconsin to join with fellow Royal Servants missionaries in a rigorous 10-day preparation process. As Ryan described it, “The whole time it was go, go, go! We never knew what was going on!” In fact, this whole keeping the team in the dark philosophy was part of the process of teaching them to trust fully in Christ. The team was expected not to ask future questions (anything that might give them insights into the day’s events), and instead just trust that Christ would accomplish what He had intended. Even Brian, who as a member of the senior leadership had some insight into what was going on, often asked to be kept in the dark as well. As Brian put it in retrospect, “Not being in control was very beneficial.”
As this trio described it, the training program was run in a pseudo-military fashion. Trainees could often expect to be woken up at insane hours and sent off to do any number of unexpected tasks. And, of course, the spiritual training itself was not for the faint of heart. In the words of Brian, “The biblical and evangelical training was solid and intense.” The purpose of Royal Servants is to build leaders for Christ, not simply to send kids on a trip overseas. Jake learned the overwhelming nature of what he had taken on right away. As he recalled, “I had never felt more homesick in my life, and I realized I needed God to make it through this.” Ryan also recalls that the greatest challenge for him was the spiritual component, and truly taking hold of the calling God had on his life at that time. Each team member was also expected to participate in a specific skill group to be used on the mission field. Jake’s skill group was dance, and Ryan chose drama. (Having personally seen Ryan in Grace’s rendition of You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, I am certain the performances were amazing!) No doubt the training itself must have felt like a lifetime, but that was only the beginning of the journey. The next stop – London!
Getting 40 plus teenage missionaries and staff from one continent to the next is probably not something most people would feel equipped to do, but it is a regular part of the routine for Royal Servants. With training complete, it was time to hop across the pond for a three-day orientation process in London. Though the team would come back to London to do more focused ministry later in the trip, this initial period was primarily to help them get over their jet lag and to further prepare for the mission field. Once this period was over the team headed into France and Holland, and then began their actual mission work in Denmark.
Jake described their work saying, “We would perform in public areas with a portable speaker – often in places where there was a fountain. Then afterward we would talk to people. Usually we would use a survey to start conversations with people. The surveys would have questions like, ‘Do you believe in God?’ and ‘Do you think you’ll go to heaven when you die?’” Ryan also explained that one of the main things they did was just going out and loving on people, whether that was volunteering someplace or just listening to someone on the street. The team was out to show that Christianity is not judgmental. True Christianity is out to share the love Christ has for sinners. According to the Reign Ministries website, “Europe is one of the least evangelized continents in the world: only about 2% attend a Christian church.” And as Brian explained, “Many believe in God, but don’t see a need for Jesus and see the church as corrupt.” And, in fact, other Royal Servants teams to this region have faced police opposition to their ministries in the past. Fortunately, that did not happen on this trip, and the team got to see Christ work in extraordinary ways!
Ryan recalled one such instance in Poland, the first place he personally had the opportunity to lead someone to Christ. He and a few others had been sharing the gospel with a local vendor. Not only was the man receptive to talking to them, but he also wanted to accept Christ on the spot! In my experience, most who are willing to hear the message of Christ, still want time to think it over before making such an eternal commitment, but, as Ryan described it, there was no holding this man back. Jake also had such an opportunity. He and a group made connections with a girl visiting one of the many campgrounds they stayed in. She also accepted Christ, but as Jake complained, “I got called away for packing crew, so I didn’t get to be there when it happened, but it was still cool to be part of it.”
The rest of their journey took them to places like Berlin, Germany and the infamous Auschwitz Concentration Camp of World War II, Croatia, Poland, France, Holland, Switzerland and more until finally they returned to London. It was here that they had the opportunity to minister in Little Pakistan, a segment of London that looks very much like an Arab nation and has been known as a recruiting area for al Qaeda. Of all the areas visited, it was perhaps here that the team had to be the most careful. As Brian explained, “We never felt in danger, but we had to constantly be aware of our environment.” Working with local missionaries, the team helped lead Holiday Clubs (a secular version of VBS), and at one point as many as 65 Muslim children were hearing the Gospel of Jesus Christ through these clubs.
To adequately describe all the amazing things that God did through the 2013 Royal Servants team, I would probably need several novels worth of space (and being there myself might have been helpful as well). Needless to say, I have little doubt that this group left a lasting impact on a continent where Christ is so desperately needed. At the close of our interview I asked each of these men of Christ, “How did the experience change you?” For Jake, he learned to rely on and trust in God to deal with problems, and not to just try and deal with them on his own. In his words, “It’s not about comfort; it’s about character.” For Ryan the lesson was, “…to find my identity in Christ, and not in others. I learned not to be so controlling.” Finally for Brian, “The Holy Spirit taught me that I was not in control, and I had to rely on Him.” Brian also took the time to assess his own personal ministries, and understood with even greater clarity the importance of being in constant communication with Christ. These are all lessons I am sure will never be forgotten.
And so, now, everyone is back home. What’s next? Will these men of God slip back into their comfort zones? Hardly! Royal Servants is not just about sharing Christ in foreign lands; it’s about sharing the power of His cross right here at home. Ryan is already working to take more leadership in his youth group, and Jake is finding more and more opportunities to show his friends and family that Christ is always available for them. Brian also plans to incorporate what he has learned into his own ministries, but he was also clear that, “It’s not about us; it’s about Christ!” Well said, Brian. In the end, it is Christ who will accomplish the work of bringing lost souls into His kingdom. For a brief season, we get to be His hands and feet, but it is still just about Him. We are all simply royal servants, Servants of the Crown, and I can’t think of a more exciting thing to be.
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