Gospel Expedition

This leg of the journey proved to be unexpectedly hard. We were to cover only 150km along German roads from Petershagen to Kassel. The first 30 km went rather well. Brother Daniel, in whose house we stayed overnight, accompanied us. We went along a nice road and nothing bothered us. An hour later, we received a phone call with the news that one of our men had left his jacket with his papers. (In Europe you need identification papers) We were to stop in the small town of Bukeburg and await the arrival of a woman who would bring Daniel’s papers.

Ten minutes after that, a police car passed us and then suddenly stopped. We had attracted their attention. Exiting their car, the policemen came straight toward us. “Well, it will start now,” was my first thought. I couldn’t think of anything we had done wrong. But when they came up to us, I saw their smiling faces and then I remembered that we were in Germany, not Russia, and that these men were not our road inspectors. Very amiably, they asked us where we came from and where we were going, and asked us to wait a bit for the arrival of the local newspaper’s correspondents, who wanted to take pictures and interview us. But we didn’t have time, as we had to get Daniel’s papers. We said goodbye to them and gave them booklets. The police accompanied us through town showing us the right road, and then we cycled on alone.

And then our difficulties began. We began encountering steep hills. We looked at the map more closely and saw that we were entering a mountainous area. The proposed route appeared to be closed for bikes. We had to go along little roads, which went through villages and from the bottom of ravines to the tops of the mountains. It made our route 181 km instead of 150. We encountered heavy rain and strong wind. We reached our destination after much labor, but we discovered that it was too early to triumph. While descending the last hill, one of the bikers ran into the group of bicyclers who had stopped already. He failed to stop in time because of the wet road. He ended up with a broken bike, bruises and grazes, but praise God, no fractures. After we fixed the wheel on the bike, we continued on our way.

Arriving in Kassel, we headed straight to the big hall where the Congress of the German Baptist Union of Germany was scheduled to begin. More than 1,000 persons representing the Baptist churches of Germany came together for the Congress. The Congress was planned to start with our arrival and that is why we were in a hurry. Praise God, we came in time. New members of the expedition were waiting for us there – brother Wilhelm Yoder with his wife, Gallina. We had 20 minutes before the beginning of the meeting, so we changed our clothes and went to the stage together with our bikes.

With great joy and surprise, our German brothers and sisters met the members of the Expedition. We were invited to come up to the stage together with our bikes for the presentation of the whole Expedition project. We spoke of the importance of having a strong society, which begins with relationships inside families and a personal relationship with God. The call to go and preach the Gospel to the ends of the earth resounded with new power, backed up by the personal example of our team. All the audience unanimously blessed the Expedition and all its members in a general prayer.

The service continued with the Larionovs playing and singing hymns. The members of the Expedition told people about the goals of the trip, and called on people to pray and take an active part in ministry to the Lord. We saw tears in the eyes of many people present in the hall. The Spirit of God acted in their hearts. Instead of the planned 15 minutes, the meeting lasted for 90 minutes. We were kindly invited to stay overnight in the Central church in Kassel. We were to have a good rest for the next day’s trip. We would need our strength to cover over 250 km to Leipzig.

Leonid Kartavenko, Leah Larionova