What matters most in life? Jesus, of course, but what does embracing that reality look like? Perhaps it was this question that motivated me towards missions, and in doing so I began to find an answer.

Originally, I am from Middlebury, Indiana, and following my graduation from Evangel University, I spent the past year in Kaiserslautern, Germany. My purpose was to be a loving and open-eared barista at Rhema Café, offering prayer and conversation and leading a small group guiding young adults toward a deeper relationship with Christ. Not only does Rhema Café serve the US Military community, which has a massive presence due to the nearby bases, but also the predominantly secular German community in the surrounding area. Additionally, as a result of the war in Ukraine this past year, we have ministered to hundreds of Ukrainian refugees who were seeking homes, jobs, and visas, all while coping with the destruction of their country. Please join me in prayer for the displaced Ukrainians and those serving in the Military – specifically for healing for all of those coping with loneliness, depression, anxiety, and other struggles resulting from living in a foreign country.

What matters most then? I found an answer in studying Jesus’ response to what the most important commandment is in Matthew 22:37-40. Jesus said that we are to love God with our whole selves and love others as ourselves. The core of self-love is caring for our bodily and spiritual necessities. This instinctual love must be extended to our neighbors per the law of Christ. Because of the differences between us as uniquely created individuals, the mystery lies then in how this love is to be acted out in the world. For some, this mystery is revealed right where we are, in a workplace or a local church. For others, it is found in a different city, state, country, or hemisphere for a week, year, or even a lifetime. For me, I felt it was Germany for one year.

As you undergo your own process of discovering where you can best live out the law of Christ and love others, I humbly ask that you consider Europe. My stint in Germany showed me numerous times that an earnest exhibition of Christ’s love has the power to radically change lives, and there are many more there in need of receiving Christ’s love. Ultimately, my prayer for you, the reader of this, is that you discover that mystery of where and how you can best love others and that you take a comfy seat there. Because if we love God, we love others, and others just so happen to be all over the world.