Mary Buteyn and David Kromminga

Vision

For many years, we have wondered if God has called us to a shared ministry in a German-speaking country. We met as German students at Calvin College. We have a large network of friends and contacts throughout Germany. We have extensive knowledge of the people and the culture. Mary has taught German for more than 30 years. David has served urban congregations in Canada and the US for 28 years. Cross-cultural relationships have always inspired and enriched us.

The arrival of more than one million refugees in Germany in just this past year has only served to reinforce this sense of calling. David’s recent trip to Germany revealed that there would be many opportunities for us to serve with Christian organizations and churches responding to the refugee situation. A major Christian organization, the Berliner Stadtmission (Berlin City Mission), has eagerly opened its door to partner with Resonate Global Mission.  The need is great, the time is ripe, and we believe that God has uniquely prepared us for ministry with refugees in  Berlin, Germany.

We believe that God can bend even the tragic displacement of millions of people because of violence and war toward His Kingdom purposes of bringing His peace and Good News of new life in Christ into the lives of refugees. We also believe that God could be using this unprecedented stream of people into Germany to revitalize His church through tangible expressions of Christian hospitality and new opportunities to witness.  

Mission

We will work in cooperation with the Berliner Stadtmission, a 137-year-old mission to Germany’s capital city. In addition to doing traditional city mission work, the organization is responsible for providing emergency housing for refugees in the city. Its 18 mission congregations are also exploring ways of meaningful engagement with refugees and how to bring them into their worshiping communities. Of the more than one million refugees that arrived in Germany in the last year 60,000 came to Berlin. The opportunities for our involvement are abundant: pastoral care, language education, leadership training for new Christians, interreligious understanding, worship in easy German, and workshops for congregations in intercultural competence. We expect spending our first months settling on where to best employ our gifts and passions in God’s great work.