by Greg Mundis

Thanksgiving

Dear Friends:

This past Thanksgiving my wife and I traveled from Budapest, Hungary, to Boston, Massachusetts. While crowded in the economy class and sitting next to a number of people who were traveling, trying to get home for the holidays, I reflected on flights that I have been on in the past.

I thought about a flight two or three flights earlier when I was traveling from Europe back to the United States. I was not accompanied by my wife and was sitting in an aisle chair waiting for a person to come and fill the seat next to me. My mind wondered about who the person would be—male or female, large or tiny, talkative and extroverted or quiet and introverted. I tried to size up the different people as they walked down the aisle and guess which one would be sitting next to me.

Finally, I saw a young lady down the aisle. Her hair was red and orange with the punk look, earrings, nose rings, lip rings, oversized clothes, carrying a backpack and, with her earphones, kind of bee-bopping down the aisle. I thought, Yep, that’s my partner. Sure enough, she came to the seat, tapped me on the shoulder, and indicated that the window seat was hers.

As a 57-year-old man and a believer, I thought, How can I begin a conversation with this person who is so out of my worldview and understanding of life? So I introduced myself, and she introduced herself. I asked her where she was going. In my mind I had already placed her going to San Francisco or somewhere on the West Coast. But she shocked me when she said she was going to Kansas City, Missouri.

I said, “My goodness, why would a Swiss young person want to go to Kansas City, Missouri?”

She said, “I’m going to the IHOP.”

Now because of my generation, I interpreted IHOP as the International House of Pancakes. So I tried to decide why a 19-year-old young lady with orange and red hair and rings everywhere, obviously Swiss, would want to go to Kansas City and visit an International House of Pancakes.

So I asked her, “So you want to go to a pancake house?”

She said, “No, no, I want to go to the International House of Prayer.”

That’s when God slapped me alongside the head and said, “Greg, you can’t judge a book by its cover.”

The story unfolds that this young lady was between high school and university and had three months to give for anything that she wanted to do. She had come out of a state church background—where she got involved in a small movement and evangelical youth group that believes in Jesus born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, suffered on the Cross, died, rose again from the dead—which had totally impacted her life. She wanted to spend the next three months in prayer for the world and her future. I, of course, repented to God and told her about my occupation. She just lit up because she was praying that God would give her a seat partner who would be an encouragement to her. So I had the opportunity to encourage and bless her as we talked about the Lord.

The reason I share this story is because I’m thankful for the new generation. They look different, they act different, they speak different, they have different points of view, but there is an amazing passion and commitment in the hearts of those who know Jesus as Savior. So in this season between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I just want to say I’m thankful for the young people that know Jesus as their Savior. I’m thankful when they are baptized in the Holy Spirit. I’m thankful when they’re called into their different occupations and ministries. I want to salute them and be a part of their lives in any way that I can be a blessing to them. I trust that you had a great Thanksgiving and that these next few weeks of Advent will be filled with the joy of anticipation of what Christ can do in your life.

Sincerely,

Greg Mundis
AGWM Europe Regional Director

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