David Livingstone. John Eliot. Hudson Taylor. Gladys Aylward. William Carey. John Wesley. Names that are well-known when it comes to missions. The list can go on. They have two things in common. They all had a calling based on a personal relationship with their Savior. And they were all Europeans.
Europe used to be the place that sent missionaries. History confirms it. While writing this article, I asked Google a simple question, “Is Europe still sending missionaries?” The first search result was titled “3 Reasons Europe Still Needs Missionaries.” Needs. The second result was “Does Europe Need Missionaries?” I could go on, but you get the point. Something happened, and from the continent that used to send missionaries, we turned into the continent that needs missionaries. What changed?
A few years ago, when we decided to step out in faith and dedicate our lives to full-time mission service, we experienced the need for a Europe-based SDA missionary-sending agency. We could not find one. As we departed as missionaries, leaving on our own, we allowed only one small door open for returning: If we were ever to come back, we were to do something about that need.
Little did we believe that would actually come true, but God’s thoughts are higher than our thoughts and in early 2022, we flew back to Europe to start AFM-Europe, the first Europe-based missionary sending agency with the goal of reaching the unreached. We were told it would be hard. We were told we would receive pushback. The naysayers were many. We were told that no one had ever succeeded in doing anything like it in the past decades. We were told that Europe is no longer what it used to be. They were partly right. It was hard, but not because of the negative reasons people shared with us. It was hard because there was so much to be done in such a short time. We were pushed back, not by people or institutions, but by Satan and his attacks. It is true that nobody had done it for many years, but God worked it out right away. Maybe Europe is different, but the potential is still here, and God does not change.
Our office has conducted many activities since its inception. Besides all the administrative work, we have attended many events such as ASI and GYC conventions, a Youth in Mission Congress, an Adventist Youth Congress, national camp meetings and more. We have visited a number of mission schools, held classes and talked to the students. We have accepted invitations to speak in churches across the continent and recorded TV programs as ways to raise support and awareness. We have been blessed through all these. Four short-term missionaries are now going from Europe to Palawan, Cambodia, and Central Asia. A new career missionary couple will launch in the fall of 2025, opening a new project in Greenland. Sixteen people have joined us on a mission trip to the Pnong project, and more than 40 missionary applications have been processed.
There is much to learn about Europe, and we are constantly working our way through many lessons, which can be seen as both a challenge and a blessing. Our greatest discovery is that Europe wants more—more discipleship, more authenticity, more faith, more action, and to send more missionaries. We crossed paths with young people eager to serve, church leaders who long to inspire and motivate congregations, and church members who want to support missions. We have seen such a desire to grow amongst the people of Europe—with God blessing exceedingly abundantly above all that we asked or thought in our prayers of faith (Ephesians 3:20-21). That gives us hope, hope in the fact that Europe can, once again, be a missionary-sending continent.
Through this journey, God has proven over and again that missions are not just part of this continent’s past but also its future. This truth will also remedy Google’s search results. When we are heavily involved in missions, we are no longer in need of receiving missionaries locally because “the light that shines far away from home shines the brightest at home.” Home churches are the first to benefit from being active in cross-cultural work. The work has grown so much in such a short time that we are now purchasing the first European training center dedicated to preparing missionaries for reaching the unreached. How amazing!
I invite you to join us in this great adventure that God is leading. Pray for and with us. Support us. Rejoice with us!
