From the moment Istvar, my host, met me at the Budapest airport, I was immersed in a sea of languages. Istvar spoke German and Russian in addition to his native Hungarian, and apologized that his English was not so good.  Next, a bishop and two youth leaders from Russia arrived, one of whom spoke English.  In the next three hours nearly thirty leaders had arrived from a variety of countries, greeting one another in all sorts of languages, eager to find someone who could interpret when they had no language in common.  We boarded a bus to travel to the retreat center of the Hungarian Lutheran church, traveling through picturesque Budapest, arriving at the center in Piliscsaba (pil-is-KAWV-vah) two hours later.
 
Every third year, the leaders of the Lutheran Inner Mission Societies of Europe gather for a conference (EURIM).  While the state churches include a majority of a country’s population, the inner mission societies facilitate the spiritual lives of active Christians.  A few leaders from the Lutheran Foreign Mission Societies also attended.  In addition to the fifty executives, thirty youth ministry leaders participated.  The agenda included lectures, reports, bible study, prayer, singing, and planning.  Thirty countries were represented and the lectures were interpreted into English, German, and Russian (we wore remote headsets).  We sang songs in four languages (including Hungarian) all at once! 
 
Christian work in the East European countries galvanized the attention of the conference.  Christian leaders there experience a new freedom to evangelize since the fall of Soviet communism.  The conference was alive with their sense of a burden lifted, a new day full of possibilities, and an eagerness to share Jesus Christ with their countrymen.  In response to my inquiry about life in communist times, I received many painful looks, and brief comments to the effect that life had been very difficult.  Of course, challenges remained, especially the poverty and uncertainty of moving from a command economy to a market economy.   Constraints to freedom also continue, especially in Belarus, as well as in Ukraine and Russia.  In Belarus, it requires twenty people to attend weekly services to obtain permission to establish a congregation.  Also in Belarus, fathers and mothers each receive $200 a month from the local mosque for faithful family attendance, a tidy sum in a country in which $100 is considered an adequate monthly salary.
 
The Lutheran Inner and Foreign Mission Societies of Europe are evangelical, evangelistic, mission-oriented, biblical, and ethically traditional.  While distinctly Lutheran, they often work with Christians from other denominations.  The inner mission societies work within the state churches but perceive the state churches as unfaithful to the Christian message.  The representatives from the East European countries were a mix of persons from both the institutional and movement structures of the church.  In addition to country reports, topics at the conference included moving from a folk to a mission church, Christianity in a minority, ethics, money and goods, marriage and family.  The youth ministry leaders held several parallel sessions.
 
During my time at the conference, the Iraqi war continued.  The topic came up in individual conversations, but only twice in plenary sessions.  The first was a time of prayer, in which I was asked to participate.  The second was in a presentation in which a Ukrainian pastor spoke of following Jesus, rhetorically asking whether or not we could image Jesus piloting a fighter jet.  The next speaker, a Norwegian professor, presented Lutheran Christian ethics, in which God works through Jesus (the gospel) in the church and through the law in government.  Of course, Jesus could not be the pilot of a fighter jet, for he came to die for us.  This does not suggest that we ought to collapse the law into the gospel.  Government must function to protect the innocent and to restrain the wicked.  This traditional Lutheran ethic was reflected in the conversations I had on the war.  I found the leaders to be reflective and balanced rather than simplistic and blaming.  The discussion recognized nationalistic viewpoints, but transcended them.
 
During my visit, several leaders expressed interest in working with Youth Encounter.  Several leaders expressed interest in the ministry of Watermark.  Some leaders are interested in having their young adults become members of a Music Ministry Team.  Leaders from the East European countries are interested in music and worship resources and training.  The Danish Inner Mission leaders expressed their appreciation for our partnership with Watermark and the presence of Danes on our Teams.  It was especially good to visit with them and to renew my friendship with Peter Nord Hanson, who serves as an Inner Mission “vice president.”  I also enjoyed several conversations with Anfin Skaaheim, head of Normisjon, whom I had met in Norway several years ago.  Normisjon was recently formed by the merger of the large Norwegian Inner Mission Society with the Santal (foreign) Mission Society.
 
Pastor Don Richmond, the founder and head of the East European Mission Network, and the only other American in attendance, was my roommate.  The effectiveness of Don’s ministry was evident during the conference as he visited with the Eastern European leaders.
 
I left the conference thankful for renewing friendships and for new friendships, excited about the mission in the East European countries and concerned for these leaders, appreciative for the evangelical Lutheran emphasis, and eager for further partnerships. 
 
Participating countries included: Denmark, Finland, Norway, Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, USA.