I'm over in Europe teaching for the next two weeks for Torchbearers Missionary Fellowship. I'll be offering regular updates from Germany, Austria, and Prague, throughout the month. I hope you'll follow me, both here, and on Twitter, as I seek to uncover some lessons we can learn from Christians in Europe, both today and historically.

As we move into the advent season, I'm looking out the window of my room, located in southern Germany, on the shores of the Bodensee lake. I'm looking south, across the lake to the shores of Switzerland, only a few short miles away.  

I'm reading, "The Shame and the Sacrifice" while here in Germany, which is the story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's life, the German pastor who had the chance to remain in America as WWII was beginning, but elected instead to return to his homeland in order to walk with his own people through what he anticipated would be a dark and difficult time.There's a profound sense in which Bonhoeffer's return to Germany becomes a powerful and rich example of the very thing we celebrate at this time year:  "God with us."