Christmas Market

Each year during Advent, many people flock to the Christmas Markets in Salzburg, Austria. This year, MB Mission church planters Richard & Hazel Funk along with their Salzburg church group started to dream about how they could reach out to the city of Salzburg. They hoped to have a book table in a Christmas Market, but weren’t sure if this was even possible.

The church could hardly believe it when they were given a spot for their book table in a popular Christmas Market that thousands of people visit each Advent. Richard & Hazel wrote to their supporters to ask for prayer, saying: “Our Salzburg Church will have a Christian book table at one of the most frequented Advent markets. We were granted a wonderful spot in the chapel of a castle courtyard. Pray that we will gain new contacts to people; that books, Bibles and calendars will be sold and that God’s Word will enter homes and hearts.”

On the weekend of the Christmas Market, the Salzburg church group set up their book table in the Market on Friday at noon and by the end of that first night, they had handed out nearly all of their Christmas tracts. They gave out bookmarks that invited people to their church services, and quickly printed more when these also ran out! Advent booklets, children’s books and Bibles, evangelistic books, and calendars were all sold. On Saturday morning they had to drive back to the bookstore to stock up on more Books and Bibles.

There were even people from other countries such as Germany, Holland and Italy who arrived by bus to explore the Christmas Market. The Salzburg church members were excited and encouraged as they saw how interested people were in the Christian literature.

The church members realized that their faith had been much too small when they first dreamed of having a book table at the Christmas Market. They were amazed at all the different people that God brought to them as they took turns helping out at the book table. Richard & Hazel saw their prayers answered beyond what they had expected and rejoiced in seeing God at work through this amazing opportunity.

Praise God for a successful weekend at the Christmas Market in Salzburg. Pray that God will reveal Himself to each person who bought a Bible or other Christian literature. Pray that the truth of Emmanuel – God with us – will be shone in their hearts this Christmas.

The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. – 1 John 1:14