Last month
my wife and I took a trip to Europe. We
visited Le Rucher Ministries for a week where I participated in training with a
model of debriefing for missionaries.
Le Rucher http://lerucher.org offers
an excellent program for missionaries and Christian leaders to process changes
and events in their lives to help them effectively continue their service.
Because our
visit took us to Switzerland, we decided to explore some of the sites related
to what is known in Church history as the Reformation. The Anabaptists (re-baptisers) are traced
back to Zurich where the first adult baptism took place on Januray 21, 1525
near the Great Munster cathedral then pastored by Ulrich Zwingli. Because Anabaptist beliefs conflicted with
the state-run church, they endured severe persecution for their faith and many
were forced to flee their homeland to take refuge elsewhere. Some of them came all the way to America to
find freedom to practice their religious faith. Lancaster County Pennsylvania’s earliest settlers were mostly
among this group of freedom seekers.
Desiring to
research more of my own faith and
family roots, last year I discovered the maternal side of my family has a
direct link to a Martin family who fled Switzerland eleven generations
ago. Before arriving in Lancaster to
join his sons who had arrived earlier, Christian Martin had spent time in a
prison notorious as a place of martyrdom for many of his church brethren. The prison is located in the tower of a
castle in the Emmental region called Trachselwald Castle. On the 19th of January we visited
this castle.
The castle
is being preserved as a memorial to the sacrifices many have made for their
faith. The prison tower remains today
in the condition it existed hundreds of years ago. It was a very humbling experience for me to visit the place where
my ancestor spent time under very oppressive circumstances.
In recent
years Anabaptist and Reform church leaders have been involved in reconciliation
efforts to mend the wounds caused by this type of darkness in our history. Efforts are being made to preserve
Trachselwald castle specifically as a place to facilitate healing and
restoration of life-affirming cooperation for expressions of faith in the
Church. See more about the Trachselwald
castle at http://trachselwald-castle.ch/
In 2011,
before I knew details about Anabaptist persecution, the Trachselwald castle,
and my family ties to it, I authored a book on the topic of forgiveness and
reconciliation. Very similar to the
effects of physical imprisonment, the human heart is bound in a spiritual
prison which we can escape from through the power of the death and resurrecton
of Jesus Christ. When we are willing to
admit our lost and imprisoned condition of heart, Christ is able to free us
from all effects of sin, hurts, wounds, mistreatments, and abuses. The afflicting pain in our heart can be
exchanged at the Cross.
My book
Escaping the Pain of Offense: Empowered to Forgive from the Heart explains more
about how to discover things that may be unknowingly (or knowingly) burdening
you, and how to surrender them to
Christ. You can obtain a copy
online. You can contact me about the
book or if you are looking for help to process difficult circumstances in your
life. If you are a Christian pastor,
missionary, or ministry leader, I would especially encourage you not to delay
reaching out for the help available.
by Ed Hersh, Blue Rock BnB Healing Ministry
