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“Give us today our daily bread.” (Matthew 6:11)

Our long-awaited annual meeting of the German Daily Bread team took place in Bonn on March 17th, Bonn. The title was “Give us today our daily bread”. Some co-workers such as Sh. Brigitte Schauwienold (Heidelberg) and Sh. Marianne Blessing Müller (Bern, Switzerland) arrived one day earlier and attended the discipleship evening in Bonn. Sh. Brigitte encouraged the co-workers by sharing a report on God’s work in Heidelberg. 12 co-workers attended the Daily Bread team meeting: Sh. Eberhard Groß, Sh. Ulrike Groß and Msn. Johannes Lee from Cologne, Sh. Brigitte Schauwienold from Heidelberg, Sh. Marianne Müller from Bern, Sh. Peter Schweitzer, Sh. Stefan Elsholz, Sh. Elke Dietzel, Msn. Priska Schweitzer, Msn. Maria Lee, Sh. Christoph Tornau and Msn. Stephanus Park from Bonn. 

Sh. Eberhard Groß opened the program with representative prayer at 10 AM. At the beginning Sh. Peter Schweitzer gave a short and encouraging welcome address on Ez 37:10. He thanked the Daily Bread team for their efforts and devotion in the background and encouraged them with God’s vision for the spiritual revival of Germany and Europe. Sh. Stefan Elsholz led the morning program which had the title “God’s word and grace.” 

1. Bible Study

We studied one verse, Matthew 6:11, from the Lord’s Prayer. “Give us today our daily bread.” We deeply meditated on this one prayer topic Jesus gave us. What does Jesus teach us through this prayer topic? What is “our daily bread”? What meaning does this prayer have in our affluent society? Which reasons and symptoms of spiritual malnutrition do we see in our society and churches? What ideas and suggestions do you have for fixing spiritual malnutrition? 

Firstly, through this prayer topic Jesus teaches us God’s great grace upon us. Genesis 3:17-19 reads: “…Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.” People struggle hard and desperately in order to win their bread but in the end they have to die! How great is God’s grace that he freed us from this curse through Jesus Christ. Now, we do not need to struggle laboriously to win bread and survive but are able to deal with our original mission.

“Give us today our daily bread.” Our Father gives us bread on a daily basis. We fully depend on God’s grace and we can fully trust in God to care for our lives like a mother cares for her children by preparing 3 meals a day for them. Our Father gives us the bread of life, healthy food, on a daily basis. Whoever eats it daily, will become healthy, strong and happy. Also, his immune system will become strong against any kind of sickness.

This is how Jesus taught us to pray: “Give us today our daily bread.” Daily, we eat the bread our father gives us. Studying this verse motivated us to run a spiritual health check and to fix the spiritual malnutrition as soon as possible. A discussion on practical suggestions and concrete programs followed in the afternoon.

2. Daily Bread testimony sharing: today’s Daily Bread 2 Chronicles 11:1-23

Through the testimonies of our women co-workers we got to know their spiritual struggle with the word of God for their shepherd life, important decisions in life, and discipleship parenting.

Sh. Marianne Blessing Müller made a decision to co-work humbly and to pray for her sister and for students. Sh. Ulrike Groß prays to obey God’s directions on Africa healing mission, medical school and her job. Sh. Brigitte Schauwienold wants to ask God first in any circumstances. Msn. Maria Lee learned that obedience has influence on others and experienced God’s presence in her daily life. Msn. Priska Schweitzer prays for wisdom on parenting by humbling herself before God.

It snowed on this day. After joyful eating fellowship we continued our program. The afternoon program contained practical concerns “improvement and mobilization”.

3. Lecture on improvement and mobilization

Msn. Johannes Lee held a very interesting lecture on our theme. He contributed with hand drawings. In his lecture, according to 2 Tim, he emphasized the importance of our Daily Bread to strengthen the daily lives of the readers in their different circumstances and situations in life. He also suggested setting up a cell phone applicable website for the cell phone generation, developing our Daily Bread booklet and adding functions and content such as calender, information on Bible study and further education.

4. Workshop I: "improvement" 

We talked about improving our Daily Bread booklet relating to content and composition. First, we discussed the length of a passage. Lately, the passages tended to become shorter. Eventually, we agreed on letting the writers decide on the length and correct the cover text that our Daily Bread enables to complete studying the Bible in four to five years instead of four years.

We also discussed the composition and characterization of our Daily Bread booklet and thought about how to make the booklet more attractive for young people. There were pros and cons on a redesign for young people. Especially, some co-workers were concerned about changing the character of our Daily Bread booklet. After a long discussion, we decided to add three columns with one page each at the end of the booklet:

a) Biblical supporting material such as pictures, drawings, maps etc
b) encouraging Daily Bread testimonies, reports, poems etc
c) news and prayer topics (regional and international)

This year, we want to prepare for these changes and realize them next year. The editors will make specific plans and form an additional team if necessary.

5. Workshop II: "mobilization"

We roughly estimated that about 40-50% of the UBF co-workers¹ in Germany are reading our Daily Bread regularly. The Daily Bread team has set itself to motivate co-workers to eat Daily Bread daily and mobilize young co-workers to contribute to the Daily Bread team.

According to an intern statistic, Daily Bread readers tend to use the online Daily Bread more than the Daily Bread booklet. Suggestions for the IT and SNS generation were made, such as forming a Daily Bread café, group chats on facebook, whatsapp and an audio app, promoting videos etc.

These ideas are good, but we need many co-workers and also financial support in order to realize them. So, we need to pray and wait for the appropriate time to make these ideas happen.

Three suggestions for mobilization of Daily Bread readers that we soon want to put into action are: 

a) starting a survey through a questionnaire in the chapters
b) appointing and supporting one exemplary and responsible person in every chapter
c) building a Daily Bread mobilization team, arrange Daily Bread workshops or a Daily Bread Day in the chapters 

In order to realize these goals, the editors will consult co-workers and make specific plans. 

The next Daily Bread team meeting will take place in Cologne, then in Heidelberg and other chapters. The concrete date was not specified yet. 

Our Daily Bread team meeting concluded with prayer. We prayed that all Christians may eat "Our Daily Bread" in the morning regularly in order to activate a strong spiritual revival in Germany and Europe. 

¹ Missionaries, shepherds, next generation co-workers above 13 years