Austria’s Children Still Need the Gospel

In the small Salzburg marketplace of Oberndorf, on Christmas Eve 1818, parish priest Joseph Mohr wrote a few simple lyrics and organist Franz Gruber set them to music. That night, “Silent Night” was sung for the very first time. The Hapsburg empire is gone. The wars have stilled. But the song lives on.

Much the same could be said of the Gospel in Austria. The work that Trudy Kuhlman began in refugee camps in 1955 — in crowded village halls, in Vienna’s resistant city streets, through Good News Clubs and 5-Day Clubs and Vacation Bible Schools — planted seeds that are still bearing fruit. Children who came to faith in those early decades grew up. Some became church workers, others became missionaries, and some became Sunday school teachers.

Child Evangelism Fellowship celebrated 30 years of ministry in Austria in March 1985. The fruit of those decades is real, and God holds the full record of it.

A Country That Needs Prayer

Today, Austria is one of CEF’s focus countries. There is currently no full-time CEF worker actively serving there. A beautiful country, a wealthy country, a country with a deep history of both culture and Christian heritage — and children growing up without anyone to tell them that Jesus Christ died for their sins and rose again.

Edwin Keimer, who led the work in Austria for years, captured the spirit of this ministry well:

“Because we are a service ministry, much of what is done will not be seen this side of Heaven. Our motive is to serve the church. God will take care of the records.”

God is keeping those records. Every child who came to faith at a Good News Club. Every small prayer group that met. Written down in the only record that will last.

Will You Pray With Us?

Still, the harvest field in Austria is still open. Would you pray with us that God would raise up workers — whether from within Austria or beyond — to go and share the Gospel with the children of this beautiful country?

Pray that God would open doors, as He opened them in crowded halls and refugee camps sixty years ago. Pray that children across Austria would hear that Jesus Christ came to seek and to save the lost — and that He is not willing that one of these little ones should perish.

The song isn’t finished yet.

*This story is taken from the book Harvest Comes in Spring by Ruth E. Turnwall, a former CEF worker.

(Image:Adobe Express)