Longtime campus minister Beth Jarvis, who serves with Unterwegs in Tübingen, Germany, got a glimpse of the bigger picture when a chance remark from a passing church deacon helped her look at her group in a new way. Here’s her story:

In one moment it was there: a glimpse of the bigger picture.

It came from an unexpected source. A church deacon passed by me at the end of our last big event of the semester in the cafe room of one of our local church partners. The deacons and elders had been meeting upstairs through the whole event, which always makes me a little nervous because, well, we’re loud. I was taking out the trash and he stopped me to say, “Beth, I love seeing your group here. All these different students coming together. They look so happy. To me this is what heaven will look like.”

At that point, I too looked through the window at my own group and saw it through his eyes. There it was: heaven on earth.

In this one room, there was a lot happening and a lot about to happen. There was Vanessa, who has just finished her degree and is preparing to serve with Globalscope in Birmingham, England. She wants to be a part of making Birmingham “as it is in heaven.” There was Katharina, who has been part of the backbone of Unterwegs since the beginning. She’s always been there, arms open, ready to welcome anyone. To her God is big and God is love. And recently she’s added to that belief that God is also personal, interested in her. She recently joined four other German students and nine Georgia Tech students in a trip to other universities in Germany, praying and dreaming about planting a third and fourth Unterwegs in the coming years. To them, the future is big and wide and open because their God is big and wide and opening up His kingdom before them.

This picture of heaven on earth grows larger and larger. There’s Julia Kopp, who is loud and wonderful. She will come on staff with us in the fall. When asked what she liked about Unterwegs in her interview, she said, “Unterwegs is more than just the four walls of a building.” She wants to be a part of this movement and step into her full potential.

There’s Anna Blume, who was at that moment preparing to leave to serve. She is now at Auburn Christian Fellowship. She wants to know if full-time ministry is for her. She’s a little nervous about it, but inside her is a beautiful and strong woman minister. The strength with which she loves people is inspiring.

There was Max, who is dating Emily, my teammate. The love they have together for ministry is contagious. Max will join our team in April as a German intern and in the fall he will also go work at Auburn for a couple of months. He wants to see ministry in a different culture. He wants to learn what it is like to be a part of something not contained by one language, one culture, one city.

And in all these wonderful and unique people I see the future of Unterwegs.

There’s Manne goofing off with my teammate Erin. Erin will plant an Unterwegs in Freiburg, Germany, in the fall of 2016. In the meantime, she’s hanging out with Manne and sharing life with him. Manne is opening up so much, right now. I can no longer imagine Unterwegs without him. And I still don’t fully understand all that is happening and about to happen. Now Manne is asking about opportunities he might have to serve, to see God’s kingdom grow.

It is growing. We see this at Unterwegs and we show it to the students here, empowered by your love and prayers and support. Soon we are going to be adding three new international teammates: Julia; Raúl from Globalscope Spain; and Robin from Globalscope England. They are all joining us in September and I’m really excited to have an international team.

So, yes, as I looked through the window, the same window the deacon looked through when he decided to not get mad about the noise, this is what I saw. And what I see. I see an image of Heaven on earth. And it is just a glimpse of this bigger picture of what God is doing right now.