Missions: A Tour of Roses

It started, as simple acts of love often do, with a single rose. Sally handed her rose to a man who lived near one of the death camps in Poland. Standing in the driveway of his home he was amazed that this Jewish woman would, for no apparent reason, choose to hand him a rose. No one had ever done anything like this before. In the forty years he had watched Jews from all over the world walk by his window to Auschwitz-Birkenau not one had ever stopped to say hello.

A Tour of Roses is a gift of love to the people in the villages, towns, and cities throughout Europe where the Holocaust left scars. It is an expression of the unconditional mercy and kindness of the Creator for all who have been fractured—in small or large ways—by our own sin and the sin of others. Through song and story, worship and prayer, it is the hope of Sally and her team that they might be vessels of healing and reconciliation for those who struggle with the legacy of the Holocaust. It is our belief that God wants to heal the wounds of the past. Not that we should ever forget but, perhaps, as we remember together we can learn how to love—ourselves and each other—as God loves us.

2009

2012

2010

Click on any picture for a report on that year's A Tour of Roses event.