Former Atheist Missionary Proclaims Jesus in Germany

Jan Haugg championed the environment and social justice. Now he’s on fire for Jesus.

By Andrew McChesney, adventistmission.org

Nothing thrilled Jan Haugg more than saving the environment.

As an 18-year-old high school student, he joined a German political party to tackle global environmental problems and social injustice.

At the university, he invited friends to watch environmental films and tried to make his own life greener through choices in food, travel, cleaning agents, and hygiene. He even went through apartments that he shared with roommates and turned off unneeded lights, much to the annoyance of others.

“I was kind of a missionary, but without Jesus,” he said. “My religion was saving the environment. I was living a lifestyle of green righteousness by works.”

Jan, an international business student, secured an internship at an environmentally friendly bank and decided to fulfill an international work requirement in Norway’s capital, Oslo.

But he had trouble finding an affordable place to stay in Oslo. Then he remembered a friendly family that he had met two years earlier while, in an attempt to learn how to be more self-sufficient, he had spent a summer on a Norwegian farm. He e-mailed the family a plea for help. Several days later, they replied that he could stay with a university student in Oslo.

Soon after Jan arrived in Oslo, he realized that he was surrounded by Seventh-day Adventists. His roommate, David Mikkelsen, was an Adventist living in a small room in an Adventist Church-owned home for Adventist students. Jan was a die-hard atheist from the former East Germany, which has the highest concentration of atheists in the world. More than 60 percent of the east German population identifies as atheist.

Although grateful for a place to stay, Jan thought, “They will try to convert me, but they won’t get me. I know what I believe.”

Surprising Boat Trip

Nothing happened for three months. Jan liked the Adventist students, and they treated him kindly, even when he violated the rules with prohibited music and alcohol. His roommate, David, witnessed through his life.

“He and other students used Christ’s method on me,” Jan said. “They gained my confidence by taking care of my needs and helping me.”

One day, a friend invited Jan to join a group of about 50 young Adventists from Norway and other countries on a boat trip to southern Norway. Jan thoroughly enjoyed the weekend outing and was pleased that the young people showed interest in his desire to protect the environment.

“Normally you don’t meet many people who are so open and striving to make a difference,” he said. “But these young Adventists were humble, and that fascinated me. That gave me hope that there are young people interested in changing this world.”

Then one of the youth leaders, Joakim Hjortland, invited Jan to study the Bible together. Jan wasn’t interested, but he didn’t want to offend Joakim. He tried to come up with a good excuse.

“We don’t have time today,” he said. “Maybe tomorrow.”

The next morning, Joakim came to Jan.

“Hey, remember what we talked about yesterday?” he said. “How about studying the Bible?”

Jan looked for another excuse.

“I can’t study the Bible because I don’t have a Bible,” he said.

It was the stupidest excuse that he could have given, he said later. He was surrounded by people with Bibles and, within moments, he was holding a Bible in his hands.

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Proving the Bible

The Bible was not an authority to Jan. To believe the Bible, a person first needs to believe that it is God’s word, and Jan didn’t believe in God. Joakim opened the Bible to a chapter that proves the authority of the Bible: Daniel 2.

Jan listened with shock to Daniel’s prophecy about the rise and fall of the kingdoms of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. He saw that present-day Europe was fragmented just as foretold in the statue’s feet of iron and clay.

“Things are written in the Bible that could not originate from men,” he said. “I decided that it would be a good idea to read the Bible, and I bought one.”

Back in Olso, Adventist friends helped him find biblical answers to questions about the origin of sin, why God hadn’t destroyed Satan, and how the biblical account of Creation could be believed over evolution. Every answer “punched the pillar of my unbelief,” he said.

The day came when he decided to give his heart to God.

“I never wanted to become a Christian, but the weight of the evidence was too heavy,” he said. “There must be God. And if God is there, and He is who He says He is, then there is no logical consequence but to follow Him. Who wants to join the losing team that has already lost the battle? That would be stupid. I wanted to be on the winning team.”

Today, Jan is 30 and is training to be a pastor at the Bogenhofen Seminary in Austria. After graduation, he hopes to share the gospel with atheists in eastern Germany and with environmental activists.

“I especially want to minister to the green movement people who want to save the world with their own strength,” he said. “If they would just get Jesus into the picture, their efforts could be channeled into the right direction. They are missionaries, but without Jesus, their work will not result in eternal life.”