Wonderful, busy Sunday...

We had a great day yesterday!

We were invited to be the guest speaker at Bethel International Church in Frankfurt, Germany for the morning worship service.  Bethel is the second church of the International Baptist Convention established in 1958, and was the first IBC church that Carol and I ever attended.  In the early days, it was a dynamic and large church, reaching hundreds of US military members and their families.  With the draw-down of the military presence in post-Cold War Europe, the church has gone through a difficult but necessary transformation.  They are currently awaiting the arrival of their newest pastor, who reflects the IBC clearly - a Brazilian national, married to a German woman, currently working and studying in London, England!

The church is excited about the future, and we are excited to be able to serve in any way we can.  We've provided "pulpit fill" on several occasions over the last 10 months, and we have grown to cherish the church and its wonderful people.  We attended the service with Maina, a member of our congregation in Darmstadt who is from Kenya.  Maina is a wonderful friend and a delight to spend time with!

Following the service, while enjoying the fellowship time in the church cafeteria, we found ourselves in conversation with Margaret.  Originally from Poland, Margaret moved to Germany before the fall of the Iron Curtain, and is currently a teacher in the German public school system in Literature, English and Philosophy.  As we talked she shared with us that she had been in Wisconsin a couple of years ago on an exchange program with the University of Wisconsin at Appleton.  Margaret invited us to come to her home for dinner.


At their home, we met Dariusz (Derek), Margaret's husband.  Also a native of Poland, Derek is a certified translator of German, English, Polish, Spanish and French.  He's currently completing Law School at the Goethe Universitat.  We had a wonderful discussion about history, religion, and languages.  It was a beautiful afternoon and sat on their sun-soaked patio enjoying freshly prepared food and engaging conversation.

When we returned home, we decided to take advantage of the amazing weather and visit the Orangerie in Darmstadt.  It is a beautiful royal garden originally established in 1714.  It is filled with lovely flowers, lawns, fountains and features tropical fruit and palm trees.  It was a lovely time to walk and enjoy this favorite part of the city.



Upon our return to our apartment, we visited with our friends Orhan and Saladin in their restaurant on the ground floor.  We spent an hour having a great conversation about life, God, the Bible, the Gospel of Christ and His love for us.  A great way to end the day!

Mid July Update

We've had a couple of busy weeks!
  

Breakfast in Interlaken

We attended the International Baptist Convention's "Interlaken Summer Experience" July 7-12 in Interlaken, Switzerland.  This annual gathering of the IBC "family" has taken place every year since 1958.  This gathering is different from the other two annual IBC meetings in that it is meant to be broader in focus - beyond pastors and leaders, this meeting is for the entire community of IBC churches.  There are great workshops each morning, with gifted teachers and relevant topics.  (Bob really enjoyed his class with Dr. Lorin Cranford on the "Life of Paul" and Carol was blessed by Denise Glenn's "Five Priorities of a Woman's Life" class!) The workshops are joined with morning and evening worship services each day - which always feature excellent speakers.

Dr Lindsay Brown

This year's speakers were Dr. Lindsay Brown, a Welsh pastor and scholar, who for the past 4 years has been the International Director of the Lausanne Movement for World Evangelisation.  He was followed each evening by Dr. Billy Hanks, who worked with Dr. Billy Graham for many years, and is now the head of The International Evangelism Association.  With their backgrounds, you can imagine what the topic of their teaching was, right?  Evangelisation!  But more to the point - Effective Evangelisation, which is about Disciple-Making.  It is not enough to have a person agree with the facts about Jesus, or even to say a prayer of commitment.  Biblical Disciple Making, as Jesus commanded His disciples, means that we individually and intentionally help those new believers to "grow up into Him who is the head - that is, Christ."  (Eph. 4:15)

Carol and I were both deeply challenged by the messages and the theme of the conference.  We were reminded, and have been praying for God to grant us the insight and fortitude to be faithful to His call - not to a foreign land, not to church planting, not even to drawing a crowd of people - but to truly making disciples, who will in turn make more disciples...

Pray for us in this effort.

Praise Team - Preview Service 4

Three days after our return from Switzerland we were excited to hold our fourth Preview Service. Despite the number of people who are on "Holiday" at this time of the year, we had a really nice turn-out and a couple of new young families who joined us.   We had a great time together worshiping the Lord.  We joined with the angels in heaven in song and prayer, joined around the Lord's Table for Communion and joined together in His word for learning and growth.

Caring for the young worshipers!

We are learning a lot in these services.  We've worked out many of the details, like how to run the sound and projection systems, where to have people to greet guests,  and even how distribute the bread and cup for Communion!  We have been blessed with many godly people who are gifted and passionate about the ministry of praise - what a great blessing! But we've also discovered new challenges - like a growing number of toddlers & infants. Pray with us that God will equip us with enough willing servants who will assist in that ministry as we move toward our public launch service in September/October.  

The Limits of our Knowledge of God

Today on the front of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Newspaper there was a photo and story about a map that was recently found at a library in Munich.  It is from the 16^th Century, and is the first map to show the New World as its own continent, and is the first to give that continent a name – America, after  the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci.

The map is interesting because it shows an amazingly accurate depiction of Europe, Africa and Asia – much as we know them today.  But this newly discovered continent of America is shown as a large island, similar in shape to Florida, and is limited to what would now be the north-east potion of South America.

Yet in 1507, this map was the most accurate and complete summation of what was known of the world by the best and brightest of the day.  Certainly we can’t fault the cartographers of the 16^th Century for their limited knowledge and understanding of the nature and breadth of the globe – they were in the midst of learning.  The wisest among them recognized that there was much more to learn, and so exploration and discovery continued.

Perhaps the spiritual parallels are obvious – but I was struck by them nonetheless.  Paul tells us that “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love him. (I Corinthians 2:9).  Many are familiar with that verse, but Paul was actually quoting the prophet Isaiah, who wrote, in chapter 64, verse 4, “For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither has the eye seen, O God, besides you, what he has prepared for him that waits for him”

The wisest of Christians realize that they have never fully grasped the heights and depths, the length and breadth of the knowledge of God.  That we will never fully plumb the fullness of God should not discourage us from our pursuit of Him.  May God forbid that we should find ourselves satisfied with our perception of who He is!  His love, His mercy, His holiness, His righteousness – all that make Him God - is worthy of our fullest exploration, our deepest desire, our ceaseless wonder. 

Could we with ink the ocean fill,

And were the skies of parchment made,

Were every stalk on earth a quill,

And every man a scribe by trade,

To write the love of God above,

Would drain the ocean dry.

Nor could the scroll contain the whole,

Though stretched from sky to sky.

O love of God, how rich and pure!

How measureless and strong!

It shall forevermore endure

The saints’ and angels’ song.

~The Love Of God

Frederick Martin Lehman 

Lyrics & Composer

1868-1953

July Newsletter

July 3, 2012

For a .pdf of this newsletter, click here.

Dear Friends,

We trust you are enjoying the summer season!  Isn’t it great how God blesses us with seasons of the year, each one special and unique in its own way?  Summer in Germany is much like we are used to in our part of the United States.   The daylight hours get longer – in fact, we are situated so far north that we are able to sit on our balcony until well after 10 p.m. and enjoy reading a book or just watching the world go by.   On the University campus, the students have taken to the parks to play badminton, enjoy a picnic, listen to music, and occasionally give the appearance of studying!  The school age children are thrilled to have their freedom for a couple of months.  The last week of June was the official first week of “holiday” in our state of Hessen.  That means that thousands of people head for vacation spots all across Europe and around the world.

Our “holiday” took place in mid-May.  We headed back to the US for our first visit home since moving last fall.  Each weekend was highlighted by special events that the Lord, in His mercy, brought together in a timely fashion for us!  The first weekend was mother’s day and Bob’s birthday, and we celebrated with our daughter, Nicole, who just recently learned that she is going to be a mother again!  During that week, we also had the opportunity to visit Carol’s dad and extended family in Mt. Lake, MN.

Our son John after his Graduation from UW Madison

The following weekend we made our way from Iowa to Wisconsin, where we celebrated the graduation of our son, John, from UW Madison, with a BS in Philosophy.We are so proud of this fine young man, and with the amazing intellect God has given him.John is spending his third summer working for Vivant Technologies, installing home security systems.We are excited to see how God will lead him in the days ahead!We celebrated John’s graduation with a special meal at his favorite restaurant – the New China in Mayville.

That same weekend, while in Wisconsin, we visited our home church in Mayville. It was such a blessing to worship again with our brothers and sisters there, whom we shared so much of our lives with.We are so grateful to God for the wonderful new pastor and excellent leaders that He has raised up in the congregation, and to see the church continuing to impact the community with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Son-in-law Eric completes training.

The next weekend we were blessed to be in attendance at Community Heights Alliance Church in Newton, IA as our son-in-law, Eric completed his studies for the ministry with the Christian and Missionary Alliance.Eric and Nicole are excited to begin applying and interviewing for a youth ministry position. It was very special!

Following that weekend, we took a Family Road Trip – something we have done since the earliest days of our marriage. We packed up 4 adults and a 2 year old and drove from Iowa to Florida –more than 20 hours!God was very good to us – we had no problems at all along the way. The car, the other drivers, Asher, even Bob were all well-behaved (well, Bob was well-behaved most of the time!)

Mr. & Mrs. Andrew Marsh!

 We made that trip for the event of the next weekend – the marriage of our son, Andrew to Rachel Edwards of Jacksonville Beach, FL.Rachel’s parents were amazing hosts to us and our family who made the trip, and the entire journey was one blessing after another. We are so grateful to God for the wonderful, godly woman that He has led to our son, and we are enriched as a family to have her.Of course, you can’t take a grandchild to Florida without visiting Disney World, and we had a wonderful day there with Asher, Nicole and Eric.(It seemed Nicole & Carol were more excited than Asher most of the time!)

The Family at Disney World

The final weekend was Nicole and Eric’s fifth wedding anniversary, another great opportunity to recognize God’s incredible blessing on our family.The final days in the US were spent for Bob in Minneapolis, where he served as an assessor at a Church Planter Assessment Center, observing two candidates for church planting in Germany and Sweden, respectively.

On our return, we had some really exciting developments.Just after our return, we spent a day with a young exchange student from Hungary. After finding us via Facebook, she read about our efforts in Darmstadt on our blog.She was particularly intrigued by the concept of a “prayer walk.” She communicated with us via email while we were in the US, and she determined that she wanted to do a short documentary film about our work here, particularly our prayer efforts.She spent a day with us, filming, taking still photos, and interviewing us.She also attended a prayer time that we held at a Darmstadt scenic overlook.The film will be shown at an art show in Budapest after her return.We made sure we gave her information about our International Baptist Church in that city – when she saw the address, she was excited that it was close to her home.

Preview Service 3

Our third Preview Service was held on June 15, and the people of the church did a great job of serving and working to bring everything together.We have seen new people join our church family from Argentina and India in recent weeks, and we are excited to continue toward our “Public Launch,” which we are still planning for September, God willing.  During these summer months, pray for maintained momentum as many will be enjoying their vacations abroad.Pray that we will continue to grow and reach new people in Darmstadt, with the Lord blessing us with a fruitful harvest!

Preview Service 3

Preview Service 3

Preview Service 3