Ministry Strides

While we were on Sabbatical, the Lord was doing great things at Converge International Fellowship! We are so grateful to the Lord that in our absence, God enabled the leaders and the congregation to do some wonderful things:


• On March 25,the church hosted a "Board Game Night" - an outreach event focused to invite friends, colleagues and family who don't go to church to come and spend an evening getting to know other English-speakers from the area, and introducing our church family to them. It was very well received, and a second evening is being planned for November 4!

• On May 13, CIF hosted the first annual Converge International Forum on Science and Faith. Held at a local hotel conference center, the keynote speaker was Prof. Dr. Barbara Drosser, head of the Physics Dept. at TU Darmstadt. She spoke on "Are Science and Faith Incompatible?"  She is part of an association of scientists who are also believers, and has agreed to assist us in finding future speakers. We had about 60 people in attendance, and the majority were not from the church. There were a large number of Muslim students who came, and the response was very positive. Our prayer and vision is to host this event annually in Darmstadt, Germany’s “City of Science.”

• A week later, the church hosted its first short term mission team - they came from one of our partner churches in Kansas, and worked for a week at the German national headquarters of Youth for Christ. They did cleaning and prep work for the upcoming summer ministry season, and some joint ministry with our Young Adults and praise team.

• The church hired an interim pastor while we were gone, Dr. Denton Lotz and his wife Janice served the congregation faithfully; ministering to the sick, visiting the LIFE Groups, preaching on Sundays, and meeting with the leadership.

• In addition, we are very excited that one of our young couples feels that God is leading them into full-time ministry – specifically to serve in an International Church somewhere in the world! We are excited to see how God will lead them, and the church as we work with them!

Over the course of the summer, some dear friends from the last 6 years have concluded their work and studies in Darmstadt, and moved to other parts of the world, carrying the gospel of Christ with them as they go. In Acts 8:4 says, "But the believers who were scattered preached the Good News about Jesus wherever they went." We are sad to bid farewell to our friends, but excited as God leads them into new fields that are ripe for the harvest! We also enjoy then blessing of meeting new members of the church community who have recently joined us from Kenya, Germany, India, the USA and other lands.

As you can see, the experience of our sabbatical was a glorious display of God's grace, both for us and as a big step in the further development the church. We are more certain than ever that He has equipped, and is equipping the church for many years of ministry to come!

Spring & Summer Plans

This promises to be a very exciting year at Converge International Fellowship - Darmstadt. Please pray about three new ministry events in the life of the church:

1.  Short Term Missions Team:  Plans are in the works for a team of 5 to come from Union Valley Bible Church in Hutchinson, Kansas. This will be the first time we have welcomed a short term missions team to our work. The team will be working at the national headquarters of Youth for Christ, Germany.  They will be doing clean up and preparation work in the campus buildings, gardening in the lawns and athletic areas, and preparing the center for the coming summer ministry season.  In addition, they will join with our Young Adults group for ministry in Darmstadt, and visit IBC churches to get a full view of International, English-language ministry.

Prof. Dr. Drossel

2.  First ever Converge International Forum on Science and Faith.  From our earliest days of ministry in Darmstadt (Germany's "City of Science") we have felt a strong compulsion to stage an annual event that would feature leading figures from the science community who also happen to hold a strong faith. Our goal is to impress upon the current scientific community and the future scientists who study at the Technische Universität Darmstadt that science and faith are not mutually incompatible.

Under the leadership of CIF Elder Adam Williams, who himself is a respected member of the European Space Agency (He is currently a coordinator on ESA's ExoMars mission),  we have set a tentative date of Saturday, May 13 for the first of these annual events. Prof. Dr. Barbara Drossel, professor of  Theoretical Physics at the TU-Darmstadt, and Executive Director of the Institute of Solid State Physics, will be the keynote speaker for the event.

Please pray for this event. Pray for the planning and logistics (meeting room, marketing, etc), for Prof. Drossel as she prepares and presents her material, and for careful follow-up with the students and scientists that we hope to attract to the event.

3.  Connect 2017.  The first weekend in August will be the unveiling of the first CONNECT conference for the International Baptist Convention. This long weekend based family event replaces the Interlaken Conference that served as the summer gathering of the IBC for more than 50 years. Bob served as the committee chairman through the process of changing from the previous format to the new, and last fall the CIF church family went to the retreat site for a "trial run" and our first "church retreat."  Bob is currently serving as the coordinators for the Seminars that will be presented as part of the event. Please pray for the speakers, praise leaders, coordinators and the attending members of the IBC family from around the world as they gather.

Sabbatical Plans

After 5 1/2 years on the field, Carol and I have reached a point where we are in need of a time of rest and renewal. We are tired, and approaching burn-out.

We've spoken with the church leadership here in Darmstadt, the leadership of the International Baptist Convention, and the leadership of Converge International Ministries, and together we have agreed on a plan for a sabbatical to begin on April 1.

The plans are still coming together, but we do know that the first few weeks will be spend in the Phoenix, Arizona area, where we can meet with a Converge counselor and get away at a retreat center in the area. Subsequent weeks will include some visits with family, but mostly will be centered on physical rest, spiritual renewal and emotional refreshing.

We won't be doing any church visits, pulpit fills, etc. during this year. In previous years we have spent two months travelling the USA - driving thousands of miles and visiting with many of you. We would love to see you all again. Catching up with your and your lives and updating you on our life here in the place we love - but it simply won't be possible this year.  

Please pray for us as we take this much-needed time for renewal. Pray for the church as there are many great things happening this Summer (see the rest of this newsletter). Pray as we seek an interim pastor to come for three months to serve in Darmstadt, and for the Elders and Ministry Coordinators as they lead the church.

Thanks for your prayers and love.

Black Friday

Today is Black Friday.  And while the name comes from retail businesses recognizing that it's the day in the year that they finally see black ink at the bottom of the page, it has also come to have a somewhat dark overtone, hasn't it?  The day after America "pauses to be thankful," millions of people "rush to be greedy." People wait in lines for hours overnight to be the first to push into the local retailer to get the best deal on a flat screen TV to replace the one they got last year.

This rather bleak opening to the "Christmas Season" has sadly spread around the globe like a viral pandemic. It is tragically indicative of the nearly-complete loss of the significance of the birth of Jesus Christ.

This year, I want to be different. Instead of craving more presents, I want to crave more PRESENCE.

When God told Moses in Exodus 33 to lead the children of Israel away from the base of mount Sinai, where He had dictated the Law to Moses, the Lord said, "Go to the land I have promised your fathers...I will send my angel ahead of you, and I will drive out the inhabitants of the land that I have promised to you...but I will not go with you, because if I am with you I will destroy you, because you are a stiff-necked people" (verses 1-3).

The promise of an angel going ahead, and all the enemies being driven out would have sounded pretty good to most all of us...but not Moses!  He said, "Lord, if you will not go with us, we will not leave this place. It is Your presence that makes all the difference!" (verse 16).

As we begin our journey toward Christmas, 2017, let's not go without God's presence. Of course He will be present - He is omnipresent, everywhere at all times. But there is a difference between God being present, and being in God's presence!  

A. W. Tozer wrote: "The world is perishing for lack of the knowledge of God, and the church is famishing for want of His presence. The instant cure of most of our religious ills would be to enter His Presence in spiritual experience, to become suddenly aware that we are in God and that God is in us. This would lift us out of our pitiful narrowness and cause our hearts to be enlarged. This would burn away the impurities from our lives as the bugs and weeds were burned away by the fire that dwelt in the bush."

This Christmas Season - Crave More Presence!

Winter 2016: Spiritual Generations

Winter 2016: Spiritual Generations

In Isaiah chapter 6, the prophet has a dramatic and overwhelming vision of God on His throne. He response is one of utter humiliation before the awesomeness of God. After His repentance and subsequent redemption, Isaiah hears God say, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” To which Isaiah responds, “Here am I, Lord, send me!”

Mission and ministry are all about people. In previous updates we have shared the stories of some of those whose lives we have seen God touch in amazing ways. In this update, we want to share how God us using those people to reach more people with the power of the gospel!

 

Xiannan - sharing the gospel with
fellow students in Darmstadt

We told the story of Xiannan in our Spring, 2015 update. He’s a PhD student in Material Science at the Technische Universität Darmstadt. After attending church services and Bible studies for more than a year, Xiannan accepted Jesus as His Lord and Savior. A few months later, in a Bible study, he shared that he felt his purpose was “to return to China and tell others about Jesus.” But his chance has come before his return!  On a recent sightseeing bus trip with other Chinese students, and as they travelled, other students asked this bright, young, man to share with them why he had become a follower of Jesus…and he got a chance to share the gospel with them!  

Tianye - bringing the gospel to her mother in China

We told the story of Tianye in our August 2015 update. Tia and her husband Jason, a Chinese-American believer, attended the church regularly, came to a LIFE Group, and Tia met with some women at a Friday morning Bible study. But she was not a believer in Jesus. God was at work in her life, however! One evening at LIFE Group, Tia shared that she had given her life to Jesus, and had asked Him to be her Savior. Recently, Tia had a chance to fly back to Bejing and spend weeks with her mother who was being treated for cancer. Tia had a chance to read the Bible and explaining faith in Jesus. Her mother has not yet come to faith – please pray for her!

Imants - reaching the science community

Imants is a brilliant PhD student from Latvia, doing groundbreaking work in his field of material science, specializing in magnetics (we call him “Magneto!”).  Imants has a passion to bring the gospel to the largely atheistic world of science.  He has prepared papers and lectures with PowerPoint presentations to discuss topics like creation, supernatural miracles, and other theological topics with his colleagues. When the Lord asked, “Who will go for Me, to the science community?”  Imants answered, “Here am I, Lord, Send me!”

Diane reading the Bible to her
father in Taiwan.

Diane is a young believer, baptized at our church in September of last year. In August of this year, during a worship service, she asked us to pray as she went home to Taiwan to be with her father who was suffering from terminal cancer. She asked us to pray that she would be able to share the gospel with him, and that he would trust in Jesus. We gathered around her and prayed. A few weeks later, she sent a text message that he father had come to faith, and been baptized in the hospital. A few days Diane wrote, “Dear Bob, my father went to heaven already, he smiled, he’s happy.” Just this week she wrote, “I am writing an article about my father’s story. I will send my article to a Christian newspaper. I am so glad that my father became a Christian before he died, and now he is in heaven.” 

Thank you for your support of this amazing ministry to the international, English-speaking community in Darmstadt and the surrounding region. Your prayers, encouragement and financial support make you a vital partner in this work. These great stories of personal faith, and of faith shared with others, are part of YOUR faith story, too!  Rejoice with us as we marvel at all God has done and is doing in the lives of people from “every nation under heaven gathered in the city.” (Acts 2:5) 

San Jose, Costa Rica

IBC Annual Meeting. We were privileged to be able to attend the annual convention meeting of the International Baptist Convention in San Jose, Costa Rica in late October. It was the first time that the IBC has met outside of Europe for its annual meeting, and reflects the growing global impact the group is having. 

Part of our time in San Jose was committed to the Multiply Conference, a gathering of church planters, coaches, leaders and supporters. We spent the entire conference focusing on recruiting new church planters. We have no shortage of cities to reach with the gospel – from Lima, Peru, to Barcelona, Spain to Amsterdam in the Netherlands, and, of course, Mannheim, Germany (our particular focus). The harvest is truly plentiful, but the laborers are few!

Will you join us in prayer for the Lord of the Harvest to raise up new church planters – to lead us to them, and them to us? Will you join us in recruiting new planters and pastors? If you know someone – a pastor friend, a family member who has a heart for missions, a student in your church who has a desire to serve the Lord – anyone God puts on your heart and in your mind – Please send their information along to us!  Or have them go directly to our Church Planting web connection. It’s called Catalyst, and the link is:

http://www.internationalchurchplanting.com/

Financial Update

We have entered our sixth year on the mission field, and there has been some attrition in our support over the years. About 60% of our monthly support is being met from our supporters back home. The church in Darmstadt has stepped up to meet the need, so far. But one of the dynamics of International Churches such as ours is that people leave after 1-3 years as they complete the studies or their job assignment changes. This can greatly impact the financial stability of the church.

Will you consider joining us in our efforts to reach the English-speaking International Community of Darmstadt, Central Europe and, as you have seen from this newsletter – the whole world? Please pray for God’s provision for us, and for His guidance for you and your family.  

Here’s How to Support our work:

By Check

Make checks payable to: Converge

In the memo line of the check, please note account # 133261.   Send checks to:

Converge Worldwide Attn: J. LoGalbo

2002 S. Arlington Heights Rd.

Arlington Heights, IL 60005

-OR-

Automatic Withdrawal

Set up an automatic withdrawal from your checking account for contributions.  Here’s how:

Contact Jennifer LoGalbo

Telephone: 1-800-323-4215

Email: Jennifer.LoGalbo@converge.org

-OR-

EASY Web-based support! Go to:

www.convergeworldwide.org/give/133261 to set up a one- time, or ongoing support from your debit or credit card.