We had a very full weekend! If you have been watching the news you may have seen that Europe is in a bit of a cold snap. We have had a week of sunshine and relatively cold temperatures - though not as cold as we are used to from Wisconsin and the Dakotas!
On Friday, Bob met with Andy Cauble, a new friend who is here to minister to Turkish immigrants in the Frankfurt area - including Darmstadt. Andy located a small group of Turkish believers here, and has been serving as their pastor for the past several months. Bob and Andy met downstairs at the Layla Pizza/Gyros/Schnitzel restaurant that owned by our Turkish friend, Orhan, to work on Andy's new Facebook page. It was a great time sharing and planning and connecting.
That evening, we drove over to Ramstein for prayer meeting with our "sister" church there. The people of Ramstein have been such an encouragement to us, and the prayer meeting was no different. Bob got to play drums with the praise team, and we got to share prayer requests and praise reports with them. They took time to have their elders and people from the congregation pray over us. In addition, we heard great testimonies from future medical missionaries being sent out by the church next year, and from a young high school student who definitely set the standard for passion for the lost!
Saturday's highlights included an early morning meeting for Bob with one of the men of the Darmstadt church. It was a great time of encouragement and learning. We took a walk in the bright, cold sunshine, and later had dinner in Frankfurt with friends from the church in Oberursel. A wonderful evening!
Sunday morning we attended church at the German Baptist church that is just a few blocks from our home. Though the entire service was in German, so we were not able to understand all of it, we really enjoyed it. Till Kööp, the minister to young adults, was the speaker, and the youth did much of the service. The worship leader introduced us to the congregation, explaining that we are in Darmstadt to begin a new International church in the city.
After the service, we had a small group of people who came to talk to us, including two young couples who are very excited to join our group. The two men are brothers, whose father is from Chicago. Their wives are sisters from Romania. When they asked us where we were from, they lit up at our answer of "Wisconsin." They had worked with some short term missions teams from Blackhawk Church in Madison - a church that both our sons, Andrew and John, had attended! We are very excited to welcome them to the team.
This morning, we began our "Deutsch Intensivtageskurse". We will be in German language class from 9-1 each day for the next month. While it is a little intimidating, we are very excited to learn. The class today had people from Spain, Afghanistan, Czech Republic, Russia, China, Slovakia, Portugal and the United States. An International Church Planters dream! We were able to reconnect with the young woman from China we met a few week ago, and we are very encouraged to continue to develop that friendship. We had two young women back to our place for a visit - one in the Darmstadt team, and one not (yet!).
This afternoon we spent our first day at the fitness center that we have joined. Not only is it a good opportunity for us to get into shape - it is a really good place to meet people and develop relationships. The coach we had to day was named Gasper - he spoke very good English (he lived in England for 4 years), and we had a lot of fun with him as he showed us the machines, and helped us with our initial training regimen.
This week our LIFE groups will meet together as one, rather than in two small groups. This monthly "large group" time is important to keep the connections and relationship close, and to introduce new people to the rest of the team. We will be meeting on Thursday evening - please keep these meetings in your prayers - for both growth in the lives of the believers, and in growth in the outreach to new people and unbelievers.
Thanks for your continued prayerful support of our mission - YOU are part of this team, and we appreciate you!
Monday, February 6, 2012
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Monday, 30 January - LEAD Team & Life Group
Today Bob had a LEAD Team meeting in Ramstein. LEAD Teams are groups of pastors and leaders who work together to plant new churches in their region. LEAD is an acronym for Lead, Encourage, Achieve & Dream. Our Team specifically works to plant churches in Northern Europe...It was a good and productive meeting. We are currently looking at 4 cities in Germany for new church plants, and are "dreaming" of churches from England to Asia!
Carol spent the day working around the apartment and spent the afternoon connecting with one of the women from the church in the "missional marketplace" - the local mall. They had dinner together at the local Mexican eatery, and spent a few minutes at our place before heading off to the LIFE Group.
Our first LIFE Group of the week was held tonight on the North side of the city. We were joined tonight by Maina, a Kenyan woman whom we met a couple of weeks ago. She is a PhD student at the Technical University. Eric led us in song with his guitar, we had a great time sharing our week and praying, and then got into the Word. It was a good time with the group studying the life of Jesus from the Gospel of John.
Pray for the LIFE Groups - that we will find receptive hearts when we invite people to join us and that we experience growth in the size of the group, in the depth of our understanding and love for the Lord!
Carol spent the day working around the apartment and spent the afternoon connecting with one of the women from the church in the "missional marketplace" - the local mall. They had dinner together at the local Mexican eatery, and spent a few minutes at our place before heading off to the LIFE Group.
Our first LIFE Group of the week was held tonight on the North side of the city. We were joined tonight by Maina, a Kenyan woman whom we met a couple of weeks ago. She is a PhD student at the Technical University. Eric led us in song with his guitar, we had a great time sharing our week and praying, and then got into the Word. It was a good time with the group studying the life of Jesus from the Gospel of John.
Pray for the LIFE Groups - that we will find receptive hearts when we invite people to join us and that we experience growth in the size of the group, in the depth of our understanding and love for the Lord!
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Sunday 29 January, 2012
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| The Darmstadtium |
Today was a great Lord's Day! We went to a worship service that was held at the Darmstadium, the concert hall in the downtown. The Frei Evangelishe Alianz (Darmstadt Ministerial Association), held their second "International Gottesdienst." It was a worship service sponsored by all the Protestant churches in the city. We walked down to the hall, not really knowing what to expect.
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| View from the front... |
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| A view from the back of the house! |
The crowd was very enthusiastic, and the music was upbeat. It was a great encouragement to us to know that there is a dynamic work of the Holy Spirit in the city - that we have many brothers and sisters in Christ who long to see this city reached with the Gospel. Our only regret of the day was that we arrived to late to participate in it! But our hope is that they will do another one in the future and that we will be able to have an active role then. The first of these services was held two years ago, and it is our hope that there will be another in a year or two.
After the service we had a chance to talk with some of the German pastors from the community whom I had met previously, and introduce them to Carol. The reception was very warm and enthusiastic. We look forward to working in the coming years with this group of Godly men and women.
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| Some of the Converge International Fellowship folks who attended. (Bennie, Kevin, Carol & Bob) |
Friday, January 27, 2012
Friday, 27 January, 2012
This morning we made our way to the Darmstadt City Hall to (hopefully) get a start on our driver's licenses. The other day when we went, we found we had gone to the wrong office. We got right into the office - a real blessing. We got our our paper work, passports, translation of our Wisconsin licenses - all looked good...until the woman at the desk discovered that we don't have our work visas from Germany yet. We are still in country on a "tourist visa" that has been extended while we wait for the longer work visa.
It has been about 7 weeks since we turned in our paperwork for the visa, so we decided to stop in at the office where we filed for them - just to see if there was any problem. We waited for a few minutes and were able to see the woman who assisted us with the process. She checked the file, confirmed that everything was processed, and let us know that she would call us when the visas arrived. Would you pray for us that this process will continue smoothly? Our extended visas are good until 16 February.
But God was at work - even in the "fruitless" trip to city hall. While we were waiting in the hall to see the visa processor, we met up with a Chinese woman named Lu Nah. We had first met Lu Nah 7 weeks ago when we were doing our application for the visas. She was waiting in the same hallway to take care of immigration paperwork, too. She speaks some English, but not much German.
She recognized us and came and talked to us - she asked if we were going to be having English classes. She said that she had wanted to get in touch with us, but had lost our business card - you can bet we gave her another one immediately...we are so excited to connect with her, her husband and fellow Chinese students at the Technical University!
When we got home, we stopped in and visited with Orhan and Saladin for a while - such a joy to be cultivating the friendship with them.
This evening we had William & Kathleen Busch over for dinner and fellowship. They are the missionary couple who pastor Bible Baptist Church here in Darmstadt. Kathleen's dad was the pastor for many years, while she and William worked in churches in Augsburg and Dresden. We are excited about the opportunity to partner with them in reaching the international community of Darmstadt. William asked Bob to fill the pulpit at Bible Baptist on 19 February. We look forward to worshiping with them again.
It has been about 7 weeks since we turned in our paperwork for the visa, so we decided to stop in at the office where we filed for them - just to see if there was any problem. We waited for a few minutes and were able to see the woman who assisted us with the process. She checked the file, confirmed that everything was processed, and let us know that she would call us when the visas arrived. Would you pray for us that this process will continue smoothly? Our extended visas are good until 16 February.
But God was at work - even in the "fruitless" trip to city hall. While we were waiting in the hall to see the visa processor, we met up with a Chinese woman named Lu Nah. We had first met Lu Nah 7 weeks ago when we were doing our application for the visas. She was waiting in the same hallway to take care of immigration paperwork, too. She speaks some English, but not much German.
She recognized us and came and talked to us - she asked if we were going to be having English classes. She said that she had wanted to get in touch with us, but had lost our business card - you can bet we gave her another one immediately...we are so excited to connect with her, her husband and fellow Chinese students at the Technical University!
When we got home, we stopped in and visited with Orhan and Saladin for a while - such a joy to be cultivating the friendship with them.
This evening we had William & Kathleen Busch over for dinner and fellowship. They are the missionary couple who pastor Bible Baptist Church here in Darmstadt. Kathleen's dad was the pastor for many years, while she and William worked in churches in Augsburg and Dresden. We are excited about the opportunity to partner with them in reaching the international community of Darmstadt. William asked Bob to fill the pulpit at Bible Baptist on 19 February. We look forward to worshiping with them again.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Thursday, 26 January 2012
Tonight was the second Life Group meeting for the week. This week the topic of study for the groups was the second chapter of the Gospel of John. A good discussion of the Wedding at Cana, the first "cleansing" of the Temple, and the early "belief" of people who saw the miraculous signs Jesus did. Between the two groups we had 17 people in attendance. Pray that we will be bold in inviting new people to come, and that the Holy Spirit will go ahead of us and prepare hearts to be receptive to both the invitation, and, more importantly, open to the Gospel!
Carol and I have signed up for an intensive German course beginning next month. It is 5 hours a day, 5 days a week for four weeks. We are excited and a little nervous about the class - but we look forward to learning to better communicate with our new neighbors and friends.
After our walk today, we stopped at the restaurant downstairs and had a great visit today with our friend Orhan. We continue to develop our friendship with him and his assistant, Saladin. They always greet us with a bright smile, a warm handshake and good conversation - though it takes some time in German! Today we simply sat and had some soft drinks and talked about family histories - names, heritage, etc. His Turkish roots are actually from small tribal group called Zaza, in the eastern part of the country. We had a great time talking about family.
Last Sunday, we had a chance to introduce Orhan to a new friend of ours, Andy Cauble, who is a Southern Baptist missionary to Turks in the Frankfurt area. Andy has located and begun pastoring a group of Turkish believers here in Darmstadt. Andy and his wife served the Lord in Ankara, Turkey for a number of years, and speak Turkish very well - it was great to watch and listen to Andy and Orhan talk!
Please pray for us as we build this friendship, and others in the city with Germans, Turks, Kenyans, Chinese and Koreans...pray for open doors, receptive hearts, and spiritual eyes that God has illuminated. "The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:4-6)
Carol and I have signed up for an intensive German course beginning next month. It is 5 hours a day, 5 days a week for four weeks. We are excited and a little nervous about the class - but we look forward to learning to better communicate with our new neighbors and friends.
After our walk today, we stopped at the restaurant downstairs and had a great visit today with our friend Orhan. We continue to develop our friendship with him and his assistant, Saladin. They always greet us with a bright smile, a warm handshake and good conversation - though it takes some time in German! Today we simply sat and had some soft drinks and talked about family histories - names, heritage, etc. His Turkish roots are actually from small tribal group called Zaza, in the eastern part of the country. We had a great time talking about family.
Last Sunday, we had a chance to introduce Orhan to a new friend of ours, Andy Cauble, who is a Southern Baptist missionary to Turks in the Frankfurt area. Andy has located and begun pastoring a group of Turkish believers here in Darmstadt. Andy and his wife served the Lord in Ankara, Turkey for a number of years, and speak Turkish very well - it was great to watch and listen to Andy and Orhan talk!
Please pray for us as we build this friendship, and others in the city with Germans, Turks, Kenyans, Chinese and Koreans...pray for open doors, receptive hearts, and spiritual eyes that God has illuminated. "The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:4-6)
Friday, January 6, 2012
Diary of John's visit
Thursday, 22 December
John arrived to visit us on Thursday morning. We were so excited to see him that we actually got to the airport an hour earlier than necessary - and then, of course, the plane was 45 minutes late! We stood outside the baggage/customs area for the entire time, waiting impatiently for the display board to register that the flight had arrived, then waited another 20 minutes it to taxi, pull up to the gate and unload passengers; who then had to make their way through baggage and customs. As the time went along, we moved from the center of the waiting area, to the barriers by the doors. Each time the doors would open to allow someone out, we would strain to see in, trying to catch a glimpse of John at the luggage carousel, or walking toward the door. After a while, we did indeed see him, and we were thrilled! He eventually looked out the door during one of those fleeting moments when it was open, and saw us - he told us later he was so relieved - he had realized that he did not have cell phone service in Germany - and he didn't have our phone number even if he had! But we were there waiting.
After picking him up, we made our way to downtown Frankfurt. It is a beautiful modern city. Frankfurt is the "Wall Street" of Europe, the home of the European Central Bank, many businesses and financial firms are located there. We went to a downtown shopping district, including a visit to the Zeil - which is an 8-floor, glass mall with an incredible interior and exterior design. We also visited some other stores in the downtown district, and then walked to the Weinhachtsmarkt. The Frankfurt Markt leads to the Alt-Stadt - or old city district, where we were able to show John some of the flavor of the centuries old German city center - which has been rebuilt after the destruction of World War II. We had some seasonal food and drink, including currywurst (Carol's favorite), bratwurst and Lentil soup. By that time, John was feeling the effects of jet lag, so we made our way home.
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| Zeil Frankfurt |
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| Zeil Frankfurt |
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| Zeil, Frankfurt |
After picking him up, we made our way to downtown Frankfurt. It is a beautiful modern city. Frankfurt is the "Wall Street" of Europe, the home of the European Central Bank, many businesses and financial firms are located there. We went to a downtown shopping district, including a visit to the Zeil - which is an 8-floor, glass mall with an incredible interior and exterior design. We also visited some other stores in the downtown district, and then walked to the Weinhachtsmarkt. The Frankfurt Markt leads to the Alt-Stadt - or old city district, where we were able to show John some of the flavor of the centuries old German city center - which has been rebuilt after the destruction of World War II. We had some seasonal food and drink, including currywurst (Carol's favorite), bratwurst and Lentil soup. By that time, John was feeling the effects of jet lag, so we made our way home.
That evening, we had our Bible Study group over to our home for a light Christmas gathering. Most of the group was traveling for the holidays, but it was a real blessing to gather with those of the group who were still in town.
Friday, 23 December
John slept in to help recover from jet lag, and we took it kind of easy. In the evening, we made our way to the Darmstadt Weihnachtsmarkt, since it was the last night of the event. We walked through the palace, the city Marktplatz, saw the food, drink and craft booths, had some food and drink, listened to music, and made our way back home. All of this was done in a light, cold drizzle.
Saturday 24 December.
We took a walk to a park just a few blocks south of our apartment called Prince Emil's Garten (opened 1772). It has a small palace (the locals call it a Scholossshen - which means "baby palace"). It has a nice walking area, pond, gazebo, children's and playgrounds. It also has two California Giant Sequoias that were planted here in the 19th Century. From there we walked to the Orangerie, an 18th Century royal garden that includes tropical orange and palm trees during the summer. They are safely stored away in a greenhouse during the winter, but the grounds are beautiful nonetheless. From there, we walked to the local McDonald's, where John had a taste of home...That evening we drove over to Ramstein for their Christmas Eve service, followed by a party at friends home. The two services there had over 500 people at them, and the party afterward was a great time with friends we met last year. All in all, a busy Christmas Eve!
Sunday 25 December
We attended church on Christmas morning at Immanuel International Baptist Church in Wiesbaden. It was a beautiful and meaningful. The children did a wonderful job of presenting the Christmas story, the praise team and Pastor Mason Smith did a great job. We made our way back to Darmstadt, shared a meal and made phone calls to family back in the US, and watched some US Football on the TV.
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| Darmstadt Weihnachtsmarkt |
Friday, 23 December
John slept in to help recover from jet lag, and we took it kind of easy. In the evening, we made our way to the Darmstadt Weihnachtsmarkt, since it was the last night of the event. We walked through the palace, the city Marktplatz, saw the food, drink and craft booths, had some food and drink, listened to music, and made our way back home. All of this was done in a light, cold drizzle.
Saturday 24 December. We took a walk to a park just a few blocks south of our apartment called Prince Emil's Garten (opened 1772). It has a small palace (the locals call it a Scholossshen - which means "baby palace"). It has a nice walking area, pond, gazebo, children's and playgrounds. It also has two California Giant Sequoias that were planted here in the 19th Century. From there we walked to the Orangerie, an 18th Century royal garden that includes tropical orange and palm trees during the summer. They are safely stored away in a greenhouse during the winter, but the grounds are beautiful nonetheless. From there, we walked to the local McDonald's, where John had a taste of home...That evening we drove over to Ramstein for their Christmas Eve service, followed by a party at friends home. The two services there had over 500 people at them, and the party afterward was a great time with friends we met last year. All in all, a busy Christmas Eve!
Sunday 25 December
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| Christmas Eve at Frontline Community in Ramstein |
29 December 2011 Merry Christmas!
As the final Christmas Cards make their way through the mail system, and as
friends and family gather for some final holiday visits, we thought we'd
send out one final word of greeting and thanks in 2011.
We had a great time celebrating our first Christmas in Germany. Our son,
John, arrived on the 22nd at the Frankfurt airport. The sense of
anticipation as we waited for him outside the Customs/Luggage area was
almost unbearable. Each time the frosted glass doors would open to allow
people to exit the area, we would strain to get a glance inside to see if we
could find him around a baggage carousel. It took a while, but eventually
we did see him - waiting for his bag! Then, in one of those fleeting
moments when the door was open, he happened to look out the door and saw us
looking in - he later told us that was a moment of great relief - he had
realized standing there that his cell phone did not work in Germany - and
then realized that he didn't have our number anyway!
We spent that afternoon touring downtown Frankfurt, the "Wall Street" of
Europe. Beautiful sky-scrapers and amazing shopping highlight the financial
center of the European Union, and are contrasted with the "alt stadt" with
its first century Roman baths, split timber buildings and medieval
cathedral. We visited the Weihnachtsmarkt, with its wonderful food, drink,
and shopping.
We attended a Christmas Eve service at our partner church in Ramstein,
followed by a party at a friends house. The next morning we attended
Christmas Day services at the IBC church in Wiesbaden, had dinner at a
Chinese restaurant in Darmstadt, and spent the rest of the day in a food
coma watching American football from the US. In the evening, we were able
to make several visits with family via Magic Jack (telephone) and Skype
(video). We are so thankful to the Lord for these great communication
tools!
In the days since we have visited sights around Darmstadt and Heidelberg. In
the next coupleof weeks we are traveling and preaching in churches in
Bielefeld, Frankfurt and Stuttgart, so we will be taking John on some
extended trips around the country. Pray for us as we travel and minister.
Thanks!
A MINISTRY PARTNER UPDATE
As we mentioned in our last newsletter, we have had some new supporters join
our team recently. That has helped to close the gap left by the loss of a
major supporter due to business setbacks. We have also closed the gap by
making long term spending decisions to lower our cost of living. If you
would like to, you can still make tax-deductible year end gifts through
midnight New Year’s Eve at www.convergeworldwide.org/give/133261. You
can also set up automatic monthly support on that page, if the Lord so leads
you.
friends and family gather for some final holiday visits, we thought we'd
send out one final word of greeting and thanks in 2011.
We had a great time celebrating our first Christmas in Germany. Our son,
John, arrived on the 22nd at the Frankfurt airport. The sense of
anticipation as we waited for him outside the Customs/Luggage area was
almost unbearable. Each time the frosted glass doors would open to allow
people to exit the area, we would strain to get a glance inside to see if we
could find him around a baggage carousel. It took a while, but eventually
we did see him - waiting for his bag! Then, in one of those fleeting
moments when the door was open, he happened to look out the door and saw us
looking in - he later told us that was a moment of great relief - he had
realized standing there that his cell phone did not work in Germany - and
then realized that he didn't have our number anyway!
We spent that afternoon touring downtown Frankfurt, the "Wall Street" of
Europe. Beautiful sky-scrapers and amazing shopping highlight the financial
center of the European Union, and are contrasted with the "alt stadt" with
its first century Roman baths, split timber buildings and medieval
cathedral. We visited the Weihnachtsmarkt, with its wonderful food, drink,
and shopping.
We attended a Christmas Eve service at our partner church in Ramstein,
followed by a party at a friends house. The next morning we attended
Christmas Day services at the IBC church in Wiesbaden, had dinner at a
Chinese restaurant in Darmstadt, and spent the rest of the day in a food
coma watching American football from the US. In the evening, we were able
to make several visits with family via Magic Jack (telephone) and Skype
(video). We are so thankful to the Lord for these great communication
tools!
In the days since we have visited sights around Darmstadt and Heidelberg. In
the next coupleof weeks we are traveling and preaching in churches in
Bielefeld, Frankfurt and Stuttgart, so we will be taking John on some
extended trips around the country. Pray for us as we travel and minister.
Thanks!
A MINISTRY PARTNER UPDATE
As we mentioned in our last newsletter, we have had some new supporters join
our team recently. That has helped to close the gap left by the loss of a
major supporter due to business setbacks. We have also closed the gap by
making long term spending decisions to lower our cost of living. If you
would like to, you can still make tax-deductible year end gifts through
midnight New Year’s Eve at www.convergeworldwide.org/give/133261. You
can also set up automatic monthly support on that page, if the Lord so leads
you.
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