Ethiopia and back (and off again soon)
Man, I am pretty much the worst communicator ever. There have been some pretty cool things going on around here and the world needs to hear about them! So let me start.
Since the last time I wrote we have gone through a wintry phase of life where we spend as little time out of doors due to the miserable rain and dreary gray skies. Winter in Germany is depressing. It's no doubt mild compared to northern Minnesota, but the sun never shines and it tends to diminish the vitamin D intake. Many people walk around with their head hung low just trying to plow through the drab days. Last night however we had a prayer meeting in our apartment and we agreed we need to pray for more sunshine. So today I am sitting in my sunbeam and soaking in the long awaited warmth from our fiery orb in the sky. Wonderful. Why didn't I think of that before?!
In January I had the unique opportunity to fly to Ethiopia for 5 days. (Sunshine the whole time too, but don't tell anyone). I was there for a discipleship and missions conference. I go to this meeting once a year for our discipleship school, but this time it was in Africa with many leaders from east African countries, mainly Ethiopia. It was such a refreshing time to pray for our colleagues and be prayed for by them. We shared things we have difficulties with and swapped ideas. It was a great time of networking. One highlight for me was to hear of the progress the Gospel is making in east Africa as well as the world. We are living in a time like no other. As we heard story after story of changed lives and the power of God our assembly got up to sing. I loved to listen to the Amharic voices singing, "The Gospel will saturate the entire earth and nothing can stop it." (Loosely translated of course). I came home with a renewed expecation that God is capable of doing anything at any time. I was challenged to keep my eyes open and react to what he is doing around me. I was encouraged to have confidence in prayer even in gloomy Europe. With Jesus anything is possible at any time.
I found this to be true on my way home from the airport. Our wonderful intern Salome picked me up in the wee hours of the morning and began to tell about what happened two days earlier. She was helping with our weekly kids program we have here. We have been going to the "less touristy" area of town and bringing kids to our building where we have a Bible story and some games. Previously that week, one of the regular boys had twisted his ankle and had had pain for about 5 days. He limped around and everyone noticed. When the story came, it just so happened to be about Jesus healing someone. Then came time for questions and he shot his hand up and asked if Jesus could still heal his ankle. Caro and Salome said, "Oh yes of course!" (*wink*) and preceded to have the kids lay their tiny hands on his ankle and ask Jesus to do what he did in the story. Mr. Limpy jumped up and said, "My foot doesn't hurt!" He was so happy that he told everyone at home and in school about how Jesus healed his ankle. That kind of thing is absolutely crazy awesome.
We also plan on being in the US for three weeks from March 19th to April 9th. Anika has an extended Easter break and we're using it for a trip to "Amiland" (Yankee-land). We hope to see you there perhaps. There are still some dates that need to be set up but we will keep the blog up to date.
Some stuff to pray for:
Upcoming funraising campaign
Trip to US
Growth in our 8 discipleship school participants
Applications for next year
Church development
New co-workers (Anna is leaving us)
That's about it for now. We love to hear from you as well.
Peace and love from Kaiserslautern,
Mike
Since the last time I wrote we have gone through a wintry phase of life where we spend as little time out of doors due to the miserable rain and dreary gray skies. Winter in Germany is depressing. It's no doubt mild compared to northern Minnesota, but the sun never shines and it tends to diminish the vitamin D intake. Many people walk around with their head hung low just trying to plow through the drab days. Last night however we had a prayer meeting in our apartment and we agreed we need to pray for more sunshine. So today I am sitting in my sunbeam and soaking in the long awaited warmth from our fiery orb in the sky. Wonderful. Why didn't I think of that before?!
In January I had the unique opportunity to fly to Ethiopia for 5 days. (Sunshine the whole time too, but don't tell anyone). I was there for a discipleship and missions conference. I go to this meeting once a year for our discipleship school, but this time it was in Africa with many leaders from east African countries, mainly Ethiopia. It was such a refreshing time to pray for our colleagues and be prayed for by them. We shared things we have difficulties with and swapped ideas. It was a great time of networking. One highlight for me was to hear of the progress the Gospel is making in east Africa as well as the world. We are living in a time like no other. As we heard story after story of changed lives and the power of God our assembly got up to sing. I loved to listen to the Amharic voices singing, "The Gospel will saturate the entire earth and nothing can stop it." (Loosely translated of course). I came home with a renewed expecation that God is capable of doing anything at any time. I was challenged to keep my eyes open and react to what he is doing around me. I was encouraged to have confidence in prayer even in gloomy Europe. With Jesus anything is possible at any time.
I found this to be true on my way home from the airport. Our wonderful intern Salome picked me up in the wee hours of the morning and began to tell about what happened two days earlier. She was helping with our weekly kids program we have here. We have been going to the "less touristy" area of town and bringing kids to our building where we have a Bible story and some games. Previously that week, one of the regular boys had twisted his ankle and had had pain for about 5 days. He limped around and everyone noticed. When the story came, it just so happened to be about Jesus healing someone. Then came time for questions and he shot his hand up and asked if Jesus could still heal his ankle. Caro and Salome said, "Oh yes of course!" (*wink*) and preceded to have the kids lay their tiny hands on his ankle and ask Jesus to do what he did in the story. Mr. Limpy jumped up and said, "My foot doesn't hurt!" He was so happy that he told everyone at home and in school about how Jesus healed his ankle. That kind of thing is absolutely crazy awesome.
We also plan on being in the US for three weeks from March 19th to April 9th. Anika has an extended Easter break and we're using it for a trip to "Amiland" (Yankee-land). We hope to see you there perhaps. There are still some dates that need to be set up but we will keep the blog up to date.
Some stuff to pray for:
Upcoming funraising campaign
Trip to US
Growth in our 8 discipleship school participants
Applications for next year
Church development
New co-workers (Anna is leaving us)
That's about it for now. We love to hear from you as well.
Peace and love from Kaiserslautern,
Mike
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