Thank you for praying for last weekend while we were at the castle. It was an awesome and exhausting time. We drove down Friday afternoon, checked into a nearby hotel and then headed over to join the other guests for supper out on the lawn below the castle wall with a beautiful view of the vineyards and farms out in the distance. The sun was just
beginning to set and they started lighting the candles and torches. After greeting the hosts and a few others we know, we headed for the buffet and then sat down at a table of people we didn’t know. We all introduced ourselves and agreed that everything was really special – almost like a fairy tale. It didn’t take long and we were just chatting about our day. At one point I mentioned how I start my day by reading the bible in the form of a daily email I receive (www.studylight.org/plan/byemail.cgi). I guess none of them had ever heard of anything like that. They were very inquisitive and asked us a string of questions. For quite a while we were simply able to share about why God’s word is important to us. As the evening progressed we moved on and simply enjoyed visiting with people. We finally headed for the hotel at around midnight.
On Saturday we slept in and eventually joined the crowd, which was now even larger, at the pond, down below the castle vineyards. Water games were on the agenda! The 4 hosts were prepared with rubber rafts, and different colored hats for the 4 teams they divided us into. The sun was shining and fun was had by all. Much laughter and silliness! Late that afternoon we retired to our hotel to rest, shower and get ready for the evening.8pm: the men, dressed in light summer suits, and the women, looking beautiful in their summer dresses gathered in the courtyard for supper. An entire pig had been roasting all afternoon and the aroma filled the warm evening air. There was assigned seating splitting up the couples. This gave both us plenty of time to interact and share our lives with our tablemates. The sun set. The candles glowed. They had set up some colored spotlights on the courtyard walls. Everybody was having a wonderful time. We were all relaxed and the conversations lasted for hours. We thank the Lord for this awesome opportunity to share our hearts. We finally decided to leave at about 3am.
After such a wonderful party, we wondered how many would show up for the worship service planned for 10:30am on Sunday. The chapel – located within the castle wall – holds about 60 and there ended up being standing room only. It was a simple service with prayer, scripture reading and several traditional hymns. My sermon lasted only about 10 minutes. I simply explained what it means to be a Christian. I began with a quote from C.S. Lewis talking about how standing in a garage doesn’t mean you are a car – just as attending church does not mean you are a Christian. I finished by quoting one of the last songs Johnny Cash recorded: Your own personal Jesus.Several people came up to us afterward and said that they had never thought about their faith in such a personal way. Please pray that God would continue to work in their hearts.
Jason and Sue
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