Merry Christmas from Jason and Sue!

Dear Friends,

    The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.  He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion - to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.  They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.   Isaiah 60:1-3

    Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.  Luke 4:21

According to Henry Drummond, this is the Program of Christianity.  Upon reading Jesus message our hearts rejoice in their personal application even as we look around and see cause for despair in the great need and work that is yet to be accomplished.  Let's join hands as we proclaim the Gospel of hope and do the work of salvation.

Christ Jesus is born - Emanuel, God with us.

Joy to the World!

_____________________________________________________

As we write this Sue's father, Reuben Goertz (83) is in the ICU in Tulsa with several of his organs faltering. Please pray for him and the entire family. In the midst of this worry, we are excited as we count the days until Roy, Sam and Heidi come home to Cologne for the holidays. It has been 2 years since we last saw Sam and Heidi.

Thank you so much for standing with us as you pray and give.

finding hope in the Savior,

Jason and Sue

PS: Please pass on these links to your college age friends and family. Two exciting opportunities to serve the Lord in Europe next year: TREK: www.gemtrek.org

EXPLORE: www.gemexplore.com.

PPS: As the year draws to a close and you consider your budget for 2010 - would you prayerfully consider supporting us financially, either with a special gift or with a pledge of regular support? Perhaps you have been giving to our ministry and would like to increase the amount or send a special gift to help us out. Click here to download a faith promise pledge or click here to fill out GEM's secure online form.

November 9 - a significant day

November 9, 2009

Dear friends,
Today is the 20th anniversary of the falling of the Berlin Wall. There is much talk about this in Germany with lots of television coverage and events celebrating this amazing event and the peaceful revolution that led to it. Unfortunately, most accounts fail to give enough credit to the role churches played in toppling the East German regime. The prayer and candlelight vigils for peace at the historic Lutheran church in Leipzig were the main catalyst that led to the toppling of the Wall. For years people on both sides of the iron curtain didn't dare to hope for it. As the groundswell grew, so did the tension and fear of violence. In my opinion, the only explaination for the lack of a bloody crackdown is God. In His sovereignty, he responded to the prayer of thousands and moved to break through what many thought was a hopeless situation.

Prayer is a force that we haven't even begun to understand. When the almighty God responds to our prayer, mountains move and walls come tumbling down! On this historic day, as your missionaries to Germany, we want to ask you to PRAY as you never have before for God to BREAK THROUGH the spiritual darkness that prevails in this important country at the center of the new Europe. PLEASE PRAY for His will to be done in Germany as it is in heaven! PRAY that thousands of people will turn their hearts to Him and that a second reformation will sweep through Germany and all of Europe and on to the rest of the world.

Yours for His Kingdom,
Jason and Sue

PS: In Germany, when talking about dates, we put the day before the month; just the oppisite as in North America. In Germany, today is 9-11-2009. Interesting, isn't it? On this significant day, please pray with us for a BREAKTHROUGH!

PPS: As the year draws to a close and you consider your budget for 2010 - would you prayerfully consider supporting us financially, either with a special gift or with a pledge of regular support? Perhaps you have been giving to our ministry and would like to increase the amount or send a special gift to help us out. Click here to download a faith promise pledge or click here to fill out GEM's secure online form.

Update from Ontario!

October 28, 2009

Dear Friends,
As we mentioned in our last update, it has been 3 years since our last Home Ministry Assignment so we have decided to take 3 shorter trips over the next year to the different areas in which we have a concentration of churches and friends who support us. We are currently mid-way through our first trip to Ontario and the Detroit area October 15 - November 18. Thank you for praying for us. We started out the trip with both of us being quite sick - to the point of having to cancel some of our meetings in Oshawa. I recovered quickly, but Sue has been struggling for some time, but I am pleased to say that she is now feeling better. Please pray for a full recovery.

Due to the continued weak dollar and the recession, we have a monthly shortfall of $1500. That is the main reason for this trip.

As the year draws to a close and you consider your budget for 2010 - would you prayerfully consider supporting us financially, either with a special gift or (more importantly for us) with a pledge of regular support? Perhaps you have been giving to our ministry and would like to increase the amount or send a special gift to help us out. Click here to download a faith promise pledge form or click on and print out the form at the bottom of this email to send in your pledge. Or click here to fill out GEM's secure online form.

After almost 18 years of ministry in Europe, we are humbled and grateful for all that God has done and for how He has provided so faithfully through people like you. Thank you.

Your missionaries to Germany,
Jason and Sue

September 22, 2009

Dear Friends,
A hopeless case... Those were the first words of my sermon about the 10 lepers Jesus healed (Luke 17:11-19) In those days, there was no cure for leprosy. People who contracted this awful disease were banned to the outskirts of town to a lonely existence of suffering. These 10 pitiful men cried out to Jesus to have mercy on them. In their hopelessness and great need they believed in the one who could fulfill their need like no other.

I finished the message with an illustration about the sweet spot on a golf club. When you find the sweet spot on your driver with the golfball you know it immediately. It feels so good. There are no extra vibrations; just a lovely PING and the ball sails perfectly down the fairway. For a moment, all is right with the world! There is no spot like the sweet spot.

The same is true in life. The sweet spot in life is the exact point where we recognize our hopelessness, our need, and allow God to fill it. It is the place in our existence where we recognize that we cannot, but He can! It is the spot where the creature reconnects with the creator. And like the one leper who came back to thank Jesus, the PING in our lives is the sound of our thanks and worship. The sweet spot. That's where we want to live our lives.

There were 40+ people at our CologneProject service on Sep. 13. Many of them were there to see Ralf and Julia's little Theo be dedicated - like Ralf's two bosses. How was I to know that they play golf, and know all about the sweet spot. One of them said he found the whole service so good that he plans on returning and bringing friends!

Praise God with us for the lives that were touched that day. Pray that God would continue to work in the hearts of those who came. Pray that we would be wise and bold as we engage with those from our individual networks at other social gatherings. One of our dearest friends who we have shared much with is opening a new store downtown and we have been invited to an opening night party. Pray for good encounters and open hearts.

Our field is growing. Emilee Head arrives in Cologne on Sep 23. Emilee will be helping us with the church plant and be looking for ways to reach out to the homosexual community in Cologne with the healing love of Jesus. Please pray especially for a good apartment she can share with a roommate.

Please also be praying for the upcoming City Mentoring Program (CMP) conference on Oct. 2 in Berlin with 70+ participants. CMP is program to train and mentor men and women, who have a strong passion, the potential, and mix of personality, ability, education, and spiritual gifts, to lead major city church plants - or more correctly, major city church planting movements - in city centers of German-speaking Europe. This is the first time we are bringing together participants from around the country for a day of training and vision casting. I will be taking part in a panel discussion with several other veteran church planters. Please pray especially for Stephen Beck as he leads this conference and ministry.

It has been 3 years since our last Home Ministry Assignment. Instead of coming home for 3-6 months, we have decided to take 3 shorter trips over the next year to the different areas in which we have a concentration of churches and friends who support us. Please pray for our upcoming trip to Ontario and the Detroit area October 15 - November 18. Pray for safe travels and that God would go before us. We need quite a bit of new financial support as we have lost support due to the recession and continue to suffer under a very weak dollar. Let us know if you want to get together while we are in your area!

Your missionaries to Germany,
Jason and Sue

more pictures from our July 5 service

Prayermail 20 July 09

July 20, 2009

Dear Friends,
We had 20+ people at our CologneProject service on July 5 - a warm summer day. This being our third monthly service, we were more relaxed about our liturgy but intense about lovingly preparing everything carefully to honor God and inspire our guests to worship with us. This time we had 2 musicians: Abel, the Spanish guitarist who participated in June, accompanied our singing and Dorothee, a relative of one of our team members, travelled up from Frankfurt to perform on her Cello doing several pieces throughout the service and playing quietly during communion. The acoustics were ideal and her music filled the room, even drawing tears from some it was so beautiful!

I preached on Luke 6 about logs and splinters. Why did Jesus always have such hard words for us - calling us hypocrites and like the blind leading the blind. The answer: His great love for us. He wants us to recognize the truth about ourselves so that we can grow. He relentlessly pursues us, never giving up on us because he wants so much more for us! He paints a picture of a people who don't judge or condemn each other and who forgive each other and are so generous with each other that the blessing will overflow - pressed down, shaken together and running over! After the service we had a delicious meal in the courtyard and enjoyed getting to know the guests that came.


One of our values is to do everything simply but well. During the next weeks we will be working on getting our web site up and running and starting to plan a retreat for October - inviting about 30 believers and not-yet-believers to join us. Included will be morning devotions, evening vespers, cooking together and having significant times of fellowship at the table and a special interactive session to discuss the claims of Christ. Please pray for us as we plan. Pray that God would already be moving in the hearts of those He wants to attend.

After a two month wait, we have finally received notice from the German authorities, that the CologneProject received official non-profit status! This is another milestone in the development of the church plant for which we are grateful.

Because of lacking financial support, we are planning a 4 week fund raising trip to Ontario starting mid October. The recession has hit us hard. Last month we had to take a 30% salary cut. Ouch! Please pray for us in this regard - and give if you can. Thanks.

Your missionaries to Germany

Jason and Sue

invitation to the next KölnProjekt service this Sunday

Prayermail June 25

June 25, 2009

Dear Friends, Thank you for praying for our second CologneProject worship service on June 7. The service went really well. The atmosphere was great and the meal afterward was delicious. 24 people attended service.

Check out this story on the GEM website about a couple we met the week before at an Italian restaurant who came to the service!

Please pray for our next service on July 5. Abel, the young Spanish guitarist who was referred to us, had such a good time on June 7 that he was more than willing to come back and accompany our singing next time. We have also invited a cellist to perform several solos. We are praying for at least 30 people to come. Pray for me as I prepare my sermon on Logs and Splinters (Luke 6:36-42). Pray that the neighbors and friends we are inviting will come and sense God's love and presence and respond to His word.

Our City Mentoring Program group has it's last meeting this Friday in the form of a celebration meal in our home. Please pray for the 10 participants and the potential of at least 4 new church plants they represent. Pray for us as we seek to follow up with them, encourage them and mentor them. Pray also for the contacts we have had for our next group which will start in the fall.

We try hard to avoid talking about money in our updates but feel compelled to do so this time. This is the second month in the last 3 that we have had a significant reduction in our GEM salary and have not been able to be reimbursed for our incurred ministry expenses. God is working in our ministry as never before. There are so many open doors and exciting opportunities! We are 100% dependent on God providing through His people and churches in North America. If you are able to send in a special gift, pledge to begin support or increase the amount you already give - now would be a good time! Please let us know if you can help.

God bless you.

Loving Greetings,

Jason and Sue

June 6 Prayermail

June 6, 2009

Dear Friends,

Please pray for our second CologneProject worship service tomorrow (June 7) at 11:00 am German time. Our first service on May 3, with 22 in attendance, went well considering how stiff and nervous we all were. There was also some tension afterward in regard to my gospel sermon. Some thought that I came on too strong. We are working through that but in the mean time we are excited about the service tomorrow. The theme is: God's extravagant love (1. John 4:7-12) We have a Spanish guitarist doing music and a German actress doing the scripture and dramatic readings. Combine that with an American preacher (yours truly!) and we have a very international flair.

Pray that those we have invited will actually come. Pray for unity and a spirit of love and grace. Pray that God will speak to all of us and that many will stay for the dinner we are providing afterward. Fellowship around the table is key to building relationships and engaging with people on a heart level.

Thank you for standing with us as we seek a breakthrough in Cologne.

Loving Greetings,

Jason and Sue

Prayermail 27. April 2009

April 27, 2009

Dear Friends,

Please pray for our first CologneProject worship service set for May 3 at 11:00 am. After almost a full year of planning, praying, laughing and dreaming it is hard to believe the time has come. We are very thankful for the 3 other creative couples who have joined us on this journey. As we began planning this first service we had the opportunity to teach our German friends the expression "where the rubber meets the road". The differences in our backgrounds and expectations were uncovered as we went from discussing our liturgy to actually deciding on what elements we want included in our first service. We are very excited about this and are getting encouraging confirmation from the very people we hope to reach. We have commissioned a communication designer to design a logo and corporate design for our printed material and web site. As he interviewed us to get a feeling for what we are all about he became quite animated and ended up giving us a price well below half of the market value for his work. The owner of our rental location is granting the rooms free-of-charge for this first service. At a recent party celebrating the new offices of our architect couple, we spoke with several different influential business people who were very interested in what we are doing and plan on coming to check it out. Please pray for the many remaining details that need to be covered before Sunday. Pray that God would be glorified this weekend and that people would be inspired to put their faith in Him and join us in giving Him glory.

To begin with we are planning 4 monthly services to be held in a restored factory building. The space is normally used for various kinds of receptions, business or artistic events. We have decided that we want to do a soft start without advertising, simply inviting a few friends and neighbors. We need to practice our liturgical style and don't want to put ourselves under too much pressure. During this time, we will be working with our designer to get our web site functional and contacting musicians and artists to make guest appearances in our services. This Sunday we have the joy of having our friend Floria Nica, a concert guitarist, playing for us. If we feel that we are ready, we are thinking of planning a grand opening for September to which we will invite many more people including business leaders and dignitaries.

Please also be praying for our next house concert on May 16 with our colleague Durand Robinson who has a wonderful, folksy voice and musical style of story telling. We already have several neighbors and friends who said they want to come. Pray for good connections as we mix our church friends with our other friends.

Thank you for standing with us as we seek a breakthrough in Cologne.

Loving Greetings,

Jason and Sue

February update

February 18, 2009

Praying for a breakthrough

Last month Sue and I celebrated the 17th anniversary of our arrival in Germany. We are grateful for all that the Lord has done; for the people who have come to faith and the churches that have been planted. We are thankful but not satisfied. Germany remains a very needy mission field.

Recently our mission leadership approached us with an idea that we immediately embraced. Cologne has been named a "breakthrough" city by our mission, along with Sophia, Bulgaria. The 9 GEMers who live here have been praying intensely about what a breakthrough in Cologne might look like. The vision God has begun to reveal to us is to see His Kingdom breaking through the spiritual darkness in Cologne through a movement of rapidly reproducing churches. We are urgently asking God for thousands of new and growing Jesus followers across Cologne. To start with, we are on a manhunt for at least 100 Persons of Peace (Luke 10) who would then be a part of the planting of scores of new churches.

Prayer is not just the basis of breakthrough but our primary strategy. In order to see breakthrough, we ask you to join us and pray persistently and unashamedly until God acts. To that end, we have begun a new wave of prayer walking in Cologne. Going out two by two, at least twice a week and simply praying; praying for the people we see, for the schools, hospitals and businesses we pass. And as God leads us, we are engaging with people along the way, offering to pray for them and trying to discover if they are open to spiritual things and hoping to ascertain whether they are a person of peace or not.

Breakthrough cannot be achieved on our own. We desperately need to mobilize and partner with existing churches, local believers, and students passionate about church planting, and other Mission focused groups - both European and North American.

Our aim is to recruit and train national as well as international young people to plant churches, offering them a 1-2 year internship. The initial focus will be prayer walking, and connecting with people of peace - with expansion to disciple making and church planting.

Recruiting multiple short-term teams from North American churches that will come for 1-2 weeks and join with us in prayer walking and finding persons of peace is also a part of the strategy. We also hope to recruit many more long-term church planters to move to Cologne.

Please pray with us as we enter this new and exciting phase of ministry. We expect great things from God.

Also, please continue to pray for our other church planting efforts:

The liturgical church plant in Cologne: We had hoped to hold our first service on March 1 but have decided to postpone. We just need more time to formulate our shared values and to determine what our liturgy will look like.

City Mentoring Program: There are 11 people participating in our present phase 1 group. We meet every 3 weeks for a 3-hour session to discuss the various aspects of church planting. Our most recent session on Monday was all about developing a philosophy of ministry. It is energizing to be speaking into these people's lives. One couple drives 3 hours from northern Germany to participate.

New Missionaries! We have had three new missionaries arrive on the field and another 3 expected still this year. God is answering our prayers for more workers to join in the harvest! Please pray for these people as they go through huge adjustments living in a different culture and learning the language.

The next consultation for church planting is scheduled for March 23-24, our first 2-day meeting. We have the privilege of having Michael Frost speak to us. He is the co-author of a fascinating book on post-modern missions: "The shaping of things to come." This book is really challenging my thinking and I highly recommend it.

Thank you for standing with us.

Your missionaries to Germany,
Jason and Sue