Movement in Germany!

March 23, 2010

Dear Friends,
There are few things that excite us more than getting together with other church planters,  to share stories and talk and pray about new opportunities and challenges. It's hard to top that - except - to meet with a group of young Germans that God has called together to plant their very first church. They are motivated and passionate and asking God exactly where they should move to. They are from all over Germany and together with their leader, Stephan, are meeting every 6 weeks in a different city to spend the day with local Christian leaders and getting to know the city. Stephen contacted me to see if I had time to spend with them on February 20. What a surprise when later that day, I got an email from Bjorn and Andrea, a young couple who graduate from Bible School this year, to see if I had time for them on February 20 to talk about them moving to Cologne to get involved in our church plant (www.koelnprojekt.de) while Bjorn pursues further studies here. We all ended up having a great lunch downtown followed by a time of prayer outside the cathedral for Cologne and for God's direction in their lives.

On March 12-14 we held our yearly GEM German field retreat, this time in a castle about 2 hours south of Cologne.  In addition to some limited business and planning sessions most of the time was devoted to fellowship, sharing and praying for one another. With children and a couple who came to minister to them, we were a total of 50 people this year. What a privilege it is for Sue and me to work with such a group of dedicated, gifted and fun group of missionaries. God is using them to have an impact on this country for His Kingdom. Please pray for me as I seek to challenge, nurture and lead them.

The day after the field retreat I was up early to head to the two day Consultation for Church Planting near Frankfurt. God used our special guest, Øivind Augland, from Norway as he shared with us about all the churches that have been planted through multiple denominations over the last decade in Norway. After learning how things began to move in Norway through a national congress with ministry leaders and practitioners - the 29 German participants in the room began to dream in new ways of how a movement could maybe begin in Germany. We immediately began planning a similar national congress for 2013. Please pray about this idea with us. We need to be certain that God is in it. We will need to form a working committee by this fall. Pray that God will work in the hearts of key denominational and ministry leaders so that they will not only attend but get behind this project. Please pray also that we will be able to recruit several key German business leaders to sponsor and promote the congress.

The church plant in Cologne has entered a new phase as we recently went through the difficult process of having one couple leave the start team. As things have been progressing this last year, it became more and more clear that some of our core values were not in alignment, leading to ongoing misunderstandings and stress. Although the separation has been difficult, we can see God's hand at work on many levels and are grateful that the situation didn't  explode. God helped us to part ways in a healthy way; blessing one another as we move on in separate directions. Praise God with us for that and pray that God will lead us clearly as we regroup and move forward.

 Rejoicing in the hope of resurrection,

Jason and Sue

PS: Please pray for our urgent financial situation. Some of you will be receiving a letter soon about this from the president of GEM, Henry Deneen.