Dear Friends,
In our last update in March (oh my, how time flies!) we asked you to pray for the refugees flooding in from the Ukraine. In the mean time the flood has become a smaller but steady stream, most of whom are able to find housing themselves or through German government agencies. Many of our missionary colleagues are helping directly in serving these people and sharing the gospel. Please continue to pray that God would bring peace to the Ukraine.
A heartfelt thank you for praying for our church retreat April 9-10. We had a good group including a refugee family from central Asia that we have been working with for the last 5 years. God was present and blessed us. We talked about peace and what that means to us and what God has to say about it in his word. Please continue praying - for God's peace to dig deeper into the hearts of us who have been following Him for a while, and into the hearts of those who don't yet know Him.
Many prayed for me as I did a funeral in April for the mother of a friend of ours. I spoke words of comfort and shared the gospel clearly for all those in attendance. Shortly after, a dear neighbor’s mother passed away and she asked me to do the burial as well. Pray for God’s continuing comfort and that He would draw the family and friends to Himself.
I recently read that "Something does not need to be perfect to be wonderful, especially weddings.” That was a good reminder for me and for the 2 happy couples that I have recently pronounced man and wife. Starting with the pre-marital counselling, weddings are very personal, and the expectations can be high. But they are also an opportunity to share the gospel and Christ’s love.
We had a wonderful weekend with all of our colleagues at our annual GEM Germany field retreat in April. We are grateful for how the Lord continues to send new workers to Germany. We have grown. In fact, half of those there, were at there very first field retreat. Here is the report I gave from our Cologne area: https://youtu.be/c2kDDcBaE6k
We asked you to pray for our Alpha course that started in April. We almost cancelled it because we were having trouble recruiting participants - but then we suddenly had 5 who joined us for our first evening in the pastorenatelier. We ate together, had everyone introduce themselves, and then watched the input video which gives a clear presentation of the Gospel through people who share their own journeys to Christ.
The philosophy of the Alpha course is that, after the lesson, you allow people to say what they thought and how they felt about it in an open and inviting atmosphere, allowing the Holy Spirit to work. There were many different opinions shared. We marvelled to see the Holy Spirit guiding the discussion. By the end of the evening, they were talking about other friends that they wanted to invite!
However, the next week there were four instead of more. The week after that, unfortunately 2 of the participants got into a tiff during the discussion and it got personal. One of them decided to stop coming. After week four, 2 more participants dropped out, leaving us with just one and so we ended the course prematurely. Fortunately, he has remained connected with us and even spent a whole day with our church on our bike trip recently. Pray for D as we continue to speak into his life. I also have continued contact with one of the other participants.
Thank you so much for your prayers and support on which we are so dependant.
Blessings,
Jason and Sue
