September Prayer Letter

September 13, 2007

Dear Friends,
We wanted to get this off to you before this weekend. My sister and husband are coming on Friday from Charlotte and we using the opportunity to take an overdue vacation. We've had a terrible summer in Germany and are hoping to find some sun in the south!

Here is an update on what God has been doing as we seek to be part of starting a church planting movement in Germany.


City Mentoring Program

We now have a logo and are working on a web site and flyer for the City Mentoring Program.

I met with the 5 seminary grads on September 2 here in Cologne. It looks like only one of them is coming to Cologne to do an internship and to take part in the City Mentoring Program at this time. Please pray for Esther as she finalizes her plans to come and that some of the others would participate in the future.

I am scheduled to present the program at the Neues Leben Bible school on October 30. Please pray that we would find several interested students. Pray also for the groups that we want to start in Landau, Giessen and Berlin. Pray for our next board meeting on October 9 in Berlin as we have some strategic decisions to make. Pray that God would give us wisdom, courage and unity!

Divine appointments in Moenchengladbach

When Sascha told me the name of the former Baptist pastor he had contact with in Moenchengladbach, I had to ask him to repeat it for me. I knew pastor Tosch from our days in Porz - over 10 years ago. We met occasionally for fellowship and led our churches in some cooperative evangelistic efforts. Now they are in Moenchengladbach and very much interested in the church plant - even though it is not a Baptist project. We quickly scheduled a get together and met at the Tosch's on August 28 for coffee.

Pray for Sascha and Anke as they continue to network and prepare for the church plant. Pray for more divine appointments. Pray for both of us as we hit the streets on October 11 & 12 to conduct a survey and try to talk to as many un-churched people as we can. God knows the people we will be talking to. Pray that many of them will be open to further contact.


Where there's smoke - there's fire!

Originally we were hoping that SPARK would have more mass appeal in Germany to help spark a church planting movement - but it seems that God is using it more like a fine surgical instrument. On August 30 I attended a meeting of the German Baptist national forum for church planting in Kassel with Fred McRae, one of our GEM church planters who is working with the Baptists in Rheinland-Pfalz. I wanted to show them that we stood behind Fred in his work with them and also that we as a mission want to encourage them and help them as a denomination as much as we can.

Pastor Manfred Beutel, who participated in helping produce SPARK, is the newly appointed leader of this group. At one point he shared with us how God used the making of SPARK in his own heart. He said that the very questions I posed as we interviewed him helped him see clearly how important church planting is to him. A short time after that when he was asked to lead the forum, he did not hesitate to say yes.

Please pray for two upcoming SPARK presentations: On August 13 at Wolfgang and Petra Stolz's. We are having supper with them and Paul & Anna Klassen. Afterward they have issued an open invitation for people to come and pray with them for Hennef. After prayer we will present SPARK. On November 4 I will be presenting SPARK at the Evangelical Free Church in Krefeld. This church wants to partner with Sascha to plant the church in Moenchengladbach.

Please keep praying for us as we are ministering on so many fronts. We are more dependent on God's wisdom and strength than we ever have been. Pray that our vacation will truly be one of rest and rejuvenation.

Thank you for standing with us.

Jason and Sue