July Prayermail

July 27, 2008

Dear Friends,
Last Tuesday I met with two German Christian media talents to discuss ideas for a new way to use cell phone and internet technology to spread the Gospel in German speaking Europe and eventually all of Europe. Andreas Kranzler is an independent filmmaker that I know from our former church in Cologne. Chris Cuhls is a multi-talented young media producer who has worked on major secular and Christian productions. It was exciting to see how we shared values related to excellence, cultural relevance, risk taking, etc. A joint vision began to emerge for producing an evangelistic series of short films (2-3 minutes) targeting 18-28 year old Germans in a format that can be played on and easily forwarded to cell phones and video ipods and also platforms like blogs and youtube. We envision the segments to be intelligent and catchy, with touches of irony and humor but dealing with issues that are on the minds of young people today and with just enough bait to get people excited about catching the following episode.

We are planning on meeting again at the end of August and inviting several more creative people including a couple of screenplay authors to brainstorm potential story concepts. We think it is important to include people who themselves are in the target age group - including several non-christians on the project would also be helpful in challenging the message and keeping us relevant.

I am excited about the potential this project can have for reaching 20 somethings in Germany and Europe for Christ - using cutting edge technology that can propagate and spread like wildfire. My role is one of catalyst and networker with maybe some creative input. Please pray that God will give us excellent ideas and people of excellence who will want to work on this with us.

QuarterChurch
Our startteam is becoming increasingly excited as the vision for the church comes into focus. We are discovering shared values and, to top it off, we like each other! Please pray for Monika & Reinhard, Ralf & Julia, Magnus & Christine and us. Pray that God would give us a spiritual unity out of which would flow much energy and power for our work. At a recent conference we learned about a theory for speeding up the conversion process. For most Germans the decision to trust Christ is a process that often takes years. The theory is that the more Christians one gets to know, the faster the process becomes. He/she sees and experiences more of Jesus in each life and the Christians, in turn, begin to love and pray for this person. To this end, we have developed a VIP list on which each of us has included several friends. We have begun praying for each others friends and are planning at least one party or event each month so that we can get to know them. In June it was Reinhard's birthday. On July 31 it will be Monika's birthday party. On August 30 Ralf and Julia will be having an open house in their new apartment. We would especially like you to pray about the Hauskonzert we are hosting in our apartment on August 22 to which we have invited all our neighbors and a few other friends. Floria is a Romanian Christian who is studying classical guitar in Cologne and coming to our new small group. She will be performing along with a friend of hers from the music school. We already have some neighbors who have said they will be coming.

Please continue praying:
Pray for Sascha and Anke Rützenhof who will be moving to their target city of Mönchengladbach Septemer 1. Pray that their core group would continue to grow in size and unity.

Pray for Adam Gascho and his team "Cologne in Motion" as they contemplate making a big change toward a house church model. Pray for courage and faith but also for lot's of love and grace as they discuss this change.

Pray for the church planting team in Hennef. They are due to begin holding monthly public worship services in September. Pray that God will bless them with a good place to meet and that many new people in Hennef will be touched with the Gospel. Pray for continued unity and joy in the leadership team of Wolfgang and Petra, Paul and Anna.

Pray for Uli and Nanja Thomas as they move to Rheinbach this summer to start up as associate pastor at the Ev. Free Church with a view to work toward a daughter church plant in nearby Euskirchen. Uli is a participant in the City Mentoring Program. We recommended him to Pastor Andreas Hildebrandt a few months ago. Praise God for how he worked in the church body to call Uli and Nanja to come even though the church initially was not looking for an associate pastor!

Thank you so much for standing with us in prayer and support as we minister with and reach out to the great German people.

Your missionaries to Germany,
Jason and Sue