May 25 2010

Dear Friends,

Here is our overdue update.

PURPLE SHOES AND AN iPHONE BLESSING

 

It was a nice warm evening and there were about 50 of us gathered out on the street and sidewalk in front of S's apartment. S is a model, fitness guru, DJ and a TV shopping channel personality. She had invited us to a party she was throwing simply because she had bought a new car and wanted to celebrate. I offered to say a blessing over her and her car and she jumped at the offer. She said that she had never had anyone speak a blessing over her before in her life. I chose the wonderful words of Psalm 121:2-8:

My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.

He will not let your foot slip— he who watches over you will not slumber;

indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.

The LORD watches over you— the LORD is your shade at your right hand;

the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.

The LORD will keep you from all harm— he will watch over your life;

the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.

Finally the time came and S turned the music off and handed me the microphone. The guests gathered around us and her new little Fiat and I asked her to hold my iPhone so I could read the blessing while I dipped my thumb in olive oil and annointed her forehead and prayed for her.

We really didn't know that many people but after the blessing I had numerous very interesting conversations. I am not sure if it was because of my new purple shoes or the fact that I read the blessing from my iPhone or maybe because I am American - but I was asked several times "Are you really a Pastor?" -- an open door for me to share about my faith. I was able to invite several people to come to our next church service as well. At one point one group of people waved me over and asked me to explain what happened on Pentacost - which is a national holiday in Germany. What a joy it was for me to share with them in a perfectly natural way, starting of course with Jesus death and resurrection, ascension and then Pentacost and the hope we have within us!

PRAYER TEAM IMPACT

It was an amazing and exhausting week (May 8-14) with the prayer team from Sue's home church in Ontario. We prayed through the streets of Cologne and met and prayed with reps from 5 different church plants in the area. You can't imagine what it meant for us to have them come because they were experiencing our context first hand, they began to really share our burden for the people of Cologne - to cry with us for the lost. Our German partners were overcome with this act of service. Instead of coming with a finished program and all the answers, these people came to listen and to pray. The language barrier dissolved as we poured out our hearts to God. It was so encouraging for us and for the German church planters we partner with. It might be an exhausting prospect, but I would love to have a constant flow of teams like this coming over. Thank you so much to the people of Calvary Baptist Church for sending us this team. Who's next?

MEETING WITH MEN: June 11

On May 9 we attended a birthday party of some dear German friends of ours (M and G, both lawyers) who we have been sharing the Gospel with. Toward evening I had a fantastic talk with R, a fellow that I had not yet gotten to know very well. He is a successful dentist/surgeon. After asking him if he minded giving me a little dental advice on his day off, he proceeded to ask me if I minded talking a little bit about the current situation in the Catholic Church from my perspective as a Free Church Pastor. The dialog that resulted was amazing as we discussed the claims of Christ and how our faith can impact us in our roles especially as fathers and husbands. He had never really heard the Gospel before and wants to talk more. He and M and I decided that we needed to get together regularly to continue talking about these things. We are going to meet on June 11, possibly inviting 1 or 2 other men to join us. Please pray for wisdom and boldness and that I would love these men as passionately as Christ does.

TREK TEAM IN COLOGNE: June 1-15

TREK stands for Tangible Minsitry, Real Relationships, Extreme Adventure, Kingdom Advancing; 9 weeks, 3 countries and 1 team. After attending boot camp,  the team will travel to Europe and partner with Greater Europe Missionaries (GEM) and nationals. In each of the three country locations, they will be engaged in tangible ministry while engaging in real relationships with their team, the missionaries on the ground and the nationals they will be serving. We hope they will catch a vision for what God is doing in Europe and bring hope to a lost generation, while having a blast doing it.

Preparations have been heating up. God has opened doors so that the team (6 college/grad school age students) will be spending time in various high school English classes in the area. Hopefully through these classes, they will start building relationships and be able to engage with the students after school in a park or the Christian Youth Café we are partnering with. They will also spend time on the University campus doing a survey in English in an attempt to get into conversations with the students there. Also planned are a couple of events at the youth café in conjunction with the soccer World Cup.

Please pray for the TREK team and pray for us as we provide the ultimate leadership for those 2 weeks. Pray for lives to be changed and for many young people to put their trust in Christ.

COLORADO TRIP: June 16 - July 11

We will be in Colorado to visit our 5 supporting churches there as well as numerous individual supporters. We are looking forward to connecting and sharing personally about what God is doing in Germany. If you would like to host a dinner party with some of your friends at which we can share about our life and ministry - please let us know. Please pray that God would give us strength for this trip coming on the heals of such an intense month of ministry. Pray also that our support shortfall would be eliminated through our encounters.

Your partners for Germany,

Jason and Sue