september update

Dear Friends,

Jesus told us to go and make disciples. In a city of 1 million, like Cologne, we are sure that God is at work and there are many who would be open to the Gospel and following Jesus if only someone were to explain it to them. But how do we find those people. We are continually working at trying to expand our existing network through our church plant services and events but we are also looking for new innovative ways to find people that are open and seeking and that God is preparing.

One of our new ideas is called "Ansprechpartner". In English we would say "contact person" but the German word literally means "a person to talk to".  It is used in a variety of contexts - from the contact link for information on a web site to that of a counselor, therapist or friend with a listening ear. Recently, Kristi (one of our new missionaries) and I stood in the busy pedestrian shopping district and held up signs with the word "Ansprechpartner." We drew plenty of smiles and several pedestrians who actually come up to us and asked "for what are you the contact person? Why are you here? Is this candid camera? We responded by saying that we are simply there to listen to whatever people wanted to say. We're "all ear" so to speak. No gimmicks, nothing to sell or have people sign up for.  Over the course of an hour, we talked with maybe 15-20 people. Most of the contact was brief but there were several who wanted to talk more and were interested in knowing a little more about our church plant.  Please pray for us as we continue on our search for people who want to talk and go deeper.

Please pray for the CologneProject. Not paying rent in our present location has proven to have a significant down side as our landlord has informed us several times that we would have to cancel or change dates because he has booked paying customers. Pray for us as we look for a more stable venue, especially in light of our desire to move toward having 2 services a month this fall. Pray that our small groups would grow in depth and breadth. Pray that people who are coming regularly would move from being spectators to participants.

Thank you for praying for us as we traveled in the U.S. this summer. We had great connections in Colorado with our supporters. Pray that new people we met would be moved to joining our support team and commit to supporting us on a regular basis in prayer and finances.

Pray for the next mens discussion evening to be held sometime in September. This second time we want to have a theme and will be using a booklet about the virtues to guide our discussion. Pray for open hearts and that R and H will respond to the Gospel.

Keep praying for a second reformation in Germany! Pray that the church will break out of the stronghold of tradition and that a groundswell of new disciple-makers will impact this post Christian society!

Thank you for standing with us.

Jason and Sue