April Update

Dear Friends,
 
God has answered our prayers and we finally have a new location for our church plant. We are sharing the space with three other churches: a German church, a Russian church and a Spanish church - all of us having our worship services at different times of the week. Although we still have a few small organizational issues to work through, we are thankful for this change and finally have extra rooms for our children’s church.

We had a joyful Easter celebration followed by brunch in a nearby restaurant. We were so thankful to have a Kurdish family from Kobani, Syria, accept our invitation to the Easter service and to be our guests for brunch as well. M, reserved and soft-spoken, was pregnant with their fourth daughter when they fled Syria. They have been in Germany for about 6 months and are participating in the German classes we offer at the Pastorenatelier.  Their daughters are well behaved and appear to be happy. They warmed up to us immediately and wanted to hold our hands as we walked to the restaurant. H is a handsome and winsome man. He’s a musician and it turns out that he is kind of a rock star in Syria. Some of his YouTube videos have 50,000 views. They had to bring the baby along to German class recently, and as I don’t actually teach -  I am just the host - I offered to hold her when she was getting a little fussy. She fell asleep in my arms about 15 minutes after this selfie was taken.

Our favourite little Italian restaurant around the corner from us has changed hands. Anita and Franco are retiring and Salvatore, who has been making their pizzas for 22 years has taken over. Last week they hosted a big celebration for all of the regular customers from the neighborhood. There must have been 60-70 people there. We were engaged in an interesting conversation with a couple we had never met before when I had an idea. I went back to the kitchen and told Salvatore and he agreed immediately. We went back out into the restaurant and he asked for everyone's attention. I introduced myself and mentioned the Pastorenatelier. Then I prayed a prayer of blessing on Anita and Franco and their family, thanking the Lord for all the good food through the years. Then I prayed God's blessing on Salvatore and his family as it was no small thing for him to take this step - but something he had always dreamed of. After I said amen, there was a spontaneous applause and several people came up to me to thank me for my words.

Sue is thankful for several opportunities to present seminars on intercultural competence in February and March.  A presentation given to a local secular audience focused on the meaning and process of integration, a current hot topic in Germany.  A second seminar focusing on honor/shame cultures was presented at the Intercultural Church Planting Conference in Rotterdam, Holland.  She has several more seminars planned in May and June, both in secular and ministry contexts.  Misunderstanding, fear and rejection characterizes the reaction of many Germans/Europeans in response to the waves of refugees that have poured into Europe in the last 12 months.  She would be thrilled to have her calendar full of these seminars so please pray for many more opportunities to share, inform and mediate in regard to intercultural exchange.

Thankfully,
Jason and Sue