Welcome to Köln

Mood: encouraged
Stage notes: CDC computer lab, woman singing African songs on one side and a man speaking Bangali on the other

Last night we had an American couple and their 3 children over for dinner. I had randomly done a google search for `Cologne church´, and after scrolling through several pages of results I came upon their website (http://www.cologneinmotion.com). It mentioned that they expected to arrive in Köln this past weekend, so I e-mailed to see if they would like to join the Bonnets and I for dinner.

Adam and Bethel arrived in the city this week and expect that the rest of their team (for a total of 9 adults, 5 kids) will arrive shortly. They do not have housing or visas yet, but they are hoping to stay here permanently. Both are fluent in German, so much of the dinner conversation went beyond my skill level :(. Despite this, I was able to catch the fact that they are hoping to start a small neigborhood church with the people that live around them rather than target students. Their kids primarily speak English, so I think that I will be able to serve them through babysitting soon. I hope so, because watching kids is something that I really enjoy doing.

Please pray that God would open a way for them to stay. We can use all the help we can get! Over dinner we were discussing the fact that in Köln there are no growing churches, and in a city of over 1 million people it is possible to know all of the active christians.

P.S.-Heike made a dish with cubed chicken, red peppers, and canned peaches in a light tomato cream sauce. It was served on spatzel noodles and was delicious. We had warm strudel for dessert.