Frauenfreizeit 2008

About 45 women congregated at Bleibergquelle in Velbert for the annual Women's Retreat which brings together sisters from the Dortmund, Duesseldorf, and Koeln churches. Lori, Innes, Heike, Ramona, Diana, Britta, and I (from Koeln) were all able to go, which made it a really nice time of fellowship. The grounds are beautiful and I was disappointed to learn that they will stop accepting guests later this year because they need more room for a new school that they are building. When I get a chance I will post some more pictures from the time.

The Gospel

This weekend there was a Europe-wide pastors conference in Koeln and some of the participants stuck around a bit longer to join us in a time of worship. Alex, a pastor visiting from Spain gave a teaching on the Gospel.

Despite the familiarity of the topic, God used the opportunity to reassure one of the members of our church that he could be accepted by God and be certain of receiving eternal life. All that was necessary was belief. Belief that he had fallen short of meeting God's perfect standard (sinned) and as a result, deserved death. Belief that Jesus died to pay the penalty for our sins, was buried and on the third day rose again.

It is always nice to experience the surprising moments that God chooses to show His presence.

P.S-Please pray that this person would be able to grow in their faith and be able to get the support they need to learn more about God.

More Awaken Photos

As we began the journey to Hohegrete, the Henson's rental car broke down. Here everyone is praying for the situation. I was in the car with Jordan and 3 year old Hannah who wanted to know "is Mommy going to push the car to the swimming pool (Hohegrete) now?"
The older children had an "armor of God" theme for Sunday school. My group of 2-5 year olds, on the other hand, had the (unplanned) theme of "I want Mommy"
On Friday about 100 people went into Cologne for tours of the city led by Daniel, Martin, Heike, and myself. I led a huge group from Spain on a tour of Roman artifacts.
Here Jana and I hand out information packets to the conference guests on the first day. I spent most of the conference manning the registration table/help desk.

Awaken Conference Photos

Roasting "Bread on a Stick", a German camping tradition.
Open mic night in the Awaken coffee house. Here children perform a skit. Later in the evening we were treated to music, dance, and poetry readings.
Charlie Ford, Dieter Schade, and John Goering playing for us in the Coffee House.

Team Retreat in Holland

Im Letzter Zeit

Martin and Daniel in Florida for a Global Great Commission meeting.
The Goerings, Hendersons, Martin and I check out a location for the next Awaken conference.
In December the Dortmund, Düsseldorf and Köln churches came together for a weekend retreat.

GCE

After posting photos of the Awaken conference, I realized that most people in the States have no idea what it was about. For those of you familiar with GCM (Great Commission Ministries), you may not be aware that there is a new branch-off called GCE (Great Commission Europe). The Awaken conference was meant to bring about 300 members of 12 churches associated with GCE together for fellowship and vision casting from Jan 2-6th.

Two years ago the first Awaken conference was held in Amsterdam. This year it was in the small town of Hohegrete, about 1 hour south of Cologne. Because of it's proximity to us, the Cologne church was given responsibility for most of the details that go into planning such a big event along with a married couple that lives in Ukraine. In addition to the things that go into these kinds of meetings in the States, we needed to think about things like translation equipment, visas, and multi-lingual worship!

It ended up being a good time of teaching (from John Hever, Tod Watkins, and Joe Dunn), worship, and building international relationships. Please pray that God will use the things that were said during the time to really impact lives and energize GCE.

Praise and Petition

Praise
-Thanks to all of you who were praying for my exams. I recieved an ''A'' on the first one, and I am still waiting for the results to come back for the second.

-The Goering family has officially announced their intentions to move to Köln in the coming year. There is still a lot to be done before this becomes a reality. They need to sell their home in Dortmund and buy one here. Please pray that everyone (Bonnets, Goerings, Schades, Thomas Lobe, and I) finds a place to live near one another.

New Prayer Requests:
-The Dortmund and Düsseldorf churches will be having a weekend retreat starting on Friday. Please pray that the (future) Köln team will find time to connect with one another there.

-I will be in the States from January 9-30th. Please pray that I am able to connect with as many people as possible and that the time is both refreshing and productive.

-I am hoping to get a place to study at the University here this coming summer. Please pray that there will be an opening. Only 5 Americans are accepted per year, and a lot depends on what you would like to study.

-Thomas Lobe is still looking for a job. It is very important that he find something by the end of January.

Still Life

Mood: strategic (interpret that as you will)
What I'm Watching: Q & A by Ravi Zacharias Thomas (x2) playing German Monopoly with me before the Germany v. Poland game. Several other friends also joined us, including my German teacher and her husband.
The Dortmund and Düsseldorf churches got together Thursday to have a day-long conference. Here are the kids getting ready to sing.
The ceiling of the Köln main train station is currently dressed up in this cool World Cup mural.

Brothers and Sisters

Hands and feet in Europe (GCM Staff Retreat, Budapest)

Retreat and Soccer Match Pics

Women from the Dortmund and Düsseldorf churches during the Women's Retreat.
Charlie and Uwe in war paint before a Germany vs. USA soccer match.

Diakonissen

Mood: sunny
What I'm Reading: The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck

I was introduced to the Diakonissen Schwesters this past weekend in a picturesque retreat center operated by these German ''nuns''. The Dortmund and Düsseldorf churches combined resources to hold a women's conference here. Patterning their lives after the example of Jesus in Luke 22:27, the Diakonissen serve by operating a non-profit child care center, retirement home, riding therapy stable, and school on the grounds. Although they take no formal vows, they are expected to stay with the sisterhood for life, renounce materialism, remain single, and be obedient to their superiors.

P.S-I'm at an internet cafe at the moment and cannot upload pics, but check back later for photos of the Schade's visit, the women's retreat, and the USA vs. Germany soccer game that I am going to tonight.

Visitors from the States

Mood: good
Stage notes: I'm in Dortmund getting ready to go to a church women's retreat. I was asked to decorate tables for the coffee break, so I'm also half-heartedly trying to pull that together.

You may recall me mentioning that an American couple (Dieter and Lucy Schade) had expressed interest in relocating to Germany. Well, they decided to come for a first-hand look, and arrived in Köln yesterday. Fresh off the plane, we had lunch together and walked around the Uni Köln campus. A German friend had invited me to her home for coffee and suggested that I bring my American visitors, so we headed to her place. An hour and a half later, we left to meet another woman who wanted to join us for English conversation group (all together, I think we had 11 people at the Shamrock this week). After English, we hopped in the car for the 90 min. drive to the house we were staying at in Dortmund for the night. The family was having house church, so I forced myself to remain conscious long enough to join their meeting. Finally, we all straggled off to bed. If we don't work them to death, perhaps the Schades will decided to join us here :).

Retreat

Mood: busy
What I'm Reading: Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi

Here are some pics of the kids I was hanging out with this week. We had a lot of fun, although a cabinet fell on one of the boys and hurt his leg, which gave me a bit of a scare. Happier moments included camping, roasting ''smores'', and singing camp songs (the fire and the food was imaginary). We partook of a feast made out of clouds and rainbows, and took several walks in the woods. I was also able to see a lot of Veggie Tales and listen to Adventures in Odyssey.

This was my room/the playroom.

As you can see, winter is still alive and well in parts of Germany.

Happy New Year!

Mood: awesome
Stage notes: De Poort, Amsterdam

Last night was great. I got some encouraging hang time with a friend from my church in Lansing. Then we had a really good night of worship which ended a little before midnight. Leaving the session, I made my way back to the Shelter City Youth Hostel. It's located in the Red Light District of Amsterdam, right off of a square that has primarily Chinese establishments. On the way there, I literally had to run from fireworks that were being shot off in the streets. At the stroke of midnight the Amsterdamers popped bottles of champagne and sprayed anyone within range. I was talking with someone (whom I had just met), and they invited me up on their roof to watch the fireworks. The roof I was on was, for Amsterdam, relatively flat, but the neighboring roof had a severely steep incline. Three intoxicated men were perched on it. Great picture. Even better shouted conversation! Later the other people left me alone on the roof and I was able to sing as loudly as I wanted (you couldn't hear that well over the fireworks anyways) and enjoy the unique view of the city.

Loving Our Neighbor

Last evening I experienced a message about the need for Christ followers to passionately love others through lives saturated with social action on the micro and macro scale. The man speaking was a gifted communicatior and I think that many in the room deeply connected with his thoughts on this aspect of the Christian life.

His words caused me to consider the question of what loving my neighbor looks like day-to-day. Although I believe that sharing the hope found in Christ is paramount, it seems that this is impossible apart from lives of sacrificial love. I don't believe that this world will be transformed before the return of Christ, but I do think that it is sin to adopt a laissez-faire attitude towards the injustices perpetrated around us.

While I did not fully agree with the reasoning behind the speaker's convictions on social justice, I think that the practical conclusions he comes to (that we must live sacrificially for others) are the right ones. His sincerity was moving and I really appreciated hearing his thoughts.

P.S.-Sally, a Ukranian man with an accordion played and sang for us last night. I'm jealous that you are getting the opportunity to learn this beautiful language!

Rerouted

Mood: way tired, encouraged
Stage notes: Awaken conference in Amsterdam

My flight here: rerouted twice, luggage lost, no food on plane, no movie on plane, delayed twice. Had a couple of great conversations with my neighbors on the plane flight (which I could more or less hear over the 5 crying babies :)

My arrival in Amsterdam: hostel lost my reservation for a bed, conference could not find my reservation, signed up for kitchen duty (which requires a 5:45AM wake-up time) and child care.

I'm loving my time here though (really, I'm serious). I'll try to post about it later tonight.

YMCA in Germany

Mood: rejuvinated
Stage notes: Turkish neighborhood in Müllheim

I just returned from a weekend spent in a beautiful youth hostel snuggled between snow covered hills in Siegerland. Actually, most of the weekend was spent in a padded room ironically labeled (in German) ''the still room''. It was anything but still, however, because this is where we decided to house all of the children under 3 years old while their parents listened to sermons and enjoyed fellowship with one another. David Goering helped me with the kids, and took lots of pictures which I am hoping to get a chance to see at some point.

In the evenings I was able to slip away into the woods for time alone with God. It was miles to the nearest town, and the only sound to punctuate the darkness came when snow fell from the trees. The stars, which are normally scared into hiding by the throngs of people in the city, came out to pay me a visit. I laid on the ground while making snow angels, praying, and singing. It was good for my soul.

E-Werk

Mood: cold, busy, good
Stage notes: Skimming ''Jesus Among Other Gods'' by Ravi Zacharias as I wait for this very slow computer

Heike and I spent a couple of hours at the ''Cologne Worship Night'' last evening. Hundreds of people crowded into a warehouse that has metamorphosed into a concert hall in the middle of an industrial district. The music was influenced by rock and jazz, and vacillated between English and German. One of my favorites was a folksy rendition of ''I'm Trading My Sorrows''. I think that I will attend more of the concerts in the future as a place to meet potential co-laborers.

My social calendar seems to be filled this week. Between babysitting and meeting with students, I'm envisioning some serious piles of unwashed dishes and laundry. This Friday I'm heading to an unknown location to help with childcare for a weekend-long church retreat (It's not my church, and I have no idea where they are having the event :) I'm looking forward to it. Pray that I help the kids have fun and that it is also a time of encouragement for me.

The Church

Mood: worshipful
Stage notes: listening to a Russian man share his testimony (he speaks Russian, Polish, and English and is being translated into Korean!)

There are believers from 15 countries here and the teachings must be translated by radio transmission into 7 languages. Despite this miniature verison of Babel, we are able to communicate quite well. It is helpful to have the Bible to use as a sort of Rosetta Stone.

It is 2AM and a small majority of the conference participants are still in the main meeting hall with me. We have been here since 8PM (this is after almost 6 hours of meetings earlier in the day!). I just had a good conversation with an English woman who has been a member of this church for more than 20 years. She moved to Korea as an English language teacher and was able to hear the gospel. After becoming a christian she decided to stay with the church to help as a translator and has been travelling 'round the world doing this ever since. We had the opportunity to talk about OT symbolism, heaven, and share our testimonies among other things. The pic below was taken on a walk through the grounds here with some new friends. The fountain that we stood in front of had the story of the good Samaritan sculpted on it. One side portrays the robbers escaping, one has the "religious" men walking away with their books, one shows the Samaritan coming upon the injured man, and the back shows the inn.