The gifts of Christmas...

This Christmas the church in Berlin has wrapped hundreds of presents to give to the people of Berlin on the streets. In the present is a gospel of John, with a personal insert. The insert tells the reader how to get to heaven and how to read through the gospel of John. It shows them what Christmas is really celebrating, why God sent His Son, and what that means for them. It also has an invitation inside for the Candlelight Service here in Berlin on Christmas Eve. The gifts were all wrapped by people in the church and tied with a candle. To see the looks on people's faces as we handed out gifts on the streets was unforgettable. The people in this city are not accustomed to having received something for free, and to get a Christmas gift from a total strange came as quite the shock. Many people would respond with, "This is the only gift I've gotten so far" or "This will probably be my only Christmas present". 

Please pray for the response of these gifts that are given out. Hundreds have already been given out within the past few days. Last Sunday we had a new visitor come to church as a result of receiving one. God loves the city of Berlin!

Berlin Christmas Party

Christmas is here and we had the privilege to celebrate with the church here in Berlin for their annual Christmas party. The party was a total success. We volunteered to run the Christmas party this year, and could not have had more fun doing so. Matt organized the night, and Emily decorated. We also sang "O Holy Night" with Paul and Nick playing on the guitar. The night ended with introducing the German's to the "Yankee Swap" gift exchange. It was a total hit. It was such a great night of fellowship and joy in the body here in Berlin. God is doing great and mighty things in the hearts of people here. 

Teens in Berlin Strike Again...

We had our second teen meeting tonight at the ever popular Starbucks. It was a great turnout with us and four teens... OKAY that doesn't sound like an earth shattering turnout, but to get teens out on a Friday night for a Bible study that is just taking off... it's a GREAT turnout. We had so much fun with them! We laughed over coffee, talked about school, and had a great time in the word. Matt shared from Ephesians about how our lives are just for a moment (using a Starbucks straw wrapper to demonstrate the span of our lives). But God's grace and mercy operates in eternity, that is above the span of our lives, and it is new everday. I can access God's grace and mercy every day and it is brand new for me. It was a great thought, and a great time with the teens. Please keep the youth here in prayer! They are the coolest teens around. Pray for more good times around the Word with them and a fire in their hearts for God. 

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas!

The church was decorated for Christmas this weekend! It was a great time with the body, all getting together for lunch and working together making the church beautiful for Christmas! Our tree was provided by a family who owns a tree stand and they insist every year on providing the church with the best tree in the lot. They also donate all of the extra branches for decorating around the church.

 

Weekend with the Romanians

We had a great opportunity to spend the weekend after thanksgiving with Micah, Kim & Corey. The day after Thanksgiving we hit two universities in Berlin: Humboldt University & T.U. which is a technical university here in the city. Matt lead Verticalink on Johns Hopkins University back in Baltimore for about 5 years, and is anxious to get started on campus ministry here in Berlin as well. There are 3 main campus's here in the city- the two we visited and Friday and third one named Frye University. We passed out tracts at Humboldt and T.U. Friday with a challenging question on the front. There were different questions on different tracts, but they would say something like "Do you know that God created you for a purpose?" and then on the back said, call this number tonight to talk about this question. The number was Pastor Gary's home phone line and he printed stacks of tracts. There was also information for the church here in Berlin and for Verticalink's website (verticalink.org). Micah, Kim, Paul Lipsett, Pastor Gary and his son Nick, Ulli (a man here in the church in Berlin), and us all passed out as many of these tracts to everyone on campus that we saw. We did this for about 1 hour at Humboldt before moving on to T.U. 

That Sunday both Kim and Micah shared in church. They both had awesome introductions. It was such a blessing to have the guys from Romania here with us for a few days. To anyone who is thinking of visiting, know that you will be such an encouragement to the body here!

Micah & Kim sharing in Sunday morning service

Matt passing out tracts in front of Humboldt University. The campus has an outside book fair everyday so it is a high traffic area.

Thank You All For Your Continued Support...

We are so blessed by our friends and family in the body of Christ as we continue to receive faithful support from you. We cannot tell you the prayers that your support answers and the things that it allows us to do on a daily basis. Your support helps with travel (we pay to ride to church, ride to outreach, train rides to cities such as Heidelberg, etc...), it helps with our rent, it helps with church activities (food expenses and miscellaneous expenses for teen ministry), and helps put food on our table when we get home at the end of the day. God has been so faithful to us, and we can confidently say He will continue to be, because that's the kind of God we serve. Thank you so much everyone for your gifts, support and prayers. Please keep us in prayer for the New Year, as we believe God will continue in His faithfulness for our financial support. 

Thanksgiving in Berlin!

We just celebrated our first Thanksgiving in Europe this past Thursday. It was such an awesome day as we had a full house at the Groenewold's. Kathie & Emily cooked the Thanksgiving feast... three turkeys, mashed potatoes, squash, green beans, corn, two kinds of stuffing, pumpkin pie, chocolate cookies, apple crisp, irish soda bread, and the biggest pecan pie you've ever seen. It was a day of eating. The May's & the Groenewold's were joined by three guys from Romania who are missionaries there. Two of them are from the Greater Grace church in Baltimore (Micah Stambo & Kim Shibley) and the other one, Corey, was connected to Romania through his parents who used to be missionaries to that country. The three guys are all teachers in Romania at an international day school. We also had Adrian & Olessya, the Wollenberg's and Marianna Zsabo, all members of the church here in Berlin. 

The Loss of a Friend

We are so sad to hear about the loss of our dear friend Christina Hadley. We are keeping the Hadley family in deep prayer here in Berlin. 

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to His purpose."

Romans 8:28

Tests and trials

Difficulty finding God? Why does God hide himself in darkness? Many of us have prayed a prayer just like Job did in Job 31:35..."Oh that one would hear me! Behold my desire is that the Almighty would answer me." Right in the middle of our trial, when we need God the most, we hear nothing. We demand of God that he answer us immediately. But nothing. Then comes the morbid introspection. Job 32:1..."So these three men ceased to answer Job, because he was righteous IN HIS OWN EYES." vs 2b..."because he justified himself rather than God." We begin to justify ourselves, telling God why we don't deserve this trial, totally oblivious to the fact that God IS righteous. The fact is, we DESERVE much worse than the trial, but God is so gracious to draw us back into fellowship with Him. We try to justify our way back into His presence, as if our lives were based upon works, not faith. God is just quiet and waits. 

Then why won't God speak to me at that moment? Why does it seem like He isn't even there? Maybe God actually is speaking to me. Maybe I'm too busy defending myself that I don't hear his still small voice. Psalm 46:10..."Be still, and know that I am God." We start to trust in ourselves, and our own performance to get us back into fellowship with God. When all we need is to trust Him, and see how gracious He really is. God is speaking to us at that difficult moment, in a still, small voice. When we rest in Him, we can hear his voice. It is calling us back, assuring us that we are loved right at that moment. And we are righteous at that moment, because the just live by HIS faith, not OUR performance (Habakkuk 2:4). Not only is God speaking to us in the middle of our trial, but He is waiting to be gracious unto us (Isaiah 30:18). He is gracious to gently draw us to Himself, gracious to comfort us in the trial, gracious to bring us through the trial, so that He can be even MORE gracious to us! What a God we serve!

Youth Group

We did our first unofficial "Youth Group" event in Berlin on Friday. The teens in the church here don't currently have any sort of organized youth group, so we have begun to start one up on Friday's and see how it goes. This past Friday we made a miniature golf course in the Groenewold's back yard and had a serious golf tournament. Followed by making our own pizza's. Please keep in prayer the youth in the church here in Berlin. Please pray for growth, for direction, and a hunger in their hearts for the Word. 

... There was a three way tie for first place... Matt won the golf tournament, Nick came in a close second, and Daniel came in third, after two playoff holes... in case you were wondering... :)

Prayer Request

Please keep Emily in prayer as she has been sick for weeks and finally got a chance to see a Doctor today. The Doctor said that she is suffering from a bacterial infection in her lungs, and the infection is so strong that her body developed a form of asthma as it was trying to fight it. 

Please pray for the hospital bill as it comes in, that God will provide funding, and that it will be a small bill. Please also pray for money to cover the prescription drugs that Emily will need to get better. And of course keep her health in prayer!

--Matt & Emily

Heidelberg

Once a month Pastor Gary has been traveling to the city of Heidelberg, which is a 6-7 hour drive from Berlin. There are people there who do not have a Pastor or a church, that set aside one weekend every month to attend Bible studies, go soulwinning and spend time with Pastor Gary and whoever he may bring with him. These people are amazing people. They have sweet hearts and such a love for God. On the way to Heidelberg we took a detour to a town called Kitsington (I'm sure that is not spelled correctly). In this town, Pastor Petri lives with his wife and 5 children! We stopped and had a brief coffee and met the family before heading up to Heidelberg. It was such a blessing to stop there. Here we are in a random town in the middle of Germany and there is this family living there with the same message that we carry. We were sitting around his table and he was telling us about the moment that he realized that he was free from the law. What an amazing testimony he has!

We finally made it into Heidel

berg, with the help of our GPS navigation, at 7:30- exactly when the Thursday night Bible Study was starting. We had a Bible Study in the girls apartment- there are 3 girls in Heidelberg that all live together and have been a part of the Heidelberg group for years now. They are Daniella, Claudia, and Verena. The opened up their home to us that night and Pastor Gary started the weekend's theme of GRACE. The next day we enjoyed the sites of Heidelberg a bit, walked down the longest walking street in Europe (pictured on the right), climbed 360 stairs to reach the castle that overlooks the city (pictured below). 

That night we had a Bible study at the home of Juliana Keyser. A lot of you may know her sister Nikoli Lyons who helped pioneer the work in Berlin. Nikoli lived in Berlin in her college years and her and her friend prayed for someone to be their Pastor. They started inviting their friends and anyone that they met to their apartment for a Bible study, but still continued to pray for a Pastor. Years later the team from Ba

ltimore came, back in 1998 and the rest is history. Her sister Juliana, who lives in Heidelberg welcome us with opened arms. We had a great time at her BEAUTIFUL house, which overlooks the city. We had singing, a Bible study, food and an awesome time of getting to know each other. It was like being together for Christmas, but you didn't know anyone, everyone had such joy. Below is Juliana and her three children. They were so sweet! Made us chocolate chip muffins and had prepared a special song for us. Paul Lipsett is on the right, and the other two men live near Pastor Petri, in Kitsington. They all travel up to Heidelberg every time Pastor Gary comes in to town. The trip takes about 3 hours.

Welcome to Our Home...

We are renting part of an apartment here in Berlin owned by a wonderful couple in the church, the Wollenburg's. We have our own kitchen, bedroom & bathroom. It is right off the S-Bahn, one major form of transportation here in Berlin, and minutes away from the Groenewold's home. This is a picture of our kitchen. It is so amazing that this kitchen even exists! The Wollenburg's literally put it weeks before we got here when we asked if there would be a kitchen we could use. This family has been so helpful to us in our transition here. We usually sit at this kitchen table to check our emails and have our breakfast... and when you crack the windows you can hear the hustle & bustle of Berlin right below. 

This is the view from outside our kitchen window. You can see the S-Bahn on top of the overpass to the right. We use this to get to the church and it only takes about 15-20 minutes.

Our Address is:

Teltower Damm 39a

14167 Berlin

GGWO Duetschland Celebrates 10 Years

The church in Berlin recently celebrated 10 years of Greater Grace's presence in this city. Pastor Gary and Kathie have been there for every year. The conference was an amazing weekend. Pastor Matti, Pastor Barry and Pastor Gary had a theme of choices. People came from Budapest, Sweeden, and even France to be there for the conference. Pastor Matti shared these tips for being Spiritually minded:

1. Look for one new thought daily. Ask; when you ask you will be amazed at what God does.

2. Ask God for a spiritual ministry.

3. Make a commitment to church services. Come and bring your ministry with you. God honors commitments.

4. Share your testimony often

5. Support your church regularly.

6. Support Missions

7. Call/Email another believer daily.

8. Have a spiritual activity with your family daily.

9. Read the word systematically.

10. Pray for your Pastor and for people in your church.

Skype us!

We are now connected to Skype! 

We are able to skype via chat, voice or video. 

Our screen name is mattandemilymay.

We Have Arrived!

We did it! We fly 8 hours to Copenhagen, spent 4 hours in the airport and flew 1 hour to Berlin... but we made it. And it was so worth the flight just to meet Pastor Gary and Kathie at the airport. The two were there with camera in hand and huge smiles on their faces... such a warm welcome! We have been beyond blessed the past few days with all that God has done through the people here for us. These are great people in Berlin! If you don't already know that, come meet them! 

Our first day was filled with seeing the basics. We got situated in our apartment, visited the Groenewold's home, and went to Wednesday night church service. That following morning we had breakfast with none other than the Quirks & the Groenewold's. Nine people from Budapest came to be here in Berlin for the 10th year anniversary of the Berlin church. 

The first picture of one of the group from Budapest that toured Berlin with us on our first full day there. The second picture is of Matt buying his first month pass for public transportation, costing a whopping 75 euros. We can share the pass on nights and weekends, so for now we just have one monthly pass. Please pray that we can find some cheap bikes to cut down on the cost of getting around!

Contact Info

We are hoping to stay very connected to our family and friends in Baltimore and around the world as we leave for Germany. Please check our blog frequently for updates as we prepare to leave, and as we are there. Every post you leave comes directly to our inbox, so we are looking forward to hear from everyone who reads this.

We can also be reached by email at matt.emilymay@gmail.com

Please keep us in your prayers as we are looking to draw in support for plane tickets, passport renewal expenses, and our monthly rent in Berlin.


MATT & EMILY