Our theme this past week has been "Know Us" from the verses John 17:21-23
"That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me."
Our main focus since we got back to Berlin has been knowing God and knowing others, and knowing others in God. We could spend 30 years on a missionfield and never let other people into our lives. God has put so many new people into our paths in just the past 10 days.
We started getting back into the swing of things last Thursday. We had a full group of team members with us on Thursday and we spent the day soul winning. We started at Nollendorfplatz, an outreach to foreign students we did last year. We set up two tables, one with literature from the Bible and how to get saved in many languages, and another with bracelets from the Christian Farmers Outreach (for anyone who is not familiar they are rubber armbands with the colors gold, black, red, white, and green on them that tell the gospel). We had people coming up to us and asking about the armbands before we could even put them out on the table fast enough. It was an awesome morning and many people learned about the gospel that day.
Us at the armband table
The two tables at Nollendorfplatz
Please pray for the Chinese girl that Matt is talking to here, she had never heard the gospel before and was very interested to hear all about how Jesus died for her sins.
We moved on from Nollendorfplatz to Alexanderplatz. Alex, as we call it, is a huge area right in the heart of the city where you'll find tourists and Berliners walking around and sitting down watching the world go by. We had some awesome conversations just walking up to people and asking them if they knew God. We had one salvation and one person we met came to church on Sunday morning. Please pray for these guys- Andy and Vladamir.
Outreach at Alexanderplatz
Pastor Gary & Matt talking with Andy, who prayed to receive Christ
The girls on outreach: Ann Margret, Emily, Kathie, Miia, Marianna & ZsoZsa
ZsoZsa from Budapest, Ann Margret & Emily, and Miia who visited us for 5 days from Finland
Friday night we had Ice Cream night at the church. The girls~ Miia, Ann Margret & Emily~ set up outside the church to give people walking by the church free ice cream. We made posters, chopped up toppings and in our best German asked people walking by "Mochtes du ein eis?" -Would you like an ice cream? We met some new people who lived in the area, had a lot of fun getting to know people in the church as we all sat outside the church and played music and sang songs.
Miia, Emily & Ann Margret set up to hand out ice cream
We were playing music on the street and the building's landlord asked us if we were American and gave us these lei's. Don't know what that has to do with being American, but we thought it was hilarious.
We ended the past week on a relaxing note. We spent the day Saturday biking to Potsdam, which is about 15 miles outside of Berlin. It's a gorgeous ride, through the woods. That night we hung out at the Groenewold's house and watched the World Championships in track and field... which are happening right now in Berlin... and saw a new world record for the 100m dash.
Us on a bike ride from Berlin to Potsdam
Miia showed Emily how to make real Finnish pulla
Prayer Requests for the next week:
- Continued great times on outreach, and to meet lots of new people
- Ease in moving! We are moving out of our apartment into a temporary situation as we continue to look for a permanent apartment for us.
- A new apartment! That God would provide us a 2 room apartment, in the areas that we are looking in, in the price range we are needing... all three of those requests have shown to be a tall order but we are fully confident that God has a perfect place for us.
- Planning for Teen Camp. Teen Camp starts on the 26th, so we need to finalize all of our plans this week. It has to be God because we have never done a teen camp on our own before! Please pray for amazing things to happen in these teens lives, we have 14 teens signed up... some of them we have never met before, and we want God to do great things in their hearts next week.
In Him,
Matt & Emily
