East German Outreaches

We have been going on many day trips into the East German villages. We are planning for two weeks of upcoming concerts. In one week we have a group called Power Surge coming with a group from Florida to do 4 days of concerts, trying to reach these unreached villages of Germany. We have come up to some serious opposition planning these concerts. This territory has been untouched by the name of God and the message of the gospel of Jesus for so long that to come in with force: evangelizing, inviting, getting to know people... has also come with some extreme opposition. Our prayer is that through these concerts, through these invitations, that some would be saved to Christ. That some might even be interested in something more. That some might go home and pray for a Bible Study in their village. That doors would be open that no man can shut. That the Lord would move so mightily in that area that people would fall to their knees and see that God is God. Please pray for these concerts. Please pray for all of the details. For the advertising, the set up, the equipment, the health and strength and safety of everyone involved, for great turn outs, for new contacts to be made, and for souls to be saved.

Our first concert starts next Sunday, so we will update you in a week and let you know how it goes! Thank you for your prayers!

The Uckermark borders Poland, it is about an hour and a half train ride out of Berlin

The building on the left is a barn where we will have one of our concerts in a week, it is in a small village called Pinnow

Outreach team to Pinnow

We came to do outreach and knock on doors but there was a festival in Pinnow that day and everyone was out in the center of the village, just waiting for us to invite them.

Little Update!

Hi guys, just a quick update from Berlin. We have been busy busy busy so it's usually at midnight right before falling into a deep sleep that I think "gotta update that blog!" We have a little update on our living situation, we are still looking for a place of our own but we are under a new provision. I'm sure many of you know Adrian Edler, but maybe you don't know his awesome wife Olessya. Well these two took us in about one week ago, and converted their huge living room into a small living place for us. We are loving it for the time being. We are still looking for our own apartment, but it's been a lot of closed doors, so it is just God that we are with Adrian and Olessya right now because we are having so much fun. We are also right in the middle of planning concerts for the month of October. We have 2 groups coming to Berlin to do concerts and we are planning them. We have a group from Florida called Power Surge that will do 4 nights of concerts in the unreached villages of Eastern Germany. Then the following week we have a group of teens from Finland coming doing 3 nights of concerts in the Berlin/East German area. Please pray for these concerts and all of the details from housing to filling the seats at the concerts!

We are so blessed right now with awesome team life. We have Ann Margaret here for 3 more months, Mindy is here planning her wedding to Stephan in one month, and of course the Groenewolds and Stephan. Here is the link to Ann Margaret's new blog: http://annmargaretroe.blogspot.com/

Lastly we are SO excited about the upcoming conference in November in England. We are so excited to get to visit the body there, and be a part of the conference in Oxford with Pastor Schaller!

Thank you all for your prayer and continued support! ~Matt & Emily

Sunday Night Church in the Park

We had our first Sunday Night church service. We went to a park in Hackeshemarkt... it's the old Jewish section of the city. This park is awesome, right by the water, and it was a gorgeous night to have church. There were 10 of us, we sang a few songs and Pastor Gary spoke a message. After we handed out tracts to people in the park to tell them what we were doing and invited them to church. Please pray for Sunday night church services, we're trying to start doing these outdoor church services on a regular basis, as long as the weather permits

First Annual~ CAMP LEBEN DUETSCHLAND!

To say we were blessed with an amazing time at camp would be an incredible understatement. God POURED OUT on us. Where to begin besides THANK YOU for prayer. That camp was so padded in prayer that God had to bless it... and He did! Summarizing camp will have to start from the end to the beginning, because what is freshest in our minds is the testimonies of the campers. Our hearts were so full as we left the camp. We were hearing things like, "This was the most fun" ... "I'm so sad it's over already"... "When are we going to have another teen thing?" ... "I want to come to church when we go back to Berlin." It was so clear that God had done something very special in these kids/teens lives. Our theme for camp was "GET LIFE" ... not Get A Life, but Get Life... most of these kids don't know what it means to have life inside of you that pours out. And most of them had never heard the words that we are so used to hearing... like GRACE, MERCY, FINISHED WORK. If there is one thing that fills your heart and makes you want to devote your life to the missionfield it's a young girl asking you to explain grace to her, and having her listen to your every word.

We started our camping prepped for a full week of activities. We played dodgeball, Bible scavenger hunt, steal the bacon, capture the flag, balloon wars, and in between stole some naps and some awesome one on one time with the campers. We split the camp into two sides- red team and blue team, and every game we played had the campers against each other. We gave out extra points for remembering Bible verses, wearing your team colors, and the PERSONAL favorite... giving the counselors back rubs!

We are praying now for the teen ministry to keep up its momentum. For all these kids to get hid in the Teen Studies, come to church, and bring their friends out. We are also praying for us, for new ideas, and for a place to hold teen meetings. Please keep all these faces in your prayers! And visit our teen website if you'd like at ggberlinteens.webs.com !

Matt (with Stephan translating) explaining Overland/Overseas

Matt and the boys boating

The big kids helped out the young kids in the games!

Team Red Pride!

Awesome girls!