We were so happy to have (very last minute) gotten the chance to be with our families once again this year for Christmas. This is just a short recap of what's been going on with us the past month, wrapping up the month of December & starting the new year.
About two weeks before Christmas we had our church Christmas party (as mentioned in our last post). We had a concert that the choir put a couple months of practice into, a message, food brought by different women in the church, and a gift exchange. It was a great church family night. We are continually amazed to see these families & single people, Germans & foreigners, all knit together and becoming a body, a real family here in this church.
The Choir Singing
The gift exchange (always a huge hit!)
We then spent our first New Years back in Germany, arriving from the States on New Years Eve. There is NOTHING like New Years in Berlin. We had wondered why we had never been here before. The whole city is setting off fireworks for the duration of the night. They started around 5:00pm when the sun went down and went off and on until midnight when the sky exploded. It felt like we were in a war zone, fireworks going off in every direction near and far. It went on for a solid hour and continued off and on throughout the rest of the night. We were warmly welcomed back by the church here and welcomed in the New Year having dinner with an amazing German family in the church. It's amazing to have so many "homes" all over the world, but such is the body of Christ.
We are really looking forward to 2012 and expecting God for great and new things this year. Here are few things that we have on the horizon this year to be keeping in prayer:
- EuroCon in March. We are really praying that God opens the doors for new people to go that have never gone before. We are praying for financial provisions, bold decisions and open doors.
- Teen/Youth retreat in May. We discovered a long time ago that you have to plan things in advance in Germany. As Americans we tend to be more spontaneous whereas in this country a weekend getaway has been planned at least a year in advance. We had the idea to do a youth getaway in May during the teens school break, we even had a camp but they cancelled on us over Christmas, and now that May is a few months away it is extremely hard to find a second location. We are praying for new ideas and God's perfect place to have this weekend.
- Convention in June. We already have one German family of four planning on coming to Baltimore this year and we are hugely excited. Please keep them in your prayers for details as they book their trip, and for others to come as well.
Lastly, we had an amazing church service this past Sunday. We had a small murmur of translation over the room as the message was being preached. There was a total of 5 languages being spoken. It is so encouraging to watch all of these different counties represented in one small church, witness them receive the message of grace and the finished work, and then interact with them and see the body life that is among us. German, American, Hungarian, Finnish, Lithuanian, Polish, Spanish, Iranian, African (and I know I am missing a few) were all represented on Sunday. It is nothing short of the grace of God that this group of foreigners could find a family in the body of Christ amongst each other, speaking broken English & German and using lots of hand gestures, it's a miracle to watch and be a part of.
Thank you for reading, thank you for your support and your prayers.
Matt & Emily
