January in Berlin: 7 Footsteps to Giant Youth Steps

We have had a very busy month since arriving back in Berlin. Church has been filled every Sunday, the worship has been amazing, the messages are on fire. Our theme for the month of January was "Hearing the Word of God" and that is exactly what the church here has been doing. We have two new nights of the week set aside for the body to the hear the Word... Monday night we have started 7 Footsteps and Friday night we have "Soup and Study" where a family in the body hosts a soup dinner at their home and we do a Bible study. We are also in the midst of an exploding teen ministry, more teens coming out for Youth Group and services than we have ever had. God is moving!

Sunday Morning Worship

Seven Footsteps:

We have held three Seven Footsteps classes so far. This class was designed for newcomers in Baltimore, but here in Berlin it is used to draw existing members deeper into the body, give them a hunger for the Word, and connect them to THEIR church. It has been a challenge to bridge the gap between the missionaries to Berlin, and the people for whom we were called here to minister to and with. This isn't the missionary's church and agenda, but it is our church together, and it is the work of God. That gap was definitely made much smaller the first Monday as people had a chance to discuss our church together. People were really starting to feel as though they were a part of their church. Praise God! We know that God has been moving here in Berlin, but it is so encouraging to really see it right before your eyes. That is something that does not happen so often in this city.

The past few Bible College semesters have had a very low attendance. We have tried many different ways to administrate creatively and encourage people to be involved in Bible College. We know that God uses Bible College to develop people and to reveal His plan and purpose for their lives. The truth however, was that no one was coming to classes. We want to see PEOPLE grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ, not our little Bible College. The very "nuts and bolts" of what we believe as a ministry, and why we believe it, is often discovered through Bible College classes. So without students, there is no full understanding of our vision and beliefs as a church and worldwide ministry.

I believe that within the first three classes, our attendance is already higher than the attendance of the entire semester last year. We had 11 non-team members come to class the first week, 14 the second week, and 10 this past Tuesday. Some have come every week, which is a miracle, but we have had new students each week as well. I really feel as though this will continue to grow as more and more people see how much the intake of the Word of God really affects their souls, giving them a peace and joy that passes all understanding. Each week we have had such great discussions about the importance of Doctrine, the Pastor/Teacher, Evangelism, Body Life, Our Vertical Relationship to God, The Finished Work, Eternal Security, just to name a few. We are so excited to see what God will do in us and through us this semester. Please keep our classes in prayer when you think of Berlin.

Youth Group:

Our Youth Group has been growing in a huge way. We have routinely had 4 teens coming to our studies, teens that have been in the church their whole lives, but most recently we have had about 8-10. The messages have been awesome to them, very direct, very real to life, and they are understand God deeper and deeper. It has been a huge provision to have Stephan Stein with us this year, he has given up his Friday nights to join us at Youth Group and translates every message which is HUGE. We had our first Youth Group night since being back from the States and had a great group of 10. We sang songs with them, had a message, had snacks and played an intense Pictionary competition, girls vs. boys.

Matt speaking to the teens, Stephan translating

The girls who won Pictionary all got Pop Rocks brought all the way from America

Nick and Hendrick

Matt and Matthias

Honoring a great woman of faith:

We also celebrated the 80th birthday of a dear woman in our church recently. Margrit Korge has been in the Berlin church almost since the beginning 11 years ago. She taught most of the kids that are teenagers now in her Sunday school program. She is no longer able to attend church on a regular basis or teach Sunday school because of health problems, but she was driven to church this past Sunday for a special time of honoring her on her birthday from the church. The teens sang a Shane and Shane song for her, and presented her with a picture frame filled with camp photos and signed by all of them. Her life has impacted so many in the church and her faith is an encouragement to everyone.

Frame signed by our teens

Margrit thanking the body (Verena translating)

Corrina, Margrit's grandaughter and part of our youth group playing the piano

Our Youth Band... the motto is "pretend your Finns!"

What's going on for us:

Our apartment search continues, we have looked at over a dozen places so far since being back. Each one had their own quirks (i.e. no floor, no kitchen, no bathroom sink) and others were just way out of our price range. But we are still looking and claiming the verse 2 Corinthians 4:8 "...perplexed but not in despair..." because we know that our God controls our steps!

Matt's been busy the past couple of days teaching 5th grade English. He has picked up Kathie Groenewold's class while she is out of town visiting her parents for 3 weeks. Praise God for the provision of an extra source of income for a time when we really were praying for it!

We are looking forward with great expectation to EuroCon coming in a few weeks and are so excited to see everyone from America and all our friends from the European ministries that we have made friends with over the past couple of months. God really widens your relationships when you are on the missionfield, there is a whole different network of believers in Europe that we would have never known in such a unique way if we were not here. It is such a blessing to have friends all over the world!

Praying for you all in Baltimore deep in the snow!

In Him,

The Mays

Are we in Siberia?

Here are some pictures from an absolutely ice covered Berlin. We have been consistently getting temperatures below freezing, with off and on snow that falls onto ice coated streets and sidewalks. Bundling up to go out has turned into a layering competition, who can stay warmest longest. The worst of it all seems to be in waiting for public transportation. The train stations seem to be a vacuum for cold air to breeze through. We even tried an experiment one night that hit -15 degrees to see if water would freeze. We poured boiling water into a pot and threw it into the air... the result? watch the video below!

Snow blowing into the train station

Another picture of the train platform

Liz and Emily taking extreme measures to stay warm on a late night food run.

Us on our way to outreach on a -20 degree morning.

Please pray for Pastor Gary who is in Africa for 3 weeks for the January conferences and a trip to Liberia with Pastor Scibelli. We are excited to have him come back to Berlin in about a week and half!

Going Home... and getting back

We had an amazing time in America. It absolutely started on the airplane which was, under both our opinions, the best flight ever. It could not have been any smoother. We scored a free upgrade to economy plus, had super relaxing seats, watched movies the entire flight and before we knew we were landing in Baltimore. There we stayed with Matt's parents for the 3 weeks (and extra 5 days... I'll explain later) that we were there. The one word to describe our stay in America is RELAX. Within a few days of arriving we were completely snowed in with 2 1/2 feet of snow. Let's just say that we were NOT prepared for a blizzard and arctic temperatures. As of a few months ago passengers were allowed 2 suitcases on an international flight... well not anymore! So needless to say we packed light and were completely unprepared for a snow storm.

We had a wonderful Christmas. Spent the day with both of our families. Absolute relaxation and soaking in our time together with each other. And so was our entire time spent in Baltimore. We were so completely built up by the body there. God absolutely poured a blessing on us while we were home. He encouraged us, He gave us definition, and through the body- completely blessed us.

We were originally planning on returning to Germany on January the 6th. We were completely packed and ready to head back... we had all of our last minute details in order, we had said goodbye to all of our friends and family, and as we were literally grabbing our suitcases to put in the car and we heard that Pastor Scibelli was stuck in London Heathrow... which was where our layover was. We went online to check our flight status and saw that it had been cancelled. So after an hour of waiting on the phone with British Air we found out that our flight was bumped to Sunday night... so we had an extra 4 days in Baltimore. We had mixed feelings, we were completely ready to go back, and it was a bit frustrating to have to unpack some things, but we were thanking GOD that we were not stuck in London or re-routed to a different flight with a million layovers. So! We shrugged our shoulders and headed to church! God really blessed our 4 days in America, He absolutely had a plan in us staying in Baltimore for 4 more days. Our flight home was smooth and we were welcomed back to Berlin by Pastor Gary and Marianna Zsabo waiting for us at the airport... and the streets of Berlin COVERED in snow. It was a slight culture shock coming back from America... being able to use our cars, only having to go outside to run inside again... and then to be back in Berlin where you drag your suitcases through the snow covered streets and wait in the cold for 10-20 minutes at a time for the next train to come. The streets here are awful! Berlin has been completely covered in snow and the sidewalks get little attention. On certain parts there is dirt thrown down, on certain parts there's a little shoveling done, but for the most part it just gets walked on and packed down and you have to trudge through it! This scenario would NOT fly in America... but the German's do not have the concept of suing the city due to slippery sidewalks. So needless to say, boots save lives.

We have also been in full force apartment search since our return. And our response has been more open then it was this past fall. About 1 out of 10 of the emails we send out to prospective landlords give us a call back. We looked at 4 places this weekend, and have 1 place lined up so far for this week. The 4 that we have looked at so far were decent... 2 of them needed ALOT of work, more then we were willing (or able) to spend, 1 needed little bit of work but was pretty far out of our price, and the last one we looked at was ready to move in and we liked it, but we are waiting to hear back from the landlord... they were a bit uneasy about the fact that we were 2 people, because they believed it was better suited for one person. It's a tough world out there in Berlin for a renter! You really have to sell yourself, and while we speak very limited German (and they CLAIM to speak very little or no English) you can only imagine the communication breakdown. Once they find out we don't speak German they love spewing off facts about the apartment very fast in German, but we have begun to pick up on a lot of key words and phrases and Matt does a great job piecing together German words to form an understandable sentence. So please pray for us in this area (as we know MANY of you have). For anyone who doesn't know, we are currently sharing an apartment with Adrian and Olessya Edler. It has worked out great and we are so thankful for them to opening up their home to us... but we are looking for our own place, none the less.

That's all for now! We miss everyone in Baltimore and are looking forward to seeing a lot of people at EUROCON!

In Him

~Matt and Emily~

Going Home!

We are leaving tomorrow, the 15th, for Baltimore and we couldn't be more excited! We were really blessed to have help to pay for our tickets this year. Thank you JESUS! We'll be home for 3 weeks and then back to Berlin until this summer! WOOHOOO!

Church Christmas Party

We had an awesome Christmas party this past weekend with the church. We rented a room in a restaurant near the church and filled it with about 40-50 church members. Everyone had an awesome time! We ate, had a message from Pastor Gary, and exchanged gifts. The Yankee Swap is a HUGE hit over here. Last year we introduced the game to the church at Christmas, and people were asking us about it all year, wondering if we would do it again. There was a serious competition over (in my opinion) the best gift, a Starbucks gift card... in the end we ended up with it :)And as a side note, from Emily.... Matt organized the ENTIRE Christmas party, and did an amazing job. Just had to give a shout out for a job seriously well done.

These women are from the Phillipines and are new to our church. Huge fans of these 3!

Good times at the Teen Table!

Pastor Gary preached a brief message on Christ needing a place to lay his head, not only on the day He was born, but also in our hearts today

The Newleyweds! Stephan & Mindy

Church Christmas Decorating

We were blessed with a visit from Cliff, Micah, and Donna the weekend that we decided to decorate the tree. However, their real intensions for coming from Romania were to help us eat our massive Thanksgiving feast.

Our beloved Astrid getting a snowflake to hang on the tree. She is such a gift to the church here in Berlin. She is always around, with a huge smile on her face.

...The finished product... I know it's a little scarce on the top, but that's what we were given to work with.