Wrapping up the month of May

This month probably felt like the longest one on record for us. We spent the majority of the month separated... Matt in Berlin & Emily in Baltimore, and now we are FINALLY back together! Matt arrived in Baltimore this past Thursday and it has been so great to be together again. Five weeks turned out to be an extremely long time to be apart!

Here's what happened this month for us:

Matt was working hard on the new apartment. Apartments in Berlin come stripped of what normally come brand new in apartments in America. It's not uncommon to have no appliances in the kitchen or no flooring. Our apartment came with no flooring in the living room or bedroom, just a cement floor. So Matt worked hard this month installing the new flooring, and moving all our stuff into the new place.

Flooring Installation in the Living Room

View from our NEW apartment

Also this month the KETA graduates visited Berlin. KETA is the name of the Bible College in Budapest, Hungary. So a few days before Matt left for America, he spent time showing the KETA students around Berlin.

The KETA graduates in front of the Berlin Wall

Every tour involves a Starbucks stop

And on the other side of the ocean....

Emily was in Baltimore enjoying time at home with her parents, brother and friends. Her and her mom had a great time in New York at her cousins wedding (which was the original reason for her trip to the States). The GPS took them on a detour right through New York City!

Emily & her mom in New York

Detour right through 5th avenue

We're are so happy to finally be back together! And are really looking forward to going back to Berlin and making our new apartment "HOME" together.

But for now, it's time to soak in the summer and relax...

God is faithful!

Matt & Emily

A Lot Can Happen in a Few Weeks!

Wow where to begin! This is a bit of a personal update about Matt & I. I guess I will start with the BIGGEST news of all, and news that I know you have all been really praying for, and that is that we GOT AN APARTMENT. This time it is the real deal, we have the keys, we have a signed contract, and Matt is currently living in it. Now you may ask why is Matt the only one living in it? No, it's not because it's too small... Right now I am in Baltimore! I came over here for one week in April for my cousins wedding, I just barely squeaked out of Germany before the airports were shut down due to Volcanic Ash! That in itself would be quite the blog entry. But because of the Volcanic Ash the airlines were offering full refunds or exchanges on all tickets, because they had such a back up of customers trying to get to their destinations. So Matt & I really thought and prayed about it, and decided to absolutely take advantage of an offer like that, so I called British Air and offered my ticket up for a return to Berlin on July 20th. At this point it was already the end of April, and we were planning to come back to the States in the middle of May, so for me to come back to Berlin and buy another ticket to go to America in 3 more weeks was just a bit outrageous! It is GREAT to be home, as always, and I am now anxiously awaiting Matt coming here on May 20th. Our summer is going to be SUPER busy as usual but we are very excited about it.

Sorry that this post has no pictures! But just wanted to give everyone an update! Thank you all so much for your prayers for our apartment, we are so thankful. Please keep Matt in prayer during the moving process! We are on a 6th floor apartment, with NO elevator, so I'm sure he will appreciate your prayers on that one.

Emily

New Bible Study!

This past Tuesday we had a brand new Bible study in Pankow, in the North of Berlin. It's about 45 min North from where the church is located in Schoneberg. Berlin has a very large footprint, almost as large as New York City. It's population, however, is only 3.5 million. This area of Pankow was originally targeted by the church about 4-5 years ago. We tried to have a Bible study there and did many outreaches in the area, but nothing really came of it. A couple of Saturdays ago we were having brunch at Marcel's house, a man in our church who has been in a wheel chair his whole life. He invited one of his friends, who also is in a wheel chair. We were talking about God and reading a few verses from the Word, when Marcel's friend Sascha said he would love to have a Bible study at his house. He has been listening to our monthly messages from Berlin on CD. He has such a hunger for the Word of God, and simply to learn more about God.

So we met at his place in Pankow for the study and had an amazing time delving into the Word of God. The crazy thing in all of this, is that this man Sascha isn't even saved.......yet. But God is working in his heart and he is so interested in getting to know who God is and how He can change his life. Marcel, his friend in our church, was so encouraged by our time together. He can't always make it to a service or a rap or Bible study at the church, because he lives pretty far from the church as well. He is so excited to go deeper into the Word and to have more fellowship with believers.

Please be praying for:

• the Bible study in general

• that people come and souls would be reached in this area of the city

• that God would manifest Himself to us each week in such a real, deep, and concrete way

• that Sascha would get saved

• that Marcel would be engulfed by the love of God, and simply receive it

New Web Page!

We just launched a new Greater Grace Berlin website so please check it out! ggwo.de

Youth Concert

Is it true? Was the last song that Matt Roberge sang at his concert on Friday night for the teens. We had a great group of our teens come out and many of them brought their friends. Matt sang some great songs, some that he wrote, some that others wrote, but they all sent a great message through to our young people. That this life with God works. That God meets us where we are, He meets us in grace, that it doesn't matter what we've done or what we will do, God loves us just as we are. It was amazing for them to hear his songs and his testimony.

We had a great night even after the concert. We all went out into the city for ice cream. One of the teens even said that it was refreshing to know you could have so much fun and no one has to drink. It's not about giving them something better to do on a Friday night, but it's about giving them life. You can really see it in their lives that God's life satisfies, the body of Christ satisfies us. We love our youth!!

Is it true that God is real? Is it true that Christ died? Is it true He died for me? Is it true that Jesus saves whosoever will believe? Is it true the world is lost because they won't accept the cross? It is true! That in Your death we find life everlasting! - written by Matt Roberge

Missions MARCH

This March was a continual march of missions. It began the second week of March when we had our first ever International/Missions Night at the church here in Berlin. It was a great night and a wonderful opportunity to show the church here what we are connected to as a Greater Grace ministry. We had two messages via Skype, one from Pastor Chuck Heidenreich in Africa, and another from Pastor Tahir, an Azeri man who is pastoring in our sister church in Heidelberg. Despite some technical problems at the beginning, God had a huge plan for our night. We had a huge spread of food that everyone contributed to; African rice and fish, traditional Azeri dishes, Pakistani food, Hungarian soup, and Finnish pulla just to name a few.

Emily, Liz & Lisa making Finnish Pulla

Photos of some of our missionaries from around the world

Handouts for the church with a list of our churches

The amazing food spread

Skyping with Pastor Tahir

Some videos from Missions Night: One of a traditional African song & march that started the night, and another traditional German song that no one could keep a straight face through.

The "march" continued as we were visited by the Lynch family from Baltimore and Emily's best friend Ann Margret came back for a visit with her father. We enjoyed 3 days with them before heading to Budapest. In typical March tradition we experienced 3 days of rain, hail, snow and thunder so needless to say after days of sightseeing in that weather, we headed to Budapest with fevers and chills.

Ralph, Ann Margret's dad preaching Sunday morning

The "march" continued and came to a close as we went to the European March conference in Budapest. We spent 5 great days, despite our sicknesses, with the church there and our friends. It was a great time to catch up with our friends that we only get to see once or twice a year. The messages were amazing. The theme was "The Beauty of Holiness" we'll be posting some notes and thoughts on the messages soon.

So as you can tell the month of March has been a busy one for us. We look forward to this next month of April with great expectation from God and big answers to prayers. Thank you all for your prayers and support and we are counting down the days in the last 2 1/2 months until we see (most) of you all again in June.

In Him,

Matt & Emily

Fort Maywold

Welcome to Fort Maywold. A snow house made by the Groenewold's and the May's. Within the past few weeks this fort/igloo/house has been the talk of Berlin. Neighbors, friends, church members have all come to take a look inside the fort. We held our most recent Friday night Youth Group in the fort. Everyone brought candles and all 9 of us comfortably sat inside for a Bible study. Some brave souls have even spent the night in the fort. Bringing in blankets, animal skins, rugs and anything warm they could find and braving the fort through the night.