American Volleyball Team Doing Outreach in Berlin

We were really excited to meet this awesome group of girls from a University in America that came to Berlin to do some exhibition volleyball games. After the game the coach gathered all the German girls and coaches from the other team and gave them the gospel. It was powerful to see these Germans athletes listen to the entire salvation message and a few of them prayed to receive Christ afterwards.

Good Times with the church in the City!

Our new favorite church gathering spot is in front of the Berlin Cathedral to play frisbee and our version of corn hole, played with beanie babies and a wicker basket.

We live in the fullness...

It has been an amazing couple of weeks after returning to Berlin. The summer's here are absolutely gorgeous. This is the earliest we have ever come back to Berlin during the summer we are really enjoying spending our days here with the body. The days have been full with activity, but all somehow extremely relaxing and enjoyable. It has been so overwhelming to come back to our small church of 30-40 people and look around the room and just think about each of their stories. Our church here is so diverse, people from Bulgaria, Russia, Africa, Hungary, and of course America & Germany. It is so much fun to see their faces again. Many of them have learned German as their second language, so you can imagine that there's not much to say as we both try to find conversation in our limited German vocabulary. But as much as you would like to just speak the same language and talk about everything, we can really sense that we DO speak the same language. It's amazing with some of the body members here who we really have a hard time communicating with, we can somehow just connect with them on a much deeper level then culture or language could ever reach. Just a hug, a big smile and a little nod after service says so much.

We've had a few visitors already since we've been back. The first was Pastor Ecko and his wife and son from Helsinki, Finland, along with Arto and Heidi and their two girls from Malmo, Sweden. Daniela from the church in Heidelberg, was here for about a week. Then we had Pastor Bendegúz and his family from Budapest here for a long weekend. It's always so fun to have visitors here and to get to know people in the European ministries.

Matt has been continuing to head up a Bible study in Pankow (formerly a part of East Berlin, in the northern part of the city). This week was an amazing week in Pankow. The man who hosts the study at his house, Sasha, was the only one who was available to meet last week. Even though no one else was coming that night, Matt went up and the two of them had a Bible study together. It was really an amazing time that God used in a huge way. At the end of the night Sasha asked him, "how do I pray"? Matt started to explain to him different ways that we can pray to God, how we can tell Him what's on our hearts and our deepest needs... and Sasha said "no, how do I pray that prayer about forgiveness?". He said I want to put my trust in Christ. Matt got to explain to him how to ask God into your heart and salvation. Thanks so much for all of your prayers, specifically for this Bible Study and Sasha's salvation. It's amazing to see the effect of the Word of God. Just receiving the Word on a consistent basis turned this man's life around. He started out just wanting to know more about the Bible, just for the sake of having that knowledge, but the Word of God did not return void in his heart. How much does God use the small things for big glory in His kingdom. A Bible study with two people seems like something so small it shouldn't even have the title "Bible Study" but what an eternal purpose one man saying that prayer of salvation has in eternity.

Pastor Bendegúz with his son, leading a Monday night Bible Study.

Daniela translating into German, at the Bible study in Pankow

Matt and Sasha in Pankow

Sasha and Marcel, in Pankow

Marcel, who gave his friend Sasha the idea to host the Bible study in Pankow

Getting together for Marianna Zsabo's birthday

Book table on outreach with literature for every language

Tuesday morning outreach at the University

Romans 5:2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Wir sind zurück in Berlin!

Sorry for the lack of posts! We know that many of you check our blog frequently, but while we were in the States we didn't do much blog updating. We are both now back in Berlin, and happily settling into a new home. There was no greater culture shock after being in America for a couple of months then getting off the airplane in Germany and taking a bus, two trains, walking up and down many flights of stairs only to come home to 6 flights of stairs ahead of you. Not to mention the summer temperatures and lack of air conditioning! But all that seemed worth it once we walked into our front door and realized for the first time in a long time, that we were HOME. We have been really enjoying settling into our new apartment. The smallest thing, like having a cup of coffee together in the morning in our kitchen, feels like such a big deal!

Thank you all for your prayers for our new home! We are completely overwhelmed by God's answer to prayer in this specific area of our lives. We're really looking forward to this new year in Berlin. God is faithful to us.

View from our apartment door,

Matt at the bottom of the stairs getting ready to carry the last suitcase up.

The sun sets right in front of our bedroom window each night.

We've been noticing the sun sets much later in Europe then in America.

Last night it was still setting at 10:45!

International Convention in Baltimore

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