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.

Thanksgiving

We had an AWESOME Thanksgiving in Berlin. It was even quoted as "The best Thanksgiving ever". Kathie cooked up an obnoxious amount of food. All I'll say about the food is ... we had 3 turkeys. It was so much fun to spend time with Micah, Cliff and Donna. They arrived on Thanksgiving day just as all the food was finished getting ready. We also had Ann Margaret's mom here for 10 days. It was so much fun to spend time with Lesley, who is basically our second mom. It was such an time of relaxing and laughing and having a taste of America here in Berlin!

Oxford Conference

Some photos from a great Conference in Oxford. More to come!

Our Position in Christ

Notes from a Woman's Bible Study this past Saturday night that Ann Margaret shared:

The key to our life is being occupied with our position in Christ, so we see ourselves as God sees us. This gives us the desire to want to know God more.

6 Points on how God sees us:

1. Perfect Matt. 5:48 God sees us as perfect as our Father in heaven.

2. Beautiful Psalm 149:4

3. Sanctified (set apart) Heb. 10:10-12

4. Blameless Psalm 32:1-2

5. Enriched I Cor. 2:16

6. Receivers of grace

When we focus on how God sees us, it takes our eyes off ourselves. Our relationship with God is not focused on what we can get from God. My position motivates me to get to know God.

We get 1) quietness 2) rest 3) stillness when we live in our position. Is. 26:3 living in these three things in our position gives us perfect peace.

When we are occupied with our position in Christ we have perfect peace and that gives me security placed in my heavenly Father.

The only way we have authority over Satan is by knowing our position!

Amen!

The Apartment Search Continues...

Well, as many of you know we have been looking for a new apartment since we arrived back in Berlin almost 3 months ago. The search has been a row of one closed door after another. With a small budget, a need for space, and wanting to live in a good area... has become a pretty tall order. Just wanted to give you all a brief update on what we are praying for, so you could pray with us...

1. An apartment with a living room or a guest room. Most apartments so far that are in our price range are one room apartments. Not like you may think in America where one room means one bedroom and you have your living room area and kitchen... here it literally means one room and sometimes the kitchen is even in that one room. One of the biggest things we would love to be able to use our apartment for is housing guests that come to visit Berlin, or inviting people over during the course of a regular week... and that's a little challenging when they walk directly into your bedroom from the front door.

2. An apartment in the price range of 200-300 euros/month. That is usually the going price for apartments around here, however that does not include heat, electricity, and water.... which adds another 200 euros to the rent sometimes... so we are really asking for a lot when we give them our budget. With the dollar to euro current exchange rate we're not in a place where we can just barely have enough to pay rent... in the event that the dollar drops even more, we wouldn't be able to pay our rent... so we are trying to budget accordingly.

3. An apartment in the areas between Steglitz and Zehlendorf. Okay we don't expect your Berlin geography to be so great that you have any idea what this means, but that is our prayer. We want to live in an area that is close to the church but not right next to it (because it is not the best neighborhood) and we would like to be close to our team members (the Groenewolds, the Steins, and the Edlers) so this is really the best location for us... unfortunately it's in high demand so when apartments open up in this area we try to get in right away to check them out.

4. A provision for the security deposit. Most rentals here (well all that we've looked at) require a deposit that is the amount of 3 months rent... so for most apartments that means a 800-900 euro deposit (that's $1,200-$1,350)!

Thank you all for your prayers and thinking of us. We are fully confident that God has a plan for our housing here in Berlin, and that he has the perfect place waiting for us.

In Him,

Matt & Emily