Friday, June 22, 2018

Graduation and Interns



Here in Germany Pentecost is a holiday, but seeing the way they celebrate it here in Leipzig helps to understand just how far from being a "Christian" nation they have become. That weekend, Leipzig literally turns black, as the city hosts the world's largest Gothic Festival! You can read a bit about it here!

Sunday afternoon, 3 friends of mine and I headed downtown to share about Jesus. The three friends are all young mother (their husbands watched the children). Two are German and one is British married to a German. It was an incredible time. I was so surprised how easy it was to engage them in spiritual conversation either by commenting on an element of their costume (a cross, a pentagramm, etc) or just asking them what are the spiritual beliefs of Goths and of them personally.

Please, for each these precious ones we had the opportunity to talk to!

Anna with an older couple wearing crosses. We were able to talk to them and pray with them. She is catholic and he believes that there is nothing after death. Pray that the seeds watered here will grow into a God-given harvest!
Anna with some of the Goth women















One of the most disturbing things to me, was the way so many women were being lead around in handcuffs, chains, and dog collars. This woman was even blindfolded as her "man" lead her, stumbling, around.
Young "Steampunk" boy

Me with a young girl at the festival with her family. There were so many families with young children there, all dressed up!
The end of April we had a girl's weekend with the girls from our youth group. It was called "Hello Beauty" and we talked about how God views us. I had a lot of fun doing an "art talk". I shared the story of the woman anointing Jesus feet and Simon the Pharisee thinking, "If only Jesus knew what this woman has done, he would not let her touch him!" and Jesus turning to Simon and saying, "Do you see this woman?", with the intent of showing that she was more than her actions. She was a precious woman, loved by Jesus.

Beforehand, I had written "Do you see this girl" in German in wax on my watercolor paper. Then as I talked about what other people and what we say about ourselves, I made chaotic, black marks on the page. Next I had them take turns reading verses about what God says about us and as they did this, I drew on the flower tops and painted in the colors. Last of all, I painted blue over the wax and the words "do you see this girl?" appeared. 

Please pray for me as I will again do this talk, only asking "Do you see this woman?" at our Refugee women's cafe on August 6.


Our 5 interns have arrived and are in Poland now doing a camp with Jim. Please, pray for many campers to sign up for our other 3 camps this summer!


We had the inestimable pleasure of seeing our youngest son, Jared, graduate from University on May 5! Wow! No more kids in college! This is a milestone!

We are so proud of him. He graduated with a degree in Electrical/Computer Engineering from John Brown University. He started his first "real job" on June 11 at the Dillards headquarters in Little Rock, Arkansas in their IT department.

Nate, Jared, me, and Jim

Big Jared and Little Grammy

Jim, Jerry (Dad Miller), Noland (brother-in-law married to Judy), John (brother), Evelyn (Mom Miller), and Judy (sister)

One of the "parent" things we got to do was to help him move in and set up his new apartment. This was very special, as we do not always get to be around for these kinds of things.
The apartment is a "Loft" apartment, right downtown, with so many things in walking distance!

Thank you for your prayers! Here are our prayer points:
  • Pray for our coming 3 camps in Leipzig, Cottbus, and Burg, that many will come and God will give Kingdom fruit!
  • Pray for the Goths we had the opportunity to speak with, that God will grow these seeds.
  • Pray that God will use my "Art Talk" with the Refugee women on August 6.
  • Thank God for Jared's job and pray that he will be able to settle down well and that God will provide life-giving community.