Almost Camp Time!

We are getting more and more excited as our English Camp week gets closer!  Yesterday finished a week of advertising the camp on the moniters of the local Trams and Buses!  It showed in every Tram and Bus throughout Leipzig every 15 minutes!

This year's camp logo throughout all 13 Josiah Venture Contries

Please, continue to pray that God will provide at least 35 teenagers for the camp!

We are so excited to have a team of 9 Americans from my home church, LifePointe, in Ft. Collins, Colorado come to help us out with the camp this summer!  One of the main draws for the camp is that we have "native English speakers" teaching the English classes!

Jim and Kelsey (our intern from Texas) are in Ukraine right now helping out with another Josiah Venture camp.  In the meantime, Steffen (our German intern) and I are here in the "office" (our livingroom) every day.  Steffen is continuing to work on camp logistics and I am taking the 10 days Jim and Kelsey are gone for an opportunity to get a good start on my Master's Thesis, which is due next April.

We had a "First Day of School" party at youthgroup.  It was actually a time to honor our graduating Seniors and we all dressed up as we would have on our first day of school.  Very fun! 

The whole group in "First Day of School" garb.  The colorful cones are a typical first day of school gift packet for kids.

If you ever wondered what Jim and I looked like on our first day of school...

Ministry prayer points:

• Pray for our English camp, July 16-23, that we will have at least 35 teenagers and that it will be an incredible time!
• Pray for safety for all those involved in helping to put the camp on, the Lifepointe team, the team from here in Leipzig, others that are also helping out.
•  Pray that all the logistics will come together for the camp.
• Thank God for all the things he has already brought together for the camp and the kids that are already signed up!
• Pray for Jim and Kelsey in Ukraine that God will bless that camp and for their safety in travel.

Personal prayer points:

• Please pray that Alpha will get an interview scheduled for his visa so they will be able to come to the US in time for our family reunion and my mom's 80th birthday!  The interview takes place 30 days after they are informed that it is scheduled and then it takes about 10 more days to get his passport back and they need to fly by Aug. 10, so they are coming up to the deadline!
• Pray that I will make good progress on my Thesis these next few days.
• Praise God for Jim's clean bill of health on his last check-up!

We are planning to come to the States in August for our family reunion then spending a few more weeks visiting as many of you as we can.  I will let you know our schedule soon!  Hope to see many of you then!

Storm the Sky in Prayer!

Our Youth Event went really well on Friday evening.  I can't believe I forgot my camara, so I'll just have to post pictures next week!

 

Each of our high school students did so much to make it a beautiful, inviting, fun-filled evening.  When we first planned these events, we had not realized that the first one fell on the Friday of the schools' Spring break.  Even so, we still had two guests attend!  They were friends of two of the girls in the youth group.  The pastor talked about evidences for believing in God.  At the end, he opened the floor up for questions and one of the guests asked why Christianity is the only way to God.  What about other religions?   It was very exciting for him to answer that he would give a short answer now, but that is actually the question he would be covering next Friday at the Youth Event, so come back!

I wish you all could have been there to see our students participate.  They set up the room, did a skit, formed a 4 person band and sang a song and MC'd the evening.  They turned the sancuary into a comfortable teen room, complete with sofas, over-stuffed armchairs, plants, small tables and lamps scattered amongst the chairs and pillows on the floor for extra seating.

Please, pray that next week we will have many more guests, as school is back in session.  We are so excited to see what God is doing!  As our youth leader wrote to the kids a few hours ago, "Let us this week again storm the sky in prayer and ask God that he will bring our friends to ring Café, even if this may seem impossible - but for him nothing is impossible and we know from the Bible that it is his heartfelt desire that all people learn to know Him! So pray, pray, pray for the Friday evening and for your friends and invite them this week again vigorously!" 

 

Yes, let's "storm the sky in prayer"!

 

I will leave you with a short video you can view here, of Jim getting the incredible opportunity to "drop in" to Dick Patty's 90th birthday party in Austria last week!  For those of you who don't know, Dick was our director for the many years we worked here in Germany with Cadence and I believe that Jim and I would never have married, had it not been for him and his wonderful wife, Margaret! What an incredible godly couple and living example of walking as Jesus walked! I hope you enjoy the surprise on Dick's face when Jim shows up unexpectedly!  What a joy!!

 

 

 

 

 

Easter Celebration!!!

I have to share the pictures from our Easter Celebration!  12 of us from our German language class gathered at our home to share the celebration...and it was like no other Easter celebration I have ever attended!  We were from 5 different countires (Saudi Arabia, Cyprus, Egypt, Syria, US and, of course, our token German!), ate Greek and Arab food with American pies for dessert and even got in some Frisbee at the park!!!!  What a great time!!!!  Enjoy the pictures and short (27 second) video of the international Fresbee game!!!

Sherif and and Stephania helping set up!

Stephania (from Cyprus) and I cooked her traditional Greek food the day before from 5pm until 1am!  I kept saying, "My, this is labor intensive!"  But it was SOOOOO worth it!  What a delicious meal!  We had Stuffed Grape Leaves, Moussaka and a delicious Chicken and Rice dish prepared by Amer (from Syria)!

Stuffed Grape Leaves simmering away, with Jim's incredible Cinnamon Rolls in the background!

Getting ready to sit down to our delicious meal!

Amer is the second one in.  He prepared the Chicken and Rice dish in the foreground and brought the beautiful flowers!!!

The eating begins!

As you can see, there is plenty of food!

 Can you tell from the Video that Jim is from California and the rest of us are not!!!  (And I don't mean because of his amazing sun tan!)

 Thanks to Sherif (from Egypt) for all the pictures and video!!!!!

Youth Event!

We are very excited that this Friday, April 1, is the first of two Youth Events for outreach with our youth group. We have been preparing for these evenings over the last year in the teachings at youth group.  At the beginning of 2015, the youth evenings were focused "My Relationship with God". Then, in the Fall the focus was on "My Relationship with Other Believers", and the beginning of this year, the focus was "My Relationship with Non-Believers".  These two youth events are a culmination of those studies and the young people have been praying specifically for their friends and have invited them to the events.  Here is a copy of the flyer:

The Flyer reads: "I do not believe in God.  Or only partially.  Maybe yes.  Or in higher beings?  Or maybe not.  Who can know if there is a God! ...Curious?  Interested to learn more?  Then you are invited in a relexed atmosphere with young Christians and Pastor Thomas Arhelger with the Themes:  'Is there a God over all?'... 'One God - Many Ways?'  With discussion to follow."

Please pray ...

...That many teens will come, especially the friends that the young people from the youth group are inviting.

... That those who come will be challenged to think about God and want to learn more about him.

... That those who come will feel accepted in the youth group.

... For Thomas, our pastor, as he prepares the talks - that God will use him to speak to the hearts of the teens.

... That we will put the two evenings deliberately in God's hands  and expect him to move.

... That the evenings will be for God's glory!

We are excited to see what God will do!

Passed the German Language Test!

Just a quick note.  I passed and head on to B1 course on Thursday!  Jim will be joining me in the course.  Thanks for all your prayers!

Lina's German Test!

My German Language Class

I just want to send out a quick prayer request for tomorrow.  I am in an intensive German language course every M-F from 8am-1:15pm.  I just took my speaking test for A-2 today and did well.  Tomorrow I will take my hearing understanding, reading understanding, grammer and writing tests.  Please pray that I will pass and be able to go on to B-1!  As my teacher says, my grammar is "Katastrophe"! :0)

Jim just got back from meeting with the English teacher in a local high school.  They are excited to have him come help with their classes.  He has 3 days now on the calendar to teach in the classes.  They have asked him to talk about Alaska in one of the classes.  He lived his last year of college in Alaska, so is looking forward to that!

Well, back to studying my "Katastrophe" grammar! :0)

Pray for It and They Will Come!!!!

We are so excited about our first ever Josiah Venture GERMAN Evangelistic English Camp!  That's right!  July 16-23 we embark on this adventure!  Check out this location!  It is the YMCA (CVJM) facility about 1 1/2 hour south of Leipzig.

Where we will be staying.

An indoor climbing wall!

A great high ropes course!

 The camp can hold up to 85 people and we need at least 55 to reserve the whole place.  We are praying that at least 35 of those will be high school students.  Jim is volunteering one day a week at a local high school, helping out at in the English department, so we are praying that many of the students will come from there, as well as our own youth group kids and their friends!  This is very exciting!  There are SO MANY teenagers here in Leipzig that need Jesus and this is an incredible venue in which to introduce them.

We are also very excited that Lifepoint Church in Fort Collins, Colorado will be sending a team of about 10-15 people over to help us with the camp.  This is the church Lina grew up in and they have been our faithful supporters since she left the first time for the field back in 1987!!!!!  How exciting to now have them come over and experience first-hand how God is using them and us together in His ministry!  That's one of the fun things about being a missionary, we aren't doing this alone, God has provided a WHOLE TEAM of people working with us and so many of you are a part of this team through your prayers and your finances!!!

We will also have 2 interns from the US and, prayerfully, one from here in Germany (Steffen) working with us for the whole summer.

We continue to work on the German language and serving with the youth group at the church. Jim has started two Bible Read Through Groups with high school students and is discipling 5 guys.

Also, in December Steffen finished translation work on Josiah Venture training material for youth leaders and volunteer staff!  This is very significant!  He has done all of this on a voluntary basis and we are so thankful for his work and the many, many hours he has put into this!

Please pray:

• that God will bring at least 35 students to attend the camp!
• that God will open the way for some of our German youth staff and kids from our youth group to attend the camp - this is very important, as we do not want this to end when camp is over, but want the new students to be comfortable in our youth group so they can be followed up!
• that all those involved in the camp will experience the work of God in their lives!
• that God will open the door for Steffen to be an intern with us this summer, as we need to figure out a lot of the German laws and how to receipt donations for him!
• for Jim, Lina and Steffen as they get everything prepared for the camp in the next few months!

Thank you for your prayers and support!  Continue to pray for the teenagers of Leipzig!