Coronavirus and the Millers

Just as many of you, we are working from our home these days. Here in Germany most of our borders are closed, schools are closed and all but "essential businesses" are closed. (Interesting fact, dry cleaners and hair salons are considered essential businesses here!) All our church meetings, including youth group, are disbanded for awhile.

So what does ministry look like during this time for us. Most of the time it looks like this:

I feel so privileged to be part of this Bible Study made up mostly of young mothers in our church. This week we met online and, yes, the children were still playing in the background and crawling on moms' laps, just as they do when we meet together.

Right now, Jim is on a Skype call with one of the boys in one of our youth groups who is still seeking for answers. They are starting an online Bible reading time together. We continue to think of and try creative ways to continue ministering to the people God has call us to here!

We have a monument in Leipzig that commemorates the "Battle of the Nations", where multiple nations came together to fight and defeat a common enemy, Napoleon. Today, as I was watching the news, it seemed to me that we are now in a situation where we are doing the same thing, coming together to fight a common enemy, Coronavirus, only with one great difference. We are coming together to fight, and yet we are divided from each other, as we do not know if the one fighting next to us actually has the enemy in them.

Monument to Battle of the Nations in Leipzig.

So how about you? What are you doing during this uncertain time. I would love to hear about what God is doing and any ideas about how you are reaching out to others!!!

Please, pray for us as Josiah Venture is making some decisions about what summer ministry will look like here.  I will keep you updated on that. Please, continue to pray for us, as we continue to pray for you!

You Want to Study What?!?!

When we asked our youth group kids what they wanted to study at their Winter Retreat, they said, "The Wrath of God". Well, that sounds like a fun retreat, don't you think? When I first heard, I wondered how in the world we where going to cover this, but what an interesting time it turned out to be! We asked questions such as, "Would you want a God who could not get angry?" "Is there such a thing as righteous anger?" "How do I balance the shame I feel about my country's history and the anger I feel toward what happened?" It was an incredible time with the incredible kids of our youth group!

The Winter Retreat Group

Finally...our teammate, Rachel, arrived just a little over a week ago, and she is already going strong! We are so thankful for her! We are exploring the possibility that she will be living about 1 1/2 hour away in Magdeburg, working with a youth group there, as well as being our Summer Intern Director and oh, so many, other things! Thank you so much for your prayers in getting her here!!!!

Rachel arriving at the Berlin Airport. Can you tell I'm excited?!?!?!

We feel so blessed! God is so good to us in every way! On top of all these blessings, Jim and I get to go to a Marriage Conference that Josiah Venture puts on for us, their missionaries, every few years. We will leave tomorrow and spend 4 days in Krakow, Poland, getting time with our spouses and getting opportunities to work on our marriages. There will be 108 Josiah Venture couples there, as well as counselors and marriage coaches. This year, Jim and I have the privilege of being Marriage Coaches for 2 couples during the conference, as well.

Please, pray for us:

• That Jim and I will have a wonderful time strengthening our marriage at the Marriage Conference
• That Rachel will settle in well and find the right apartment.
• For Jim and I as we prepare to teach a Workshop on Marriage at the European Member Care Conference in Malaga, Spain, March 16-19. You can read about the speakers here.

So, What are We Really Doing in Germany?

Ever wonder what Jim and Lina are really doing in Germany? Sometimes it's hard to explain, but some of our young people made this incredible video for us that will help you understand! It's less than 4 minutes long and well worth the time!

Not only that, but we are finally getting our first FULL TIME team mate!!!!! We are so excited that Rachel Birkabile will arrive February 12! Thank you everyone who had helped make this possible! I know many of you have been praying with us about this for a long time!

Prayer Points:

1. Pray for Rachel as she arrives, that she will settle in well and integrate quickly to culture and ministry.
2. Pray for us as we are in the midst of Camp Planning Season, that things will go smoothly and that many young people will come to camps this summer!

A Bridge Between Texas and Germany

Everything's bigger in Texas, even connections!

Thirty-one years ago, I was a single girl, freshly moved up to Germany for Spain. God had been teaching me many things over the past few years in Spain, one of which was that I liked to be in control of my life and often used manipulation to bring about what I wanted. I spent much time repenting and praying about this, but realized how prone I was to fall back into relying on manipulation, rather than trusting God.

Enter an incredible man sitting at the computer opposite me in my new office in Germany and my good friend "Brenny Brewer"! I won't go into the whole story here, but it finally came down to a late-night bareing of my heart to Brenny, telling her I liked this incredible man (yes, you may have guessed that it was Jim) and telling her that I didn't want to manipulate the situation in any way, but wanted to totally rely on God. At this point, Brenny said, "I think I'll take Jim out for dinner on Sunday night and find out what he thinks." I panicked! I told her not to do that, as I really wanted this to be from God if it were to happen. At this point Brenny said, "Oh, I'll be subtle." My reply? "Brenny, there is not a subtle bone in your body!" Well, needless to say, that dinner did happen, Brenny was not subtle, and 31 years later I am still married to that incredible man!

We had the joy of seeing Brenny (Brenda) and her father in San Antonio during our Home Assignment! What a joyous time time we had remembering and laughing and sharing what God had done in all of our lives since those Germany days! Thanks, Brenny, for that not-so-subtle dinner!

Brenny, in front of the Alamo

At the Firehouse Museum where Brenny's dad, Walt, works.

A few years after that fateful dinner, we were invited over to our Chaplain's house, Rick and Helga Needham, near Heidelberg, Germany. Still being newly married, Jim and I sat on their love seat, holding hands and gazing into each other's eyes. (Ok, I may be overdoing it on the mush here!) Nine months later, our son Nathan was born! We took baby Nathan over to the Needham's house for dinner one night, and two exhausted new parents fell, glassy eyed onto that same love seat. Nine months later our daughter, Emily was born! Believe me, when we visited Rick and Helga this fall in their Texas home, we made sure we did NOT sit on their love seat! What a joyous time time we had remembering and laughing and sharing what God had done in all of our lives since those Germany days! Thanks, Rick and Helga for sharing your home and your love seat with us!

In front of Needham's house, minus love seat!

Texas was full of Germany connections. Visiting Ron and Linda Franklin, the parents of some of our former Heidelberg youth group kids. Stopping by for an hour to see the son of a couple we served with in Germany, who is now married to a girl I had the privilege of mentoring for a while when she was serving with Josiah Venture in Serbia a few years ago! What a privilege to see you, Regent and Traci Perez!

Ron and Linda Franklin

Traci and Regent Perez

Germans have a saying, "Die Welt ist ein Dorf", "the world is a village". We experienced that over and over again as we visited dear "family" in so many states, from so many parts of our past! God is so good!

Here are some things to pray about for us over the next few weeks:

• We still need to find facilities for 2 of our 6 camps that we are planning this summer. Pray that God will lead us to the right places, with the right dates available, at the right price.
• Pray for our NEW TEAM MATE Rachel Berkebile, as she continues to prepare to join us full time in February. Pray for everything to come together on her end there in the States, as well as all the logistics for receiving here here in Germany. Check out Rachel's Bio here.
• Pray for our 4 interns, Claire, Lemuel, Anna, and Sofia, as they raise support to serve with us this summer. Check them out here.

Thanks for being part of our "Dorf"!

Back in Leipzig and Back to "Normal" Life

I have never assumed my life would be "normal". In fact, most people looking at my life the past 35 years would say it is quite "abnormal", but after 3 months of traveling and living out of suitcases, I am so happy to be back to my "abnormal normalcy"! One of my most cherished "normal" rituals is my early morning coffee and time in the Word, often skyping with my daughter, Emily!

Oh, but the "abnormal" was so rich and beautiful! We traveled 12 states in the US, spoke in or met with staff from each of our 6 supporting churches, and had incredible times of telling and listening to "God stories" with about 40 of our supporters! We loved our time with each, many of them YOU!

We got so much special family time, seeing each of our children and our parents, and most of our siblings! We celebrated Thanksgiving with Jim's family and Christmas with Emily and Alpha in Bangladesh!

Since we've been back, Jim has attended the "Revive Europe" Conference with some our youth group young people, and we have started having camp meetings!

Jim and youth group kids, driving back from "Revive".

So many things happened during our "abnormal" that I want to share with you, so I will be sharing snippets over the next few weeks, as well as letting you know what's going on here!

Pray for us as we settle back in. We are filled to over-flowing!

Summer's End!

Summer has officially ended! We were with friends at a lake on August 31 and they said, "Well today is the last day of summer. It will be too cold to swim from now on." I totally didn't believe them, as it was so hot that day (that day being 82), but sure enough, September 1 hit and out came the long pants and jackets!

The weather is not the only change around here, of course. Our camp season is over and we are full-throttle into fall ministry! That means following up with newly established youth groups, youth-leader training, continued discipleship, and back-to-school youth programs!

We ended the summer involved in 4 full camps and 1 week-end camp, reaching over 130 teens, about half of which are not yet believers. What a privilege to do this work God has call us to and thank you so much for your part in it through your faithful prayers and financial support!

I want to give a shout out to our incredible interns this summer. Take a look at them in action:

Meet Claire from Oklahoma, Joel from Arkansas, and Pavel from the Czech Republic

One of the themes of the summer was eating! Downtown Leipzig enjoying an ice cream break!

Poor Claire, the only girl. But don't feel too sorry for her...

Not surprisingly, Jim taught them how to cook, namely, make donuts!

Joel hanging out, playing games with campers.

Not all games were quiet and well mannered! Here's Pavel's crazy sports team after a game of volleyball!

Thoughtful times, too, as seen with Pavel here singing worship songs around the camp fire.

Claire, the best score-keeper around for a rousing game of American Baseball!

Claire at an after-camp follow-up time.

Already time to say good bye.

Melli, one of our German Camp Leaders, and Claire, sad to say good bye.

Thanks, Interns! You were all a great addition to Team JV Germany and God used you in many lives! We miss you!

 So, there's a quick shout-out to our great interns. Stay tuned to our next blog post where we will be talking about our Home Assignment in the States. We may be visiting near you and we would love to see as many of you as possible!!!

God Continues to Amaze!!!

So, the roller coaster ride continues, but it is definitely getting fun! Our camp last week was a twice-cancelled, and finally-realized camp! EXACTLY God's plan!

We had 9 teens, at least 4-5 of which were not believers and had never even really heard about or thought about God! How fun to see these kid warm up in the highly relational atmosphere and begin to ask incredible questions!

Some of the teens in English Class

The Incredible Band! During the last session, we went around and had the teens share their favorite parts of camp and almost all of them included the Singing! How incredible to hear all of them singing Praise and Worship songs!

They LOVED playing "American Baseball"! We played it most every day with only one split-eyebrow, ball-in-the-face injury! 

Fun surprise, we didn't know until our first face-to-face meeting with the team that this man, Thomas, former associate pastor at our church here in Leipzig, is the pastor of the church we were partnering with for the camp!!!

Please, pray for the teens that attended the camp, that they will continue on their quest for God. We fell in love with these kids!

We leave tomorrow for another cancelled, now-scheduled camp! Pray for our time there that God will use us, will speak to the teens, and that He will renew our strength!