Standing in the Breach

So he said he would destroy them—
had not Moses, his chosen one,
stood in the breach before him
to keep his wrath from destroying them.
-Psalm 106: 23

I want to care for the German students like this, standing in the breach between them and God. Praying on behalf of them and loving them enough to not let our relationship be superficial, but to continually be bold and clear about the truth of the gospel. Amanda and I cooked dinner for some of our TU students a couple of nights ago and it went so well. It was great to see them get to know each other and laugh and talk and bond over being TU girls. I am very thankful for the evening, but I recognize this was just the next step of going even further with them. Please pray our relationships with the students will continue to build and that I'll be bold and clear about why I'm here.

Debrief

This past weekend we had our debrief time on the island of Rügen which is on the German Baltic coast between Denmark and Poland. We talked about thankfulness for this past year, faith for the future and the challenges of re-entry into America. It was a good time of refection, team bonding and planning out our schedules for the rest of our time here in Germany and (for us returners especially) what this summer home will look like. It's hard to believe this STINT year is almost up. The weather wasn't the best, but the town we were in (called Sellin) was very beautiful and I loved being at the beach. :)

"Your accent is so American. It's just like in the movies..."

This is what a German student told me last night at Fire-Abend. Never will I cease to be amazed at what Germans have to say about my "accent". Anyway, our 2nd Fire-Abend of the semester was last night and although there were not as many students as last time, many of them stayed to hang out afterwords in an Italian restaurant across the street. It reminded me a lot of going out to eat after Cru at Syracuse and had the feeling of fun and community - cool.

But what I actually wanted to update you on was our TU outreach last Wednesday (the picture above). We had about 27 people come and some of them were people we didn't even know. The speaker had a wonderfully creative way of talking about his life, priorities and success while weaving in the importance of his relationship with God. Many people had questions during the Q&A time at the end and we were able to chat with a few of the students afterwords. I think we (as the TU team) were just excited that people came and it all went so smoothly. It was definitely an experiment since we've never done an outreach on our own before. But we have definitely learned a lot about what it takes and hopefully we have established ourselves as a student group that is active and doing things here at the TU.

Outreach Adventures

The outreach we're having at the TU next week is fast approaching. So, this past Monday Amanda, Dave and I had an appointment with our speaker to meet him and discuss a little bit about what he will be talking about. He gave Dave the address of what our speaker called the "Christian Ship". Well, we joked the whole way there, wondering about and laughing about what this place could possibly be. And low and behold, the "Christian Ship" is indeed a ship. It sits right on a river by a beautiful Schloss in Orienburg (north Berlin). Our speaker (who happens to be a business man who runs a chain of bakeries in Berlin) treated us to kuchen on board. The boat is actually a museum, cafe and an auditorium-type facility to hold services/conferences etc. Um, cool!

The picture above is Dave, Amanda, me and our speaker (Karl-Dietmar) on the Christian ship!

On Wednesday, we advertised all over campus with our lovely flyers (designed by our fabulous graphic designer, Amanda). As Amanda and I were hanging flyers outside on a temporary construction wall, there was a huge gust of wind and the "wall" proceeds to push us back on a pivot. The wind was blowing so hard, one of the large concrete blockes that was supposed to be holding down the wall was definitely being moved across the walkway. There were some pallets standing up against this wall that kind of fell on me and scratched my leg. Thankfully the wall stopped moving and Amanda and I (and some students who also got caught in the fray) got out of the way. I wish I could explain this incident better, but it's just one of those things that's unexplainable. Although it was scary in the moment, we definitely had a good laugh about it.

Anyway, our outreach talk is titled "Was ist Erfolg?" (What is Success?). It will be about what it means to have a successful life in your career, relationships and (most importantly) in your spiritual life. Please pray many students will come. Thanks!

One More Year!

I've already mentioned this to some of you, but I wanted to make it official and let you all know that I have decided to STINT here in Germany for one more year. I love being a part of what God is doing here in Europe and especially this fledgling movement in Berlin. I will be coming home on June 29th and will return to Germany in mid-September. If you're on my mailing list, you will be receiving a support letter from me very soon. If not, you can go to give.ccci.org/give/610377 to set up giving and then please let me know your address so I can send you my newslettter. Obviously your financial giving is a crucial part in what is happening here in Berlin. I couldn't be here without you. I can't thank you all enough for your prayers and support. My desire is definitely to be able to see many of you when I'm home this summer, so I'll be hosting an "open house" to share stories and show pictures etc. More details to come later! I hope you share in my excitement to be returning to this city in the fall to continue God's work!

Anfangs Party and Fire-Abend

Last week we had our Semester Anfangs Party, kicking off the semester with a casual party at our apartments. It was a good atmosphere for conversations and relationship building. The students seemed to have a great time and the ones I knew kept thanking me for inviting them.

Last night was our first Fire-Abend of the semester. We'll be having this meeting every other week this semester instead of just once a month in order to build some momentum. Also, instead of having the meeting at our apartments, we now have a room in a different building nearby (kind of looks like a classroom). Overall, it was just a more polished and prepared atmosphere, but still fun, welcoming and casual. It is so awesome to see how the group is slowly starting to solidfy into a real movement. Two students even came last night, just because they found our website online! Please pray for the momentum of this meeting, that more students will come and invite their friends and that we will be able to plan it in a way that meets the needs of the students.

Not Always Rainbows and Butterflys

We just finished up with the first week of classes of this new semester. And honestly, it's been a good, but tough week. At the TU, we are planning a outreach in the beginning of May so we're in the midst of figuring out details for that (which has been bit stressful) and this past Thursday we passed out flyers that had our website and schedule of events for the semester. This has never been one of my favorite things to do, but what made it worse that day was a student who took the flyer, looked at it, came back to me and told me it was an insult to have a group like ours at the university. As I slowly processed the German he turned around and walked away. I guess I'll never know exactly what he meant or if he even understood what our group or Christianity is all about, but I know it didn't give me a good feeling.

Thankfully happenings like this are the exception and don't define what is happening here in Berlin. In fact, last night we had a big party in our apartments to kick off the semster. Many students came and I was able to have good conversations with some of my friends I had met last semester. Very cool. Also, the amazingly beautiful weather makes all the difference in the world when we go sharing on campus. Students lay about everywhere in the TU courtyard and they're more open, friendly and willing to talk. We've already had some good conversations this week.

Please pray that God will really open up students' hearts this semester. I'm realizing more and more how in our own efforts, we can do absolutely nothing, but with God, anything is possible. :)