God continues to work

Wow, what a weekend for us. If you keep up with our newsletters you know who Jurgen and Simone Becker are. If you don't know, email me and I will put you on the list to receive our monthly letter! Simone was baptized back in December. Her husband has been coming to services with her for the last several months. He is also reading through the whole Bible (an encouragement and challenge to me!). He wants to read through the whole Bible before he decides if he wants to be a Christian or not. He is sooooo close... Please keep him in your prayers. A couple of months ago Karen and I invited them over to our house for dinner. We had a great time with them and good discussion. Oh, did I mention, neither one can speak English? It was quite a bit of work for us to talk for about 5 hours in Deutsch. I think it was hard for them too, because they on purpose would try to choose their words so that it would be easier for us to understand. It was a great evening. They were so excited about the time we spent together that they invited us to their home for dinner, now they live about 40 km outside Bremen, so they asked us to spend the night. Wow, was that also wonderful! Then about a month later, they asked us to come back again, that was last weekend. They called on this past Monday and asked if we would come again this weekend because soon we would be moving and they wanted to spend more time together with us. We gladly accepted and went this weekend. On Sunday morning after having breakfast together we ride in their car to services. It is a great time to continue to talk with them. They are wonderful people. They are so encouraging and so full of excitement over all that they are learning about God, the Bible and Christianity. We stayed up last night talking with them till about 1:00 am this morning, then got up at a little after 7:00 am and ate breakfast and then off to services. After services (they went home to take a nap) we went out for lunch with Stephanie and Alicia, two sisters from the Gemeinde here in Bremen. We ate and as is customary in Deutschland, we talked about about 2 hours at the restaurant. We all came back to our apartment where at 4:40 pm another man from the Gemeinde, Frank Zimmeman and his two boys came over for a visit. Everyone went home about 9:30 pm. So needless to say, Karen and I are a bit tired, but feeling very good about our weekend. God is so alive and working in so many lives. I am so excited to be a part of His work. Tomorrow we start back with a renewed zeal and more energy as we continue to dismantle our furniture to get ready for the move. Thanks for your prayers and all of your encouragement as Karen and I are here in Germany. God bless and have a super day.
Mark

Great visit

We had a super visit from Clint, April and Heidi Everhart over these past few days. These are friends of ours that work and live in Chemnitz. They wanted to take a few days off and visit someplace that they had not been before... Bremen worked out great. I think they took lots of pictures and we probably walked their legs off. We had a chance to play Wii... yea, so much tennis that my shoulders are sore this morning. :-) Ha, I bet yours are too Clint!
It was so much fun to have their baby in our house. She is about 6 months old and she is so much fun. They were here over the weekend and they were able to attend the worship services here in Bremen. I think it was great for everyone. They knew several people from Bremen and so it was a time of getting to see people again that you don't often get to see. It was such an encouraging time for Karen and I. We were able to spend some time discussing the future work in Chemnitz. Probably the best part was just getting to spend some time with them, talking, laughing, eating and playing together. For Karen and I it was such a great break. We are getting ready to really start with the 'big stuff' of our moving experience, so it was great to take a short time just to enjoy some other folks before loosing ourselves in the moving process.
After the Everharts left yesterday, we took apart all the furniture in the guest bedroom and have it all stacked up in the corner, ready for the moving truck. Time marches on.

It's August 2008

Man, can you believe it? It is August 2008! Karen and I are starting to box up things... books, dishes and glasses that we don't use to often, stuff in the keller Raum (cellar room) that we can start organizing to load in the truck and so on. We have divided the work into days, you know it is better to pace yourself, otherwise you are likely to get ahead of yourself for fear you won't have enough time to get all the things you need to get done actaully all done. Karen has been laboring over the kitchen issue. We must buy a kitchen. We are so blessed that we have the monies to buy it, she just wants to be responsible with the money and get the most for what she is willing to spend. I only have to put it together. This is a lot of fun for me. Please keep us in your prayers as with each passing day we are closer to actaully loading up this moving van and driving across the country of Germany to our new apartment. It is gonna be an adventure. A friend of mine, Don Williams of North Little Rock, Ar, once told that if you ever 'let go and let God' you better have your rollerskates on. Well, I think Karen and I are in for another fun ride. God is good and does so take care of us. He stretches us often, but always provides. More later. Take care.
Mark