September / October 2020 — The Gfeller Family

It always amazes me at how fast the dark days come this time of year in Berlin. Between the shortening days and the cold gloomy fall that has crept into the city it seems that the darkness is setting in quicker and quicker now. This darkness seems even starker as restrictions tighten across Europe, and the continent braces for a long, cold winter under lockdown conditions. So, when reports of terrorist attacks, job losses, earthquakes or struggling friends and family begin to flood in, we can easily become overwhelmed. It’s at these moments that we come to realize what we have set our hope on.

It’s easy to believe the lie that God won’t give us more than we can handle, but the fact stands that we will encounter moments in this life that are overwhelming. It is here that we are met with a choice, will we come to the conclusion that our circumstances are outside God’s plan, or will we declare that God is greater than our circumstances. That no matter the darkness that seems to encompass, we will stand convinced that God is capable of dealing with what is going on around us.

4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
Ephesians 2:4-5

We will either declare, yes God is good, but my circumstances are greater, or we will say these are overwhelming circumstances that I see no way around, BUT God is greater.

Those of us who have been made alive together with Christ have great reason to hope even in the darkest moments of this life, because we can accept the circumstances around us and be assured that God is rich in mercy and His great and steadfast love will never fail. We can wholeheartedly stand in the midst of things falling apart around us and say, BUT God.

We can be assured that God is for us and that we will be found standing, because God did not even spare His own Son to prove His love for us. So, if we have this great promise may we step away from joining in the condemnation of others and become agents of reconciliation to a hurting world. May we stand like the One we follow with arms held wide to our enemies, meeting slander, false charges and hostility with grace and love that speaks of our own reconciliation.

In this way we become more than conquerors through Him who loved us and we can say like Paul:

38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:38-39

Ministry Update

The last month has brought many opportunities to make gains building up community as well as outreach. We were able to have our church retreat in September where we studied Psalm 118 and used this weekend to launch new community groups. We were also able to continue our work with refugees and work toward building relationships by restarting weekly and monthly gatherings in order to share Christ.

Looking forward we are in the midst of tightening restrictions and a partial lockdown in Germany for the month of November. These restrictions seem to be a direct attack on our outreach and the gains we have made in building community over the past couple months. While it seems the enemy is doing his best to thwart the advance of the gospel in this way, we know his efforts are futile and we are pushing back in every way we can.

While we are seeing the restriction of large gatherings in public and in homes, we are still able to meet among two households in private homes and for now, public worship with our church family has been allowed to continue. We are offering online instruction of God’s Word in addition to continuing our public worship services/Bible studies and we are encouraging grass roots fellowship by encouraging more intimate fellowship among households. Please pray with us that these restrictions would, in reality, be the catalyst for believers learning how to live out in a greater way authentic community.

The conditions around us are also an opportunity to encourage believers to live out their greatest call to make disciples. We are currently able to meet 1 on 1, so I will be increasing 1 on 1 meetings over the next month for the purpose of having gospel conversations with those I am meeting and to encourage other believers in discipleship and sharing Christ. This will include inviting others into our home in order to share Christ and to encourage fellow believers to do the same.

Praise the Lord, that as of now, because our outreach in Reinickendorf is sport-related we can continue under the current restrictions. We recently took the boys and girls climbing over fall break and we are continuing to develop deep relationships with these kids and consistently encourage them to put their hope in Christ.

We were also able to get our Open Table in last week before restrictions went into effect. Please pray for my good friend Abdullah from Pakistan. He is a kind and gentle Muslim friend and a couple of brothers and I had a great opportunity to present the gospel to Him during this evening. Pray that God would open his eyes to see Christ for who He really is.

Family Update

We had a wonderful time during the fall break taking a couple days to spend time together and with other families. School is going well for the girls. They are making gains in language, doing well socially and not liking math so much:), but we are thankful for God’s grace even in the tough things.

Thank you for those of you who responded to our need concerning Quinn’s breathing problems. Your kindness to us was overwhelming and we praise the Lord for how you displayed Christ love to us. We took Quinn to the surgeon, expecting to get an appointment for the surgery and he would like to try an allergy therapy to see if he can remedy the situation without surgery. We will keep you up to date on how this progresses, but thank you so much for your prayers and financial assistance (for those of you who gave for the Open Table expenses as well)! It has eased our minds and allowed us to focus on the work at hand and we are so grateful.

Please pray for us as we greatly look forward to celebrating Thanksgiving with our close friends and family in Berlin, but with current restrictions will be limited in our ability to get together like we normally do. Regardless, God is good and we wish you all a wonderful time remembering all that we have to be thankful for in Christ!

Prayer Update

Please pray for the attempts of the enemy to suppress truth through these restrictions would only serve the purpose of lighting a fire under the church to grow through authentic discipleship and community.

Please pray for God ordained appointments through 1 on 1 meetings over the coming month.
Please pray for wisdom for church leaders in Berlin as they try to navigate the restrictions we are facing and that we would meet opposition with love and grace.
Please pray for our family. That we would grow in love for God and each other during this time.