February / March 2021
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”
One of the things I have grown to love about Berlin is the little signs that signify a new season is on the way. We see this as the trees turn from the lush green of the summer to display a brilliant blaze of color in the fall that announces the coming winter.
This time of year, we see the thawing of a long, dark winter in the springing to life of thousands of pastel flowers that weave a tapestry of beauty in all kinds of soils around Berlin. It doesn’t seem to matter where they are planted, these little blooms spring up reminding us of the life that, although maybe not visible, has been alive all the time.
I believe these little blooms were created for a specific purpose. They were meant as a visible reminder of a creation that must declare the glory of God. These little blooms, pandemic or not, never fail to rise from the earth around Easter to bear witness of the Living Hope, Jesus Christ. This Resurrection Sunday we will once again celebrate the miracle that sprang to life, when Christ once and for all conquered death by rising from the grave. This is a real and present hope, a historical fact that brings the gospel to life.
This is the gospel we celebrate this weekend. It is a sure, and steady hope that we can be confident of regardless of the rocky soil we may find ourselves in. It is this hope that we declare our confidence in God’s power through the work of His Son to bring dead things back to life.
Andrew Peterson reminds us so well in his song His Heart Beats of the day hope came to life. So once again, we look to the day Christ heart began to beat. The day His blood once again began to flow. He took one breath and put death to death. We serve a Risen Savior. He is risen, risen indeed!
Ministry Update
We continue in a nation-wide lockdown in Germany with no signs of the government easing restrictions that have been in place since November. Regardless, we are finding ways to continue our outreach work and growth in community and discipleship.
While we are not allowed to meet in large groups, this has created more opportunities to meet in small groups and more intimate settings. This has led to deeper relationships with our kids in Reinickendorf, in fact, this resulted in three of our little girls making professions of faith this past month! We plan to continue a hybrid of meeting for soccer and splitting into small groups in the future, because of the progress we have made in these more intimate settings.
The restrictions have also given us new opportunities in refugee communities. With the nation-wide mandate of children required to learn from home, the refugee accommodations have struggled to meet the demands placed on them to provide help to children learning from home. Our church community has met this need by sending 10-15 members from our community into our local refugee accommodation weekly. This has been possibly the best way we have found to build more personal relationships with families. Please pray for us as we pursue ways of using this in the future and connecting other churches in the city for this purpose. Please also pray as the leadership we have been working with and built a great relationship over the past two years will be moving to a new facility this month.
Our church is seeing a renewed desire for discipleship within our community. We recently held our first quarterly discipleship roundtable. Through these quarterly gatherings we plan to fellowship, train, and strategize for how we can continue to build disciples in Christ, who present Him to the nations. We hope that this call to discipling will lead to growth in healthy community that will see multiplication. Specifically, our long-term desire would be to see mature disciples that would begin new gospel efforts across the city or in their scattering across the world.
Please pray as our church votes on me to become an elder this month. Specifically, that God would make it clear if this is His desire for my service. I would be involved with overseeing community and outreach within our community if our church decides to confirm me.
Family Update
One of the blessings of being in a lockdown is the opportunity to spend more time together as a family. God has blessed us tremendously in giving this time together. We have the opportunity to take short excursions into the city and spend some time at parks as the weather has begun to warm up.
I celebrated my 40th birthday in February with some of my closest friends, as well as an appointment to the orthopedic where I found out I have a herniated disc in my back! Please pray as I continue to seek treatment from this and that it would not hinder our work here in the city.
Cherry and I recently celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary with lunch at a Mexican place in the city and pizza with the family for dinner:) God has given us some sweet times of fellowship over the past few months with friends and family and we praise Him for how He is working even in the midst of tough restrictions.
Prayer Update
We praise God for using this pandemic to help us focus more on relationships and less on programs.
We praise God for the time He has given us together as a family and for consistent opportunities to shepherd hearts.
Please pray for uncertainty in continued ministry in our local refugee accommodation as the leadership changes hands.
Please pray for our church as we seek to encourage and equip mature believers for gathering and scattering for God’s glory.
Please pray for the issue with my back to be resolved, Lord-willing without surgery!