May 2022
8 years ago, this week I was in Berlin completely unaware of the path God was preparing to take our family down. I was working with young men and the lack of men in their lives was something that I could not shake from my mind as I returned to my life in South Carolina.
I grew up in a culture surrounded by godly men, but as I reflected on the situation in front of me, it became clear that this was not the case in this place. Urban environments tend to breed a culture of weak manhood and fatherlessness. I began to recognize that these young men had no model of what a godly man looked like.
As I interacted with them, I began to realize a calling that God had been patiently building in my heart, that these young men and countless others in this city needed men that were willing to stay, to stick in when things get tough instead of running to something easier.
I write this as I reflect on the past months and reality of this calling. It is not easy to stay. It’s not easy to work with those who curse you, are disrespectful, arrogant, and abusive. It would be easy to walk away, to write them off as unsalvageable, but I am so glad that Christ did not do that with me.
Standing in the garden, He could have chosen to walk away from the cursing, disrespect and arrogance that He knew was coming at the hands of His own creation, but He stayed. He gave us a new man to imitate. A man that represented the creation we were meant to be. He has released us from the old man. We no longer have to act like Adam, but we can lead others toward the restoration that is coming as we imitate Jesus. Jesus gives us a reason to be different, He gives us a reason to stay.
May we be found faithful in this way by our willingness to stand in difficult places to point others to the New Man, the One who will make all things new.
Ministry Update
I have been helping lead our men’s ministry group this year and we have focused the past nine months on what redeemed masculinity looks like. We have sought to build a culture of fellowship, accountability and discipleship among the men in our church and we will culminate this weekend at our men’s retreat here in Berlin. Our desire with this group is to move toward being responsible for the people and situations that God puts in our lives, and we are thankful for how the men in our church are engaging for this purpose.
We recently helped with our community fun day at our church where we invited families from the community to participate in a treasure hunt. We had a great group of kids come, and we were able to clearly share the gospel in a creative way. We have another fun day planned for August to engage our local neighborhood. Cherry is also teaching children’s church regularly and has been involved through the spring with providing support to our women’s Bible study.
As I mentioned above, I am still working in Reinickendorf with young men from this area of the city. We have a small group right now, but we consistently meet to play soccer together and study God’s Word. We are praying God will continue to give us the opportunity to use soccer as a tool to influence communities for the gospel as we move into the fall and have some possibilities for open doors in new communities. At Easter we held a special soccer tournament in conjunction with a city-wide outreach in Berlin where the gospel was shared in major plazas across the city.
We have also been busy helping lead our church into a local refugee shelter for Ukrainians. We work with the children on Wednesdays and the mothers on Fridays. In April we organized special Easter packages for all the children as well as face painting, cotton candy and games. We have seen something amazing happen in recent weeks. During our Mother’s Day event many of the ladies asked us if we would pray with them and then started asking for Bibles. God has sent us a young Christian Ukrainian woman who has been helping us and we are hoping to possibly start a Bible Study with these women. We believe there are tremendous opportunities for the growth of the church as people continue to be displaced in Europe.
We have also connected with a group of believers in our city that is organizing aid into Ukraine to support local churches. The aid is taken to central locations, where churches in those areas can distribute aid to people in need and create opportunities to share the gospel. I helped transport food, Bibles, and gospel literature into a city in Ukraine last month and we are currently organizing another trip for this month. Please pray for safety and for churches in Ukraine right now who are seeking to meet both physical and spiritual needs of Ukrainians.
I continue to meet regularly with a group of men from Iran and Afghanistan. One of these men has recently decided to follow Christ and would like to be baptized at our upcoming church retreat in September. He is attending our church regularly and has started the process of becoming a member this past weekend. Please pray for another man, Reza, who has also been coming to our church and will attend our men’s retreat this weekend. We are praying for the opportunity to start a Farsi speaking fellowship in the fall.
We recently helped secure a central apartment for our church to utilize for small group meetings, leadership training, discipleship and housing for ministry guests. We hope that this could also serve as a meeting place for a new church plant in the future. Our church desires to plant new churches and I am involved with helping our coworkers Franz and Kristie Martens with a new church plant in Potsdam on Sundays. There is a solid group of believers meeting regularly with students from the nearby university, and some families. We are praying that this fellowship strengthens believers and is a witness to the city.
Family Update
Prayer
Wisdom for discipling new believers and open doors for establishing new fellowships in unreached people groups
Growth for new church plant in Potsdam
Wisdom and discernment for engaging refugees in Berlin and protection and open doors for supporting believers in Ukraine