The Whirlwind of July

Hi Friends,
It´s hard to believe July is almost over. It´s gone by fast! In this month alone, Michelle completed the super-important German exam (whew!). The exam was scheduled July 9th, and all in all, it wasn´t too complicated. Of course, before the exam took place, we made flashcards, set up meetings with a girl from church to go over grammar, and lost a little bit of sleep. We both especially want to thank everyone who prayed for the exam. The results came back TODAY and it passed with flying colors! Yeah! Now we can apply for a residence visa. It´s always good when a married couple can live together in the same country! (On the right is a snapshot taken from my language class.)
On the fourth of July, Daniel turned twenty-four. It was really great because it was our first time celebrating a birthday as a married couple. The week of his birthday was filled with several cakes, one surprise party at his parent´s house, one party with some friends at our apartment, and we even got a washing machine from our in-laws. It was really great to do something special for Daniel because he works 10 hour days, including Saturdays. Not to mention, he´s an amazing, incredible husband.
Speaking of marriage, we had a chance to see a couple of great friends get married last weekend. Like us, the couple met at Metro Ministries, starting dating in January of 2009 and got engaged last Fall. In fact, the groom was Daniel´s best man in our wedding. Anyways, they are both from Switzerland, so the wedding was only 5 1/2 hours away from us. It was so wonderful to witness the beginning of their marriage. It was also a great surprise to reunite with several staff members from New York!
Now, our next adventure is starting a Sidewalk Sunday School program in our city. At the end of last month, we went with our ministry team to visit a former Metro Ministries staff member. He currently does Sidewalk Sunday School in Düsseldorf. The program consisted of games, contests, prizes, coffee for the parents, and an amazing lesson. Our team members were so impressed. They left the program wide-eyed, saying, "We NEED to do this in our town." Great. That´s exactly the reaction we were hoping for. Now, we are beginning to plan a Sidewalk Sunday School in Troisdorf. The difference now is that we don´t have the revenue, props, equipment, or time that we had in New York. But God knows that. And we know God wants to reach our city. Please pray with us that God would use us and give us what we need to reach our neighborhoods.
This is a lot of information, right? But just one more thing! We also want to give praise to God for Daniel´s acceptance into college. Daniel applied to different colleges when we first arrived, and we´ve been praying for God to open doors. Now, Daniel is enrolled in the Dual Studies Program in a college in Cologne. "Dual Studies" means that he goes to college full-time during the semester and works at an apprenticeship (vocational training) during the off-semester in his field. How great! It´s so great because we could use the money, and Daniel gets to have hands-on experience in civil engineering. God is so great!
We just want to thank you for keeping us in your prayers. We think of our friends from the U.S. often, and we miss you! God bless!

Our Boys

When we talk about "our boys," we´re referring to 8-14 boys we work with every Friday after school lets out. The staff come to Haus Benjamin around 3:30, and then soon after, the kids arrive. Usually the afternoon starts with soccer on the street (if it´s dry outside), and concludes with games, a message, and dinner. In total, the program is 3 hours long, which is a great time to connect with the kids. For some reason, only boys have been coming--no doubt because they´re pretty crazy sometimes and hard to handle. If I (Michelle) was a kid, the boys would intimidate me, too.
One of the coolest parts is that these boys are primarily Muslim. I mean, we feed them pork-free sausage and everything. They aren´t allowed to read the Bible. They aren´t allowed to pray with us. But every week they hear about Jesus.
Daniel is now responsible for the program on Friday, which means that we both take time to prepare the message every week. A few weeks ago, we were convinced that it was time to share the Gospel message. But we thought, "Wait. How can we do this without the kids walking away and never coming back again?" We were wrestling with the issue of sharing the message directly, or sharing everything a little more vague because we´re new and don´t have strong relationships yet with the kids. The next morning, God brought gave us an answer through Scripture. Paul writes that he has shared the Gospel without reservation, and therefore, is not guilty of any man´s blood. So that´s exactly what we did.
We explained the problem of sin and told the story of Christ´s crucifixion. We showed clips from The Passion of the Christ. We told them that Christ wanted to be personal and real in their lives. We even invited them to pray. Of course, when you invite a group of kids to pray, many of them seem distracted and it´s hard to know what God is doing in their hearts. But one 12-year-old began to ask questions.
"How does Jesus and his death affect me? How is does it become personal? Do I have to sign a contract or something so I can be a part of it?"
Daniel and our ministry leader took time to answer questions and explain how the Gospel differs from what is stated in the Koran. He was open and obviously moved by Jesus´ sacrifice. Of course, if he would decide to live for God, he would be alienated from this community and family. For these kids, discipleship comes at a steep price.
In the end, the boy took a plate of food and said he would come back the next week. It encouraged us so much to know that this boy had heard the Gospel for the first time and wanted to know more. No matter what someone´s background, the Gospel is powerful. As Paul writes,"...it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes" (Romans 1:16).

Youth Cafe

As we mentioned before, we are involved in two main outreaches here in Germany--one for immigrant kids and one for teens. Last night, we had our weekly Youth Cafe. More specifically, it´s a time when teenagers come to one of our church buildings to hang out, play pool, hear a message, eat dinner, and talk with staff members. It´s really cool, but definitely not like New York. Instead of frantically running around from program to program, the Youth Cafe is relaxed and inviting. Especially for teens that would never step foot into a church.
The kids that usually come are from the rock/alternative, emo, or gothic scene. They come in the building (called Haus Benjamin) looking pretty tough and uninterested.The hard part about ministering to teens in Europe is that many are atheists or simply don´t care whether or not God exists. Daniel was talking to some boys last night, and they didn´t want to hear about Jesus. They just wanted an excuse to debate the existence of God. One guy told us he´s been coming every week to the Youth Cafe for five years just because he likes to discuss philosophy and religion...but he´s not willing to personally believe.
So, the Youth Cafe continues every week, with staff members talking to students, praying with them, and encouraging them to have faith in God. It´s definitely slow-going, but there´s something I´m convinced about.
When I (Michelle) was at a prayer meeting in New York, I remember God telling me, "Europe is not dead. I have plans for the people there." This came to me during the time Daniel and I were talking about getting married and moving to Germany. My biggest concern was the state of the dwindling Church. Would Europe be a discouraging time for my faith? And God said He hadn´t forgotten about the people in Europe. And neither will we.
Please pray with us for the teens and families who are comfortable in their meaningless, atheistic ways of thinking. In some countries, Satan´s weapons are drugs, witchcraft, violence, or disease. Over here, he has swayed the masses with apathy. Please pray that the Holy Spirit would awaken the lost.

Welcome!

Hi Friends,
It´s so great to have a chance to keep in contact with you. Again and again, Daniel and I have been telling our friends that even though we live overseas and no longer do Sunday school in New York, we still have missionary hearts. The purpose of this blog is to give you a glimpse into our hearts, our ministry, and of course, the ways you can join us in prayer.
Wow, it´s hard to believe that Daniel and I share the same blog! For the past few years, we have been individually updating our friends and family (mine in English, and his in German) on the adventures of New York. Well, it looks like we´re starting this next adventure together--the adventure of newly married life, adjusting to a new culture and language (Michelle), and ministering to the German/immigrant community. We´re both so excited that we can serve God together...and honored to have you with us on our journey.
Before we jump ahead of ourselves, let me just talk about these pictures from March 12th 2010. These mark the first day of our lives together. It really was an amazing day--our families were there with many of our friends, everything ran smoothly,and we still got great pictures despite the rain showers. Looking back, Daniel and I wouldn´t change anything. It was absolutely amazing.
Since the day we became husband and wife, we spent 10 days in Hawaii, 2 days in San Fransisco, and then proceeded to Germany. For the past (almost) two months, we´ve been setting up our apartment, enrolling in language school (Michelle), applying for college (Daniel), researching health insurance, finding an internet provider....you know, all the things you need to do to set up a household.
We´ve also been really involved in church. Our church here is great, and we work with a woman from the church who organizes outreaches to the elderly, drug addicts, teens, immigrant kids, taxi drivers, etc. Daniel and I are both involved in the Tuesday night teen outreach, as well as the program for immigrant kids. We greatly anticipate what God will do with our Metro Ministries training here in Germany. We even have dreams to start a Sidewalk Sunday School here in our local neighborhood.
It´s cool to think that we came to Germany because of it´s low college tuition, but God can still use us here to evangelize. That´s definitely our prayer.