Hi Friends,
The Fall season is here. And maybe the winter season, too. We have a mixture of golden leaves and freezing temperatures, so it will be interesting to see how the next few months play out. Last year was unusually cold for Germany...as in lots and lots of snowfall.
Anyways, Daniel is attending college classes during the first part of each week, and then apprenticeship classes for the second part. For Americans, this doesn´t totally make sense because we don´t have an equivalent program in the U.S....so let me to try to explain. Daniel is enrolled in a program called "Dual Studies", which means that he will graduate in 4 years with a Bachelors degree in Civil Engineering as well as an apprenticeship degree. The apprenticeship gives Daniel hands-on experience with a company in his field of study (in this case, with a construction company.) The apprenticeship is also a paid position. So, while he works during the semester break in construction, he gets paid. While he attends apprenticeship school during the semester, he also gets paid. Even though the money is tight, we´re really thankful Daniel´s program earns a steady income.
Speaking of income, one of our prayer requests is that I (Michelle) will find a job. Because of the need to first learn the language, we both decided it would be better for me to wait until after Christmas to start working. However, that means that resumes need to sent out now. The language institutes plan months in advance to establish their English courses for the following term. Our prayer is that God will bring the right English teaching job, with friendly staff and good hours.
Aside from that, our Fall semester life is rolling. We continue to minister to the teenagers on Tuesday nights and to the Muslim boys on Fridays. These ministries could definitely use your prayer. Our teenagers are so hard to reach because they are often pretty closed. Most of them spend a portion of the evening smoking outside, we often find beer bottles outside our building scattered over the sidewalk, and many conversations end in disinterest. But they keep coming back. And so our team keeps praying, keeps building relationships with the teens, and keeps believing that God will change their hearts. One of the conversations we recently had with a teenager ended like this, "Well, I think I just need evidence that God really exists to believe in Him. Or maybe that wouldn´t matter. I guess I would just need to believe in faith." Well said. But she hasn´t believed yet. That´s the thing: most teens will admit that there is a "higher power," but they don´t want to pursue the matter further because they don´t want to be personally convicted.
Our Muslim boys are also a challenge, but for different reasons. They´re much more open to the staff, and they especially connect with Daniel while playing soccer outside. The difficulty with them is the message time. They´re rambunctious, loud, and often plug their ears when they hear the word "Jesus" or when we pray. You´d think that they would eventually stop coming because we preach about Jesus every week. But they keep coming back. So, we take this group of boys as a gift from God and plow again in hard soil.
Sometimes it feels like so much of Germany is composed of "hard soil." But then we look back on New York. Definitely not a cake walk. And then back on California...sure the churches are full, but so many in the church are satisfied with being spectators and not disciples.
Maybe every country has hard soil. Probably the nature of a fallen world. Nonetheless, tomorrow we´ll take our shovels once again, strike the ground, and pray for rain.
