Tuesday, August 14, 2012

When ministry is not only a blessing it is FUN!!

Ministry comes at you in so many different ways and sometimes it is extremely difficulty and challenging.  Other times, ministry is not only a blessing it is FUN!!  Today was one of the latter!!

After a full morning of PWOC for the ladies in my house and running ministry errands and doings some last minute paperwork, we borrowed a friends suburban and drove home.  Now, yes, for a moment I felt like I was back in the states driving a full size suburban and it was FUN!!

Once we arrived at home in Idstein with the suburban, the three of us began to help our german neighbor moving a large armoire as well as her paintings and other boxes.  She is moving after living there for over two and half years.  We have only known her for four months and it has been great!

We have had several opportunities to practice our Deutsch with her and she her english with us.  We will miss that!  One thing though, Julie has had the opportunity to have a couple of spiritual conversations with her.  She has experienced a lot of heartache and pain but despite losing her son to be with the Lord a couple of years ago, she knows that he is in heaven.

Knowing that, at the end of our day moving and literally wrestling the armoire down 6 half flights of stairs, we made it and got it set in her new house.  We really wanted to give her something and I remembered that our friend and team mate, Randy Alcorn and given me copies of his Heaven book and  Grace and Truth books in Deutsch.  We presented them to her and as she left the flat on final time, she pointed to the title of the Heaven book and said...when I leave here, I will be there too!

With hugs and tears, we really found that ministry was FUN!!!!  Hard and emotional but FUN!!!  To know that she knows our Jesus, was a real thrill!!  We will miss her and now, praying that the Lord brings another good renter to the small studio that Brigett has left vacant.  Wish Melanie could rent it...that would be fun for her!!!  Oh well, the Lord knows who He wants there that we can minister to as well.

So the next time you think about reaching out to your neighbor, do it!!  It is FUN!!!

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Offsite office time in a familiar place!

This morning we found ourselves getting up at 0300 hours to take a dear friend to the Frankfurt Hahn airport about an hour and fifteen minutes from our house for a flight he had to England.  Well, we brewed a pot of God's brew and went out the door.  We made it on time, he made it on time and all is well.

We decided though that we would take the opportunity to have the girls spend the day with a team member of our ministry in Kusel.  We stopped in this morning early, caught up, visited and then they were off for a girls day!  Window shopping, lunch, thrift store visit and then dinner.

Now you maybe wondering what this has to do with an offsite office time for me...well, I did say "girls time" so I made my way to the Java Cafe where sixteen months ago, it was my office! Coffee, quiet time, ministry prep, sermon prep and just some good old office work!!

That is right, I made my way back today to Baumholder, Germany!  Where we began the physical part of our ministry journey to Germany!   So, only fitting that after some lesson prep, planning time for the upcoming fall events and a sweet time of Face to Face (F2F) that I would do some office time here!

We were truly blessed that the Lord would allow us to come here over a year ago and be ministered to, minister to others and find a new start to a season of life that is exciting, ever changing and fresh!  Ministry with the military has been and will continue to be a solid passion and commitment we are engaged in!

During my prep time, I was reminded that the Lord is faithful in all deeds to all of His people.  We have experienced that in so many ways!  We know that He is and always will be FAITHFUL!!

Thank you Lord for always being constant, faithful, loving and real!  Thank you for allowing us to have this time in our lives to serve You, Your people and those that need to know you! Thank you for the opportunity to minister in so many fun, unique and wonderful ways!!  We are Yours and we are glad that you choose to and want to use us!

Middle school boys Bible study in Baumholder

 Overview of the town and installation of Baumholder

Some of our students from Baumholder 2011

From an offsite office, thank you ALL for being a part of what the Lord is doing in our lives and the lives of our students and their families!!!  Without each of you on our team, Pray, Play and Pay, we couldn't do this!!