week-end in Amberg

I received an invitation to come to Amberg to a church that was planted by my parents 1978. They had bought a building and did a great job renovating it.
I spoke on Isaiah 63, 1-8 in both sermons (Saturday evening and Sunday morning). I was also greatful for the very friendly acceptance and spent much time in counselling with various members and visitors before and after the meetings.
I was able to take the train on Saturday arriving well in time before the meetings began, and left Sunday after lunch.
The church is mainly composed now of folks that originally lived in the USSR before emigrating to Germany. They are of German desendency.
All the same, they have many divergent customs and expentencies from their "home-grown" German counterparts. So, sadly, quite a number of "home-grown" folks have left the church.
Will pray and see what the future holds, as the discussions with the church leadership were very intense and prosperous. They certainly want to understand and learn!

Dear friends,
just received a phone call that our dear friend Rudolf Geshe peacfully slipped into eternity this morning. He was well into his seventies, and had a history of assorted heart problems.

Rudolf was our fatherly mentor, father confessor, navigator on demand.

As young upstarts he counselled us personally, navigated us through sticky church and mission problems and incomprehensible counselling difficulties.
He was regularly invited to minister to us in the WORD. We were never envious, that his sermon tapes were in a great demand - we listen to them over and over again ourselves!

He took a keen interest in our personal well-being: the quality of our marriages, how we were handling family matters - if we even understood what a family is! How we failed or succeded in keeping some resemblance of balance between ministry, marriage, family.

This was obvious as we know now how many of his "Timothies" were on his prayer list over the decades!!

This is a double reminder:
In the Kingdom of God "old" never means "useless"!
Keep close contact and treasure the relationship to God's OWLS (Older Wiser Loving Saints)- they have a tendency to fade away ...

Great Help !

On Saturday we had hoped to welcome the Romanian truck for a load to flood victims.
A group from a church in Singen on Lake Constance (Bodensee) came to help. So we got much packed and packaged and cleaned up!
These fine folks travelled around 150 miles to do this!
Hope, that this catches on!

Cologne, Mission Conference, Transport delayed

Left last Friday for COLOGNE. Carsten Meissner, a brother who has helped us much with our Romania missions, began his move to Cologne to ge part of a church planting team. Carsten is helping Ina in a colletion drive in Kandern in this picture.

I had a 4000 lbs trailor to return - and so Carsten had plenty of room for the most necessary items. He has found an appartement in the mean time. Now we are looking for an adequate time window for the rest of his move.

Was part of the annual missions conference of our German partner mission near Hannover, northern Germany, to help them with their 25th aniversary celebration!
They had a large youth choir there that blessed us with their wonderful music and sincere commitment! My brother Matthew was there, too!
I stayed on a day longer for many briefings and consultations concerning details of cooperation. The founder of the mission is in his 70ies and is slowly looking for a "Joshua" to gradually replace him. I only have an advisory function in this matter! The founder is a close friend of my parents. So I have known him since 1961!!

Greatly enjoyed the fellowship, saw many long time friends, and received deep spiritual challenges from the messages and reports of the other missionaries.

On Monday I returned to Cologne to pick up the trailor, and was invited to attend the founding meeting of the Cologne church planting team. I was asked for input, and was glad to encourage and give a couple of pointers. It is a young team, and I am not aware of any far reaching church planting experience. But I detected great zeal and it is obvious that the team leader has put a lot of thought into this goal.

I returned the trailor we used for Carsten's move to relatives of my wife near Marburg on my way home. It was not much of a detour.
They donated a tomb stone for Maria's parents grave. The only hitch: Nobody was there to help me load it! Strong back - feeble mind? Got it loaded anyway!

Just received a phone call that the Romanian truck company will not be able to come on Saturday. He did not receive a load to Germany, France or Switzerland, and I do not have to money to pay for him to come and pick up my load!
But only this company gives me great conditions, so it will be worth the wait till they can make it here.

windows for Romania

I received news yesteray from a Swiss missionary in Romania.
They are expecting a building crew from September 25th on and was wondering if I could provide a couple of dozen windows etc. donated by a Swiss company not far from where I live.
As you know, we are expecting a truck for next week - and it, too, is for flood victims.

So, I have to see if I can find enough volunteers for another transport in this month! Also, we have to see about finances for the transportation.

What we need now most of all is wisdom, if we have the energies to pull off a second transport in such short order.