We are in Germany for Christmas and the boys are loving every minute of it! Claudia's father built a motorized car for the boys from wheelchair parts. It has a foot pedal, lights, horn, and a reverse switch! 
Me preaching (in German) on 20 November 2005 in the FEG church in the north eastern city of Schwerin.
Timo is the Pastor of the FEG church in Barth. We spent a few hours with this couple and their little daughter on the Saturday afternoon. Pray for them as they live and minister in this little down on the north coast.
Got home last night. No problems with the flight or anything. Glad to see the family again.
It has been good to hear from some of you that you were reading these reports and praying for me. Thanks again and God bless.
Gary
Well today was the big day! It had been a long time since I had preached in German but God really gave the necessary help. I was quite nervous beforehand but after I got started I was more relaxed and I really enjoyed it. I sensed that the people were with me and that they were really thinking over what I was saying from God's Word in Phil. 1.
I was really surprised when I walked into the building to find Claudia's parents sitting there. They did talk about coming down to hear me preach in German but I thought there was only a small possibility of it happening. I was really glad to see them and I think they were also encouraged through my ministry. A young woman in the church got up at the end and said that it was 3 years today since she was saved and started coming to the church. She wanted to thank the church for all the love they showed to her and how they have helped her to grow. That was really encouraging.
Even though I have only been here a few days, saying goodbye to the people in the church wasn't easy. Hopefully we can keep up the contact with the churches in Schwerin, Barth, Luebeck and Rostock.
We went to lunch with a family from the church (one of the elders) and then back in the afternoon to Silbers for coffee and cake and further discussions regarding the planting of a church in Rostock.
This has been a wonderful trip! I have made many new friends and have had many opportunities to minister to people both in preaching and in one-to-one conversations.
We leave early tomorrow morning to drive to Hamburg, park the car, get the train to the airport, fly to Dublin and get the bus up the road to home.
Thank you for your prayers! If anybody has been reading this, then maybe you would leave a little message on this blog.
We left the town of Barth straight after breakfast to travel to Schwerin for the FEG churches 'Prayer Day'. It had snowed a bit during the night so we had to drive a bit slower (I was driving). About 40 showed up - again there were lots of opportunities to speak with Pastors and people from churches across the north east of Germany.
We got some free time towards the end of the afternoon so we could catch up on some shopping. I spent the evening then with the Silber family before retreating to look over my sermon.
It turned out that the B&B that we stayed in last night belong to the secretary (Karl-Heinz Jersak) of the Baptist church in Bad Doberan. After breakfast he kindly brought us to see the new church they are building in the town. We were so glad for them to see how they are growing and willing to take this step of faith. When completed they will have excellent facilities.
After stopping to look at a hotel that may be suitable accommodation for a future team visit, we arrived on the outskirts of Rostock. We visited a man who Victor and the team had made contact with earlier in the year. He didn't invite us in, but accepted an invitation from Victor to a Creation-Evolution lecture that will be held in the Rostock University next Tuesday night It is very interesting that this lecture entitled "Can a professor of biology believe in God?" has created so much interest. It featured this week on a magazine programme on national television. As the hall only holds 500, the organises are thinking of asking believers to stay away so as to provide more room for non-Christians. Being a former communist land, such an event seems to be the talk of the city.
We also took time to tour the area of the city where FEG/ECM propose to plant a church. We then had some time to do a quick tour of the city centre and buy some presents.
After lunch we got in the car again to drive further north east to the coastal town of Barth (about 1 hour from Rostock) where Timo and Tamara Frommer live (Timo is Pastor of the FEG there). This couple would be in the same age group as myself so we found that we had a lot in common. It was really great to be able to meet a young couple living and working in a church in the east and to be able to listen to them talk about the challenges they face
Again and again we hear about issues such as - high unemployment and the fact that many towns and cities have lost between a quarter and a third of their of their population because they moved to the west after the fall of the wall. Many young people continue to leave the east in search of work in the west. Also as far as their attitude to spiritual things goes, it's not necessarily the case that they don't believe in God but they have never really sat down and taken the time to think about questions such as, "is there a God, why am I here, or what happens after I die?" Much wisdom and experience is needed to know how to present the Gospel to such people effectively.
Tonight we are staying in a little quiet guesthouse in the centre of Barth. Tomorrow morning we will leave early for the drive back to Schwerin were we will take part with around 60 others in the FEG churches 'Day of Prayer'.
I had a good nights sleep on the sofabed at Family Silbers in Schwerin. At 10am we had the meeting with the president of the 'FEG North' churches and two of the Pastors from the area regarding the planting of a church in the city of Rostock. The meeting didn't really start until 11am as the roads were quite icy and some people had to travel quite a distance. It was a real privilege to sit there and listen and to be able to gain a better understanding of the situation here.
The meeting went on longer than expected but we left about 2.30pm to make the hour long journey to Rostock. Our first call was with the local CEF worker Helger Breidenmoser. He did the course in Kilchzimmer when I was working there in 1993 and has been doing children's work in Rostock since then. I was very impressed with his attitude and his desire to support a church plant by organising Good News Clubs that would run parallel with a house group While his goal is that children be saved, he also wants them to grow and to be integrated in a local church. So we were able to identify an area were perhaps ECM/FEG and CEF could work together in the future.
We then drove out to our B&B, got some tea and headed back into the city to attend the Bible Study in the main Baptist church in Rostock. What a joy it was to fellowship with about 50 people there, to see their hunger for God's Word and to hear them pray for their city. Pastor Volkmar Gloeckner was outstanding in his biblical exposition! He made time for us afterwards, despite a busy programme and Victor was able to explain to him the plans ECM/FEG have for church planting in the area. The discussion was very helpful and encouraging.
Today was another busy day and it's almost midnight again!
Tomorrow we plan to view a new Baptist church building very near to where we are staying tonight. Then we will go for a walk to view the city and after lunch we will drive to Barth where we will spend some time with the Pastor there, Timo Frommer.
I am enjoying every minute of this trip and I'm really enjoying getting into the language again. It's all coming back to me which I'm really glad about especially as I will preach this Sunday in German.
It was really good to spend some time this morning again with Claudia's parents. They brought me to Bad Segeberg where we met up with Victor and had dinner together.
Victor has a little VW polo here in Germany - so we will be going around in it for the next few days. Our first visit was to the FEG church in Luebeck The Pastor there is called Lutz and he explained to me about his church and showed us around his building - they have excellent facilities and they quite a big church by German standards.
Next stop was a home visit in the same city with a former missionary and friend of Victors called Wolfram. As it was getting dark we arrived in Schwerin at the apartment of Pastor Klaus Silber. We had our tea and then I withdrew myself for half an hour to look over my bible study and to wait for the people to arrive. About 12 people in all came from all over the city. We sang a few songs with guitar accompaniment and then it was my turn. It has been a long time since I led a Bible Study in the German language but God gave the necessary help. Not knowing the people, it was difficult to gage whether I was connecting with them, but judging by the discussion that followed it seemed to go very well. After a time of sharing some personal prayer request we had a time of open prayer where almost everyone prayed.
I spoke to Claudia on the phone for half an hour and then set down to write this email before I go to sleep.
Tomorrow morning at 10am is a meeting here in the apartment with some church leaders who are involved in church planting in this area.
Thank you for your prayers.
Arrived safely, no problems with the flights! It took about an hour to get from Luebeck airport to Claudia's parents in Neumuenster where they took me out to a steakhouse for tea ( delicious !) Then we went back to their house for coffee and a chat. I'm allowed a lie in tomorrow, so I'm looking forward to that after all the late nights I had preparing for this trip. I will meet up with Victor after lunch tomorrow.
I will be leaving this morning (Tue.) for a 6 day visit to the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. I will be accompanying Victor Watson (European Christian Mission) on a tour of some of the young churches in the area.
My programme looks like this:
Tuesday - arrive and spend the evening and morning with Claudia's parents
Wednesday - meet up with Victor and travel to Schwerin where I will take the evening Bible Study in the FeG Schwerin
Thursday - Meeting with Pastor Klaus Silber - travel to Rostock
Friday - Visiting church planting project in Rostock - travelling to Barth to meet Pastor Timo Pfrommer
Saturday - Prayer Day for the Evangelical Free Churches in Schwerin
Sunday - I preach in the FEG Schwerin
Monday - travelling to Hamburg - possible church visit - flight back to Dublin
Thank you for your prayers.
