Today's blog has no pictures that go along so the pictures are random and not from Europe.
Sunday morning I attended the church service held below my house. And after a sweet German worship session and sermon this morning (I'm still struggling with the language badly and thus understood none of it) I was chilling in the common area of the church when my buddy Marco (who looks out for me and translates when I'm stuck) came up and asked what I was doing for lunch. I told him nothing so he turned and went across the room to a member of the church, Kurt, and just invited me over to Kurt's place for lunch. Kurt and his wife Ulli gladly accepted, though he warned me that he spoke no English (each of his 4 kids spoke a little).
They took me to a huge house out in the country and Hannah (12), Samuel (16), Benjamin (18), Kurt and I played a board game while Daniel (14) helped his mother cook a nice dinner.
Anyways, we finished the game and had dinner and a small dessert (some hand-made chocolates, both white and dark, with coffee) and talked for quite a while when Benjamin grabbed a new game. All of us played the game together for about an hour until we switched and played more games all the way until dinner. The whole time Hannah never complained and the boys never argued--we just had a good time.
We prayed for a long time before dinner, each person in turn, then I was given a ride home at 8:30 (as I left they asked if I would come for dinner again soon). I was there over 8 hours!
What's crazy to me is not just the unreal generosity, but how big God is! As we prayed, they in German and me in English, and as they spoke about their dream for God to radically change their town here (18,000 people, big for European standards) it really hit home that God is bigger than America. Yeah, I obviously know this, but to feel something first hand, to feel His love through other Christians that can barely communicate with me, is invigorating and crazy and really a glimps of what is to come.
PS. These are my two nephews: Joshie in the sweet sweater and Jack in the crazy warm polar bear outfit.
Sunday morning I attended the church service held below my house. And after a sweet German worship session and sermon this morning (I'm still struggling with the language badly and thus understood none of it) I was chilling in the common area of the church when my buddy Marco (who looks out for me and translates when I'm stuck) came up and asked what I was doing for lunch. I told him nothing so he turned and went across the room to a member of the church, Kurt, and just invited me over to Kurt's place for lunch. Kurt and his wife Ulli gladly accepted, though he warned me that he spoke no English (each of his 4 kids spoke a little).
They took me to a huge house out in the country and Hannah (12), Samuel (16), Benjamin (18), Kurt and I played a board game while Daniel (14) helped his mother cook a nice dinner.
Anyways, we finished the game and had dinner and a small dessert (some hand-made chocolates, both white and dark, with coffee) and talked for quite a while when Benjamin grabbed a new game. All of us played the game together for about an hour until we switched and played more games all the way until dinner. The whole time Hannah never complained and the boys never argued--we just had a good time.
We prayed for a long time before dinner, each person in turn, then I was given a ride home at 8:30 (as I left they asked if I would come for dinner again soon). I was there over 8 hours!
What's crazy to me is not just the unreal generosity, but how big God is! As we prayed, they in German and me in English, and as they spoke about their dream for God to radically change their town here (18,000 people, big for European standards) it really hit home that God is bigger than America. Yeah, I obviously know this, but to feel something first hand, to feel His love through other Christians that can barely communicate with me, is invigorating and crazy and really a glimps of what is to come.
PS. These are my two nephews: Joshie in the sweet sweater and Jack in the crazy warm polar bear outfit.
6 comments:
I'm glad you had such a good time! Did you take any pictures? It's so true about how big God is -- it's like that Audio Adrenaline song: "I went down to Mexico/Mi amigo/I found Jesus living outside of the USA."
I'm glad you are finding people to take care of you over there! I'm curious if you played settlers of Catan?
How come this doesn't surprise me? I hope you're having a good time in Europe. I tracked you down on your blog a few days after trying to track you down in Bend. Sarah and I were in Sunriver and were hoping to get together with you.
Hey man!
Aren't these blogs funny? I stumbled across your site from Jill's whose site I stumbled across from Becca's who stumbled across mine from the Pilgrims....crazy. Sounds like you're having a great adventure. Spritually and physically! Hope you enjoy your time over there. Maybe we can catch up sometime.
Mike B.
Sounds like a great day. Hopefully you'll come up to speed quickly with your German speaking.
Take every opportunity you have to meet people, make new friends and share your life. You'll never regret it!
love you bro.
So happy you had such a great time with that family, and the you got to experience God's great love in another culture and language. How awesome is that?! Keep working hard on the language skills, that'll be one of the best things about your trip.
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