Lighting the North

Loving Honor

bratcher — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 18:12:58 +0000

Marriage is a God-inspired connection of two people, that has as its goal: to fill the earth, to emphasize the divine Community and to fulfill deep emotional needs. Yes, one could say more about marriage goals, but I want you to keep reading, so I will keep it concise. I have been doing a series of articles for a Church of Christ magazine called “Das Feste Fundament” on the subject of marriage and I wanted to share the last article that I just wrote. In the series I have talked about:

holy marriage, how we are to help one another grow closer to God.
a type of love that focuses on your partner and the image of God that dwells inside them. How do we react and interact with this child of God?
Adam and Eve and God’s first “Not good!” statement. Man and wife build a unit, in order to fulfill God’s Plan for His world.
the five love languages from Gary Chapman’s book of the same name: Words of Affirmation, Quality Time, Receiving Gifts, Acts of Service, and Physical Touch.

As I have looked back over these topics, I realize how important these areas are, but also how much more one could say about marriage. At the risk of sounding like a broken record: our world today needs to focus more on this important connection – one person to another, blessed by our God. In this fifth article about marriage, I focused on a topic that we often overlook: Honor.

The first full week of January found myself and a group of about 18 people in Cologne, Germany for the annual Advanced Seminar. This seminar is organized on the German side by a group of four men, myself included and on the American side by Rick Oster and the Ministry for Theological Education at Harding School of Theology. Our presenter this year was Evertt Huffard speaking on the Christian-Muslim Encounter. One of the main points, which he learned through his experience living in the Holy Lands, had to do with honor and how we in the West so often misunderstand and/or underestimate the influence and value of honor. As we read through various Texts from God’s Word, I became aware once again, how important honor is in marriage. First a couple of definitions:

1 a: good name or public esteem: Reputation b: a showing of merited respect: Recognition. 2: Privilege 3: a person of superior standing – now used as a title for a holder of high office. (Webster)

1. honesty, fairness, or integrity in one’s beliefs and actions: a man of honor. (Dictionary.com)

This is what many people think about when they consider the word honor…if they do at all. Like I already said: in the West the question of honor is not usually high on our list of values. In the West we are much more “practical” in that we “honor” freedom of opinion, equality and love than we do honor. This value you find stressed in Eastern countries. Honor does not appeal to us (unless you are in the military, have a favorite sport team/player or have brought this value with you from another cultural context) and for some it is a dangerous topic, especially here in Germany when the subject of the world wars comes up. There is a problem though of ignoring honor: it is talked about in God’s Word; quite a lot! Here is a small sampling:

Moses wants to see God’s Glory/Honor (the word in Hebrew is the same). But he cannot, due to the fact that in doing so, he would die. God allows him, though, to see His “back” (Exodus 33:18). In the next chapter as Moses is holding the tablets of stone, before God writes in them, we read:

6 And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, 7 maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation. (Exodus 34:6-7, NIV)

We can see God’s Glory, His Honor and that includes: compassion, grace, slowness to anger, love, faithfulness and justice. From our perspective, it is through the Person of Jesus Christ, where we can best see God’s Glory. The Greek word is doxa. Perhaps it would be good to let the Word speak at this point from John’s and Paul’s perspective.

John 1:14 - The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory (doxa), the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Colossians 1:27 - To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory (doxa).

We experience the Glory of God in Jesus and participate with Him, when we choose to be compassionate, patient, gracious, faithful and just.

John 15:8 - This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

Galatians 5,22-23 - But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

But the ability to do this, does not lie with us. In fact we dishonor God when we say, that this ability comes from us. It is a gift and normally we are thankful when someone gives us a gift.

Romans 3:23-24 - for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

So, what does honor and glory have to do with marriage? Our highest priority as Christians is to rediscover the image of God; in us and in those around us. For me that happened when I said “Yes” to Jesus and celebrated it in baptism, then began a process of regaining His Glory. Jesus even prayed for it:

John 17:17 - Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.

But Jesus did not stop praying there:

John 17:18-19 - As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.

Our job is to reinstall God’s image. It has become corrupted, in me, in you, in my wife and kids, neighbors, friends and enemies. What a marvelous opportunity. What a blessing for your marriage and family! The emphasis is to become God’s image as you move about His Kingdom, demonstrating His Glory. How can I be more patient, compassionate, grace-giving, and faithful? An important question needs to be asked at this point. What must first occur in me, so that the path is clear(er) to love my wife or husband, to treasure this person and submit to him or her? This path may not be so simple. It may be at times, like a nice stroll on the beach, but at other times like my most-feared mountain bike trail, full of rocks, roots and other reckless people. Those who only look at the path, could become quickly winded and discouraged. But we are encouraged to look to THE One who has overcome, who has gone before us and shown us how to live this Kingdom kind of life…Jesus Christ. He honored God by His life.

Personally, when I look at Jesus and reflect on His life, I find myself often becoming thankful. (Someday I will be perfected and that “often” will become “always”.) And it is awfully difficult to find something negative to say about thankfulness.

I would like to encourage you to reflect on God’s Word regarding honor. If you have some additional comments about this eternal value, please write!

God bless and keep you.

Advents Coffee

bratcher — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 18:17:30 +0000

Once again, we planned, practiced, prepared and hosted our annual Advents Coffee. It is a common thing here in Germany, to recognize the four Sundays before Christmas, as the Advent season. People visit the Christmas market, get together with family and friends to share a meal together, participate in a roving Advents calendar and host your neighbors for a few minutes of hot punch and cookies. It can be a time of hospitality and fellowship, thinking about the impact of the Christ-child coming to this earth. Or, you can be up to your ears in stress, worried about the too many Advent-related get-togethers or having to deal with family…again. Even though it is really not that often. We witness both sides.
Our prayer this year was to demonstrate a hopeful, meditative Advents Coffee, focusing on a precious gift and our response of giving in return. We had fewer guests this year. All of our invited friends had other plans or ended up deciding against coming at the last minute. Talk about disappointing! But we have been here long enough to realize that is just a part of the work. So one reaches out to those who do come. A new family was there, complete with out of control boys (who ended up entertaining some of our youth with their kung-fu skills). We had another family come whom our coworkers know well and are in-between churches. A lady from the opera house came, who helped Benjamin greatly with piano and voice lessons. The extended family of one of our members came, all six of them. Basically non-believers, they were exposed to the message of knowing Christ to receive life eternal. I found myself praying: God open their hearts to your love!
What else is there to do, but to communicate the love of God that echoes throughout history. It is sad but true, that this message becomes mellowed, sometimes stamped out, by life and sin and worry and busyness.
I’ll close with a part of the scripture I read this past Sunday morning for our worship time. It heralds the coming of our Savior. John 1,14

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John makes the astonishing statement of seeing the glory of Jesus. Christmas is a busy time of year. We all have additional stress to cope with, additional duties to perform, and gifts to buy. God help us, to not neglect seeing the glory of Christ.
Merry Christmas!

Banana

bratcher — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 08:54:44 +0000

Greetings all,

I eat a lot of Bananas. I like them, they’re healthy, have a lot of potassium, and are good to take along on a bike ride. I think I slipped on a banana. You know the old trick in the Road Runner cartoons…the slippery banana. Works too in Mario Kart. I have slipped up on getting God’s story out to you. It has been a while since I last wrote. I think I have been in a slump with writing, but am going to try and rise above it. That doesn’t mean we have not been busy or twiddling our thumbs. God has been working in fun and mighty ways in the last few weeks. Let me share some of the highlights.

Another Baptism

I have been having a Bible study for quite a while with a lady who we got to know through soccer. Six years ago I had the pleasure of being the “Fitness Coach” for Benjamin’s soccer team. I think I got the title because I enjoy being fit (and didn’t know a blessed thing about soccer). The coach needed help and I decided to try. What I didn’t know was that I would be drafted, kicking and screaming, into refereeing the home games. What a learning experience for me and a test of nerves for Susan. She got to hear all the parents from the opposing teams call me fun names.

A Happy Crowd

Anyway, I have gotten away from my point. During this time, we got to know a lady whose son played on our team. After carrying her injured son a dozen time off the field, I guess she realized that we were not bad people after all. She was active in the Catholic church in our neighborhood, but had a falling out. We were strange people for her, being from an independent Christian fellowship. But after Susan visited her in the hospital, she began to see us differently. She even allowed her son to come to a camp we were helping with. After that, her son started coming to special teen events and enjoyed getting to know the youth groups who came from the States. Fast forward to the last couple of years. Her son has been in trouble in school, with the police and decided to move out last year to live with his aunt. This whole time I have been meeting with her for Bible study/counseling sessions and had been praying for God to open her heart. Well, last Spring she said she wanted to look at what the Bible says about baptism. Praise God! It was a surprise for me when she said in late summer that she wanted to be immersed, but it was no surprise to God. On Sept 4th she was baptized into Christ. What a joyous experience!
I have decided to keep her identity private and neither use her name nor a close-up photo. She could lose her job if her decision for Christ became public. The neat thing about this is, she is ready for this to happen, but I want her to take the first step.

Along this line, please pray for her and her son. He has become more accepting of us and we pray God will open his heart more and more. Also pray for the Catholic Church and it’s members in our area. They are closing churches, the local priest in our neighborhood is on leave due to burn out and there is still a strong abhorrence to our presence as a free church. We know a lot of the Catholic families through the grade school that Lara is in, but building trust takes time and energy. I recently helped paint at the school and the lady in charge told a mutual friend that she was “impressed” with me. Whatever that means! May it be to God’s glory!!

A Wedding!

the happy couple

Our other exciting news, work-wise, was the marriage of our good friends, Mike and Mara, on September 10th. It was a long process to get them (him) to the altar, but God is working in their lives and relationship. Susan and I were the maid of honor and best man, which carries with it an expectation of helping and guiding the newly married couple. Even the Justice of the Peace (still required in Germany) in her ceremony asked us if we were aware of our responsibilities. I performed the religious ceremony on a gorgeous day in a beautiful rose garden. We are blessed to have such a good friendship with them and pray God will continue to guide them.

An Intern

We have an intern working with us for the next year. Ben Channell arrived in August from Nashville,

Ben Channell

Tennessee, having graduated from Lipscomb University with a major in German. He is now in the middle of his German classes and doing a great job practicing what he already knows and is learning. He will be helping out with the youth activities and encouraging our teens and is already involved in an after school baseball club.

I have one more prayer request. I have been reading the Bible in English with Faree for a year now. We have read through Luke, Acts, and just finished John. The Sermon on the Mount is next focusing on the Kingdom of God. Faree is from Iran and doesn’t profess any particular religion. What is fun to experience is his encounter with Jesus the Christ. He wants to know more and more about him. As we finished John last week, he said that he is happy to get to read more about Jesus and his sermon. Please be in prayer about this man. Only God knows his future and His plans for him.

Coming up!

• This weekend is our church retreat and we are focusing on the five love languages as our topic. I am going to present this topic and we are looking forward to a nice time together.

• Also a new young couple, who have been coming since the summer, are expecting their first child. The due date was this past Sunday and they were not in attendance. That can only mean…

• Our teens are in the midst of planning their first Easter teen retreat. This is a great opportunity for them to grow spiritually and grow together as a group.

• The Hildesheim women are planning the Northern Germany Ladies Retreat in February. It is also a great opportunity for them to grow in their fellowship with each other and with God.

I leave you with a quote from St. Augustine. Take a minute or two and ponder these words:

“Love God and do what you want.”

John said it a little differently in 1 John 2:15 -

“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”

Blessings,

Kyle

sawing a log

: Lara

Last Night: An Odd Mix

bratcher — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 11:27:47 +0000

Last night we had our midweek Bible study. We meet in a home each week, preferred over meeting at our church building. We have been doing this for years now. It is normally a comfortable setting. A nice time to be together, visit and have a Bible study. Our theme has been “Loving One Another” using the book of the same title by Gene Getz. It has some very good ideas and also some theology that I don’t agree with, but all in all the series has challenged us to consider what we are doing for Christ as a body of believers.

Last night was unique. The topic last night was about putting into practice what we have been talking about in this series. Putting principles of evangelism into practice… in a personal and corporate way. But none of our “members” were there, except for Susan and I. We have had three family groups visiting us this summer. Two of the three are looking for a new fellowship, either having just moved to Hildesheim or gradually becoming convinced that they can’t continue to support their present fellowship’s theology. And last night, one man who is caught up in various addictions and is beginning to discover Jesus also joined us.

Last night was fun. Four believers searching for a new spiritual home, a friend visiting from the States (who used to live here) and one man who just shouldn’t fit in. He comes often on Sundays, smelling a little like alcohol, smokes his cheap hand-made cigarettes, admitting he can smoke a joint and it stops there and likes to sit with his loitering friends in a local park over a beer…or two. He gambles too much for a early retiree. Did I say he just doesn’t fit in?

Last night we were invited to have our bible study at the home of the new church seeking young couple. She is a pediatric nurse. He is an engineer with a doctor title, having developed and patented a new endoscopic camera. The other lady is a social worker, her son physically challenged, a computer whiz and has Agoraphobia. I was a little nervous about the new visitor coming to join this group. Over the summer the group has enjoyed many good discussions and has grown closer to each other and to God. Would this man fit in? Oh, he is also Manic-Depressive and has been known to pace the street across from our church building ranting and raving. He currently has an ongoing battle with his land-lord and neighbors and it is driving him crazy (no pun intended). This man, Mr. M, came late, settled himself next to the man with Agoraphobia, and started to enjoy the sharing, the prayer time, and finally the study. You could visibly see him relax and enjoy the company.

Last night God was healing. That is my prayer for our little out-of-place group. Professionals seeking a spiritual home, a divorcee seeking a family, her son needing fellowship (but scared to death of it), our friend from the U.S. enjoying a mid-week Bible study that his job had prevented, and a man needing to know and experience the love and grace of God, to let go of his love for other gods. It just doesn’t figure. Where else would such a group of people come together…unless motivated by a caring Father, who wants us to know and live out the reality that His Kingdom is not of this world and sometimes doesn’t fit in established cultural patterns.

Last night God’s Kingdom became a little more real. I like it! It is scary, challenging and needed in our world.

Personally we ask for your prayers. Susan and Benjamin leave next week for Texas, where Benjamin will continue his life’s journey at ACU. Please pray for a safe trip and a smooth transition, both for him and for us. He is going to be missed.

Blessings, Kyle

Four Pack

bratcher — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 14:07:26 +0000

Hi,

we want to share with you some wonderful news. Four boys from our church were baptized last evening: our son, Aaron, Daniel (our co-workers son), Jannik and Justin. We had a great turnout, including two grade school friends of Aaron. For several witnessing an adult baptism was something new. One of Aaron’s friends comments was, “now that was different.” Please pray that the seeds planted will grow!

Blessings,

Kyle

P.S. Here is a link for a Smilebox of the baptisms.

http://smilebox.com/playEmail/4d6a55314e6a45354e7a56384e5467794d7a55304e7a633d0d0a&sb=1

Fun in the Sun & Rain…

bratcher — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 17:13:21 +0000

Lipscomb Group

Greetings everyone,

we just spent the last 9 days with a group of students and their sponsor from Lipscomb University. Melissa, Katherine-Clair, Meredith, Sarah, and Andres´ came to help us with a new idea of reaching out to 7-11 year old kids in the north part of the city. We took a risk and advertised for a Baseball Camp. Now soccer would have bombed since there are so many sports clubs around offering it. For basketball you have to have a gym and they are usually reserved. The only other outdoor sport that was doable was baseball. A good head sport that requires skills to learn and just enough running to keep them busy, but not too much. All in all it was a success. The kids loved trying out something different. All of our youth group who participated really enjoyed serving (and playing with) the kids. The parents who came to watch were perplexed why we were doing this, but very grateful (and gave us an opportunity to talk to them). Even the youth coach from the local baseball team was pleasantly surprised to see so many kids out learning to play baseball. He asked how we managed to get so many kids out. I told him: “Word of mouth and Vitamin C (connections).” We had 31 kids the first day, 30 the second, and 26 the third. The weather on the third day was an answer to prayer. We had heard that it was supposed to rain all day. As we sat in the car waiting on the others at 9:30 (starting time was 10:00), it started to rain, then it poured and kept pouring. Shortly before 10:00, the rain stopped. We ended and got everything packed up around 5 p.m. and then it started raining again. We have needed rain and I am sure many have been praying for rain. I have never experienced God answering both prayers on the same day and so remarkably well. We hope to repeat the camp next year.

We were also able to paint a room at the church building to use as a counseling room and freshen up some other walls. The sponsor, Melissa, used her artistic talents to help Cindy paint a scripture on the wall. The group also went into two different high schools to help mainly fifth and sixth grade students practice their English.

It was a fast and furious nine days and God blessed quite a few young souls. Please pray for growth in the seeds that were planted!

Blessings, Kyle & Susan

Baseball Camp

Easter 2011

bratcher — Wed, 04 May 2011 14:46:01 +0000

Hello everybody,

Gemünden Easter Camp

The last 3 weeks have been a blast. God granted us opportunities to teach, share and just have plain fun with a bunch of kids and teens. First came a week at Gemünden, the church camp down by Frankfurt in the beautiful mountains of the Taunus region. We had 23 campers ranging in age from 10 to 15. One forgets the difference between those ages, their different needs and abilities, but we tried to be aware enough to tailor the Bible studies, singing and games to meet everyones needs and desires. It was a good time. I had the privilege of teaching on God’s view of sex and the rollercoaster emotions of a teen. Though the younger ones made frequent gagging sounds, I think they listened to my thoughts on the holiness of marriage, the old fashioned idea of waiting until marriage and how to deal with those crazy emotions. I thought that the older teens would have played the nonchalant game of showing no interest, but they interacted with the topics and had very good questions. I pray God planted some of His ideas about sex into their heads and hearts, that He has placed a protective fence around a sexual relationship and also that it is wonderfully fun. God knows they get enough information from the other side in this culture.

For example, I was watching the news yesterday around 5 p.m. catching up on the happenings in Pakistan and such, and boom, a commercial for an evening show about the sexual attitudes and practices of adults in Germany, including nudity and nude couples in bed. One expects that in the evening and after 10 p.m., but please, not in the afternoon. The expectation is high and for some parents encouraged, that teens are sexually active; complete with a parentally paid romantic weekend getaway for the young couple. This weekend Susan was talking with a woman whose oldest son is 23. She made the comment that when he was two, her (then) partner was being transferred to Spain for a couple of years. She felt they needed to get married beforehand since Spain is such a strict catholic nation. This was 20 years ago! Germany has “progressed” from there in leaps and bounds.

Bad Marienberg 2011

Following that week, I headed to Bad Marienberg with about 6 of our teens for the Easter weekend. With about 63 teens plus adults we camped out at the youth hostel and centered our thoughts on the Holy Spirit. It was also a great time of fellowship, worship and examination of our relationship to God. With a wee bit of pressure, Hildesheim, along with Peine and Celle, agreed to organize and plan the weekend next year. I believe that this experience will be a blessing to our youth and give them a chance to use their gifts and talents or even to discover new ones.
I will close for now and let Susan fill you in on some of our family happenings.

Kyle

Greetings from sunny, windy, cold, rainy, warm…. Hildesheim!

The week in Gemünden was very nice. The weather was perfect with lots of sunshine! I was in charge of the cooking at the kids camp before Easter. We were around 40 people. Everything went really well, despite the fact that we had several picky eaters. I always enjoy serving the kids and watching them enjoy (at least most of the time) what they are eating.Benjamin helped out at the camp with the games and being a counselor helper. I think he enjoyed his role, until he twisted his foot in one of the games in the woods. Aaron missed camp this year since he went to a basketball tournament in Vienna. There were lots of different nations present. I think he really enjoyed the experience. He came back totally worn out.

Aaron ended his basketball season with his JBBL (Regional) Hannover team with an amazing game on Saturday. They had to win the game in order to stay in the league at the level they are currently playing. It was neck and neck the entire game. In the last few minutes everyone was standing up cheering (these games are the only ones where there is even anyone in the audience). The refs made several bad calls (seems like mostly against our team, but hey, I am not prejudiced)! It ended up that the guests tied the score. That meant five minutes overtime. Neck and neck all the way, then the other team was leading. Panic! Our defense was losing it. Time out! Got their act back together and tied it up again. Then one of the other team’s big guys had a cramp or strained muscle and could not hustle to guard our guy. Our team saw it, took advantage of it and scored. He was taken out to stretch. Then their other big guy fouled out (FINALLY)! Took advantage of that and were up by three with less than a minute to go. The other team had the ball, we got it away, Aaron went up for a basket and was fouled. He made his two shots and sealed the win! Hurrah! It was a fun, intense game to watch! This ends Aaron’s year with this special league (only 14-15 year-olds). It remains to be seen where he will play next season, but most likely again with a Hannover team in a higher league. Benjamin had his oral test in religion today. He received the highest score possible… 15 points! Hurray!! He will have to wait until the middle of June or so for the scores in his other test subjects. He graduates on June 25. My parents are coming for the graduation, which is a special treat!

So, I asked Benjamin if I could make his college decision “official”. After a great deal of struggle trying to decide where to go to school, he has decided to go to…… (drum roll please)… ACU!! He has always had a hard time making decisions but this was extremely hard since he was accepted into the musical theater program at Lipscomb and put on the “waiting list” for the musical theater program at ACU. The theater department professors from ACU skyped with Benjamin last week and said that they really wanted him and wanted him to enroll in the classes that the others would be taking and to “try out” officially again in November. From our understanding it is because they did not get to work with him personally and just had a video tryout from him. I know he would appreciate your continued prayers for him and his decision!

Lara is trying to get back into the swing of school again after a two week Easter break. Homework is not exactly her favorite thing to do. Her ballet class is performing at the Theater on Sunday, May 8, so she is very excited about being on stage. Her reading skills continue to improve. It is fun to hear her trying to read the labels on food items or the signs when we drive by something.

I am enjoying my work with the 5th and 6th graders at the high school. They always amuse me with different things that they say. It is a blessing to me to get to work with Benjamin and Aaron’s teachers so closely (without actually having Benjamin and Aaron in my class). Benjamin did fill in once for me when Kyle and I were in Vienna.We appreciate your prayers for us and the work here!

Blessings,

Susan

Here are some more pictures from Gemünden.

Sharing and Caring

bratcher — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 08:55:12 +0000

Here is an update to the last post. Following our worship time with the group from Abraham’s round table, we enjoyed lunch together and fellowship time. One of the men came up to me and asked if he could interview me for his radio program on the local radio station. That happened last week and I am curious how the interview turned out. Above all, I hope and pray that God will be glorified and his kingdom expanded.

It has been pretty stressful around here the last couple of weeks, but the stress has been the good kind. We welcomed our first official visitors from our sponsoring church and had a wonderful time with them. I think they enjoyed it too: getting to see some of our work, what we do in terms of Bible studies,

worship, encouragement of the believers, and community involvement. Jonathan and Zach left to go back home, hopefully a little more knowledgeable of the work here, wiser about a different culture and the shocks involved, and more insightful of their own journey with Christ. Oh, here’s my favorite picture of the week with them.

After they left I went into high gear finishing up preparations for our first weekend marriage seminar. We drove to Vienna last Thursday and led a 24-hour seminar, from Friday to Saturday evening and then preached Sunday. We pray that some of our thoughts were encouraging and challenging for the couples there. This was our first time to do a weekend seminar having done a few of the Dynamic Marriage 9-week format seminars. It was not quite as intensive, but not nearly as stressful (especially when you have to travel to another city a few hours away). We left them with a book to continue with, so that they have the chance to form a support group to learn new ideas, challenge and encourage one another in their relationships.

We also got to see old friends Stacia, Scott and Sabine who all live in Vienna. I grew up with Scott in Oklahoma and it is always good to be with him, no matter how long or short. We arrived home last night around 1 a.m., tired of driving and happy to be home.

Kyle

Here are some thoughts from Susan:

We just got back from Vienna early this morning after doing a marriage seminar. I just love the culture in Vienna and how they talk and the different words they use compared to Germany german. I heard Tiki Eis opened April 1 (wonderful ice cream). Unfortunately, we did not have time to enjoy the experience! We were blessed to get to visit with some special friends in addition to meeting new friends through the seminar. It was a very positive experience (we have a few things to improve on for the next time) and we pray a blessing to those who participated.

I did learn two valuable lessons on our trip back: 1. Do NOT leave home without your Passport!! and 2. Do NOT blindly follow your navigation system!! Our navi was leading us to drive home through the Czech Republic. We did not realize it until we had driven about an half hour out of the way. We could not go through the Czech Republic because I did not have my passport with me. We had to stop and buy a map and criss-cross back to another highway, which, unfortunately, cost a lot of time. We were tired and barely talking to each other (because I made us turn on the wrong Autobahn and cost another 30 minutes time) by the time we got home. What a paradoxical way to end a nice weekend at a marriage seminar. Surely there is something deeper to learn there too!! Maybe that I should not be in charge of the map!!

Susan

A neat week

bratcher — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 10:11:13 +0000

This week started out in a big way. Several months ago we were contacted by one of the parents from Lara’s grade school. They were interested in visiting our church or bringing their religious group to one of our Sunday worship services. Interesting! We had he and his wife over for coffee and had a wonderful conversation. This muslim family are active in one of the mosques in our neighborhood. In fact the location is behind and a few doors down from our building. It so happens that the husband is also involved in an organization called Abraham’s round table, made up of four religious groups: Christian (Catholic & Protestant), Jew, Islam, and Bahá’í. He spoke with us in January and asked if they could invite anyone in that group to come to a Sunday morning worship service. After talking with our members and discussing it several times, we all agreed that this would be beneficial to all and help in improving relationships in our part of the city.

This past Sunday they came. This was our monthly pot-luck Sunday and so we invited all to stay for lunch. We had over 70 in our rooms and enjoyed quite a few lively discussions. Most interesting was learning more about the Bahá’í faith: that God sent another prophet 150 years ago in the person of Bahá’u'lláh (translated: the glory of God). His role was/is to unite all religions and work toward world peace. Every religion is accepted, equal, and contains God’s truth. The movement began with a man who called himself “the Báb” or gateway. Jesus is not seen as the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham, rather he is another prophet in a long chain of prophets, beginning with Krishna in 3000 B.C.

Our prayer and hope is that God will provide more such opportunities for dialog. The time together was very good for our people; learning to respectfully listen and then respectfully share their faith in God and in His only Son.

Then Tuesday evening we went to a chldren’s concert sponsored by the neighborhood Catholic church and a Christian group we know well, GO20, who is involved in inter-city and school activities outreach. Lara was in the kids choir and got to get up on stage at the end of the concert to sing with the group. It was a fun time and another example of seeing God work in north Hildesheim. Here is a short video…

Lara is in the front middle in the light green shirt.

One big prayer request is for the children’s and youth work here in our part of the city. We are looking at working closely with the GO20 team in taking over a large (former) semi-truck repair shop that sits behind our building owned by our landlord. It would make a great place for kids and teens to hang out, play some basketball, soccer, volleyball, have concerts, etc. We are dreaming big and looking to God for His guidance. It needs a lot of work and will require financing from some source(s). But our God “owns a thousand cattle on a thousand hills.”

Please keep us, the church, and the work in your prayers too. BTW, I am studying with two people interested in being baptized. One of them said this week that she is almost ready. Praise God!

Kyle

Finally Free!

bratcher — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 17:17:29 +0000

Don baptizing Samira

Hey everyone, check this story out! I have always believed strongly that God is at work, even when we don’t notice it, even when we stand in the way, even when we run the wrong way (i.e. Jonah). Here’s a small tale (but no small decision) within the bigger picture.

Many of you know about Romani’s baptism last August. Since then Don has continued to study with both Romani and his wife, Samira. About a month ago Samira told all of us during the sharing time, that she wanted to be baptized. This we celebrated on Sunday the 6th of February. Her comment afterwards was, „I feel so free!“

Please pray for this couple and for Samira’s new journey with Jesus.

Samira & Romani

She has had a very rough life: a “prearranged” marriage at 15, forced out of her home and away from her kids by her first husband, and married outside of her gypsy clan. She has now taken the step to commit her life to Jesus and in doing so, has been shunned by her family and has completely turned away from her Muslim roots. Romani continues to do his best in influencing friends and acquaintances for Christ. He brought a friend last Sunday to witness the baptism, ex-convict, working to get off drugs. What a wonderful example of being Christ to others and what a challenge for us and for our comfort levels.

Please pray for them, us and the work here.

Kyle