Die Brüdergemeinde

On Sunday, we went to a church in the town of Krontal. This is about 1 hour away from where we live. I have a friend from high school who went to seminary near the area, and he told us about the place. He said that they are very missions oriented and very friendly. He was so right!! We just happened to go to the church on Missions Sunday. There were displays from all of the missionaries they support, and most of them, I think have come from the church. One of the missionaries works in Brazil and is married to a Brazilian woman. He speaks German, Portuguese, Dutch, English, and French. WOW!!

When we arrived at the church, we were a little late. One thing about German churches is that they start promptly at 10 am. The church bell rings and service begins. Even though we were late, we were ushered to the second row, which was a little intimidating with the HUGE projection screen right in front of us. They began to sing some worship tunes. They actually had drums, guitars, a bass, piano (as opposed to the organ), and several singers. It was refreshing. The first song they sang was an American song, but translated into German. So I quietly sang the song with the words I knew. The next few songs were German worship tunes, so I read the words and tried to keep up. The words were so encouraging, so God focused instead of "me" focused. So I'm thinking this is good. Then, they did a presentation of several of the missionaries, and one of the missionaries to Africa gave the message for the day. I was surprised at how much I understood.

When the service ended, people kind of hung around to look at the missionary displays. There were little bistro tables set up with some juice and mineral water. People gathered around them and fellowshipped with each other. I was so happy that people didn't just leave right after service. There is a connection between these people. In the meantime, we met Jarrit Andersen. What a gift from God!! We began talking with him, and he invited us to his home for lunch. Jarrit is a 20 year old student who is the drummer for the church. So we decided to join him and his family for lunch. We met Elka and Klaus, his parents, and many other people who came to lunch there. We ended up spending the entire afternoon at their house talking about God, life, German culture, work, and everything under the sun. The love of Jesus was just so evident in these people.

They invited us to attend the evening service (Gottesdienst). Klaus, himself, had really pushed for about 2 years to have an evening service that was more contemporary and upbeat. They have this service once per month. The service was amazing. People stood up and talked about what God had done in their lives. One lady, who works in one of the orphanages that the church runs, stood up and said that 2 of the children in the orphanage had gotten saved!! This just blessed my socks off.

Afterwards, there was fellowship, food, and drinks. We met so many people, many of whom spoke very good English. It was just such a blessing to be around people with the same heart for missions and outreach, and the same heart for Christ. We haven't seen this here in Germany at all. We got numbers and email addresses from people we met, and hopefully we can build lasting friendships with many of these people while we are here. It's a beautiful thing to have uplifting people in your life. You don't realize how important it is until all of them are thousands of miles away!!

So I feel that a prayer has been answered, and my heart is full.