Mittwoch

Mini German lesson of the day

Hallo auf Deutschland!

Es ist Die Mitte der Woche heir, und das ist warum sie "Wednesday" nennen "Mittwoch".

Translation: Hello from Germany! It is the middle of the week here, and that is why they call Wednesay "Mittwoch".


Our first week is well underway now, half over in fact. So far we have met with three readers total. Tomorrow I will meet for the first time with a lady from the church named Dagmar, and on Friday I have another reading session with a young man named Jonas. We are still waiting to hear back from four potential readers, and are very surprised that three of those three have not responded to us yet as all seemed very enthused initially. Please keep them and whatever their situations are in your prayers, perhaps God will bring them to us next week.

So far we've had two people come in off of the street and ask about practicing their English with us. Samuel seemed very excited about getting started but did not actually schedule an appointment.  He talked to mom when he came in. He had a card with him advertising Let's Start Talking. He said "I need help. Someone gave me this card, but I can't read English so I don't know what it says." So mom read it to him. He said "I need to learn English, and I know that I can do that here. But I also need God so I can have a better life, and I know that I can find him here." We are a little disheartened that he did not make an appointment then. Please pray that God continues to work on his heart and that he comes to church Sunday so we can catch up with him. Dana is the other one. She came in because 20 years ago (I'm not kidding) she read with the gentleman that used to preach here. She remembered doing that and wanted to see if the program still existed or not. She will be reading with Mom on Monday.

It is very exciting and encouraging to have people just show up this way, without any prompting.

This is the Church building

My new friend Pascal, who I started reading with on Tuesday has already come twice and will be back on Friday. He does not live near the church, but he likes to come and read whenever he can. Yesterday he came just to get started, today he read with me just before an English bible study. His religious background is mostly Catholic. He is quite disenchanted with Catholicism and in my opinion the concept of church as an organization on the whole. He likes the feel of the congregation here, but is hesitant to become too personally attached or invested. I don't think he frequents Sunday services, but he does make a point to come to the bible studies and smaller gatherings. He is definitely searching and trying to figure out what is true and what is right for himself. He has also been looking for work for several years now. He is well qualified and seems easy enough to get along with, but competition is fierce in the current market. He just had a job interview today and feels it went quite well. He has asked for prayers concerning this situation. Please pray that this interview leads to actual employment for him, and that God will work through me and other Christians in his life to help him on his journey.

Apart from meeting with readers today, we were able to take advantage of some other opportunities that came our way. First, there was a German class meeting in the building at the same time we were having lunch. Initially we kept to the office downstairs so as not to bother them too much, but at the end of their class time they invited us to pray with them.  We met three wonderful, warm, inviting ladies that were more than happy to have us join and get to know them. We ended up talking for about 30 minutes before the actual prayer time. These ladies prayed for many things; all of our families, this LST mission, the people that we encounter in our daily lives, the world as a whole, and they expressed an immense amount of gratitude for the things they have in life. After the prayer time they told us we are welcome to join them for their class anytime that they are there and we don't have readers. They have planned an outside class for us next week and said that we will have ice cream then. Later in the day we joined a small English bible study and spent about an hour discussing 1 Peter chapter 2.

I was going to update you about the rest of our day as well, but it's getting late and I don't have WiFi in the apartment, so tomorrow will be Mittwoch part 2, and  recap of the day.

Until next time....