The greatest thing

The greatest thing about the call to follow Christ is taking the love that we've been given around the world. We love the family and friends he's given us, but can't imagine not testing the waters of foreign missions, as the world is an exciting place full of people in need; both physically and spiritually. We desire to fill a need where it is most needed, but the problem with that is that there is not necessarily one need that is greater than another in terms of which "place" or "people" to reach out to.

While heart strings are pulled when distance is a factor, nothing can stop a heart with a passion to do what it's been set on. While the spiritual need is the most present in a land like western Europe, we see ongoing news reports of those without homes who could probably live a lifetime on the money that we only hope to pay of the rest of our loans with. So then the question is in mind, "should we go where we know our help would be so gladly recieved first for the physical, and then spiritual? For Jesus said " when you fed the poor, you also fed me; and gave the thirsty a drink, you did also me." The poor are in need of help and love, and are more recieving to the Gospel for their souls because they see the destruction that is able in this world. When rich eyes can't get past what's in front of them, they see little need to draw upon a spiritual need and future that they believe is likely years away for them.

Well the beauty of the body of Christ is that when move away from loved ones, we still keep their contact and prayers with us. We are more empowered by those who are lifting us up in prayer, and we reciprocate that cooperation through communication with them and for them through prayer.

We can continue our life where we believe best, and still take up opportunities to take the church we now congregate with and meet the needs of those in the countries that they too can reach out to both physically and spiritually. We are all one body, and we are more empowered by the work that we can now as two different nations, bring together to serve a third wherever that is. We pray the Lord will use us here to continue the passion for missions that has taken us here, and use it to serve alongside them, the other nations who are in need.

This is eloquently put in Psalms 96 "Sing to the Lord all the earth. Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among all peoples!"

Saving my hair...

Today I started my job which was huge! It is awesome to see how God worked out everything and continues to place us where He wants us. Yesterday before I started my job I figured I should go get a haircut. I went to a German place that is owned by a member of our church. This would be my first hair cut here in Kusel and my 2nd one I have ever had in German. For some odd reason there is a theme in my life when it comes to haircuts by people that do not speak English. When we lived in St. Pete, I found a place right by my neighborhood that was a yellow building that said, “hair and nails”. It was a cheap ($7 a cut) Korean haircutting place, that oddly enough sold random pieces of jewelry, dvds, and electronic equipment that looked like it was ripped from people’s houses or car’s. The only words they knew in English were, money, numbers, shorter, or longer, and a couple more that were random. I received one of the worst haircuts of my life there from a man by the name of “Uncle”. He shaved my head and only left the bangs and seemed enthralled at how wonderful it looked. I ended up shaving my head after that one and had to another time when I lived in Scranton (a country of its own). Those times in my past I would feel nervous when I would get my hair cut because I didn’t want to have to “lose” what I had worked so hard for. I was frightened to lose something that would grow back, kinda like Uncle Jesse from Full House, loving my hair. I have since that time in my life cared far less if they mess up or something goes wrong where I have to lose it all again, because I know it will come back, and if it doesn’t its only hair. Now we look at that idea of protecting our precious hair as silly in over all view of life, because we know it is very temporal. That thought brought me to think about our lives here on earth. If we look at our lives in history they are a mere vapor. This body is temporal and this life time on this earth during your 80 years or however it is, is only temporal. As a Christian we have the hope of eternity spent with Jesus and should continue to think, “to live is Christ and to die is gain”. Why do we make such a big deal about our physical lives on this earth? If it is only temporary why are we not taking our lives and using them and as resources to reach the world for Christ? These thoughts continue to burn in my mind as I read the book, “the Costly Call”. It’s about people reaching the unreached with the Gospel. Some were brutally beaten, forsaken by family, and scared for life. They would say, It was worth it because they wanted to lay hold of the eternal, Jesus Christ. When they had a relationship with Christ their lives changed and they used every resource they had materially and physically to reach the unreached. The song of one of my friends continues to play in my mind when I read the book, “What are you saving your life for”. We have one life here, why not use it for Christ to do something out of the ordinary? (no that is a old haircut I had in the summer)

Budgie-

Have you ever heard of a budgie?

Today my tutor-ee learned the British word "budgie." As we read through his vocab list, I came upon this word and to my knowledge believed it was not in our American vocab. So asking a fellow pastor here, he directed me online, believing it was the word for 'parakeet,' and sure enough it was. So then as we proceeded with our lesson, each time the word "budgie" came up, I'm pretty sure Nick wasn't quite sure why I was laughing, but I just could not help but find these random and few British words so different and so humorous. I still don't know if I pronounced it right, but regardless, we both learned a new word today:)

What we have done in a month

A month ago we left…
We first just want to thank everyone for praying for our journey here in Germany. We have seen God do so many amazing things already. Our major prayer request was for Julia and I to get jobs and to get our visas. Both of those things happened very quickly and we are amazed how quick God moved. We have not worked yet, but I am hoping to start on Friday after I get my finger printing done. Julia and I will both be working with children in a before and after school program. I can not tell you how many times we have been to the military base that we are working at. It seems like every couple of days we have been there to do paper work or to wait in a waiting room for medical clearances. We have had plenty to do as we have been waiting to start our jobs. I have a full load of seminary that I continue to work on and Julia is tutoring a boy in English 3 times a week. On top of that we are trying to learn German, which we will rev up when we get a routine schedule. We have made so many great connections with people inside and outside the church. We don’t lack things to do during the week, we are lacking time to fit it all in. Here is what we have done in our first month and is how you can continue to pray for us…

1. Received our visas
2. Received jobs that enable us to work at night with the churches events
3. I have gotten my German drivers license (Julia is going for hers tomorrow, pray!)
4. Massive piles of paper work that drive you crazy
5. I fined tuned my stick shifting skills (Julia already knew how)
6. Fixed the car we were given
7. Made many connections with people that Lord willing will only grow!
8. Painted our apartment
9. Went to IKEA
10. Drove to France for fun one day (we live only 30 minutes from there)
11. Told the glories of a horse sausage and was rebuked for not eating one yet
12. Disco slides
13. Fussball game

Prayer Request

1. Learn the language
2. For our group that we will be trying to start here in the near future
3. Spiritual wisdom
4. Job’s will be fun!
5. More people to be missionaries

We are in awe of the work that God continues to do here in Germany. Please continue to pray to where he might lead us in the future here! Thank you again for your prayers, they are felt and are coveted.

waterloo

Last night I had the great opportunity to go to the “schwimm bad” or the indoor swimming pool. Julia was invited to go to a girls house for a tupper ware party and her husband was going to the pool. He invited me to go to the pool with him and his son. He speaks only German so this was a great opportunity for me to practice. The problem with my German is that I can only have small conversation if someone usually asks me questions, and I can essentially repeat them back like a parrot. I have a hard time forming questions that merit more than a one word or short phrase response. We arrived at the pool and I end up following this man around because I am not sure what the customs are in Germany for pool educate. Finally after some confusion about whether or not I already had my swimming suit on, I went to the showers. As I tried turning the shower knob for a while, nothing came out and I had to ask for help. He showed me that they were motion sensors and then it comes out. I had the temperature set to freezing cold so it was a nice present when I turned the shower, as let out a shreek as it hit my nice warm exposed skin. Then we made our way to the pool area. I went and dove in and swam some laps and then got out and sat next to him and some other people. They then asked me to go down this huge slide with them. This slide was like a huge water park slide. Not only was it huge, but for some reasons the German culture loves disco tech music and disco tech lights. This slide had speakers as you go down and disco lights that changed colors that made you want to dance as you slid down. I had never seen anything like this. The slide was so fun and fast, I felt like Napoleon from the movie “Bill and Ted’s excellent adventure”. I acted like I had never gone on a slide before. I was running up the stairs and was tempted to push the slow walkers aside. After I had gone down the slide about 13 times, no joke it burned a little hole in my swimming trunks because of the speed and number of times. I decided it was time for the hot tub. As I was sitting in there with some of the people we were with, I noticed the plethora of Speedos; every shape, size, and color. If there was ever a shortage and there was need for Speedos in another country, I think we could send the relief aid. My eye’s needed to be washed after we were in the hot tub and a very old rather large man, with a very selfish and small black Speedo decided to join us. I had a great time swimming and getting to know the people and they invited me to go next week again with them. No one I was with, wore a Speedo, but there is peer pressure to get one….so you never know, maybe I will have to put on one, because as Paul was all things to all men, I must be all things to all men, even if that means Speedo wearing.

Throw me over board

I would call myself the Jonah of sports. It was because of Jonah that a beautiful day for sailing turned into a horrible storm. When they realized that it was Jonah who brought these troubles to their ship they threw him over board. The reason I call myself the Jonah of sports, is not the fact that since I have started being interested in sports at a young age, I have never seen any team I like win a championship or have a successful winning percentage. The reason I deem myself the Jonah of sports, is because my effect on the fussball club team we live by. I went to one game and we won, which put us in first place. It was after that game that I became more interested and to paid closer attention. Today they had a game against the worst team in their league. It would be like UNC playing North Carolina technical school. It was supposed to be a very easy win. We decided to go to the local doner kebab place to watch it. They have a great sign out front that is made out of cardboard that says, “every goal, every game” written in black magic marker. We knew we could count on a place like this to catch our beloved Kaiserslautern. As we strolled in, the regulars one by one followed in and sat in their usual seats. They ordered what they probably always order and started smoking their cigarettes so that we could take away 3 months of our lives from the second hand smoke. The game started and I kid you not within the first 17 seconds the other team scored a goal. We were in shock and at that point, I knew it was me. This city had never seen something like this, so I stood up and shouted for them to throw me out of the restaurant and into the river because it was my fault! They picked me up and did as I asked. I’m just kidding, but seriously they did. The team came back and tied the game. It ended in a tie, but the curse of Rich’s teams lives on. It was a great experience to enjoy a game with Micha, Lukas, Janna, and Julia. I am just hoping the German national team does not suffer because of my residency in the country. (and yes that is a picture of my brother in law Luke who use to be a Redskins fan)

Contagious

Julia and I like to watch tv as we walked around our house and get ready in the morning or if we are getting prepared for something. We watch it not because we have a favorite show or can understand the shows, but to try and help us learn German. In Germany they will take an American comedy and dub over with German voices. Usually when we watch one of these shows you will hear one us yell out words that are familiar to us like this morning, Julia yelled out, “butcher!” This morning we saw the show “The Nanny”. If you have never seen the show you aren’t missing anything. The ladies voice makes you want to be at a 6th grade flute recital for beginners instead of listening to her. I do not know if it was because I couldn’t understand what was going on because of the language, but I noticed that in this comedy at the end of every sentence there was a laugh track that went off. I kid you not, at the end of every sentence there was a laugh track, even when she said, “hello” as she entered the room. The reason why they add these laugh tracks to these awful comedies is because they are hoping that this laughter will be contagious. It will make you think it’s funny and maybe make you laugh at it. The thought of being a contagious came to mind. I think of the life of Paul in Acts 16. He was put in prison and had everything going against him. He was just beat and his response was to sing and praise God. It said that the whole jail heard him and Silas and after the Lord freed them, the jailor ran in and asked what he might to do be saved. Paul’s love for Jesus gave him a joy that was different from other people. The Gospel should change our lives to the point where our lives look different to the outside world. We have a hope in Jesus Christ, we have an eternal joy that is ever lasting! I am convicted because many times when I should be exemplifying Gospel joy, I exemplify a bad attitude. Julia and I have been in many waiting rooms and have had a lot of paper work to do here in Germany, and I will admit I have not always had the greatest attitude. What is great is that we are continually given opportunities to take up our Cross and follow Jesus daily. I hope that we as Christians live a life that makes the watching world, ask of the hope that is in us that we may give an answer for that hope.