Well I don't think I mentioned anything about the planning for our trip during the fall break. There is a church in Alabama that Ralf (Pastor of CGS, local church) has had a good relationship with the Music minister there for several years. In fact a few years ago he brought a choir group here to Siegburg. Ralf and his wife Tina visited this church a year or so ago and they were very impressed with their involvement in their own community as well as throughout the rest of the world in missions. We planned to take the youth leaders from CGS there to share ministry perspectives with each other as well as plan a project together. We had a cool Skype meeting, Ralf and I with two of their ministers to kick it off. Then the asst Music Min. and myself took it from there. I had a good time emailing him back and forth as we planned our time together!
We had also been talking with a guy about a half hour from us about coming to play his team in baseball. The finally came through. We organized a team to go to their so called "sandlot" which turned out to be one of the nicest fields I have seen in Germany! Aside from their limited space and subsequential awkward shape, it looked better than a lot fields in the states. We played two games against their team and for the most part we played better, but they had a secret weapon who scored their only 3 runs in a 0-2 and 0-1 set of games. It was a bummer we lost both, but we sure had a ton of fun! Some of our guys might join their winter camp in January.
I also had my 28th Birthday in Germany. It was really cool what both the youth and some of my other friends, that I have been able to make while I am here did for me! It was a great birthday month! Making sure I was equipped with warm Germany style winter clothing was a common and generous theme.
So back to the Herbst Ferien. It was pretty surreal to be going on a trip to the United States as a visitor. As I said before we took a team of 9 including myself and the pastor to FBC Montgomery, AL. We were there for a week to plan and organize as well as observe some of the different ministry programs that were reaching out to the community.
First of our flight over was a little scary. I think we flew in American Airlines first plane ever. Then the first thing that we did landing in Atlanta was of course got o the best Restaurant in the world. Then our week was packed full of time at the church or other of their associated ministries such as the caring center and all their different ESL programs. There in Montgomery is a military training base for pilots and officers. They provide that training for all other military offices not just US. There are a lot of military wives that don't speak any english and so during the year there they can come to FBC M to learn english. They also provide a community ministry called the Nehemiah Project that reaches out to all the kids in low income area providing after school programs and sports for kids that would otherwise never have the opportunity to do so. This is the answer to the universal call to "get our children off the streets."
Next summer we hope to come back with a team of youth to join this outreaching church in their ministry to Montgomery, Al. As we were there we heard and saw great generosity among the members of this church, of which we hope to exemplify and replicate among the church here in Siegburg. This visions and paths of this church is similar to where CGS is and hopes to be in the future.
Over the past couple of weeks through my time with FBC Montgomery and as Ralf and I continue in our conversations about FBC Bryan, and Synergy, my ideals of ministry and philosophy as it pertains to churches working together. I have always believed in churches going to the same location on missions each year to build relation, but church partnerships to the degree that we have discussed this over the past few months takes that concept to a new level. This is something that I think truly takes ministry to a new level. Not just to the people and community around both churches but also for both church congregations. I can't wait to see where God leads me in my time here in Germany, but even more so to see how He uses things that He is teaching me here, in the future!
Tonight we went to a ceremony in the city Reichspogromnacht. It was the night that the Synagogues were burned down and they arrested all the jews. There are fountains in place of those synagogues now and every Nov. 9th they meet there by the fountain and then we walked to the cemetery where they buried all the jews in this area. It was a very interesting and important night to be a part of. Below is a picture of the fountain from tonight.
Following His Call
For those who have been in Siegburg this is right in front of C&A.
