A blessed day

Happy Boxing day everyone. After a wonderful Heiligabend and a joyous Weihnachtstag and sit here on the 26. Although I have missed my family I am surrounded by some amazing people who have become dear friends. God has blessed me with this group here. I got to spend Christmas eve with a family and later a few friends. We had raclette and watched Elf and in general just enjoyed the night.

Christmas day started off wonderfully with a Christmas brunch of ten non-familial people that are around for the holidays. There was laughter and good food and I was grateful for the chance to spend time with them. Moving on to Christmas evening, we had another about ten people get together for a wonderful dinner and fellowship. The evening included time of laughing, white elephant gift exchanges, a movie and some worship.

Christmas in Germany is a special time and I have been blessed to experience for three years now. God has brought me to a place of sole reliance on Him and blessed me in ways that I cannot express. I pray that you have a wonderful holiday time and enjoy the blessings that you have been given.

I read this a couple of days ago while watching the snow fall

Hear, O LORD, and answer me, for I am poor and needy.
Guard my life, for I am devoted to you.
You are my God; save your servant who trusts in you.
Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I call to you all day long.
Bring joy to your servant, for to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
You are forgiving and good, O Lord, abounding in love to all who call to you.
Hear my prayer, O LORD; listen to my cry for mercy.
In the day of my trouble I will call to you, for you will answer me.
Among the gods there is none like you, O Lord; no deeds can compare with yours.
All the nations you have made will come and worship before you, O Lord;
they will bring glory to your name.
For you are great and do marvelous deeds; you alone are God.
Teach me your way, O LORD, and I will walk in your truth;
give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.
I will praise you, O Lord my God, with all my heart;
I will glorify your name forever.
For great is your love toward me; you have delivered me from the depths of the grave.
The arrogant are attacking me, O God; a band of ruthless men seeks my life - men without regard for you.
But you, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.
Turn to me and have mercy on me grant your strength to your servant and save the son of your maidservant.
Give me a sign of your goodness, that my enemies may see it and be put to shame,
for you, O LORD, have helped me and comforted me.

Germany

It has been snowing for the last few days. It looks pretty and just white washes everything. Marzell is so beautiful in the snow. The guys have had a lot of fun playing in it. Breaking out their snowboards and going down the hill out back.

Christmas banquet is coming up and the guys are getting themselves ready for what Saturday will look like. Break is still four weeks away which is longer than usual. I hope that y'all are doing well.

When Spetember ends.

Hey all, It has been a crazy yet wonderful fall so far. We have had a soccer tournament and a football tourney. We have taken students here there and everywhere. We as staff are learning how to work together best as a team.

Tomorrow is a big day. The seniors leave on a weeklong tour of Italy. One day in Venice, one day in Florence and six days in Rome. They should have a lot of fun. Many of these students have been looking forward to this trip for four years.

The juniors also leave tomorrow for a three day trip to Normandy. It is very much a history trip and they get to learn a lot and have some fun in Normandy. Sonne has 8 juniors. The exciting thing about this is that I have been asked to go as a chaperone. So I get to ride the bus all night long with them. And experience the impact of such a place. I am really looking forward to it.

With both of these trips, please pray for safety and traveling and that people will bond together. Also pray for me that I will have the energy to come back strong. Normandy is a pretty tiring trip.

Thank you for your prayers and support. I am healing very well after my fall with the lawnmower. God is and was very good to me. Fall is just starting here. It will be beautiful with many colours over the next 6 weeks or so.

God bless,
Matt

God is Amazing

Well, I have quite the story from today. I was out starting to mow the lawn. We have a creek that runs along our property and a hill that goes down to the creek. I got the lawnmower stuck along the creek. In trying to get out I ended up sliding down the hill into the creek. In the process, the lawnmower actually went over top of me. We both landed in the creek.

Now here is the amazing part. No major injury happened. I didn't even need stitches. I went to the emergency room and got checked out. Although I am beat up, I am okay. God protected me. I am in about the best shaped that one could be after that kind of situation. Thank you to God for that.

Life is going well here besides this little story. The guys are awesome and I am glad that I am here for a third year.

It is time

Well so far today we have had 12 students arrive. It is great. Please pray for the safe arrival of the other 15. I am so excited that they are finally coming. It is going to be a good year with many guys getting a lot of love.

Please continue to pray for me as I minister to and serve these guys. They are a true blessing.

Come and gone

Well, everyone...

It has been a fantastic five weeks. I have loved talking with you and enjoying life with you. There is so much that I get to experience over here yet I sem to miss so much of your lives. Thank you all for your hospitality. I have loved the time that I was able to spend in the US.

Germany has decided to greet me like I never left the mid Atlantic. Hot and humid. This is very strange weather for this area, but it is what it is. The last two years we had the fireplace going in the house we are all staying. Not this year. It has been many a warm reunion with many good friends over the last day or so.

Please pray for us as new residence staff comes that we will bond together to create a great staff to serve these wonderful students.

Blessings

I have had the great opportunity to talk with many of you over the past few weeks. It has been wonderful to touch base and see how God is working in your lives. It also is a nice thing to have you ask me questions and through those questions, process the last couple of years. These times also bring some simple revelations about how awesome God is.

One of those things is God and how he loves to bless us. I have been amazed at how much God has blessed me. In the last two years, I have been able to visit some amazing places. This would have not have happened if I hadn't been willing to say yes and follow God to Germany. It was such a simple yes and just saying to why not to the option of moving across the ocean.

Looking back it doesn't seem like that huge of a decision and God has just blessed me more that I could expect. I sometimes forget to look at these things in life and focus on the harder things, but it is much better to focus on all the ways that God loves to bless me.

School's Out For SUMMER!!!

Well, the year is done. The class of 2008 has graduated and the BFA community has emptied out. That doesn't mean that work stops, just that it takes a different form. Work has started out on the dorms. Palmgarten has everything cleared out and the rooms and hallways got new carpet and paint. I helped with that one. Haus Bad Riedlingen had the whole first floor torn out with walls being taken down and dust everywhere. It will look very different next year and will function more easily as a dorm with the changes.

There was a 20 year reunion already this summer and there will be graduate classes that can be taken taught by Philadelphia Biblical University. The dorms will have English Camps take place in July. These camps are an outreach to German teenagers. They have a chance to learn some English and we have a chance to share about the amazing gift of Jesus. It is such a great opportunity to reach out to the community.

As for me, I am in the states for 5 weeks to rest and make contact with many of you that read this.

Last Day

This is the last night. Graduation happened today and the seniors are off on their cruise. Tonight will be an all-nighter of watching movies and saying good-bye to each other.

Tomorrow night I will be able to sleep. Yippee!

What a beautiful world

So it was a pretty incredible day today. Blue skies and 75. Everything is in bloom. Green is everywhere and the sun just illuminates the beauty. I had the chance to sit by a creek and just listen to the water flow over the rocks.

This past weekend BFA had their big soccer/track and field event. It takes place in a local city Lörrach. There is a track and soccer field right next to each other. The event starts at 10 am and goes till about 5.30 pm. There is a whole track meet and four soccer games. This year it was a wonderful day. Beautiful blue skies and warm weather. It was nice to root my guys on and see them succeed.

There was a moment towards the end of the day that the track meet was done and the last soccer game was finishing up. I laid down on the grass and my view consisted of the soccer game, a grove of blooming green trees and a castle in the background. It was amazing. God is such an amazing God to give such a wonderful gift of relaxation.

European Cities

This past weekend, while 9 of our guys were away playing soccer games in Belgium, we loaded up 10 guys that wanted to go, in a couple vans and drove to Freiburg, Germany. This is a city about 40 minutes north of us and is something easy to do on a Saturday afternoon. Giving the guys a chance to get out of the dorm and do something completely different is good.

I was walking around Freiburg and realized that I just love walking around European cities. There is such an international flare to them. You never know what language you are going to hear next walking around the corner. German is the main thing you here, but French, Italian, Spanish and many others are just wafting their way through the streets. It is just such a nice happy comforting feeling. I guess that is proof that I have gotten a bit used to this place.

Welcome Back!

The guys are coming back today. After a nice two week break, the dorm is a busy bustling place again. Two months to go till the end of the year. Wow, things go so fast.

Spring break

We are into the second week of spring break here at BFA. All of the missions trips are back and people are resting before school kicks up for the sprint to the finish. It has been a good year so far with many people doing many different things. We here at the dorm have over two thirds of the students involved in sports this spring. We had 12 people go on missions trips.

The seniors are gearing up for the end of their schooling, trying to decide what they are going to do next. They have so many choices and many of those involved, they are considering going to college in a country they don't know. Most of them are US citizens, yet very few have spent even a quarter of their lives in the states.

As usual, living in a dorm that is filled with so many people, change is the most consistent thing. Oh, and by the way, Germany is absolutely beautiful in the snow. Easter was a snowy day here and very enjoyed.

Venezia

Recently I had a weekend off and had the privilege of going to Venice. A student in my dorm lives in Venice and I was able to spend a weekend with his family. The was a nice thing to do because I was able to have a long conversation with his family about the ministry that they do. At the same time, I was able to see a wonderful city of Europe.

Venice used to be a very powerful trade city in Europe. Many palaces were built along its Grand Canal. When you see Venice this is very evident, but at the same time something else is very evident. That power is no longer there. Some of these palaces are still very much in use and ornately beautiful. Others are uninhabited and falling apart. They look dirty and broken down on the inside and outside. Only around half of the buildings in Venice are inhabited. It is an interesting combination of extremes.

It is also an interesting representation of the spiritual life of Venice. The family that I stayed with have been there for four years. They are working as church planting and in a like Venice, it is tough. Many people will go to the local Catholic church for the major holidays, but really don't have time for God. The family realizes that it won't be through them that the most effective ministry will be done, but through the local Italians. They are the ones that can relate best to their fellow Venetians. So the ministry is as much sharing the gospel as empowering the local Christians to share.

So please pray for Venice and not just Venice but all the other places that families of these students at BFA serve.

They're Back!!!

The guys have returned from their wonderful Christmas breaks and are starting up the second half of the year. It was exciting to welcome them back and see them again. After living with many of the same guys for a year and a half, I miss them when they are gone for 3 weeks.

But it is also important for them to spend as much time as possible with their families. Life is busy again and will be crazy and exciting at the same time.