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!