The ETS Singers returned from their annual Easter Tour on 19 April. This year they visited Croatia and Serbia. It sounds like God used them to minister well in those nations, and we are grateful for God’s grace. The tour was led by three of our faculty, Benson & Cathy Vaughan, and Sasa Radovanovic. We thank God for our students who dedicated their Easter break to this ministry.
We drove about 7 hours north to Hannover for a weekend visit to one of our fourth-year students, Damaris Schüring. She is doing her intern year ministry in the Elim Christian Church there. The faculty are assigned some fourth-year students to keep in touch with during their final internship year before they graduate. Damaris preached and is doing very well. She leads the youth ministry there, and the youth did their second drama while we were there. We enjoyed meeting her new husband, Ruven, as well.
Easter morning was cool and crisp, but our church in Kniebis, Crossroads International Church, joined with a church in Freudenstadt, Agape, in joint services. At 9 AM, about 30 of us met in the city market plaza for singing and prayer. At 10 AM, we had a joint service in the Agape church. I preached and it was a good time of fellowship and worship of our Risen Lord. We hope all of you had a blessed Easter as well.
ETS hosted a meal and service on Tuesday, 7 April, at a recreated Triclinium, a dining table with three sections in a U-shape. ETS president, Paul Schmidgall, moderated the evening. For the meal, the 100+ guests reclined at the table lit with oil lamps. The ETS chapel was the scene and it had been authentically decorated in First Century AD style by ETS staff. Our ETS chef, Joachim Seitle, prepared a delicious meal. Crossroads International Church joined with the ETS family for this commemoration of the Lord’s passion week.
The final Sunday of March, I preached at Crossroads International Church in Kniebis. It was good to be home for a Sunday service. On Friday, 3 April, we went to Böblingen to preach twice at a leaders meeting in a large independent church there. Some ETS students intern there, and the assistant pastor is an ETS graduate, Cornelius and Priscilla Baier. I spoke before supper and after it. The presence of the Lord was really at work among the 70 or so church leaders there. Thank God for His Presence!
