THANKSGIVING IN GERMANY
November 28th, 2009 | 0 Comments
We celebrated the American Thanksgiving Day holiday in Germany with a traditional meal in the evening. The faculty and staff families of the European Theological Seminary met in the student center and had a wonderful time of fellowship. Benson Vaughan led us in singing Christmas songs at the end of the meal, which placed us in the Christmas spirit as well. We thank God for all His great blessings, and that includes each of our partners who sponsor us. There are three American Church of God missionary families serving at ETS, which you see pictured here: Benson & Cathy Vaughan, Vance & Kari Massingill (LeAndra & Kendra), and Carol and myself. The entire group of ETS faculty & staff are also pictured.
We had our Day of Prayer and Fasting at ETS on Wednesday, 18 November. We have one each school semester. We all fast speaking during the day until 1 PM, except in classes. We fast food as well, and use this day to refocus and seek God. The chapel service has silence for the first 45 minutes as we pray and meditate on the Lord. Carl Simpson, a dean and teacher at ETS, then preached. Later in the afternoon we had another service where we sang and had a great worship time, shared in the Lord’s Supper, and then had a foot washing service. We conclude our day with a supper together as a school community, and break our fast. It is good to seek God on such days.
Every Monday and Thursday morning at the European Theological Seminary, our students lead the school family in devotions. These are meaningful times when we pause to worship and hear God’s Word. Each student will share from the Bible once during the school year. Different groups of students lead the music portion. Here you see our group of Romanian speaking students who lead the singing this week. On Tuesdays we have small group meetings, on Wednesdays a full chapel service, and on Fridays various mentoring or practical ministry meetings. Each morning and evening we have scheduled prayer times and the students regularly fast. This is all part of not just educating their minds, but helping them grow spiritually.
On 8 November, we were privileged to be home in our local church in Kniebis, Germany. I preached here at Crossroads International Church. I wanted to show you a photo of our church taken from the balcony while I preached. We actually meet in the chapel of the European Theological Seminary. I serve as co-pastor to our wonderful pastor, Jivko Jeliazkov.
The past weekend Carol and I went to separate events. Carol and 12 other women from our local church in Germany drove to Zurich, Switzerland, to attend a large women’s conference at the ICF church. About 1,000 women were present. On Saturday, 7 November, I went to Lahr, Germany, to teach a Homiltics (Preaching) course to the MIP group that meets there. It was a great weekend for both of us in Switzerland and Germany.
