Friday, November 19, 2010

Nothing Visible Happening


One reason I haven't written is there is nothing visible going on.

I have been marriage counseling, visiting terminal patients, and teaching guys to read, pray, study, meditate on Friday and Sunday nights. I'm getting people ready to take the church while I'm gone in January. It's just nothing you can take a picture of and say, "See? This is what's happening."

Just me at the local Tesco supermarket having my quiet time before the café opens. I read, I meditate, I pray. It's an isolated place. There's nothing to distract me. When the café opens I go home and work. I wrote on Facebook the other day, "All I have to do to really do my work is die to myself." This is where it happens.

I wish there were more things happening. They will happen, because I am praying and thanking God and asking for favors. 

Andrea


Joanie and I met Andrea Kölsch in 1989 as we were doing outreach with Robert Case Band to help start Calvary Chapel Siegen. She was a student in a high school. When we moved to Germany in 1990 we found she was part of the Bible study group. When I started teaching the midweek study, she was one of nine young people listening.

She was musical even then, and was already playing the guitar. As we tried to develop the music ministry at Siegen we got her into translating English worship songs into German and writing new songs.

Now she has gone full time into ministry, leading worship on a circuit in German Calvaries that don't have a full time worship leader, playing tours in Germany and the US, working on raising up new leaders, writing songs and making CDs.

She visited London and stayed with us as she played in the Calvaries in our area. We were discussing having her stay with us longer, but we knew our landlord wouldn't go for that. He only wants our family to be in the house, no one else.

But I figured that was no problem. We could always adopt Andrea as our daughter. Not so far fetched. We are already family.