We arrived in Germany over two weeks ago now. Although we’ve been very busy and were thrown into ministry, our time here has been very restful and refreshing. We arrived on Thursday (12/29) with little to no winter clothes so we had to quickly make a few shopping trips to be ready for Germany’s winter. Then Saturday was the New Years Eve Party, which I shared about in the previous post. On the first Sunday of 2017 Alex had the privilege of preaching at church about God’s glorious plans for our lives. The following week was more relaxed, we had a belated family Christmas celebration, shopped some more, slept in, ice skated, went to a few amazing cafe’s and enjoyed being with family. On Friday night (1/6) Alex and I led a prayer and worship night at church which went until 4am. We had a fun time of worshipping, meditating on who God is and what that means for our lives, praying for the new year and encouraging one another. Then Alex preach again on Sunday (about purity this time) and that afternoon we were able to share about our experiences in Africa. We had a picture sideshow and talked for 2 hours (!!). We had so much to share! Everyone listened so intently and engaged, even cried with us over our South Sudanese friends (Alex still can’t share about them without crying). This past week (Mon.-Sat.) was a week of prayer and fasting at church. Truly this is such a beautiful body of people here…there is so much hunger for God and love for being together. About 40% of the church attended the prayer nights every evening and half of those were youth! We prayed for 2 hours every night and then most people stayed for another 1-2 hours just talking and being together! Although the church is small, they’re strong in fellowship and powerful in prayer.
0 Comments
We’ve made it to Germany! We had an amazing time during our travels throughout Africa and we are definitely missing parts of it—like the amazing, beautiful people we met there and the incredible warm weather! We arrived in Germany last Thursday and have been settling in, spending time with family (even seeing 2 nephews for the first time!) and preparing for our time here in Deutschland! We apologize for our tardiness in updating you about our time in Uganda. So let me begin now…our time in Uganda was very powerful and we're so thankful to have had this opportunity to serve our beloved South Sudanese brothers and sisters there. The kids and leadership team impacted us deeply. As we said our goodbyes to them last week, we realized that although we only spent 2 1/2 weeks with them, our heart connections went very deep and we were able to deposit more and receive more than we could have ever imagined. The 115 children we were able to spend time with and pour into were orphans - they had already lost everything (no family, etc) - but on top of that they were refugees and had lost every last piece of their lives due to instability in their homeland. They came to Uganda with only 2 sets of clothing and were now trying to adjust to a new country and culture, language, etc. They live in a run-down boarding school - concrete walls and beat up bunk beds (with mattress’ that have bed bugs) and a few school desks is all they had. Oh, plus a small chest to hold their two outfits, a broken soccer ball, 2 pots for cooking and a few mats for laying outside on the ground. Seriously, picture that…we’re not exaggerating…that’s all they had. Yet they loved the presence of Jesus more than anyone we have ever met. We’ve been forever changed by them. While in Uganda, our every day was spent with the kids (besides one day of rest per week, although we managed to spend some time with them on that day, too:) We played games with them, danced, sang, prepared a Christmas drama, played soccer, painted pictures, made hundreds of snowflakes to decorate for Christmas and just sat with them (one of the many things they’re good at is just “being”.) Something that broke our hearts is the amount of transition the kids have been through…people walking in and out of their lives so often. We got the question more than once, “How long are you staying?” We’d have to reply, "Unfortunately we're leaving after Christmas” to which they’d respond, “Why so soon? Why not stay longer? Why do people keep leaving?” One girl even asked, "What's wrong with us?” Oh this broke our hearts. Because we were such a short term team we determined to not build any unhealthy connections but instead to continually point them to Jesus--their only Constant. We desired to help foster an atmosphere where the kids could meet with their true Source. With that in mind, almost every evening we had worship/soaking nights and just spent time enjoying the presence of God with them. Truly, these kids are like none other...from the youngest to the oldest (about 4 to 20 years old), they love the presence of God. We would walk back to our lodging most evenings for dinner and when we’d leave the kids they’d ask, “Are you coming back for prayers?” (Their term for worship nights). When we turned on worship music they’d gather and begin to lift up their praises at the top of their lungs. They’d continually blow us away by how they worshipped their Savior. One thing we realized is that Africans can teach us how to praise Jesus…instead of focusing on their own problems and their own lack, they lift up a joyful noise and it’s a powerful one! We also had one powerful night session focused on inner healing and healing from trauma. Our hearts desire was to see the kids (and the leadership team) healed and whole. They went through so many hardships last year and had to deal with tremendous amounts of trauma but God has carried them and they have an amazing testimony! One of the older girls told us the reason they love the presence of God so much is because they have lost everything and he's really all they have and they're desperate for him. Due to the amazing amount of support that was donated to aid the children, we were able to bless the kids with a day out - the little ones were treated to a pool day which they absolutely loved (many of them had never swam before!) We were able to go with the older ones - all 52 of us loaded onto a bus and drove 3 hours to another city where we went to an animal park and then out to lunch and to a cinema. They had never experienced those things before and were super blessed. Some of the girls said it was the best day of their lives! During that day we were also able to sit them down for a few minutes and share about purity and marriage - something they don’t see biblically lived out very often. One Sunday Alex was invited to preach at a nearby church and we were able to take 13 of the youth with us. Alex had worked with them to prepare a powerful drama that went along with his message and they performed incredibly well. Afterwards we had lunch at the pastor’s house and enjoyed the afternoon together. On the way home we stopped to treat them all to ice cream. It was such a wonderful experience to be able to involve all of them in the morning service. About 8 people got saved during the service and they were a part of it! On Christmas Eve we had a candlelight service and the kids performed their beautiful dramas. Then Christmas day was a fun celebration. As a team we had shopped (again, due to the amazing donations), wrapped gifts (they had never opened wrapped gifts before) and prepared for a party! First we had a church service and the kids worshipped Jesus, shared testimonies and listened to the message with the same focus as any other day, even though their presents were waiting in the next tent over. When the time came to hand out the gifts they were all excited and received a few individual things and also some family gifts such as a ping pong table, foosball table, board games...Then we played soccer, volleyball, ate lunch (an amazing chicken and chips, rice and vegetable lunch) and ate ice cream. During the day one of the older girls told one of our team members, "Thank you for coming, you've helped to take away the trauma and fear from our lives." Hallelujah! And we had an amazing Christmas at the same time :) On our last night in Uganda (Christmas night) we gathered as an outreach team to spend time ministering to one another but Alex couldn't get his mind off the kids and the fact that we were leaving the next day. Tears came to his eyes and he couldn’t hold them in. As our leader realized that the tears weren’t stopping, she allowed us to walk over to the kids. Alex and I walked over and just sat with some of the older ones. We cried together and they said to us, “It’s going to be so hard to say goodbye tomorrow. We are going to miss you.” And oh how our hearts felt the same. We said goodnight for the last time and walked back to our room with full and breaking hearts. As Alex cried, God revealed to him that they’re worth the tears. Who else is crying for them? Other than the leadership team, they have no one in their lives that love them enough to cry for them. They are certainly worth every tear. We too encountered the beautiful presence of Jesus with them - presence that brings joy, freedom, wholeness and life. Alex especially was so deeply encouraged by being with them and God brought a lot of freedom to him and restored life through being with the kids. Jesus revealed to him more of His love by the love He poured into Alex’s heart for the children. To see the way Alex loved the kids brought tears to my (Erika’s) eyes more than once. And the love and respect that they had for him back was extremely touching. Then came the dreaded time for us to leave...we had a beautiful time ministering to the leadership team in the morning and the base leader shared that we were a source of refreshment for them, which is an incredible thing to say about a short term team. We are so grateful to God that we were able to be a blessing to them in their time of transition and healing. God strategically placed our team together and gave us the strengths we needed to meet the needs of the team and care for the children. For the short time we were there, God really gave us deep relationships with the kids and leadership team. Saying goodbye was so difficult. Tears were shed as we exchanged hugs, took pictures and shared last words. God gave us the idea to write letters of encouragement to each of the older kids (about 60 of them) to encourage them in their destiny and future. The vision was to leave them stronger and more deeply tied to Jesus than before, not discouraged because of our departure. During our time with them, God expanded our hearts and gave us a greater capacity to love. He unified us both as a outreach team and also with the leadership team. We walked in love and unity which enabled us to bring the healing and refreshment that was needed. We loved the kids deeply. We are so grateful to God for the opportunity and thankful for the deep work He did in our hearts. As always, thank you so much for praying for us! A huge thank you to those who donated to aid the children, as well. We love you all! So now we're in Germany! We’re excited for what God has for us here! God is already showing us his faithfulness and his great plans for such a time as this. One short testimony is…we gave almost all our clothes away in Africa (as well as most of our belongings) and we came to Germany with very little. When we entered, we were blessed with over $1,000 unexpected euros. God is so faithful and good to us! It’s been sweet to be here around the holidays - we were able to celebrate a belated Christmas with family and celebrated New Years German-style :) (Nothing too different except that anyone and everyone is able to set off fireworks - and not the small ones… the large fireworks that only fireman are able to set off in America! People set them off right in front of their houses at midnight! Shocking!) We had a fun party with Alex’s church and didn’t get home till 5:30am :) Alex had the privilege of preaching in the church on the first Sunday of 2017 and he will be preaching again this Sunday. We are planning different events with the church but our main focus is to be able to refresh the leaders and care for individuals God puts on our hearts. Hoping each of you had a fabulous holiday season. May God give each of you expectation and vision for 2017. Ask Him to give you one word for the year - a word that will mark 2017 - and be encouraged because God is WITH YOU! Though there are giants, their protection has been taken away and God is with you! (Numbers 14:9) May you only have eyes to see the One who holds your hand (note: HE holds onto you, not the other way around :) Be blessed! |
AuthorA & E. Currently living in the USA but called to the nations for this season of our lives. Devoting our lives to His Kingdom Come... Archives
April 2017
Categories |