To The Streets in Southern Germany

To The Streets in Southern Germany

At the end of March we traveled to Albstadt in southern Germany and stayed for one month with our good friends, Rolf and Andrea Kastle. Rolf and Andrea's church is called BGG Zollernalb in Hechingen and is related to the "Gospel Forum" in Stuttgart. It is in an area with three villages: Hechingen, Ebingen and Balingen Rolf's church is in Hechingen and a sister church is in Ebingen. They have a vision to plant a third church in Balingen. There is a main BGG church in Stuttgart from which these churches were birthed. The whole area is beautiful. Big tree-covered mountains surround darling villages which are tucked down in the valleys. The people work hard and you see the pay-off in their beautiful homes and cars.

Rolf & Andrea

Rolf is a very hard-working man. He is a landscape architect, full-time pastor of the church and father to four children. Two of the children are out of the home and two boys still living at home. Rolf has the most fun-loving spirit and was always eager for whatever task was at hand. Andrea is calm, serene and full of love and wisdom. She loved to worship and every morning she had her guitar and could be found singing her heart out to Jesus. They welcomed us into their home as if we were long-lost family. It was hard for us to launch out on the mission field after Gabe's passing but the Lord gave us that beautiful and safe environment to get back on our feet. Not only did we minister but we were ministered to. One powerful night, Rolf prayed over me and asked forgiveness as a man for all that my ex-husband had done to me and he prayed healing into my life about Gabe. On another night, he adopted Thilo as his son and then called the men who were gathered to surround Thilo with prayer. It was so intimate and amazing to watch. They prophesied and sang over him. At the end they picked him up by the legs and hands and swung him as a father would a son and threw him on the couch!

I got to teach on prayer to the leader's of the church and one of the things I shared was how missionary Jackie Pulinger would walk around Hong Kong just speaking in tongues. From doing just that, the Holy Spirit worked powerfully through her to birth a ministry to drug addicts. I shared how Bre and I decided to do the same thing in Berlin and how we as well had amazing results. They were excited and wanted to try it. So we all met in a village called Balingen where they would like to plant a church. We broke off into groups of 2 and 3 and I instructed them that for the next hour no german or english could be spoken. We would prayer walk Balingen, speaking in tongues and listening to where the Holy Spirit would like us to go. Pastor Rolf and I went with a sweet older lady and we ran into three different people that they knew. We were able to pray over one lady who had been to Rolf's church; we gave Christian tracts to a Muslim couple that the older lady knew; and we encouraged a Christian worship leader that Rolf hadn't seen in a long time. We all returned to the square after one hour excited to share what the Holy Spirit had done. Almost every one had a story and out of this prayer time came an initiative to do a street outreach right there in the main town square of Balingen. The word “party” came and we decided to have a big street party in anticipation of Easter and celebrating His resurrection.

Street Party Outreach

The party street outreach was all we could ever have wanted or hoped for. Rain was predicted for the day but we had beautiful sunshine! We had helium balloons for the kids; a water area that Rolf (a landscape architect as well as Pastor) designed for the kids complete with a small fountain; tables with champagne and crackers; face painting; live music courtesy of Thilo; soap bubbles courtesy of Bre; and free hugs from me. The atmosphere was alive and festive. We had all decided to wear fancy clothes which added to the fun. One of the church's evangelists, Uwe gave away almost all of our impressive Easter evangelism tracts and had many good conversations with people. In addition, almost everyone had one good spirit-led conversation. Thilo not only sang but preached the gospel several times over the microphone.

Rolf's water-fun for the kids

Having fun at our street evangelism

Toni & Netty

We had the privilege of meeting and befriending a wonderful couple from the church – Toni & Annet. They have a business in Ebingen called 'Second Life' which has the double meaning of buying second hand goods and taking on a new life. They sell used furniture, household items and knick-knacks. In fact their shop is packed to the brim with wonderful antiques and almost any household item you can imagine. Annet (Netty) let us take anything we wanted. What joy! It's a good thing we live in an R.V. otherwise I know we would have been tempted to take too many things. I got a beautiful blue candle holder and Bre found a cute apron and hat. We loved Toni & Netty. We loved their ideas and vision. They have art days in their shop where people can come and paint so we spent two wonderful days just painting in the shop and chatting with people who came in to browse. Netty always had tea and cookies on hand for us. Toni is a brilliant artist and has painted many pictures for the kingdom. The first time I saw one of his pictures I gasped because it was so amazing. It was an honor to get to spend time with him and hear the story behind his amazing art. Thilo was so inspired that he decided to actually interview Toni and get him and his art on camera. He gave us permission to take one of his pictures and print postcards which we then passed out on the street with the name of the church and a poem on the back.

Lunch with Netti & Toni

Toni's picture we made into a postcard

Carrying the Cross

One day the three of us decided to go to the City Center and preach the gospel. I felt led to play the guitar and sing some songs and while I was doing so a Muslim man tried to stare me down. His face conveyed the thoughts, “You cannot speak of Jesus in our city.” I asked him if I could pray for him and he sort of leaped away from me in fear. I decided to just start praying and while I was doing so he began twirling in circles as if to twirl away our prayers and then he took off fast down the street. From that encounter and the fact that the city had just installed some very questionable sculptures that conveyed sexual-New Age overtones, Bre got her cross-initiative from the Lord.

Rolf supplied the wood which was a large tree branch which Bre used to make a cross. She also made a beautiful sign which she hung over the cross that said, “Jesus is the Only God” in German and Turkish. We drove to Ebingen with the cross taking up most of the room in the back of our RV and parked near the city center. We got out and with Bre carrying the cross we began walking in what we thought was the direction of the City Center. We went the wrong way and had to re-trace our steps but we felt that it was God's way of carrying the cross where He wanted it seen. Bre felt a great joy carrying the cross and a supernatural boldness. As we passed people we saw them reading our sign, either out loud or to themselves and we were excited that the truth of the gospel was being spoken on their lips whether they believed it our not. A lot of people smiled at us while others looked at us disdainfully. We felt that what we did was a prophetic declaration to the town that the devil's reign was over and it was time for Jesus people to take their stand.The next day we carried the cross through Balingen, the city where Rolf would like to plant a new church and at the end of our walk we placed the cross on the empty building that Rolf would like to rent for church services. The cross looked beautiful leaning up in a corner of the building and it looked right out onto the main street of Balingen.

Bre & Kim with the Cross

Small Groups

We attended all four of the small groups in the church and were privileged to teach or share. I spoke one night on prayer and another time about the relationship between Jesus and John the Baptist. Bre spoke about positioning yourself as a child in the Kingdom of God and Thilo gave an encouraging talk about not giving up. Twice we attended a weekly prayer meeting which prayed for the city. It met in an older ladies house named Ilsa who found the Lord in her older age through her daughter Angelica who lives right next door. Max - an 86 year old man led worship on the guitar which was very sweet and rich. I fell in love with Max. His love for Jesus was palpable and he was passionate about doing things for God. We loved hearing his stories of the war and how he escaped as a young 17 year old.

Max leading us in worship

Prayer Walking

We went prayer walking with Andrea and a woman named Elka twice. They took us to the mountains overlooking the city and both times we had powerful prayer times. We also went on a LONG hike with Rolf, walking from their house all the way to the top of a mountain which was across the small valley from their house. It seemed impossible when we looked at the distance but in the end it wasn't so bad. The hard part was at the end, making it up the steep part of the mountain. We were glad we pushed through. At the top was a bench and a small box was attached to a tree that had tracts inside for people to read. We were thankful that Rolf called Andrea to come and pick us up! We walked back down the mountain and a little ways into the valley where she met us.

Preaching

We were humbled and blessed when Rolf asked us if we would like to preach. It's not every day that you come across a Pastor so willing to share his pulpit and with women as well! I took the first Sunday, Bre the second and Thilo was privileged to preach on Easter Sunday. Rolf always made it known that we were available to pray for people after the service and each time we loved praying and prophesying over them.

24-7 BURN (Worship)

We also presented the idea of doing a BURN and the church took that on. Rolf rented a room and Andrea organized 4 sets of worship teams for the 6-hour Burn. Bre and I opened with the first hour set – she on piano, me on guitar and Thilo on cajon. We helped implement art at the Burn which was something new for the church. Initially Rolf couldn't quite wrap his brain around the idea of doing art in the same room as worship but in the end he loved it along with everyone else. Toni did an amazing picture and was often seen dancing while he painted. He presented the finished painting to a woman named Slobadanka at her birthday party and she received it with thankful tears. We were blessed when the Pastor from BGG Ebingen came to the Burn along with Hartmut (the former Pastor) and his wife. At the end of the six hours, no one could believe how fast the time went and we all felt full of joy.

Hartmut

You don't find many men like Hartmut! When we first met him three years ago we were impressed that after the all-church banquet he was in the kitchen washing dishes and running around to see if anyone wanted more coffee. I don't know if I have ever seen a head-Pastor with such humility. He has such a big heart for people that he resigned the Pastorate and began ministering to down and out people struggling through life, often with addiction problems. Step by step the Lord led him till now he runs a house with former addicts. They live together in community and help each other stay clean. We were invited one evening to have dinner and fellowship with them. It turned out to be such a rich evening as we got to hear their testimonies. Afterwards, I felt led to give one of the ladies my “Hopes Alive” T-shirt which the three of us had gotten in the United States from a friend who came out of addiction and designed the shirt and started a business. The lady was so appreciative that we felt led to bless the whole house with T-shirts. Hopefully it will be soon that they are delivered to them from the United States!

Hope's Alive T-Shirt

Uwe

Another amazing person in Southern Germany is Uwe. We met him three years ago when we first went to Rolf's church to teach on evangelism. Uwe was eager. He had never evangelized before and he had such a teachable spirit. On this trip, we heard his testimony and were deeply touched to find that he was rejected by his whole family because of his faith in Jesus. He came out of a deep involvement in the New Age religion and was delivered from many things. I have rarely met such a joyful, humble man. Likewise we loved his wife, Slobadanka who also shared her amazing testimony of coming out of a gypsy background. She could write a book. Uwe works in a home were mentally ill people live together and are considered hopeless cases. He invited us to come visit the home on Easter day when he was working. When we arrived, Uwe met us at the door with his big smile and ushered us into the kitchen area. There were about 8 people waiting for us and the table was laid with cake and coffee. Some of the people seemed thrilled that we were there while others seemed angry or confused. We all introduced ourselves and made small talk while we ate our cake. Then Thilo started singing a fun song about loving Jesus and they all started clapping and singing along. It was wonderful and the more we sang the more joy seemed to come down. A few of them left the room but most of them seemed to be deeply ministered to. We got to lay hands on and pray for a woman who was extremely disabled due to drugs. She was open for prayer and healing and I made a commitment to keep her in my prayers. Our hearts went out to Uwa for working in such a hard, spiritually oppressive place. He was so loving and amazing to the people and we felt it was important that we keep him in our prayers.

Fellowship

Besides all the ministering we did, we spent a lot of time being invited to people's homes for lunch or dinner as well as being taken out as tourists. We got to see the Alps and we were taken to some caves deep under the earth with many stalagmites. One thing I will never forget is the tour guide asked if anyone would want to sing as the particular cave we were in had good acoustics. Someone offered that his girlfriend could sing but she was too shy. Then Bre said, “Thilo can sing!” Thilo stepped forward, took a deep breath and began to belt out, “Then sings my soul, my Lord my God to Thee, How great Thou art, How great Thou art!” The sound resonated around us and in those few seconds the glory of God came down. It was wonderful. Through that we met another Christian and Thilo was able to share our faith with some other people.

So our time in southern Germany came to an end and it was with many tears and hugs that we said goodbye to our family. We believe we will be back and we pray that someday we can join them on one of their outreaches to Africa.