Sowing & Harvesting (by Kim)

Sowing & Harvesting (by Kim)

Uva

God's timing is always perfect.  Thilo, Bre and I had spent the last hour discussing the ministry of der Garten - (our sort of cafe room).  Bre was feeling extremely sad because our vision had been that we would meet people on the street and then der Garten would be a "safe" place where they could come to talk and ask questions.  So far, we have not seen this vision come to pass.  We were trying to encourage one another in the Lord and at the same time remain open to what God's plans are for der Garten as opposed to our own ideas.

Thilo went home because he is sick with an ear infection and on a whim, Bre and I decided to put the Jesus movie on (instead of our usual worship music).  We put it on in Deutsch and I was just preparing to settle into an evening of email & Facebook when who should walk into der Garten, but Uva - the man we had just prayed for at our Friday night street - Heilung.

As I prepared him a cup of coffee, he came over to the counter and I asked him if he had read the book of John like I had suggested. 

He said, "Yes, I read the whole thing."

"How did it make you feel upon reading it?"  I asked.

"I felt nothing.  But it is difficult to put into English what I feel."

"Well, as soon as I finish this coffee, how about if we sit on the couch with Bre and she can translate and we can talk in Deutsch &English."

As we settled down with our tea and coffee, the first thing that Uva said was, "I really want to meet someone who has the Holy Spirit."

I said, "Wait no longer, the Holy Spirit is living inside of me and inside of Bre!  So you see this with 2 people who sit before you."   

He smiled at this (which was nice to see because he has a permanent look of pain in his eyes).  Then he went on to say that he had tried in the past to know Jesus and to be "good enough" but nothing had ever happened.

So, we were given the opportunity to explain the whole gospel to him, in as simple a language as we could.  I explained the reason for Jesus coming to the earth:  that He died to take the punishment for our sins and that we can never be good enough for the holiness of God and therefore need Jesus to come into our lives to be our Savior.  

Uva had a hard time understanding this free gift of God.  He kept thinking that he had to do good works to come to God and he tried to tell us what a good person he had tried to be while at the same time confessing all of his known sins to us.  Bre explained a lot to him in German and if I talked slowly, he was able to understand all of my English and he did most of his talking in English.  In the end, he said he needed more time to process all that we had told him, and Bre told him that this was okay.  We tried to stress that the Lord does not invade a life without the person's permission and that he needed to make the first step to open His heart to Jesus.

We then prayed for him again.  He sat between us on the couch and seemed dead inside while we prayed,  (as opposed to when we prayed for him on the street and his whole body seemed to shake and he started crying).  We prayed for his finances as his electricity has been shut off.  It is extremely cold in Berlin right now and he has no lights or heat.  He told us that he is a drug addict, and now on methadone which explains his hollow, pained look that he carries.

Then we fed him some of the apple crumble that I had just made and we all watched the Jesus movie, along with 2 other people who had come into der Garten.  I sensed that he needed a VISUAL of Jesus as well as the reading that he was doing.  As I sat there, I was so amazed at how the Holy Spirit leads and moves us without our even realizing!  I thought it was me who decided to put the Jesus movie on, but it was Him, leading through me. 

At the end of the night, Bre and I greatly rejoiced that at this point in time, the Holy Spirit had sent someone for us to minister to in der Garten.  

der Garten

HEILUNG  -  HEALING

Every Friday night our ToTheStreets team goes out to Frankfurter Tor, which is a busy intersection in our neighborhood and where people can catch a Tram or the Underground train.  We put up a big banner that says, "Heilung" and we set out chairs for people to sit in who would like prayer for healing.  Sometimes we pass out  fliers to people passing by, which explain what we are doing.

Two weeks ago, I was very discouraged.  Passerby's had been giving me these pitying looks which seem to say, "You poor dear.  You are so miss-guided and brain-washed."  I can handle the out-right anger and the ones who give me a friendly smile but a no shake of the head but the ones who look at me with pity are very hard to take.  On this night, no one was wanting to take my flier and it was cold and I was wondering what I was doing.  I finally said to Jesus, "I am so discouraged.  Don't You ever get discouraged with these hard and stubborn people?"

"I am encouraged in you, my daughter.  You encourage me by your obedience to Me," was the sudden and startling, warm reply that went deep into my heart.

I smiled.  "Well, okay Lord.  I can handle this.  If I am pleasing to You, that's all I need."

Not fifteen minutes later, I was complaining again.  "Lord, please, I just need a bit more encouragement.  If this is what you want us to do, please send someone that wants prayer before we are ready to stop.  Just one person."

At 8:15pm just 15 minutes before we stop a couple were suddenly right there, talking to Thilo.  They came over to the chairs and Thilo said, "She would like prayer for healing in her knees."

Inside, I was rejoicing.  "Thank you Lord!  You sent me my encouragement!  We didn't even have to chase them down, You just brought them right to us!"

It turned out that they were Christians, had been walking by on the other side of the street, saw our sign and came over.  The woman asked, "Who do you pray to?"  and Thilo replied, "We only pray in the name of Jesus," and she said, "Well, okay, I would like prayer then."

When I started praying for her, I just had to let her know that she was MY answer to prayer!  She laughed in glee and then we prayed for the healing of her knees.  After this, her husband decided that he wanted prayer as well for his migraines.  So, the Lord sent us 2 people to pray with and we got to know some new Christians who live right near us.

The next week, it was just BreAnna and I that went out because Thilo was home sick.  This was hard for us but even harder was the extreme cold.  It was our first time to have the weather below 30 degrees.  Even with our long-Johns, scarves and hats, it felt cold.  We decided to just sit in the chairs, not pass out fliers and pray in tongues.  Within 5 minutes, a tall, dour-looking man came right up to us.  He acted like it was the most normal thing in the world that we were there, in the cold, offering prayer for people.  He said he would like prayer because he grew up in a very abusive home and he could not find his base.  He looked to be about 40 years old.  He said he was going to go turn in some bottles and then he would be back for prayer.  He was back in about five minutes and as Bre poured him a cup of coffee and conversed with him in German, I asked the Lord if He had a word to give me for Uva.  Immediately Jesus spoke into my heart and said, "Tell him that I am his base," and with those words, I saw a picture and knew exactly what I was going to tell him.  Bre did the translating and I told him that Jesus had spoken a word into my heart for him.  I said, "Jesus wants you to know that He is your base.  He is the home that you have always been looking for.  He is the only one who loves you completely and who will never disappoint you.  He wants to come into you and you go into Him and He will be with you and love you."  When I was finished, Uva said, "This is just what I was talking about."   (Thank you Jesus!)  I prayed over him that he would come to know how much he is loved by Jesus and I asked the Holy Spirit to come upon him right then.  Bre prayed for him in German and as she was praying, I watched a big tear well up in his eye and then spill over and roll down his face.  After this, I gave him a German New Testament and opened it to the book of John.  "If you read just this book, you will learn everything you need to know about Jesus who loves you."  Bre gave him a der Garten flyer and we encouraged him to come in and talk to us.

After he left and Bre and I had prayed for him we both felt that the Lord has sent us one of His chosen ones, a man that he had been calling for some time.

Next we had two teenage boys come up to us and ask what we  were doing.  Bre said, "We are offering prayer and coffee,"  (in German, of course).  They both said they wanted coffee and one of them, Emre said he would take both!  We sat them down in our chairs and Emre told us he would like prayer to stop smoking so much marijuana.  The first thing Emre said to Bre was, "I'm an atheist but I do believe in God...".  Bre said, "Well, you're not an atheist then!"  I asked him what he believed about Jesus and he said, "I believe that he was a good man, a prophet."  Then I told him that we believe Jesus is God and we would be praying for him in the name of Jesus because we believe all power comes from Jesus.  I also told him that I would like to pray that he would stop smoking pot all together and he assented that this would be okay.  We prayed for him, me in English and Bre in Deutsch.  He was smiling and seemed to be warmed by our prayers.  When we were done, I asked his friend if he would like prayer.  The friend said, "No" and Emre said, "You should.  It feels really good!"

We invited them to our cafe and as they walked away, I was so thankful that we had made the choice to go out on the street that night. 

Jesus is so faithful to encourage us and show us that He is with us and that He is doing all of the work through us.

LONELINESS

Jesus said, "Surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the age.  Matthew 28:20

"And I will ask the Father and He will give you another COUNSELOR to BE WITH YOU FOREVER - the Spirit of Truth.  John 14:16b-17

    I have experienced a lot of loneliness in my life.  Right now, living in Berlin, Germany I am often profoundly lonely.  I walk down the street and the sounds echo in a language I can't understand.  I feel as if I am alone on a planet with aliens....and when they do understand my language, my brain can't grasp this and I feel embarrassed and it is hard to to talk.  Do they wish I would speak slower?  Are they getting all my words and are they wondering why I haven't learned their language yet?

I was also lonely when I was in high school.  I went to a high school where I knew no one and I had no idea that it would be so hard for me to find friends.  I thought it would just happen.  I thought that people would just start talking to me, or I naturally to them, but that didn't happen.  When I realized, after the first week of school that everyone was completely ignoring me like I was invisible, I panicked.  I was in shock and didn't know how to handle the situation.  I called an old friend from my last school and she too was in a new school and she had already found some friends.  I asked her for advice and she said, "Just pick someone that looks friendly and try to talk to them."  So, the next day I did just that.  There was a girl who always had a smile on her face.....and rather than try and make small talk with her, I asked her if I could eat lunch with her.  She mumbled something unintelligible and then ran from me into the girl's bathroom and a friend joined her and I heard them laughing.  I was crushed and vowed to never try again.  I was humiliated.  Then I became very self-conscious thinking that everyone knew I was alone and that they must think I am some sort of oddity because I had no friends.  I couldn't bare the thought of their stares nor the embarrassment of simply being alone all the time and so I began sneaking away to the library during my lunch and hiding in one of those cubby desks so no one could see me.  But it was then that I started reading the bible.  Every day at lunch, to the library with my apple and then I would read the bible and I discovered that Jesus was my friend.  It got so I didn't mind the lonely lunch times because I loved reading my bible and spending time with Jesus.  

Psalm 68:6 says, "A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families...."   I'm so glad to know this about my God.  He sets the LONELY in families.  

When Bre came to Berlin as a young missionary of 20 years old - the Lord gave her a man who was to become like a father-figure to her and his wife was a friend.  This man would take her out to eat on occasion and give her presents, just like a father.  We discussed many times how good God is that he provided for her in that way.

Yet....there are many lonely people and they have no family.  Is the Father's love enough?  Is the comfort of the Holy Spirit enough?  Jesus said that we should be GLAD that He had to go away, so that He could send the Holy Spirit to us.  The Holy Spirit is our counselor; our helper; the one who lead us into truth.  In fact.....He is the one who told me to write this on loneliness and He is the one who is directing me right now on what to write.  I really don't know what I would do without the Holy Spirit.  He guides and leads me in every part of my day.

I had a vision two years ago that has really helped me in my current struggle with loneliness.  I was at a worship house and as we were worshipping, Jesus gave me this vision.  I saw myself walking down a dirty Berlin street in a simple wedding dress.  It was pure white and the length of it touched the side-walk that was littered with broken glass, trash and dog-poop.  On my head was a wreath of white roses, fresh and sweet-smelling and walking right next to me was JESUS!  He gave me a picture of my reality which included the dirty street but what I don't see is that He is the groom and I am his bride and He truly NEVER leaves me.  

Fascination by Americans of Judgement to the United States

"But let us who live in the light THINK CLEARLY, protected by the body armor of faith and love, and wearing as our helmet the confidence of our salvation.  For God decided to save us through our Lord Jesus Christ, not to pour out his anger on us."  I Thessalonians 5:8-9

But now God has shown us a different way of being right in His sight--not by obeying the law but by the way promised in the Scriptures long ago.  We are made right in God's sight when we trust in Jesus Christ to take away our sins.  God in his gracious kindness declares us not guilty.  For God sent Jesus to take the punishment for our sins and to satisfy God's anger against us.  Romans 3: 21,22a;24a;25a

I was reading an article in a popular Christian magazine written from a popular Christian organization.  The author was talking about how awful America is and how God's people need to repent, fast and pray to avert His judgement to America.  As I was reading I began to think of Germany, the country where I now reside as a missionary.  The sin in Germany is beyond imagination.  I have seen men having sex in an open vehicle on the street; children run the streets while their parents wile their days away in the bar; and the prevalent thinking is that there is no God, that we ourselves are the god's of the earth and nature is to be worshiped.  I do not see God pouring His wrath down upon this nation.  I see that everyone has a home; that there are very few homeless people; and that the average man is quite content.

Germany was once a "Christian" nation.  There are massive houses built in His honor everywhere.  The nation, as a whole, has slipped away from the days of Luther, yet I have not seen His wrath poured out.  I believe this is because He has ALREADY POURED OUT HIS WRATH ON HIS SON, JESUS. When Jesus died on the cross, this satisfied His anger. 

I have a sense that some Christian leaders in the U.S.  use sin and the "wrath of God" to promote their books and conferences.  I saw one conference where a prophet had predicted a great earthquake to hit on a certain date.  The date prophesided was BEFORE their scheduled conference.  So, the leader's decided to cancel the dates and re-schedule the conference BEFORE the proposed earthquake, so they could fast and pray to avert God's wrath and stop the earth-quake.  How smart is that?  This create's hype; this makes the people feel as if THEY have the power to stop earth-quakes; and I'm pretty sure it also brings in a lot of money to the "prophet's".

As the scripture says in I Thessalonians, let us THINK CLEARLY!  This is not an essay to comment on the reason's for natural disaster's.  I am merely stating that I believe God's wrath was satisfied in Jesus Christ.  Now, He opens His arms in love to a stubborn, sinful people and says, "Come to me.  I am knocking at your door." 

The presence of evil, and destruction gives us a  contrast to the love of God.  Without evil, we can't see the holiness of God.  In disaster, we discover our NEED of Him.  He uses everything to draw us and to help us to see who HE is as compared to darkness. 

I would like to suggest that Americans get about the business of magnifying the name of Jesus, of becoming FASCINATED with Jesus as opposed to fighting fights and supposed conspiracy's against His church.  We all want a cause and we all want to feel significant.  Our cause should be CHRIST ALONE.

Evangelism in Dresden

Just Thilo and I went to Dresden with a young firey evangelist from Berlin named Benny.  There we joined up with a YWAM team from Herrnhut and German Christians from Berlin & Dresden all eager to spread the love of Jesus. 

Benny & Thilo were dynamite together.  Thilo warming the crowd up with music and Benny preaching his heart out.  They performed skits together and pulled in crowds of up to 100 people.  Many in the crowd raised their hand and then prayed to ask Jesus into their heart.  I was standing in the crowd praying to Jesus, "Who do you want me to talk to?"  He was always highlighting someone for me and here are some examples of some of the conversations:

Phillip  He and his friend were hecklers and they were shouting things at Ben & Thilo.  I have learned that went I go up to a heckler, they always back down because I am a "mom".  I went up to Phillip and I said, "Why are you so angry?"  He said, "You have no right to do this and you are just trying to brainwash people."  His English wasn't very good and I apologized to him for my small amount of German and he assured me that he was thankful for a chance to practice his english.  Yet, he was really struggling to get some thoughts across to me and this girl came up and interpreted to me what he said.  I thought she was a friend of his.  She stayed with us and interpreted for about 15 minutes.  It turns out, she did not know Phillip and she was a Christian!  She had a button on her bag that said, "I love Jesus".  She told me that she didn't want to get out of bed that morning but something told her to get out of bed and come to the square where we were.  We both rejoiced that God had sent her right to us!  I told Phillip, "See, this is a miracle!  God sent her just so we could talk together."

Phillip was full of hate and especially against Americans.  (He thought I was from Holland).  When he found out I was an American he was a bit embarrassed.  I told him that Christians are all about love and that far from brain-washing our God gives absolute freedom.  After much talk back and forth the last thing he said to me was, "I really see Jesus in you!"  We hugged.  It was good.

Sharing Jesus in Dresden

Frederike I saw a young girl sitting and enjoying the songs and drama and so I sat down next to her on the pavement.  I asked her what she thought about all that was being said.  She told me that she came some distance to Dresden to attend "Kirchentag"  (Church day).  She said, "I don't know anything about Christianity but I am learning today and I really like what I am hearing!"  Somehow I KNEW that she was absolutely ready to accept Jesus.  I explained the way of salvation to her and then asked her, "Would you like to pray to receive Jesus now?"  She replied, "Yes I would!"   We prayed a prayer together and she said she felt a change go through her body when she prayed.  A few minutes later she had tears of joy running down her face.  We hugged.  We exchanged email address's and I said to her, "Today you are newly born!  It is a new day for you and you are now my sister in Christ.  I would like to be your spiritual mom."  More hugs.  So much joy.


3 Teenagers from Ukraine  They were sitting across from Thilo listening to him sing and so I went over to them.  The 2 girls said they were Christian and the boy said his dad is a pastor but that he had rejected Christianity.  I proceeded to tell them Thilo's story.  His year of sex, drugs and rocknroll; his deliverance from demons; and his new life in Jesus.  As I was talking and near the end, one of the girls started sobbing.  I put my arms around her and she said, "Thank you so much for telling me this story.  It was exactly what I needed to hear."  I hugged her and we prayed together.  Later they came back up to me and said, "Can we take a picture with you?"  "Sure!" I said.  The boy took the picture and we all hugged again and they once again told me that it meant so much to them what I had shared.  Thank you Jesus.

The East German Woman  Our  crew continued our evangelism in Berlin and I preached at Alexander Platz.  An older lady listened to my whole sermon and so Bre and I went to talk to her afterwards.  She was an atheist and although she found my talk interesting she didn't want to read any booklets or take a bible.  She didn't want to give me her name or discuss much.  Finally I said, "Can I pray for you?" and she replied, "That you CAN do!"  I said, "All right" and proceeded to pray for her.  While I was praying the Holy Spirit told me that she had many hurts in her life and had been greatly disappointed and that because of this she was desperately afraid to let herself believe that there might be a God she could put her trust in.  I asked the Lord to soften her hard heart and to break through this sadness.  She interrupted my prayer to say, "This is starting to trickle down in to me."  (Hallelujah)!  The Holy Spirit gave me such a knowledge of her condition that I could barely hold back the tears.  I felt her fear and sadness.  When I finished praying (through Bre interpreting) we hugged and I gave her a card for der Garten and asked her to come in and visit me. 

There were so many more quality conversations!  I wish I could write about all of them.  The last thing that happened was that Thilo and I met a man on the street in Berlin and we were able to lead him to the Lord!!  Afterwards we were dancing and leaping in the air.  So seldom does this happen in Berlin.  What joy.

Kimmy

We first met Kimmy almost two years ago.  She was 2 years old and we would see her pressing her chubby little face up against the glass door of der Garten with a big toothless grin.  Whenever we went to the door to say hi to her, she ran away.  Over time, she got braver and would say, "Hi" to us and eventually she came into der Garten.  We were appalled that she was walking the streets alone and we soon learned that her parents were hanging out at the bar just 3 doors down from us.  Day & night.  Night & day.  Three years later, they are still there, from the middle of the day till night.  Her daddy is a big man with a perpetual frown on his face.  He is kind of mean looking.  The mom is thin and would be very beautiful if it wasn't for her dyed bright red hair.

So we fell in love with Kimmy.  She is so cute and has always been chubby.  We let her come into der Garten whenever she came around and she would chatter away to Bre in her grown up Deutsch voice and Bre always said she talked like a 5 year old instead of a 2 year old.  For my part, I gave her hugs and kisses and smiles and she loved to sit on my lap.  She found it hilarious that I didn't know how to speak Deutsch and would laugh at me in a very confused way.  When she saw me coming up the street she would run to me with arms outstreched and give me the biggest hug.  Then I would pass by her dad sitting at the outdoor table of the bar and he would not look at me  and I would wonder what he was thinking.

This went on for almost 2 years. Her coming into der Garten and coloring, eating or just chatting away.  She always talks to me as if I can understand her and most of the time I pretend that I can.  Kimmy has a 16 year old sister and one day the sister came into der Garten to see if Thilo could coach her in English.  He chatted with her for almost an hour and I observed her looking around der Garten at our walls that say (in Deutsch) - "Whenever 2 or 3 are gathered together in my name, there I am in their midst - Jesus" and "Maranatha!  Come Lord Jesus".  I don't know if it was these messages on the wall or something Thilo may have said but she never returned and from that day on Kimmy was no longer allowed to come into der Garten.  We were heart-broken.

She started school and we would see her with her new backpack walking home from school and a big grin on her face.  Whenever I saw her I would say, "Ich vermissen dich!"   (I miss you!)  She continued to hug me but would tell me in her serious voice that she couldn't come into der Garten.

Perhaps six months went by and one day she came in!  BreAnna, Thilo and I were bubbling over with joy.  At the beginning she just come in for 10 minutes maybe and then leave.  One day when she was in some teenagers began banging on our windows and causing trouble.  I ignored them until some of our other neighbor kids came running to tell me that one of them had hit her and so I went out with Kimmy to confront them.  As I was walking across the street to the park where they were standing defiantly, I decided to just love them.  Startle them with love because I knew they expected my anger.  Our friend Peggy was just then walking up the street with a beautiful red rose and I asked her if I could give it to them.  I tried to hand it to them and said, "Jesus liebt dich", (Jesus loves you).  But they wouldn't take the rose and just continued to stare defiantly at me.  I took Kimmy & Cora's hands and walked back to der Garten and then noticed that Kimmy's dad and another man were watching this whole interaction. 

Ten minutes later, Kimmy's dad came into der Garten and asked if I was confronting the teenagers.  (I had to get Bre to help speak to him because I had no idea what he was saying).  Bre told him that they were banging on our window and causing trouble.  Then Kimmy's dad told us that one of them was accused of touching little girls inappropriately.   It was then I realized that he was on our side!  That he was glad I had confronted those bullies and from then on Kimmy has had full freedom to come into der Garten!  In fact her mom brought her to us the other night and said, "We'll pick you up at 9:30pm".  (Fine with us!)  And Kimmy's dad came in the other night to get her and SMILED at me and said "Chow" when he left.  (We are breaking through).

So......I'm writing this whole background story to tell this one amazing part.  Kimmy and some other kids were playing Uno with me just  a week ago and I noticed that gunk was coming out of Kimmy's eye and she kept wiping it.  Later in the evening she said, "My eye hurts!"  It looked just like pink eye.  So, I got her a cool cloth to put on it and then asked her if I could pray for it and she nodded her head yes.  In my simple German I asked Jesus to touch her eye and heal it.  She sat on my lap while we were doing our evening worship and then she wanted to lay down where we have a fluffy rug and pillows.  Bre went and sat next to her and she also told Bre that her eye hurt and said, "Kim prayed for it but it STILL hurts!"  Bre said, "Did you pray for it Kimmy?"  She said, "I don't know how to pray!"  Bre said, "You can just ask God."  Kimmy made a face like this was impossible.  Bre got up and left for a minute and when she came back Kimmy said, "Okay, I'll pray."  She lifted her little hands in the hair and said HER FIRST EVER PRAYER!!!!  She said, "God please heal my eye and make it feel better."

She was watching me worship and imitating me lifting my hands and then she asked Bre why do we lift our hands.   Bre said, "So we can tell God how much we love him and tell Him, 'Lord, we give you everything'."
Kimmy kept lifting her hands and singing.  All of this was major breakthrough in her little life!

Kimmy is the first girl on the left

When her mom finally came to get her I told the mom about her eye.  (As usual, Bre helped me to communicate).   I saw Kimmy two days later and said, "Kimmy wie ist dein auge?"  (How is your eye?) and she looked at me with her bright smile and babbled off a lot of German and I looked into a clear, bright eye with NO infection whatsoever.  I said, "Danke Jesus!" and we hugged.

Kimmy said her first prayer and I believe that Jesus did touch her eye and heal it.  Thank you so much Lord!!!!!

We are thrilled to be loving and reaching out to our neighbor kids.  Kimmy calls me her "Garten friend".  All glory to the Lord.