Thursday Without Steve On Free Day

Somehow Steve got an allergic reaction from some German cats at the Andresens and was not able to participate in the fun free day on Thursday. Here is what he missed out:

We are standing in front of a broken piece of the former Berlin Wall.

Me in front of the Checkpoint Charlie

Taking a cool picture

At the Jewish Museum
Jerry strolling through the maze
Lila and Vanessa
Lila and Vanessa standing in front of a garlic at the Jewish Museum
Evening at Potsdamer Platz, in front of a piece of the former Berlin Wall

-FW

August 6 - More Tracts And Dinner With The Andresens

Today, we had the honor of having Laura Borchmann (Dieter's daughter) join us for tracts. She did a great job stuffing mailboxes and persuading the Germans to let us in so we can put tracts into their mailboxes. While others got rejected.


After a long day of walking around, we got to relax for dinner with the Andresens. Christian Andresen is another missionary from Grace but his focus is more on the EBTC, European Bible Training Center. We had a good time talking and eating dinner with them.

Tracts, Tracts and more Tracts!

Having started our day with the "breakfast of champions" a combination of nougat pockets and schoko musli (delicious chocolate cereal) we were ready to pound the pavement. The team met at Treffpunkt, and Cary Green gave a devotional on Mark 4:1-20 and Steve led us in songs of worship. We were a little concerned, however, if we were even able to go out into the neighborhood because it was really wet and windy. But the rain let up so we stuffed our bags and went out. We took the bus and delivered tracts into areas in which no teams have ever gone before. The weather was extremely windy all day, though it came close, not one tract was blown away. Everyone was very excited to be passing out the tracts, but Steve gets the award for most ambitious because he stuffed his bag with 9 bundles of tracts (each bundle containing 100 tracts)! At the end of the day, we went back to our host families for dinner. We will be back at it again tomorrow.

Stay tune for our next update! =)

The Next Day

Today we pounded the pavement with the tracts once again, praying that the people here in Berlin would respond to the gospel message inside. All together we were out and about for 5 hours, walking from building to building and ringing many doorbells. Thankfully, many of the mailboxes were outside the apartment complexes which means: easy access!!! After a delicious lunch prepared by Bea, we said our farewells to the Grosjean family. They will be traveling to Switzerland with a few members of Bibelgemeinde Berlin for a camping trip. We will back at it again tomorrow!! Thanks for reading!!

-Lila and Vanessa

A Day At The Tracts

The Map
Jerry Studying The Map
The Tracts
Today was the first day of passing out tracts. We first met at the Treffpunkt for a time of devotional and prayer. Cary shared with us the parable of the soils, and reminded us that it is by the work of God to change hearts and we are to remain faithful in serving Him. Once the people get these tracts, they are held accountable by God whether or not they accept the Gospel that has been presented to them. So please continue to pray for the German people, that they will read these tracts and believe in Jesus Christ.

This year is the first time we have passed tracts in this area of East Berlin. This is a whole new territory. With unforeseen and treacherous difficulties ahead, we traversed these new roads. Our legs tightened with every step and after about 4 hours of walking (with a lunch break in between), soarness was setting in and blisters on the bottom of our feet started to form. It didn't look like we could go on further. Could we make it another hour? Could we contintue to take the verbal abuse we were getting in German when we said the word "Werbung" (advertisement)? One German man stuck his head out of the window when I rung his doorbell to get into his apartment building to put in the tracts into the mailboxes and yelled at me in German. I just stood there, dumbfounded, not understanding the language. Then a lady came out with her dog and scolded me in German. Again, I just stood there with a dumb smile. But we pressed on, accomplishing a good day of work for the Lord.

- OJ/180

Felix And The Tract
Lila And The Mailbox

Lord's day with the Deutschen!

Grusse Fon Foundry Team Aus Berlin, (Greetings from the Foundry Team in Berlin)

This morning, we had the opportunity to worship and partake in the Lord's Table with the folks from the bibelgiemeindeberlin (Bible Church of Berlin) where both Pastor Cary Green and Dieter Borchmann shepherd.

After lunch, we traveled by train to Sachsenhausen to see a first hand glimpse to one of the Nazi's notorious concentration camps. The feeling was surreal for all of us as we were walking around the the camp and going inside to each of these old buildings knowing thousands upon thousands had died there.

After several hours at the concentration camp, we headed back to the Borchmann's for dinner.

Tomorrow, we begin to pass the first wave of approx. 35,000 gospel tracts (total) to BCB neighboring towns...

Stay tune for more updates....


~Felix



Pastor Cary leading the congregation in music

Communion

Here is Vanessa and Klaus, who came to know the Lord through one of the the gospel tracts 3 years ago, attends BCB.

Lila in the train

Vanessa inside the the concentration camp museum

Vanessa inside the surgery building.

Jerry looking at the execution trench

Me reading something..

Dinner at the Borchmanns

Happy Landings

The team was able to arrive safely in Berlin Thursday morning without any travelling hic-ups. Even though most of us got little or no sleep on the plane we still had a whole day ahead of us. We went to Bea and Pascal’s for the afternoon and during. Went to the park. Kicked the football (That’s soccer for you Americans) around. Played on the slide with the kids. Afterwards, it was early to bed. The guys are staying with the Greens, while the gals are staying with the Borchmanns.

For the most part, the next two days were relaxing days in which we could get rest and our strength for our upcoming task of passing out tracts. We spent most of Friday helping out with yard work at the Green’s house. Towards the evening we all headed to Treffpunkt 180 for Friday evening Bible study. Revelation 19 was discussed, but I didn’t understand a word of it, since it was conducted in German.

On Saturday, the team spent the day seeing the sights of Berlin. We were led by our helpful guides, Daniel, Juliana, and Josh. Highlights included the Perganom Museum, which contained an extensive exhibit on Babylon. They even had part of the gate of Babylon there. We also saw the Brandenburg gates, where Napoleon marched through. All in all we had a fun day out in the city. We look forward to spending time with the church tomorrow and our task ahead of passing out Gospel tracts.