Dear Prayer Warriors,
Germany Trip Danelle and I will travel to three cities in Germany from February 7-18 to teach and build the churches. Daniel and Lori Goering and other leaders have invited us to visit these churches and encourage them. Berlin will be our first destination, where we will teach a conference on relationships and how to raise godly children. On that Sunday the pastors, Dieter Schade and John Goering, also asked us to speak about lifestyle evangelism and discipleship. The second half of our trip we will be in Dusseldorf and Cologne to encourage the believers in these two cities. Some of them have been through difficult times lately and need encouragement and hope. We covet your prayers, since they make all the difference!
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| Some of the Dusseldorf leaders and their wives | Missionaries Dieter and Lucy Schade in Berlin |
Lifestyle Evangelism. Danelle and I, along with those in our house church, have been asking God for opportunities to love the lost and share the gospel with them. It is amazing how God answers that prayer! Here are some recent stories of how God has directed our paths to share the good news with those in darkness.
My son Matt and I meet weekly for fellowship, encouragement, and prayer. We talk about needs and people we want to become Christians. Then we walk around in the parking lot and pray together. A few weeks ago we were walking and praying behind some buildings, where we won’t get run over, when Rasheem stepped out to empty the trash. I gave him my testimony tract as we passed and said, “Here is something I wrote about how God changed my life,” not expecting any response. But, he immediately stopped in his tracks and asked, “You said that God changed your life. How did that happen?” Matt and I spent the next twenty minutes explaining the gospel, answering his questions, and having an amazing dialogue. I have never laughed so much sharing the gospel while still being serious. Rasheem was eager to hear. He mentioned his difficulty with relationships, so I gave him a copy of my book, where he will hear the gospel again as he reads it. We plan to go and see him again soon.
Faithwalkers While we were at the Faithwalkers Conference after Christmas, I was told a beautiful story by Courtney, one of the college students from Florida. She attended the discipleship training program, LINC, in St. Petersburg, Florida this summer. Danelle and I were there for a week in July to evangelize at the college and teach the students at LINC. We prayed for God to lead us to students who were open to the gospel, and we met a young coed named Kiosha. Little did we know that Courtney had been praying for her good friend Kiosha to become a Christian! Kiosha responded to our invitation to dinner and ran into her friend Courtney! Courtney told us the rest of the story at Faithwalkers –“Kiosha read your book, broke up with her boyfriend, and gave her life to Christ!” God answers our prayers and orchestrates divine appointments!
Danelle and I were eating dinner with our son and his family at a restaurant where we overheard two mothers speaking a foreign language. We all tried to guess, was it Spanish, Italian, or Russian? Our curiosity got the best of us, so we asked them, “Excuse us, but we have to know. What language are you all speaking?” They replied, “We were speaking all three and English.” One of the women, Olessya, was a Russian from Moscow. She immediately connected with Danelle, and as a result, they got together this past Saturday to talk for several hours. They discussed what it meant to know Jesus Christ personally. Olessya had an experience with some American Christians when she was a teenager, but now she is not sure what she believes. Please pray for her. Danelle plans to meet with Olessya again this week, as well as her friend Lindsay. It is exciting to see that God is sovereign, by providing opportunities to share His love when we are looking for them, even when we go out to dinner.
Our daughter Grace and I had a prompt answer to our prayers during a recent run. One of our requests was for opportunities to share Christ with others. Less than five minutes later, a man named Steve, asked to join us about 3 miles into our 8 mile run. We talked about our lives, families, and jobs. He had been married two times and recently his dog had died. We shared the good news that life was not in a person - spouse or children, but in Jesus Christ. He said he was lost, but did not think he was selfish. Please pray that he would know he is selfish and that is why he is lost. Pray that he would humble himself and come to Christ for real life. God answers prayer! Sometimes immediately!
Prayer Requests
- Germany February 7-18. Pray for discernment and wisdom to encourage and teach the German saints.
- Unbelievers. Pray for Rasheem, Steve, Olessya, Lindsay, Kevin and others to understand their need for Jesus. Pray for our house church to grow in our love for the lost and boldness to witness for Jesus Christ.
- Emory Ministry. We start next week with the desire to see more saved and multiplication of disciples.
- Finances. Pray for our ministry finances to improve. Our trip to Germany will be expensive, but we think it is a wise investment. Please consider a special gift to help us with this need. We sincerely appreciate all of you who support us in this work!
We are yours in Christ,
Steve and Danelle
