Spring 2026
Er ist auferstanden!
There is power in those words, regardless of whether you understand them or not and this past weekend in churches all over our world, the message that He is risen was proclaimed in countless tongues.
In a way, our commission as a church is to help our world understand that because He is risen everything has changed. It is why that in a time when so many messages are vying for our attention, we cannot forget the message that was first heard from the tomb:
5 And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? 6 He is not here, but has risen”.
Luke 24:5-6
It is these words that are the hinge point between life and death. Yet how easy is it for us to consign them to a phrase we say one day of the year. As we reflect on this past Sunday and what God has done, may we not forget to start every day remembering that He is not there, but has risen indeed.
Ministry Update
I was reminded again this week as I joined the prayer team for our local partners brothel outreach that darkness and death reigns in our city. Yet in the middle of this darkness a light is shining in the hearts of the women reaching out to those caught up in the sex industry in Berlin. I am thankful for their willingness to step onto the frontline in this battle for souls. They enter really challenging environments weekly in order to draw people out of the darkness in which they are in enslaved. I hope you will pray for them, especially for the young woman they are working with, who has recently left prostitution to follow Christ. She was baptized on Palm Sunday. Please pray for her as she is discipled and that more women will find this living hope.
The past couple of weeks have been filled with opportunities to equip believers through our evangelism workshops. The workshops focused using the bridges God has given each of us as a means to then speak about the hope inside us. We hope that through the workshops our church is better equipped to bridge and then present the gospel to those around them. These workshops culminated in our church and church plants hitting the streets on Saturday to present Christ to the nations. Please pray for the seeds that were planted this weekend.
After over twenty years in the same location our church completed the move to a new facility this past month. This was a decision over a year in the making and brought about by our desire to be a church that pours our resources into people instead of buildings. The neighborhood we moved to has many immigrants and is one of the most socially depressed areas of our city. We are looking forward to our first outreach event in this new location in May with our Kid’s Camp. Please pray that this will be a start to establishing new connections and open doors as we host this camp alongside a team from Cedarville University. Our hope is that this new location will position us well to be a beacon in our city for developing mature disciples of Christ.
Please also pray for our youth group as they will have their teen retreat this same weekend. We are thankful for the growth of our teen group over the past year. We recently hosted the teens for their weekly meeting, and we were so encouraged by the work our new youth director is doing with this group.
Cherry is currently leading our women’s Bible study, and they are doing a study in Proverbs. She is also very involved with meeting with women individually for mentorship and discipleship. This is on top of hosting people in our home and helping us prepare for regular worship services on Sundays.
We are encouraged to see our church plants going strong and thankful for the leadership in both these churches. Please continue to pray for Fellowship Potsdam as they look for a larger location and for Followers Church as they try to find a location that would allow them to move their service from Sunday evening to Sunday morning.
Family Update
We completed a move to a new apartment in Berlin in January. This was a big move, and it was a challenging time for us as a family, but we are thankful to now be in a much better location for the next season of life and ministry. We are thankful for our church family and many of you that supported us from a far during this time. Thank you so much for your kindness to us!
Quinn recently did an internship at a local Christian book store and Gracie went skiing with her 8th grade class in Austria for two weeks. The winter season felt like the longest and coldest we have experienced since moving here, so we are thankful to see the trees blooming again, and the sun staying up longer and longer each day:)
Prayer Update
Wisdom as we seem to be entering a new season of life and ministry, with Quinn and Gracie moving into high school and being more independent, and the recent moves to a new apartment and church facility.
Prayer especially for Cherry and I as we seek to disciple Quinn and Gracie through the challenges of being young women in a challenging environment at their school.
Strength in a busy spring ministry season. Especially that we would not grow weary of building others up and encouraging the other leaders in our churches.