Off to Germany...

Tomorrow we leave for Hamburg, Germany. As Student Ministry Pastor at First Baptist Church Kaufman, I am privileged to lead a team of 13 students and 4 adults on a 10 day trip to work with a church in the town of Bad Oldesloe, Germany. We will be visiting schools three days in the week, visiting an orphanage one day and helping pull off an evagelistic Texas Night at the end of the week. I know that most of you reading my blog do so to keep up with Bethany and I and I would tell you that we covet your prayers while we are away.

The goal of our trips to the school will be to do some cultural exchange, let them practice their English with some "real English speakers"-- by "real English" I mean we are bringing some girls with the thickest East Texas twang you've ever heard- that will be fun! But we are hoping through a short presentation & video (link below) about American culture we can talk about somethings that are unique about America in contrast to the German culture- specifically the prevalence of Youth Groups and teenagers seeking a relationship with God in Texas. We will then invite all the students we speak with to a Texas Night at the end of the week where we will serve tacos, two step, dosie-do and then share the gospel message of Christ.

If you know me at all you know that I am a planner and organizer, but with this trip I am forced to rely on the German contacts we have to do a majority of the planning, and must be flexible to do what they have planned, not what I have planned to do. Often I rely on my own strength and my own plan without relying on God's divine will for what's ahead. I know God is teaching me to rely on Him. Just the other day I was reading through Isaiah and came across the passage in chapter 30 where God rebukes Israel for relying on Egypt for their needs and pharaoh for their protection rather than trusting God. It says this
"1 Woe to the obstinate children," declares the Lord, "to those who carry out plans that are not mine, forming an alliance, but not by my Spirit, heaping sin upon sin;
2 who go down to Egypt without consulting me; who look for help to Pharaoh's protection, to Egypt's shade for refuge.
...
15 This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says:
"In repentance and rest is your salvation,
in quietness and trust is your strength,
but you would have none of it.
...
18 Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you;
therefore he will rise up to show you compassion.
For the Lord is a God of justice.
Blessed are all who wait for him!"

I want to be part of a team that relies on God's will and God's plan, that we would go and be used by God to do exactly what He wants to see accomplished in the city of Bad Oldesloe this week, that we'd love on orphans with the love of Christ, that we'd encourage the youth group and leaders of this church with the truth of God's goodness, and that we'd share the undeniable good news of what Jesus has done for us on the cross and through his resurrection with all those who we encounter, that we'd live love, that we'd serve well and teach well, and that we ourselves would be stretched by God's plan and find strength in trusting in the Lord. 


I pray these things and ask that you'd pray them over us for the next ten days as we do Kingdom work in a foreign land.