Church Wedding and Reception

One day after the state wedding, the church wedding took place. John Goering and I shared the pastoral duties. It was a great day celebrating the union of Michi and Magda.

The reception was held in a small hall inside a park.

Lucy and I had the opportunity to take a walk with Michi's mom and share our testimony.

Wedding

Weddings are done differently in Germany. First there is a state wedding, then the church wedding. Here is the reception for Michael und Magdalena Beutler after the state wedding. This reception was held at RB and was attended by family members and a few leaders from RB. It was a blessing to be able to host this reception for this wonderful couple.

Michi and Magda had been living together for several years, but, as they grew in their faith, they decided to seek God's will for their relationship. The result was they became engaged and decided to live apart until their marriage. What a tremendous testimony! They went against the popular opinion of the culture.

RB is blessed to have this couple as part of the church.

Bachelorette Party

This summer was also the first wedding since we arrived in Berlin in 2007. Magdalena Beutler, the woman kneeling, was married at the end of July, but first the girls took her out for a bachelorette party. They spent most of the evening in a fondue restaurant. Bachelortte parties are a relatively new experience in Germany. Magdalena loved the time with the RB ladies.

Baby Shower

This summer RB had a baby shower for Maria Larson, who gave birth in August to Elijah Larson.

The women of RB organized a baby shower, which are not common in Germany. Maria thought the shower was for her and had a gift list consisting of books and other items for her.

Maria is a good sport and laughed at herself when it was explained that the shower gifts were for the baby.

English Home Group

We have written in our emails about our English Home Group. We meet weekly at our home, but also schedule social times when we can spend time with relatives of our home group members. Many of the relatives are not believers and these social times are important opportunities to be witnesses for Christ. He did not avoid social gatherings and neither do we.

These two pictures were taken during the summer when we had a cookout. The board game is called Mensch Aegere Dich Nicht, a popular game in Germany. It is a game we played at home in Ohio with my parents. My dad still loves playing this game. Because he has dementia, he does not remember family members, but he remembers how to play this game!

Anniversary Trip

In July we celebrated our 23rd wedding anniversary. We took a train for three hours to a harbor city in the north called Rostock. The weather was beautiful for the weekend we spent there. Harley-Davidson is a big deal in Europe, but I just looked in the window. We thank the Lord for the years He has given us. It was a relaxing weekend remembering the vows we took years ago.

Taking a break once-in-a-while from ministry is important and this trip helped us renew ourselves a bit.

World Cup in July

Germany did pretty well in the World Cup games taking third place behind Spain and Holland. We viewed the games on our big screen and invited one of the ministries that rents our rooms from us, Every Nation, to view the games with us. Both our ministries invited friends and we had a great time. It was a super opportunity to invite unsaved people to watch these exciting games.

Europe goes crazy for soccer.

Reaching out to Lucy's language class

Here is a picture of one of Lucy's German language classes. Most of these folks have been to our home for dinner, have gone bowling with us, or came to RB to watch the World Cup soccer games. We use the opportunities God gives us to create relationships and share our faith.

There are five countries represented in this photo. Many of the students will go back to their countries.

Our hope and prayer is that some will come to faith and go back to their countries with the gospel.