On Saturday we met with Bri and Randy (our missionaries) for Kaffee und Kuchen (Coffee and Cake) which is a German tradition that around 4 o'clock on most days people come together to eat cake, drink coffee, and talk about the things that are happening in their lives. So we chatted with Randy and Bri about Germany, movies, our LST parties, Germany, their kids, school, oh and did I mention Germany (we talk a lot about Germany and Germans...be prepared). Bri and Randy have three kids, Oliva, Chris, Alex, who have become pretty attached to Abby and I and always want to play (which we are happy to oblige!).
Saturday night Bri, Abby and I (meaning, I..Emily..am writing the blog of the day) went to the town of Chemitz (pronouced Kem-nit-zs) to watch one of the members of the church preform in a German band that plays American covers. When we got there we met up with the LST team that is reading in Chemnitz and we also met with the local missionaries for Chemnitz. So basically, it was a party! Also, it was SO funny to watch Germans get into such classics as Crocodile Rock, I'm a Believer, and CCR. Many began dancing and nearly everyone in the audience was bobbing their heads to the music. The Americans at our table could barely contain giggles at how some of the music was interpreted by the band. But our girl in the band did fantastic and had a lot of saxophone solos that brought the house down! Eventually nearly everyone in the club was dancing and I joined the LST girls from Chemnitz on the dance floor. The entire time I just kept reminding myself of how crazy life is.--here we am in East Germany, dancing at a random club, listening to random music, and loving life. Oh how crazy!
Sunday was a really good day. Abby and I went to Bible study here at the Gemeinde which was in German and we had a great opportunity to meet a lot of the members of the church here. The church is small but the members really care about each other and it feels a lot like a family. Church service was small and all in German but the lesson was about Martin Luther (should have known...it IS Martin Luther country) and grace. It was given by Clive a missionary from Oklahoma that is here for the summer and though sometimes it was hard to grasp the complete meanings of words it was a good message. We did a lot of singing, also in German, which was my favorite because it was all the classic songs I knew but in German. It really makes you think about what worship is and why we worship. If God doesn't care about the language and He doesn't care if you even know what you say then it becomes more about your attitude and willingness to worship.
We had some crazy time this morning as we noticed that when we got to the Gemeinde that someone has vandalized our sign outside the door. Apparently the sign is always getting torn down until Bri finally laminated it and put powerstrips on it--making it near impossible to get off. By now there is a giant gash in our sign. Germany is a very atheistic country esp in the East where it was forbidden to worship until after the Wall was torn down. So our community and what we are doing here is not really welcomed by everyone. But it does make for an exciting morning!
But finally, the most important information: our readers!!!
Abby and I have all met (at least once) with all of our readers (except one or two) so we can now begin to talk about them. We each have about 4 readers each and every one is different. As the weeks progress we will talk about each in more detail so expect in the next couple of days for Abby and I to post stories about them. For today (because this is a long post) I will just say that we are very happy with our readers and feel that God has directed each of them to us. Keep checking in on us to find out more!!
With Love,
Abby and Emily
2 Thessalonians 3:1
Finally brethren pray for us, that the word of the Lord may run swiftly and be glorified, just as it is with you.
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