The Trip

A cold fall has arrived and it feels good to look back at the summer. In August we visited the states for three weeks. It was intense - 5 states in three weeks. But it was great visiting family and friends and making new friends.

The trip started with visiting family. For example, jumping on a trampoline with grandkids Zach and Olivia in Columbus, Oh.

Then we drove to Eu Claire, Wisc. and visited Pastor Dave Lennander and his wife Sandy.

They help lead Cedarcreek Community Church.

They led Rock Berlin from 2005 to 2008.

Our ext stop was Minneapolis, Minn. where we

were hosted by Chuck and Karen Edwards.

We had the opportunity to visit the Rock church and Pastor Mark Darling. He is the one who first invited us to Berlin.
We spoke at the Lakeville Church of the Evergreen group of churches. Pastor Charlie Meyer leads this congregation.

After Minneapolis we traveled back to Ohio for a few days, then headed to Connecticut to visit family. Here is a picture of Dieter's daughters and three grandchildren.

After Connecticut we traveled to N.C. and visited our son Matt and family.

Matt has become quite a cook and here he is preparing one of his special meals for us. Jill, his wife, and the boys, Tim and Ben, have come to enjoy his experiments in the kitchen.

We finished the three weeks with a few days in Ohio. It was a tiring trip, but what a blessing!

It"s been a while....

Here is a fairly recent picture of some of the RBers.

These have remainded faithful to RB after the switch to Sunday mornings.

Our second Easter in Berlin began with a 6a.m. service in a nearby park. Pretty cold!

Then we had an Easter egg hunt for the munchkins that help keep RB hopping.

Currently we have anywhere from 5-9 children attending services with their parents.

We have a family with a teenager checking us out too.

Then we had a great meal after the service.

Some of the kids come to church on bike. This is Joshua Goering. The children here learn to ride bikes at a very early age. It begins with a bike that does not have pedals so the kids learn to balance themselves right away.

Wedding and Baby

Greetings from Berlin,

Sorry that we have not posted recently. We will try to do better. Since the last post, we attended our first German wedding. It was held in a chapel at a local monastary. It was also very interesting. The husband took the wifes name, which is more common here than perhaps in the states. The couple is Daniel and Nina Trebien. They were part of RB before we came, but we became acquainted after our arrival in Berlin.

In one corner of the sanctuary was a ceramic pig into which financial gifts and congratulatory notes were placed.

It was a beautiful wedding. There was a reception at the monastary and a more intimate time with their closest friends at a castle outside of Berlin.

Many RBers attended this celebration. Below is a picture of John and Stephi Goering and their newest child, Luke Emmanuel Goering. They are key leaders at RB and have been with RB through all the changes. We also had the privilege of dedicating Luke to the Lord.

This is a short post, but we will post again soon.

Thank you for your interest in this ministry.

Dieter and Lucy

The First of the Year

Is it really 2009 already? We hope you are off to a blessed new beginning. At times of new starts, we often look backwards. So, here are some pics from the end of '08. We finished the year with a flurry of visitors. What a blessing!

Here are Bob and Angie Valtman, who came to visit Berlin during Thanksgiving. They were a blessing to us by encouraging us, bringing greetings from Ohio and bringing books that are helping to reshape Rock Berlin. One book is called Simple Church by Rainer and Geiger.

Thanks Bob and Angie. (Bob said he never looks at the blog, so we could use any pics we wanted:)

The next visitor was my son, Matt Schade of North Carolina. We had a great time taking Matt to the Christmas markets. He really enjoyed the different foods and sights. Plus, Matt helped us pick out a Christmas tree and set it up. We probably haven't done that together since Matt was a teenager.

The next guests were nephew, Ken Prabucki and wife Jamie. Jamie's parents, brother and a cousin, also came along. We a had a lot of fun taking them around Berlin and we made sure to have Christmas dinner together. It was great having them all visit.

Rock Berlin had a Christmas Eve service at 4p.m. followed by a party for several people who did not have family to spend Christmas with. Our guests participated and made a special time even more special.

On March 1, Rock Berlin will switch from Saturday evening services to Sunday mornings. One reason is that Rock Berlin has changed with the birth of several babies over the past 14 months.

And some babies are still being awaited.

Here is Betti Holz, who is carrying twins. She is due this spring.

Below is the most recent birth, Luke Emmanuel Goering, born Jan. 25. His parents, John and Stephi, are key leaders at Rock Berlin.

There is a pictorial of how 2008 ended and how 2009 is beginning.

Thank you for your prayers for the misnitry at Rock Berlin. We are praying for a year of God doing amazing works in Berlin. We give God all the glory and praise. He is awesome!

It's been quite a fall

Berlin Marathon
This marathon had about 40,000 runners from around the world. Steve Nelson, a missionary from the Ukraine, was an entrant and stayed with us before and after the marathon. Steve is in his 50's, but in great shape. This was his thirteenth marathon. Steve takes every opportunity to share his love for the Lord and this race was no exception.

Pastors Conference in Poland
We were in Poland for the first time at the beginning of October. The conference took place near the city of Krakow, which was the capital of Poland until the 1500's.
Steve and his wife also attended and we had dinner together in town on our free evening.


Bible Study
Lucy began a Beth Moore study group using the latest study, The Psalms of the Ascent.


The group consists of two singles and two marrieds. Countries represented are the states, Poland and Russia. But the language is, of course, English.
We are starting an English-speaking home group before Thanksgiving. It will have singles and married couples. Some of the Rock Berliners want to improve their English skills.

Baby

We wrote in our last Germanator email that Lucy was asked to be present at the birth of a Rock Berlin baby. Here is an introduction to Samuel Suwalla.

Busy Summer

END OF MAY
Wittenberg (officially named Lutherstadt Wittenberg) is the German city most associated with Martin Luther (1483-1546), leader of the German Reformation and was our destination with Pastor Dave when he visited for two weeks in May(he tries to make sure we are seeing some of Germany). We enjoyed our time with Dave as he encouraged us.

I was there previously in 1995 with my dad and relatives and WOW how it has changed. It has become very commercial. What that means is you can buy Luther beer, bread, candy and many other assorted things.

It was still neat to see a few of the old buildings, but I have to think that Martin Luther cannot be too pleased with what the town has become.

We had an interesting conversation with a restaraunt owner. He's a German who thinks Joe Cocker is the best guy in the world and who wants to travel Route 66 on a motorcycle. He sounds like many Americans:)

JUNE

June found Lucy in the states taking care of some family business and, of course, visiting with family, but only in Ohio.

While Lucy was gone, one of my cousins and a friend came to Berlin and stayed with me. It was very cool to be able have family visit after being gone for so many years.

Before Lucy left we were able to visit with a couple of Berliners, Guenther and Charlotte Grosche. We met them in Columbus, Ohio when they lived there for two years. We met them at a restaraunt and watched a European Cup game on a huge outdoor screen (the bigger screen was nearby:)

The European Cup was huge. It felt like being in Columbus on Buckeye football gameday. The people really enjoy their soccer, all day and ALL NIGHT! Germany made it to the finals, but lost to Spain.

JULY

In July, Lucy and I celebrated our first anniversary in Germany, number 21. We stayed in and Lucy cooked a special meal, and it was awesome to reflect on how God has worked in our lives. All praise goes to Him.

We had visitors in July, too. Drew Hage, a church planter working with the Amsterdam church, spent a few days with us so he could look around this incredible city.

Then on July 22, a missions team from our old church, Linworth Rd. Church, came for 10 days. It was great to see some old friends and to hear news from the "old country". Mike Faler kept the team of seven working from the morning into the evening. They witnessed in a local park and also downtown where young people congregate. They also helped RB celebrate our 5-year anniversary. We also gave the team a todo list for a little maintenance work around the church.

Daniel Goering visited RB for the anniversary celebration and shared the message with his son, John, and me. We talked about the past, the present, and the future of RB and Great Commission Europe.

Here is a picture of Daniel with one of our RB folks, Maria Larson.

Here are a few photos of the team. They shared breakfast together every morning before prayer and music worship.

Here is Tim Short with a couple of RBers. Below are Rhonda Hearon and Kelley Faler
sharing with women in the park.

Lucy finished her third language class in July. She is off until the end of August. Here is a photo of her classmates.

God is alive and working in Berlin, even though most of the people do not believe in Him.

As always, thank you for your prayer support. It is critical and it really is encouraging to know that people are bringing us before the Father. It is a blessing for us to pray for you too.

And, of course, we appreciate the financial support. The euro and the dollar are locked in a battle. You are supplying us with the means to stay in the spiritual battle that rages on here.

Volleyball Plus

Hello Germanators,

Hope you are all enjoying this time of the year as we move from spring into summer (at least here we are:). We have had two sessions of beach volleyball (BVB) so far. We play on Thursday evenings, but must go to the park between 3-4 p.m. to claim a spot. The park fills up quickly and it's neat to see people get to know one another a little over a game of volleyball.

The volleyball area is big enough for six nets to be erected.

Here's Pastor Dave telling me to get to work and stop posing for the camera. He showed us how to set up the home-made system.

Pastor Dave came back to Berlin to visit for two weeks. It was a great time as he encouraged us in our ministry. He was able to meet with almost all the leaders at Rock Berlin. Plus he led four leadership training sessions. Hopefully Dave was able to rest when he was back in Wisconsin.

This past weekend we had a baby dedication (Kindersegnung) which was done in German. The room was very warm and little Silas Schueler fell asleep during the ceremony.

Above is Silas with his parents, Uwe and Kathleen Schueler, and friend of the family and a RB leader, Stephi Goering. Silas is 5-6 months old.

As was done in Ohio, we charged the parents and the congregation to all be a part of Silas' spiritual growth. We prayed that one day Silas will give his life to the Savior, Jesus Christ.

Recently we participated in a Chinese tea ceremony that celebrated the birthday of one of the Rock Berliners, Christina Serafy.

Much of Germany still has stone sidewalks which require a fair amount of maintenance. Here are pictures of sidewalk work.

I hope the photos give you a flavor of what we are experiencing. We thank the Lord for directing us to Berlin and we are grateful for all the Germanators.

We continue to ask the Lord to make His will known, that everything we do would further His kingdom and bring Him glory.

We are being challenged and are growing in our walk with our Lord. Being a Christ follower means that we continue to desire to be more like Christ.

Thank you for your support in all its forms: prayer, financial, and messages of encouragement.

Dieter and Lucy