First Sunday 23 January 2011

I have to let you in on my Sunday for sure!

I went to Faith Baptist Church in Kaiserslautern. As some of you are aware I checked this church out before I left. What you may not know is that the reason I felt good about this church was that the youth pastor had links to the passion messages on his youth ministry blog!

Also, check out the church's personal statement:

Ministry Statement

"These ministries are not about a building, not about programs or services, but about the people that make up our church body. Everyone is welcome to join us in any of our activities and opportunities, but most of all we want you to know you are welcome to be a part of our body"

I was emailing late last night about a ride to church. I am not allowed to drive while I am on my internship, so I have to rely on other forms of transportation. Given that that is how I function in the States, this was nothing new for me. Jan (Yawn) was trying to find a family who lived on base to provide a ride for me, but it ended up being Alex, a volunteer who came for me.

Early this morning I woke up and prepared myself for church. I didn't know if a ride was found, but I dressed none the less. Around 9 ish, a knock was heard at our door and a guy asked for "Amanda?" I figured this was my ride, and I hopped in. Don't worry, I asked some questions first, but I am up for adventure! Church was off base in a near by town, but not at all far. I walked around the church and immediately was aware of the family feel. I was introduced to people and shown the radical youth room. The colors were bright and fun, the students were having a good time, and there is this snack room that has a lot of popcorn and soda pop. I don't know if all of this is free, because i myself did not venture into that room, but I imagine that it is based on the number of kids grabbing and snacking.

Eventually Alex pointed me in the direction of the sanctuary, and I, of course, sat down in the front row. The style was a little more old fashioned than "The River", but I think that was very okay with me. Sometimes I am just in the mood for a good hymn. We sang, "Lord I Lift Your Name on High", "Open the Eyes of my Heart Lord", "It is Well", and "Amazing Grace." I was so in love with my morning. I kept thinking "God, you have given me a wonderful life. You have lead me to a place, in the middle of a country I haven't even been in for a week, where I can worship you, with no worries." How great was that!?

After that the church breaks up for Sunday school or for the other service. I went down and was involved in an 11th and 12th grade girls Sunday school study through James. They were in James chapter two, so it was fun that WIRED recently went through James. Sad thing was… and this isn't very sad… I was freezing cold in that basement, and my coat was upstairs on the coat rack. The study was fun though, and it was nice to meet a few students and other Christians from the area.

After study time I was initially going to head to the KMCC and eat lunch with some people. The KMCC is basically a mall. Alex was going to take me there with him, but as we were leaving Jan and his wife invited me to come over to their home and have lunch with their family. This I jumped at. I love LOVE love family dinners and lunches. I love eating at tables and I love having family conversation and being in homes, so I was very VERY excited.

We headed to their house and i played with PlayMobile, which is a toy simila to legos and polly pocket. They are completely awesome and I wish they were sold in stores in the states. (Later, Alyssa did tell me that they have them in California... I need to get a hold of some of this stuff.)



I love love love his children. Their names are Nehimiah, Naomi, Ezra, and Gideon. They were so cute and polite. They all liked each other and played well. They had a few sibling tights, mostly related to younger siblings breaking things older siblings were building, but that is all expected. Otherwise, I was just very impressed with their children. Truly love them. Also, they are bilingual, and no… spanish is not their second language… it's GERMAN. I want to point out that i actually think German is a nice language to hear. I liked when the children would switch over and speak German. Beautiful children, beautiful family.

For lunch we had rice, creamed spinach, and chilli. Also, I will mention that the snack was cut up peppers. Mainly orange and red peppers were on the menu, and love cut bell peppers. The kids and the mom took naps. Jan cleaned a little, and I caught up on some of my bible reading. For those of you doing the six month reading plan, I admit… traveling and two Wednesdays ago threw me off bad, but I am catching up now that my jet lag is over and my schedule is better. It was cold there… next time I will remember to bring socks, which little Naomi pointed out that I needed.

I went back to church with Jan later, for evening bible studies. I sat in on a study with Christina and a young girl named Emily. Christina is amazing. we traded information, and she has already offered to have me over to her home on Wednesday before church for dinner. This is the German life i was hoping to get into. Dinners and meals in homes. The traveling will be fun as well, but I want friendships and relationships with friends. That is the Germany I want to know. That is the WORLD I want to know.

I got some calls later from my PC. Apparently the other's were a tad worried about me. This is understandable, as I left for church around nine in the morning and returned around seven. They too had a semi long day out, but expected me home much earlier.

Either way, amazing day, and I am so looking forward to my involvement at FBC, Kaiserslautern and really looking forward to getting to know Christina and the Horak family more.

P.S. I have to let you in on this. When we read Ephesians 2: 8-9 then we read the second chapter of James, we tend to hear about the "contradictions", but someone pointed out today that if you read a tad farther in Ephesians... the works are also mentioned in that chapter. Again, I was reminded that we must study and not listen to propaganda about the word.

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. ¹ For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." ~Ephesians 2:8-10