Jeff & Linda Brown - Germany

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March 2010

 
 
Dear Praying Friends,
 
No, Nuremberg isn't Washington, DC, but it isn't the Bahamas either. Like most of those reading this letter, we have been shovelling snow day after day since the beginning of December. It is a good way to meet neighbours in our new community. Most of those over 50 tell me that they have had enough of snow shovelling. This is the same age group that told me for years with a sigh, "We never have a real winter here anymore!" For Nuremberg, like practically all of northern Europe, Winter is back in town.
 
That said, we were not expecting much of a turnout last Sunday. We were surprised by having our highest attendance ever in a Sunday service. But the numbers were not nearly as significant for the service, as the spiritual impact of what the Lord has been doing in people's lives. Most significant, Waltraud went into the hospital with a heart problem on the previous Sunday night. By Monday evening, she was struggling for survival. An infusion, intended for a vein, went into her lung instead, and it began to fill with blood. When it was discovered, the doctor told her husband, Gerd, "She may not make it through the night." On hearing the news, there was much prayer on the part of the people of the church. Gerd and Waltraud have been mainstays in the congregation since joining, and have won their way into people's hearts. By Thursday, Waltraud was out of danger. We were able to visit her on Sunday. Of course, this was topic #1 on people's minds on Sunday. Paul's Words in Philippians 2 came to mind: "God had mercy on him [in our case "her"], and not only on him, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow." This is one of several stories of suffering and misfortune lately among our people. Not all of the stories have had a happy ending, but we all rejoiced with Gerd over God's kindness to his wife. Recent sorrows have drawn our people together. And what do you suppose the Sunday sermon text was, as we have been making our way through 1 Thessalonians? It was 5:16-18: "Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks." These three short sentences took on a new meaning for all of us. One young man in our group, an engineer, whose company in September moved his job to Dresden, 4 hours away, spends his evenings alone in a one room apartment. After thinking through the events of the week, he said, "I have really been learning through this, that I have very little to complain about."  
 
One hardly thinks of biblical scenes of People walking into the Jordan river to be baptized as one watches snow falling outside. But that was the topic of discussion for Narcisse, a few weeks ago after church. "I have been talking to my fiancée, and she tells me that I need to be baptized," he began. Narcisse, you will remember, came to Christ during our Bible studies with him in 2008. Our men's prayer group has been praying for over a year that Narcisse would be baptized. Before that prayer began, I began praying, at Narcisse's request, that the Lord would give him a Christian wife. That was no small request. Narcisse is from Cameroon. He was looking for a Cameroonian girl to marry, and it isn't like they are everywhere to find in this country. I had no idea that the two prayers would converge. But sure enough, his fiancée, Nicole, goes to a Baptist church in the Paris area. And now Narcisse is convinced that he needs to be baptized. 
 
"I had lived over 20 years in Germany, and been a member of a Christian church. Yet no one ever shared the Gospel with me. Isn't that a spiritual indictment for this country?" This is what Benjamin said with us as he told his story of how he came to Christ. A man at his work from the USA, who knows the Lord, began sharing Christ with Benjamin, and a few weeks later he was saved. In early November, we had come home at 10:30 p.m. from a long day of ministry and preparing for our move. As the phone rang I was anything but interested in giving counsel, but the young man who called needed some serious advice. I breathed a prayer and answered as best I could for the next 20 minutes. The young man thanked me, and that was that. On his first day in our church, in early January, Benjamin reminded me that he was the one who had called us late one evening. We had all but forgotten the call, and forgotten that I had advised him to find a church to put down his spiritual roots. Benjamin, it turns out, has quite a zeal for the Lord, and loves to spend time on weekends meeting people in the city, so that he can share his newfound faith in Christ (that is dedication: it is cold outside in Nuremberg!). I hadn't really wanted to talk to Benjamin when he called, I just knew I should. Sometimes there is little feeling in the ministry of church planting; there is just obedience. 
 
Not all of our lives have been at the grindstone. We were very pleased that our daughters, Janet and Julianne, were able to be with us for two weeks at Christmas. Linda had been quite sick with bronchitis before they came, and healed up just in time for their visit. It had been a while since our girls were here, and their German Christmas was special for them, since Germany is where they grew up. Our time together included sharing the Gospel with some people Janet knows, who live here in Germany, and have often had assignments at Janet's German company in South Carolina. And Julie reconnected with an old school friend, who, to her surprise, began attending our former church in Erlangen this year. Marin has recently come to Christ. What a special reunion! Our daughters departure was followed by a visit from Dr. Dan Brown and Pastor Matt Morrell from Fourth Baptist Church in Minneapolis. The visit, though special and encouraging for us and the church here, ended a day early because, you guessed it, they had to leave ahead of a snowstorm!
 
Thanks for all your prayers,
 
Jeff and Linda Brown


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