Update!

Our arrival in Frankfurt, Germany, just a few short weeks ago marked the beginning of a full season for our family. Here's a few of the highlights:

A few of our life group members.

First off, our new church family, New Life Frankfurt has been super-welcoming and our English-speaking life group is off to a great start. In our first week, we asked if there were any prayer request. One of the attendees, a 9-month pregnant American, mentioned she was having trouble getting organized for the impending birth. We prayed that God would take care of it all. He must have heard because she had the baby within two hours of leaving our house! Things worked out just fine without any extra organizing on her part ;).

Amazingly, she's one of only 3 Americans in the group (Ashley and I being the other two). But, we do have (in no particular order) a Frenchman and his Singaporean wife, two Chinese University Students, an Ethiopian, a Lithuanian and her Ghanaian husband, two young ladies from Colombia (South America - not Gamecocks) and an English teacher from Scotland. It's a virtual United Nations!

The group is super-engaged and hungry for more of God. It's a pleasure to be around them. This week we'll start a study on... well, study. Everyone is looking for ways to get more from God's Word. So, this week we'll start looking at how to maximize our time in Scripture by understanding the genre, author's intent and historical context of a given passage.

We've also been helping in some other areas, including with the New Life Frankfurt kids' program. This church plant only started offering children's church the weekend our family arrived, and - as with all new things - it's organization, volunteer coordination and development are still in a nascent stage! Yet, because of our involvement here, it exists. Indeed, a few weeks ago a young immigrant mother from Iran came with her 4-year old daughter, Erika. (Our son Remi befriended her and insists her name is America!) The mother came initially to learn about Christianity in her new country, though she herself is an atheist. However, America had so much fun that they came back the following Sunday with her aunt (visiting from Iran). After the service, the aunt found the pastor and asked if she could become a Christian. Knowing that she's from Iran - and would be returning there within the next week - he made sure she understood what she was asking - that Christians believe Jesus is God's Son, died for our sins, was resurrected and will return. She said yes on all counts and prayed to make Jesus Lord of her life - with her atheist sister standing by her side and America cheering in the background! (During the children's service, Erika also prayed to "Our Father in Heaven" for the first time in her life, and she shared some beautiful 4-year old revelations she had on the character of the God who would let Himself be know to His people as Father...)

It may seem like a small thing to watch the kids for a service. But, in the Kingdom, there are no small things. It takes every role to make Kingdom growth possible.  

So, with that in mind, thank you all so much for your continued prayers and support. It's working!