Why are we here again?

Last weekend, we had the chance to join Rocco and his family at an all church day near Schweinfurt, Germany. During their 30+ years in ministry here, Rocco and his wife Karoline have planted three churches. This church in Schweinfurt is one of these churches from before their time in Jena. Each year, they hold this all-church day at a retreat center, and they always invite the Panepintos to come back and join them. So, this time, we got to come along too! It was a great chance to practice some German (there's something about meeting a whole new group of people that gives you a little more boldness to try it out, I think). But mostly it was great to see a bit of the legacy of Rocco and Karoline. They started this church in Schweinfurt from the ground up, and now, it's a vibrant, relatively large for Germany standards, community of believers. In fact, the reason the Panepintos left is because the church got to the point where it could support itself, and they moved on to another area that was in huge need. During part of the day, Rocco shared what has been going on in Jena the last year, and Elyse and I actually sang a song! We had already sung together once for the English/German service last Sunday, but we didn't know they were going to ask us to sing there too until just before we went on! I wanted to share two stories from this trip that really hit home to me once again, why we're doing what we're doing. Maybe they can help give you a better picture of the situation here too.

First, a short story about a conversation that Elyse and I had with one of the church members. Rocco had already told us some about the church and about how great it was to see these people grow up. So many of them were teenagers when they started the church. They grew up, and Rocco married them, and was there when their babies were born, and now he comes back to see these people's kids as teenagers! While we were talking to one of the ladies from the church, she was asking us what our plans were for the future. When we told her we wanted to come back to Germany and help start churches some day, she was so excited. Of course I'm excited about people from the US deciding to come to Germany, she said, look at all these families who's lives have been dramatically changed because of Rocco's decision to come, including my own! I've heard a few times, that Germans - even some German Christians - don't like the idea that people come to their country as missionaries. Maybe they feel like those who come are condescending or that they come because they think the Christians in Germany aren't good enough. Well, that's not the case at all, and this lady was a great reminder to me of why we are doing what we're doing.

Second, I story that Rocco told about something that happened in Jena - There was a man Rocco met one time who had been a total atheist, during the time of the communist GDR in the East. This man was diagnosed with brain cancer, and the doctors gave him no hope of recovery. As a last ditch effort, they said they could try to do surgery to remove the tumor, but there was almost zero chance that he would even survive the operation, and it was almost guaranteed that even if he did happen to live, he would be in a coma and never come out. In despair and in the face of the end of his life, this man turned to God. At least, he wanted to, but he didn't know anything about God. All he could think to do was to go to a church - maybe God would hear him in there. He asked God to help him - to heal him, or to bring him safely through this operation. The day came, the tumor was removed, and the man lived! His face was disfigured and he lost one eye, but he lived to have a normal life. He believed God had saved him and was always thankful, but for him it was thanks to an "unknown God." This story was much more dramatic when Rocco was telling it in person :) , but that's OK because as amazing as that is, the real point is this: One day, 20 or 30 years after this event, this man happened to run into Rocco in the town center with his book table. Seeing some of the signs and the books that Rocco had out, the man ran up to him and asked urgently, "do you believe in God!?" Of course Rocco said yes, and he explained to him that he was a Christian. The man told him the story about how he miraculously survived the cancer, and was so thankful to be able to talk to Rocco. For his entire life, he had been thanking this God that he knew had saved him, but he had NEVER met anyone else who believed in God and could actually explain more about Him. That day, his faith was able to go from faith in a mystery god to faith in the God of the Universe.

I hope these stories help give a better picture of the situation here in Germany. There are definitely bright spots, and God is working and changing lives. The fact still is though, that overall, it is a dark place. Especially here in the east, atheism is the default mindset, and people of any kind of faith are the exception to the rule. Please continue to pray for us as we learn what it's like to minister here, and for Rocco and the church as they reach out to this city. Speaking of the church, I promised some news, so even though this is a lost post already, here it is! - After two years of searching and trying, the Hausgemeinde am Jenzig has finally found some rooms they can rent to use as a church building! This will be a huge blessing to them, as they've totally outgrown the space in the Panepintos' home. We are excited to be here to help them as they get set up and settled in!

A Day in the Life of Ryan and Elyse

How can it be two weeks already since we last posted!? The time goes so fast! Anyway, I thought we would let you know what our typical day/week looks like for those who might be curious what all we're doing here. So, here goes...Monday Through Friday

- Get up between 7:00 and 8:00 - depending on what we have to do before school, like finish homework maybe :)
- Our language classes start at 9:00, but fortunately, the school is only about a 10 min. bike ride away from our place.
- Class until 1:30 in the afternoon - we do get a few breaks during the day, but whew! it's a lot of German
- After class, rest our brains!!
- Afternoons, we have time to work on our homework, maybe do some reading, keep of with correspondence, go grocery shopping, whatever we need to do that day.
- Evenings we have quite a few different things going on:
Monday nights - English "Stammtisch": a group of people who meet regularly to practice their English. (More on this later)
Tuesday nights - Bible study at the church
Wednesday nights - Our weekly mentoring meetings with Rocco are late afternoon, so by Wednesday night, we're pretty tired :)Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights - so far, we don't have anything regular on these nights, but we've been able to do a lot of different things: visit new friends, practice music for Sunday, invite people over to our place...
So, that's a little general, but hopefully it gives you a good idea of what we do here in Jena each week. Since we just went to the English "Stammtisch" last night, we thought we'd let you know a little about it. "Stammtisch" in German just means something like a table (Tisch) for regulars, a reserved spot for regular customers. This particular Stammtisch is one that Rocco has already been going to for awhile. It's for people who want to come to practice their English. There's some other native speakers there - us from the US, some from the UK or Australia - and LOTS of people from Germany and other places who come to speak English. They actually have a "hat of shame" that somebody made, which you have to wear if you get caught speaking German!! So, every Monday night from about 8:30 until 11:00 or so, we go to this Cafe and get to speak English. It's refreshing to be able to speak English and know that it's not a hassle but it's actually what people want us to speak with them! The Cafe is located in an old train station that's not far from our apartment.
It's not used as a train station anymore, but it's now know as the "Kulturbahnof," the culture train station. Along with the Jazz cafe that's upstairs, they also hold dancing nights, art classes, and sometimes have crazy artists come in and do art installations downstairs. Rocco said that the week before we arrived, there was some art piece there that involved little swimming pools filled with water and people standing around looking through telescopes! So, that gives you a little bit of an idea of the feel of the place :)We've found that the Stammtisch is a really great place to meet people. Many of the same people come each week, but there also seems to be a constant flow of new people in and out as well. We get to hear about all the things they're studying (seriously, almost all of them are Masters or PhD students working on research or writing their theses). And of course, they ask us what we're doing in Jena, so we get to tell them a little about the church and why we're here. It's been nice to really start settling in and even making some friends outside of the church too!
Well, I think that's all for now. We'll be back tomorrow or the next day with some more pictures and some news about the church.

Our First Month!

Sorry it's been so long since our last update. We promise to be much more regular with our updates now that we've got steady access to internet :)

It's hard to believe we've already been here in Jena for a whole month! How the time flies when you're trying to learn German. There's so much to tell about our first month, so I think I'll spread it out a little bit. First things first: we are spending a LOT of time in language school. We knew that would be our main task for this first part of the internship, but it's still surprising just how much work it is and how much it can wear you out! Shortly after our arrival, we went to the language school to take a test to see which class we could get into. Luckily, Elyse had already been practicing her German and learning some vocabulary, because she scored high enough to get into a class that had already started a few weeks earlier. Even though it's a beginner class, it's amazing how much you learn in just a few weeks, so it was great that she knew enough already to go ahead and join that class. Since I (Ryan) had already learned some German, I was also able to test into a class that was already going. The teacher told me I scored actually between two different levels, so I was a little worried I wouldn't find one that fit well. But, it actually worked out perfectly: I tried out a slightly lower class in the beginning, and that let me get some practice in and review of some basics. After a few weeks though, the next higher class came back from their summer break, and I was able to jump in with them! It's definitely a better fit, but also definitely much more challenging. We're both just wishing so badly that we could just speak fluently right away! Oh well, I guess that's just the way it works; you have to start somewhere and build from there :)

Thank you so much for all of your prayers! We, of course, need continued prayers for our language learning and that we would continue to be encouraged and remember why we are putting in all this effort. Another thing that urgently needs prayer: we can't go into much detail here online, but there is a member of the church who's family is trying to escape their country and come to Germany as political refugees. They were stopped at a border (not Germany) and are now in jail waiting for something to happen. It's a potentially very dangerous situation. Please pray for this young man from the church, for peace and faith as he feels helpless just sitting and waiting to see what happens. Pray also for the family, that they would be let free and have a safe passage to Germany.

OK, I think that's enough for one post. More about our first month soon! With pictures!