Month: July 2011

Hamburg Chronicles: Strong Sunday!

Hamburg Chronicles: Strong Sunday!

Silva

Our Sunday morning started quite e-a-s-y.  We slept in a little extra in an attempt to start to gain some of our sleep back.  We were picked up at our apartment by Daniel and Kathrine and rode with them to their worship service.  The Stage Club www.stageclub.de  is the place where The Hamburgprojekt meets for Sunday worship.

This was our 3rd worship service with our friends in Hamburg and in my opinion the best so far for many reasons. It was such a joy to see how God has grown the Hamburgprojekt by almost doubling the attendees from the first time we were there.  It also was nice to start to see some familiar faces and to be welcomed as friends.  While our German is still in its infancy stage (that’s being generous…), we were able to sing along (in English while they sang in German) some of the familiar praise songs that we also sing here.  Being able to participate in the worship service, through music, made it more of an intimate experience for both Gabe and me.

After the service we had a large group lunch at a wonderful local restaurant in the Schanze.  There were perhaps 30-40 folks that came to fellowship and enjoy a meal together.  During the meal we had the opportunity to meet a couple Achim and Corinna Keiser and their 2 children.  They were recently back from church planting in Ireland.  They shared with us the stories of their church planting experience with their challenges and how God met them exactly where they needed Him to.  It was wonderful to hear another story of how God is working all over the earth.

Also during our lunch we were able to visit with friends Nils and Tabitha Rohlinger.  We have had the joy of getting to know the Rohlinger’s over the years.  They are one of the core families that started at the beginning with the Hamburgprojekt and we were able to rejoice with them on how God has really blessed the church.   It was great to participate in the culture socially through this fellowship and relationship building time, which is exactly what Daniel and Dominic desired for us to do.  This trip Daniel and Dominic really had the desire for us to start to build relationships with folks of the church because they know how important relationships are the German culture for long term mission work.

That evening Gabe and I were slightly disappointed that one of our favorite spots in Hamburg, Elb Gold Coffee Shop was closed.  However, God was simply providing an opportunity for Gabe and I to wind down and relax in preparation for the long distance sprint He had in store for us with the upcoming week.

We want to thank you once again for your support in The Gospel work in Germany !

Stewart

The Hamburg Chronicles: Paint brushes and Cargo Ships

The Hamburg Chronicles: Paint brushes and Cargo Ships

Silva

We arrived in Hamburg on Friday in the morning.  We have learned from past trips that it is best for us to have a full first day and drive on through the evening so that we can at least force our bodies through the time change.  So, Saturday was our first day that looked anything like a real day.

Daniel had told us that he had a surprise for us on this day so Stewart and I weren’t sure what that was going to look like.  He told us to meet him at his apartment at 10:30-ish.  That morning, we needed to find a little food, so we walked around the place where we were staying and we found this very cool little coffee shop: Gluck und Selig which means “Luck and Good Feelings” (or something like that; the last word, “selig” is apparently old German…).  A couple of young ladies owned the place and its specialty was just being a cool place with crazy good food.  So, Stewart and I were eating a breakfast of coffee, coffee and more coffee when Kathrine (Daniel’s wife) met us there.  We walked to their house and we found Daniel already half covered in paint with his trademark goofy grin and paintbrushes in his hand: we were going to paint!

They were painting their apartment ahead of the arrival of their little girl, Elva Luise and we were going to do the main living room.  Kathrine had gone to a bakery and picked up some croissants, pastries and jam for us to eat during our time.  So, for the next few hours we painted their main living room and talked about all kinds of things: church, family, future…It was a great time of service and fellowship.  We thought the surprise was over…but we found out that later that afternoon we were going to the Hamburg beach to join folks from the church (and their friends) to hang out.

Interesting about this beach.  Hamburg is one of the top three largest ports in Europe.  It has a deep water inland port (like Charleston) on the Elbe River.  On the city side of the river (opposite the port side) is a beach about a football field wide dotted with restaurants, pubs and about a bazillion places to hang out, grill, drink libations and watch the ships.  So, we caught up with dozens of our friends and acquaintances on the beach from about 5:00-9:00 or so.  It was a great time!  Everyone just picked up a packet of some kind of meat to grill (and share) some folks brought small sides and everyone had their favorite drinks.  We all gathered together over a small grill manned by a master-small-grill chef (Klaus) and we were together.

It was low key, interactive and, when a big ship came in, exciting to see.  In the end, we was struck by how unstructured it was and yet how rich.  It was great to be with the people.