A Series of Firsts, Building momentum.
So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and they increased in numbers daily. Acts 16:5
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General Conference
We celebrated our very FIRST General Conference as the German Nation in Speyer, Germany in the beginning of May. Rev. Adrian Hall, Youth President of Great Britain and Ireland preached for us – and it was momumental.
(While translating for him into German, I was holding on for dear life! 🙂 )
Bro Hall preached so many things on so many levels to us that were so timely and edifying to the churches and ministers – we are so grateful!
We also met as ministers to ratify a new constitution for the UPC of Germany – 19 years since the last one! We first presented it in July of 2024, and have now ratified it!
Cover of the new UPC Germany constitution.
A young couple from the Munich area had been taking part in an online Bible Study among the Filipinos with Sis. Marie Malquerido in Bonn. Through this, they came to the conference with the intention to be baptized in Jesus’ name!
FelsenHaus in Munich
Now that we had been in our building for a couple months, we had a WinterFeuer (WinterFire) conference, where several of the churches in Germany, some driving as far as 6 hours, came for a time of Holy Ghost revival! Pastor Andre Love from Heidelberg (Church of Acts Neckartal) preached dynamic messages, and two ladies received the Holy Ghost!
We managed to lift and turn our 17-ft pews to reconfigure the sanctuary to a fellowship hall where we ate and enjoyed fellowship.
Towards the end the music team of the Bulgarian church sang a few songs to wrap things up, and then to help get the sanctuary back in place.
After the WinterFeuer Conference it was time to do our first deep cleaning in the new building and many of the new saints got involved, even renting their own equipment to steam clean the pews and carpet. It was also a great time of fellowship and teamwork.
We continued through the winter to now doing our prayer walks through our neighborhood. We believe it all starts with prayer and we believe that prayer should go well beyond the boundaries of our four walls.
And we had our first baby dedication, dedicating little Luna, the daughter of Max and Perla! They have done a tremendous job in getting the baby room outfitted, helping with worship, and also with technical matters ranging from the sound system to the heating system!
Purpose Institute
We got a visit from Bro. Brian Michael, Global Director of Campuses of Purpose Institute to help train administrators, deans and instructors for two campuses in Germany – one in Bonn, the other in Duisburg. It was a tremendous time and we look forward to these campuses producing new ministers!
In Munich, we have held classes in three different locations in order to accommodate the students – Munich, Künzelsau (shown), and Bretzenheim. It has been a great semester and we had more students than ever in the campus.
If we are going to grow, we have to stretch - ourselves, our faith, our resources.
Accepting The Challenge
Bulgarian Church
We have been slowly progressing in our cooperation with Pastor Yosivov and the Bulgarian church.
First, we needed to be unified as a church board, which has taken some time. Secondly, we had to inquire of our landlord what the terms would need to be. I have drafted a Usage Agreement and now I need to help them generate the paperwork needed to get approval from the landlord – but I think we have a clear path.
I got to attend the ordination of a minister I met earlier in the church, and so also got to meet ministers from Stuttgart, Cologne, Nürnberg and several other cities.
I am now in contact with the brother of Pastor Yosivov, a pastor in Cologne, to help them find a new meeting place after a discontinuation of their current location.
Only the Lord knows how this will develop, but I sense, after learning Turkish now for over 6 months, that something is happening.
German Literature
A couple of months ago we got a contact from the UPC Europ website (upci.eu) asking if any of David Bernard’s books were available in German. I provided a list of the books we had translated and Hans ordered three. I had to get two of them reprinted as we only had them in digital form. So I got them formatted and printed, we figured out how to invoice for them and sent them along to Hans.
then, as I was on my way to PI class in Künzelsau, I thought I would see if Hans, living north of Stuttgart (Ludwigsburg, where there used to be a UPC church years ago) and it turned out it was on my way, so I called him and met with him for coffee.
It turns out Hans has been a pastor, and on the board of the Gideons in Germany. He ended up ordering several more books, and enrolling in Purpose Institute in his 80’s!
Please Pray with us!
- Leaders in the Munich Church
- Success in our “Face-to-Faith” Bible Study program focusing on personal evangelism.
- Wisdom in our next steps with the Turkish-Bulgarian church
- A leader with a passion for our Literature ministry in Germany.
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