October and November 2009

 

I’ve really enjoyed being able to spend a lot of time in the Word lately. Studying and teaching God’s word has always been my greatest delight. I recently taught on Habakkuk at a Baptist church, have been studying the gospel of John for our home group meetings, and have studied various topics in the Bible for our youth group meetings as well as topics relating to the church and church planting . I can’t help but praise God when I think that He has allowed me to spend so much of my time meditating in His Word.

Home Group

As I said in our last newsletter, our home group now meets every Friday. I personally have really enjoyed the increased fellowship this has brought. We’re still going through the gospel of John, but we also have one evening a month in which we invite a guest speaker and another evening in which we just play games and hang out together. I really enjoyed studying John 7, especially verses 37-39. It is a beautiful picture that, after the High Priest poured out the water before the alter and the people of Israel prayed to God for rain for next year’s harvest, Jesus cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” Only Jesus Christ can satisfy our spiritual thirst. Our first guest speaker was Hannes Schmid (October 16), who taught on the adulteress in John 8. Hannes spoke about sin and Jesus’ power to forgive and redeem us. We also studied John 9 (November 6) in which Jesus heals a man born blind. This is a wonderful picture of our salvation, and it seemed to be one of those “holy moments” when we sang the words of that old hymn together, “I once was lost, but now am found; was blind, but now I see”. Last Friday was our “game night” in which we actually decided to watch a movie. One girl brought two of her friends along for the first time.

Praise God that new people are coming to our home group, and that we’re getting to know each other better! My only prayer request is that things would continue to go as well as they presently are.

Youth Ministry (F.Y.R.E.)
I was privileged to be the speaker at a Baptist youth event (T.A.K.E.) in Vienna on October 3. Over 70 teens were there and I spoke on Peer Pressure using Psalm 73 as my text. One young man told me that he was amazed that although the Bible was written so long ago, the people still dealt with the very same issues (i.e. envy, acceptance) that we go through today. I shared the same message with our youth group in Eisenstadt a few weeks later. Our youth group seems to be doing well. Liesi hosted a girl’s sleepover at our place on October 9 and over 10 girls came...so many teenage girls, aagh! At least Liesi enjoyed it : ) It was wonderful to see how the sleepover helped the girls get to know each other better. This Saturday (November 14) we went to a Delirious concert in Vienna together. Activities like this bring the youth together. Would you please pray for our youth group, that although the youth come from different church backgrounds, we would be ONE group in Christ?