Bautzen

Hello everyone! I am so sorry I haven't updated in a while, the lack of internet was a a challenge, though it was good for me. We are now in Bautzen, Germany, a town a little bit bigger than Herrnhut. The church we are staying at is surrounded by woods and a gorgeous lake where two of our girls were baptized! This week is like a mini outreach so there is no lecture, which I am okay with, last week was a deep enough lecture to cover this week as well. Our speaker was Sam Hoffman, a very passionate and devout man. He was a missionary to India for 20 years and played  major part in YWAM India. The topic was intercession and spiritual warfare. Monday and tuesday were spent digging into intercessory prayer; the meaning behind it and how Jesus and Paul prayed in the bible. To go along with this topic, Sam encouraged us to attend six o'clock prayer before breakfast (I only went once, I don't do well on only a few hours of sleep!) and he made it in the room where the boys were sleeping, hah! So they were "forced" to attend. We really are blessed with a wonderful group of students. We have men of God who are not afraid to show it, they are the leaders this world needs! The girls here are also an inspiration to me, I love walking around and seeing them in their bibles and deep in prayer, it encourages me to do the same!

Worship at St. Michael's Church

St. Michael's Church

The strip where homeless people live

Oliver and Amber

 Hamburg was such a great experience for me! We got to do so much ministry in the streets and God really blessed the time we had there. Last week Sam wanted us to go to the main strip in groups and kneel on the ground to pray for the city. My first thought was "this man is insane theres so way I'm doing that!" But I prayed about it and God showed me it was going to be a powerful time so I went in joyfully! My group started our prayer at 4:20 and at 4:50 I opened my eyes and literally thought just five minutes had passed, but no! It had already been half an hour, my knees weren't even hurting yet. After that we prayer walked around the city and then I went to an "american breakfast" place, but when describing the food it was "canadian pancakes," "canadian syrup," and "canadian bacon." So I think it was more of a canadian breakfast place. Either way I got pancakes and was very happy. Wednesday we went again to the Reeperbahn and did worship in the plaza (a different plaza than the week before). God used that time to bless many people around us and at one point a group went into a burger king where all the prostitutes hang out and bursted out in worship. The place soon became packed and Chris stood up on his drum and started preaching! There were a ton of divine appointments that night. Thursday was a super intense day,  Sam lead us to the St. Michael church and told us we would be doing worship, intersession and crying out for the city on top of the bell tower. Our mouth's dropped open. The TOP of the bell tower? From where we were standing we couldn't even see the top! So we began the 20 minute walk up 15 flights of stairs, over 200 feet in the air. When we emerged from the stairwell it was so foggy that we couldn't see out of the tower and it was freezing cold! However, worship was amazing and it was a great two hour time of prayer and communion. We were dancing and singing and slowly the fog lifted up and revealed a clear beautiful city night. Hallelujah! Afterwards we got  tour of the church, it was breathtakingly beautiful! Huge organs, paintings, statues, and candles decorated the place and it was so warm and inviting. Friday night we had the option of going to the St. George square, hanging out with the homeless people, interceding at the church or having a chill night and I decided to go to St. George to talk with the prostitutes. It is such a dark place, prostitution is illegal there so even to the world it's not accepted. That's just a glimpse of the darkness felt there. So I bundled up in many layers and headed out!  We met a guy there who works there regularly and he asked if I wanted to walk around with him to speak to the girls so I immediately said yes. I have been waiting for this opportunity for a while! As we walked I realized I don't speak german :( but nonetheless it was a awesome time. He knew all their names and stories and we were able to pray for a ton of girls! I was really inspired by his passion for this ministry, it was so contagious! When I was done walking, Dianna and I decided to "say a prayer like the city of Hamburg ain't never seen before!" Which meant running around the fountain in the middle of the square to keep warm and yelling out prayers. It was so much fun! We started running faster and faster and our prayers got louder and louder! Go God! When it was time to leave I was pretty sad. I prayed that even though we were leaving the next day that God would stay strong, that the seeds planted would sprout and grow deeply into Hamburg and His love would be revealed more and more everyday. At the church that night one of our homeless friends we got to know visited us and Amber sang a song for him, and he asked us all to pray for him, so we did and this man was touched so much! His name is Oliver and if you have a second, take some time to pray for him! He is so close to seeing God :) Also, I got to see my friend Quan again! One sunday I got the urge to go for a walk, and I saw him, but I didn't talk to him because I was alone and wasn't sure if I was allowed. But I felt very bad and guilty, I knew God set that up for me so I turned around and walked back but he was already gone. That night I went to a internet cafe and told my mom that story and how I was so sad, I didn't know if I would see him again. I prayed about it and hoped God would set something up again. So as I left the cafe, I see Quan standing outside the door! Can you believe it?! Of all the cafe's in hamburg, he is standing outside the one I went to! Go God. I was so joyful! I was talking so fast that he could barely understand me, but it was amazing. However, that was the last time I saw him and I won't see him again, so please keep him in your prayers, God is working in him!