14 posts tagged “singing”
This post is LOOOOONG overdue, and for that I apologize! For all you know, in regards to my last post, I could be still waiting to hear from the "Big Dogs" about whether or not I was accepted as an official appointee with FIM! Well, you can stop drumming your fingers on the desk now...I will put your minds at ease and let you know that my meeting with the Board of Directors went very well and I am pleased to announce that I have been officially accepted as a missionary appointee to Germany and Eastern Europe with FIM!
The whole experience at Candidate Orientation was a very good one for me. For starters, it was great to be able to go through the week with Craig and Debbie (my new teammates!) :) They've been in ministry in Germany for the past 6 years and were the ones who initially began "twisting my arm" about moving to Germany and joining them. Last year, they switched mission agencies and were thus required to attend this year's Orientation. It just so happened that the Lord's timing in calling me to this ministry and His timing in opening the doors for them to join FIM allowed for us to attend the Orientation at the same time! What a blessing that was...not to mention more fun than we probably should have been allowed to have! :) I am so thankful for Craig and Debbie and the relationship that we have. One of my biggest concerns in the past about "being a missionary" was having to be on a team. I have to say that in this case, I'm excited to be a part of this team!
It's good to be back in Hungary, but I have to say that it's a bit strange to be here without members from my church. If any of you who have been with me to Hungary in the past are reading this, know that you are missed. The other strange thing right now is trying to type on a Hungarian keyboard. VERY strange. I'm managing though. :) What's really good, is having the chance to go and sit by the Danube, which is just a short walk from the Bible Center and which is one of my favorite places in the world. I've spent a lot of time by this river and have talked to the Lord about many differnt things there, so it is a significant place for me. It's good to be back.
We arrived here at the Bible Center in Dömös on Saturday evening after a very long and tiring trip from Leipzig. It took us about 13 or so hours, but we finally made it and were greeted by Ernö and Katrin (Ernö is director of the Bible Center), and of course, Tünde ("toon-da"), our wonderful cook. She had a meal all prepared and waiting for us, and even though none of us were really hungry, we sat down and forced ourselves to eat. Sunday morning we got up and drove another hour or so to a small, but growing, church near Budapest. The people there seemed so warm and it was wonderful to share communion with them and attempt to sing with them in their language. (Apparently, Hungarian is the second or third most difficult language to learn!) I sang a couple of my songs for them, and Jack, from the Pennsylvania team, gave a message. Afterwards, we all split up into smaller groups and ate lunch in the homes of various families from the church. I always love these times of interacting with the people and having the opportunity to get a small glimpse into their lives. I went with Ernö and Katrin to the home of "Willie" and Eva. (I'll hopefully have a chance to upload some pictures later today).
Sunday evening I gave a concert here at the Bible Center for various friends and neighbors of the staff here. I sent the songs ahead last week, so Katrin and her friend, "Kristy", who is not a believer, translated them into Hungarian so we could project the lyrics behind me. There were about 30-40 people there and some even came who are professing atheists. The Gospel was explained and I simply tried to talk plainly about meaning of life and relationship with God.
Monday morning, Craig, Debbie and Peter (from Germany), left to take some medical supplies to Romania...which means that I have been somewhat in charge of overseeing the group. Yesterday and today have been spent working around the Center and tomorrow morning we'll be heading into the school to speak with the students studying English. I'm looking forward to connecting again with the teachers and students there and introducing the team to the wide open opportunities for building relationships in the schools.
Well, I know this post has been mainly factual, but hopefully it will keep you appraised with what's going on in my world over here. Thanks for all your prayers.
I'm back in Leipzig after having spent a wonderful couple days in Mannheim (the train ride back was significantly less eventful than the one there, but I made up for it today in Leipzig!:::sigh:::). Yesterday morning, before I left Mannheim, I went with Diane to her women's Bible study group, PWOC (Protestant Women of the Chapel). I was asked to give a mini-concert before they split up into their smaller Bible study groups, and as I sang and shared for these women, I just felt so priveleged to be able to minister to them in this way. Plus, it was good for me to have the chance to meet this group of ladies that my good friend is a part of, and see that she has a support system and a "family" there in Mannheim. I am so thankful to have been given the opportunity to personally thank them for the sacrifices that they and their husbands make for our country. There's a possibility that I may be added to the "resources" link on the PWOC website, which will give me more opportunities to sing for military wives both state-side and abroad. I would count this as a great privelege.
Most of this morning was spent trying to connect with my friend, Erika, for lunch. "Trying" is in bold and italics for a reason. But I'm not going to go into that reason, because it's too painful to recount. Suffice it to say that because of a small miscommunication about our meeting place, I've got the tram system in Leipzig down pretty well now. :::BIG sigh::: Erika and her husband, Reinhard, are German missionaries/church planters here in Leipzig, and during my visits here have become dear friends. Hopefully, I'll get a chance to connect with her before I return to the states.
This afternoon, I went with a group of Germans into the prison for a couple hours to sing and talk to the inmates there. Actually, this wasn't a prison prison. It was more like a rehabiliation facility...with bars..for those who had abused drugs and/or alcohol, among other things. There were about 24 that came in, and I have to be honest and say that initially it was pretty intimidating. It was a very different experience from the other times that I've been in the prisons (both in Hungary and Germany). These were all young guys (and one girl...????!?!?!!?), and they just...well...they looked intimidating. HOWEVER, after we had shared a few testimonies with them, and I sang a few songs, and we just stood around and talked with them, they softened up and some of them began sharing their lives with us. I couldn't really participate that much since I don't speak German, but it was cool to see the others jumping right in there and making conversation with them. It was a great time for me, and hopefully in the future sometime, I will have the chance to go back again.
I'm literally falling asleep as I sit here and type, so I better end this post and get to bed. This afternoon, the new team from Pennsylvania, and tomorrow morning--EARLY--we're all starting out on the 12 hour trip to Hungary. Most of what we're going to be doing there will be visiting the English classes in the schools and continuing to build relationships with the teachers and students that we've gotten to know over the past several years of going there. Sunday night I'm going to be giving a concert at the Bible Center in Dőmős for the community, and on Friday we're going to be going into the prison there to give a service for the inmates. From Monday to Wednesday, Craig and Debbie will be going on to Romania to deliver some medical supplies to a doctor there, so I will be leading the team while their gone. Please pray for all these things going on. It's going to be a full week, but I'm looking forward to it. We will return to Germany next Saturday, and then I only have 4 days left here. Not sure how I feel about that, but that's for a later post.
Hopefully, I'll be able to update this blog while I'm in Hungary, but if not, thanks for your prayers for me here. Be assured that God is answering them.
Today Diane, Eliana and I spent several hours touring Heidelberg (or "Heidelberger" as Eliana would say). It was pretty overcast today, so the pictures aren't the greatest, but here are a few...
This is Heidelberg Castle. The Bergbahn was under construction, so we had to take a bus up the steep hill to visit it.
Here's Di and Eliana checking out this....
The only downside to our day was that our tour guide at the castle basically threatened to kick us off the tour if "the baby" made so much as a 'peep' while she was talking. So, it was pretty interesting trying to keep Eliana, a lively little two year old, distracted and quiet for an hour during the tour. Other than that it was a great day and I would love to go back and explore more of the town sometime.
Tonight I went onto the Army base with Douglas to give a mini-concert and lead worship for the youth group from the Chapel there. About a dozen kids came and after about an hour of playing Underground Church (basically "Capture the Flag"), they came in for a lesson and then I sang and talked with them a bit. They seemed like a good group of kids, but it was interesting talking to the leaders about this type of ministry where the group is pretty transient. They have a short period of time to interact with the kids and then they're gone. Personally, I think that would be such a difficult ministry because of that, but it's cool to see the people that God has raised up to do it. Most of the leaders that I met were also "military brats" growing up and so they are able to relate to the transient lifestyle that these kids have.
Tomorrow morning I'm going back onto the base to give another mini-concert for a women's Bible study group from the Chapel. I'm looking forward to this, and should probably get to bed so that I can actually stay awake for it. :)
Gute Nacht!
First of all, I must say this...why God would chose me--for any reason--blows my mind. That He chose to redeem me is one thing--a great thing--but He could have stopped there. Instead, every day He chooses to move in my life in sometimes subtle, sometimes very obvious ways; and instead of stopping there, He chooses to use the ways that He's moved in my life to introduce others to that same love that changed me so deeply. But why me? Why this struggling, FAR-from-having-it-all-together, broken vessel? For whatever reason, He just does. And that blows my mind.
Last night was an interesting night. To be honest, I can't really put my finger on what it was, but as Debbie & I debriefed about it afterward, we agreed that there was a definite spiritual battle taking place in that hall. About 200 or so people came. The last time I did this in October, it seemed as though it was mainly people from the church that came, but this time Craig thinks that probably about 75% were not believers. Many students came from the school we visited the other day. Others came from the English group, Tafel (a food distribrution service to the poor that takes place at the Hoffnung Zentrum), Leipzig, and Isabel's English class. Martina was there, and even Jana ("yah-na"), C&D's former German tutor and professing atheist who broke contact with them for the past year or so, came with her boyfriend. It was great to see her again. I met her a couple years ago, but never was able to reconnect since she stopped contacting C&D. It's exciting to see prayers being answered in such a tangible way.
From the beginning of the soundcheck I was having problems with the sound. I couldn't hear myself very well and that never really resolved. Bad sound is such a distraction for me and I had to really concentrate on just singing the songs and trusting that I was being heard (I was told it sounded fine from the audience). Either way, Isabel's mic sounded fine, and since she was the one speaking German, that was the most important. I was able to talk openly about my relationship with God and why these songs are important to me. It also gave me the opportunity to tell them that God desires relationship with everyone and that that is possible only through Jesus Christ. At one point last night, I was struck with this thought: what are the chances that I would be standing on a stage in former East Germany sharing the Gospel with people who came to hear me sing? I somehow can't fully get my mind around that thought, but I suppose it just goes to show how creative God is in using His people. There are no impossibilies. Thanks so much for praying for me yesterday. You all are just as much a part of what's happening here as I am, and I can't thank you enough.
Today, we're heading out to spend the day in Wittenberg, the town where Martin Luther preached and nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church. It's a beautiful spring day here in Germany and it will be good to just walk around and enjoy the sights!
***Update with photos:
I actually didn't take too many photos because I got sick and ended up going back and sleeping in the car for a couple hours. Here are a couple that I did take...
I apologize for the silence over the past several days. My intention was to keep up the blog a bit more than I have, but it has literally been non-stop since the team arrived on Friday. So many good things have been happening though, and part of me doesn't even know where to begin now that I am blogging again! I'll try to share some highlights...
Friday morning a team from a church in Pennsylvania arrived. There are 12 of them, half of which are under the age of 21. It's really cool to see such an enthusiastic group of young'ins. They've all jumped right in making attempts at the language and asking lots of questions about the people and culture here. One of the things that Craig and Debbie did differently with this team is have an orientation meeting at the beginning on the day they arrived to talk about what to do and what not to do, as well as give them some German phrases to practice and try out. They invited some of the people from the English group to come and help introduce the team to the language.
Another highlight for me personally, was visiting with Martina. Some of you reading know who Martina is from my previous trips, but for the sake of those who don't I will explain. Martina lives directly across the street form Craig and Debbie, and although she is a professed atheist, over the past couple years has spent much of her time with Craig and Debbie and other believers from the church. On our trip to Hungary last year, she came along to help Debbie work on a putting together a cookbook to raise money for the church. The whole week in Hungary she was exposed to the Gospel as she attended team devotions, and saw it lived out in the lives and relationships of everyone around her. On my last trip to Germany in October, I stayed with Martina,
Finally, the next big thing that happened this week was our visits to the local high school to provide conversation with the English classes. This is something that we've done in Hungary over the past several years and it has been a super way of getting to know students and teachers, and on some occasions has led to invitations into their homes for coffee. This is the first time that I've done this in the German schools and wasn't really sure what to expect, but it turned out to be an explosion of ministry opportunities and possibilities. In some of the classes we split the class into smaller groups and each of us took a group to converse with. I sat down with a group of girls in the one
There is so much happening here that I don't have the time to write about. The opporutinities are endless. For the past year or so, I have been going back and forth about what my role is in this place, and now I can't turn my mind off to the possibilities and endless ministry opportunities here. Perhaps it is time for me to "take the plunge". But more on that at another time. Right now, I have to organize my songs for tomorrow night's concert. It will be from 7:00-8:00 pm here, which will be around 1:00-2:00pm EST. Please pray for Isabel as she translates more of the songs today, and also as she interprets for me during the concert. Sometimes speaking with an interpreter can be confusing and I can easily lose my train of thought, so I would really appreciate prayer for that. I have been given an opportunity to share openly in a public venue the hope that is found in relationship with Christ. The concert has been advertised in the Leipzig newspaper, in the schools, and today the team is handing out flyers on the street, so there is no way of knowing how many people will actually be there. I believe, though, that God will bring who He wants, whether that's 2 or 200, and so I rest in that.
Love you guys. Thanks for supporting me!!
I'm here! :) Overall, it was a good trip. Considerably shorter than before, but that was because I slept most of the way. What is typically a 7.5 hour flight to Frankfurt suddenly became 3...even in spite of the screaming child 4 rows in front of me. And by "screaming", I mean piercing, I-think-I'm-dying kind of screams. (Maureen, I thought of you.) Anyway, the poor tyke finally settled down and I was able to drift off.
Craig and Debbie (missionaries) picked me up and took me for some authentic German cuisine, and now I'm just going to be resting this afternoon before we head over to the English Bible Study. One of the many ministries that Craig and Debbie have here are the English groups for people who want to learn some English. Some are more advanced than others, but they all come to practice the English they know with some native speakers. The English Bible Study is made up of people from those groups who want to learn more about the Bible (obviously). Not all are believers, so it's a great opportunity. I'll be singing a few songs there tonight, so I better go figure out what I'm going to sing and get some rest before we leave.
Thanks for all your prayers.
In one week, I will be boarding a plane to spend a month doing music in Germany. I am looking forward to this for sure, but to say that I am overwhelmed would be a gross understatement. I have absolutely no idea HOW on earth I'm going to do everything that I need to do in the span of one week. I've been travelling and housesitting since the beginning of January, and tonight will be the first night in over a month that I've actually slept in my own bed! (I'm looking forward to this.) :) I feel scattered and unprepared for everything that I have to do before going, not to mention for the trip itself, so I'll be so glad to find my seat on that plane and nestle in for a nice long nap across the Atlantic. Until then, I will be like this guy, frantically running about attempting to accomplish all that needs to be done in the meantime.
All that to say, I would sincerly appreciate your prayers for me this week, if you think of it.
By the way, I'm going to be sharing this blog with my church and others as a way to keep them informed and updated on my travels while I'm there. (I'm not sure why I felt the need to tell you that, but there ya go.)
Well, it's no secret that I absolutely adore my nephews. It's so much fun to watch them grow and learn and discover, and to be a small part of it sometimes. I'm so stinking proud of my brother and sister-in-law because I think they're doing a fantastic job of investing in their lives. And I must say, Aunt Dana is a super-duper aunt! :)
We're all very excited about the new baby coming in May. Recently at one of my gigs, they showed up with the boys after having just been to the doctor for the most recent ultrasound. I knew they wanted to find out the gender of the baby, so I was anxious to hear the news. When they got there, I was taking a break and both boys ran across the room and threw their arms around me. (What a great feeling that is!) So, I knelt down and gave them both a big hug, then I looked at "L", the oldest (4), and asked, "So are you gonna have brother or a sister?"
Have you ever known a child at this age to suddenly realize that they have infomation you want, and decide that they don't want to give it up? Yup. He wasn't about to tell me, and since "J", the younger (1.5), isn't really talking yet, it was a lost cause. But my break was over, so I was gonna have to wait. I went back on stage and continued my set, but I was completely caught up in watching the boys climb onto Dana's lap, and then run over to look at the pastries on display, and then stop and stare at me on stage with a somewhat confused/intrigued look (they don't often see me in this capacity). Finally, it was time for them to leave and I was still singing. L approached the stage because he wanted to say goodbye, so when I finished the song, I motioned for him to come up. He ran up onto the stage and as I pulled my guitar to the side, I gave him as big of a hug as I could with one arm. Then I held him close and whispered, "So, is it a boy or a girl?" He looked sheepishly out at the audience then back at me and said, "It's a bo..a girl." Another quick hug and he was off.
A GIRL! I'm thrilled. Of course, I would have been just as thrilled had he told me it was a boy, but this is a different kind of "thrilled", I suppose. I think what I'm most looking forward to, is watching my brother with a little girl. He adores his sons. I see it in his eyes and the way he looks at them, and in the tender ways that he responds to them. But I can't imagine what he will be like with a little girl. I have learned much about the Father by observing my brother's relationship with his sons. L is in that stage right now where Dad is the hero. A last week, we were all having dinner at my parents' place, and the whole night he just wanted to be near Tom (my bro) at all times. When he finally finished his meal, he got down off his seat and walked around to Tom and climbed up on his lap. As he snuggled his head into my brother's chest, he said, "Daddy, can I just love you as much as I can?" Instantly, I stopped chewing the food in my mouth and with tears welling up in my eyes, I just stared at this tender moment. Tom just wrapped him up in his arms and held him tight. "You sure can, buddy."
It took a couple days for all that to sink in on a deeper level for me. I was driving to Pittsburgh to sing at a conference and on the way out I was trying to pray...things like, "God, where have You been?", "What am I doing?", "Why can't I hear You?", "What is going on with me?", "Why don't I love you the way that I should?" Then all of a sudden out of my mouth came the word, "Daddy..." I'm not sure where it came from, but there it was, all out in the open...
...and I cried.
I've heard people call God "Daddy" before, and I always cringe when I hear it. It sounds contrived, irreverent...silly even. But here I was, calling Him "Daddy"...unintentionally...longingly. Then all of a sudden I realized that that tender moment between my brother and his son was just as much for me as it was for them. And I heard myself saying those same words, although with slightly different meaning:
"Daddy, can I just love you as much as I can? It doesn't seem like much right now, but it's where I am."
"You sure can, Mindy. That's all I expect. But remember, My love for you is not dependent upon your love for me. My love for you...just IS."
:::sigh:::
I can't wait to see my brother with a little girl.
Well, I've got two more shows and then I'm on my way home. Tonight I'm playing at a church here in Columbia, SC and then tomorrow night I'm playing at a coffeehouse in Richmond, VA that ragamuffin set up for me. That one should be interesting since he's gonna try to do a live recording of it. I hope I don't sneeze or anything. :)
It has been a good trip...but I am looking forward to sleeping in my own bed for a couple nights before heading up to NY with a couple friends for some down time at my parents' Lodge. This I am looking forward to. I did take some time away in Charleston to rest and relax before Thanksgiving, but it ended up raining the whole time I was there so I was pretty much cooped up in my hotel room the whole time. Not really the down-time I was expecting, although I was able to get a lot of sleep which aparently I needed.
Well, I need to get going or I'll be late. Thanks for reading and praying.
