Ignite! - Erkrath, Germany 2010

Introduction

 June 12-23rd, Ignite! will be sending a team of more than 40 students and leaders to Erkrath, Germany (near Dusseldorf), to work alongside the local church in reaching their community for Christ.

In the future, you will be able to get updates on the trip on this site, as well as obtain some of the training materials we are using to prepare for the trip.  We ask for your continued prayer as we prepare and as we embark on this wonderful and unique journey, and that God would be glorified as a result of our small effort!

Forms and Training Materials

Clicking the image to the left will download the handout the team received at the beginning of the preparation process.  To obtain a .pdf copy of the "Testimony Tool" paperwork to help you figure out your own story of Faith and God's work in your life, CLICK HERE.

To contact Glenn Westburg, click here.

DAY #6 -Well even though Germany lost to Serbia, (BOO!) the invitation/outreach at the church was incredibly successful! There were MANY people there to watch the World Cup who had never step foot in a church before. I have been so, so happy to see how encouraged the people of Treffpunkt Leben are by the help we have come to offer them! They are persistently saying thank-you for coming. The outreach to the community even made it to the paper and several of our own students from Parkview were pictured, Alisha and Christine Urban and Becca Dugan! Becca Dugan is quoted in the paper, “we are here to show the people that God loves them!”  Please keep praying for the entire team. We are so thankful!

Day #5 (addition) -  Well its day five here is Germany and we are all super tired. But just the other day even though I had only slept a few hours I woke up refreshed. Realizing that this was biologicaly not possible I thanked God for the rest he had given to me and offered up the day to him and asked him to use me how he wanted.  It ended up we had a lot of work to do and I was able to make life easier for a lot of my teammates because I had extra energy. It seems menial but just the feeling of energy is so an encouraging on a mission trip. Thanks for your suport and God Bless

Day #5 -Hallo! Guten Morgen! Ich freue mich auf dieses Missiouseinsatz.  Ich Liebe Jesus Christus!  This is Justin Mueller und ich weiss ein Bischen Deutsch... I mean: I know a little German. So far on this mission trip God has been using me and the little German I know to spread his kingdom.  I have meet a German kid in the Platz (or town square) where we have the climbing wall and the soccer arena.  He only knows German but I have been able to use what I know to invite him to the church we are working with (Treffpunkt-Leben).  I think that it is very cool to talk to the people I meet and ask them to come to the Platz or to come to the church.  I have been practicing my German with the people from the church that are working with us in the mission field.  I have been able to explain to the local people we meet, the reason we have been picking up Trash or helping kids.  The German I know is very helpful but, can you pray that I will remember what I need to remember, when I need to know it?  Please pray for the people I am meeting in the mission field.  It is amazing to see the faith of the people from Treffpunkt-Leben, meet with them, and encourage them.  It is also very amazing to know that there are also Jesus Freaks and Bible nerds in Germany, as I see them in Treffpunkt-Leben.   

Day #4 - Guten Morgen! (I don't know if that's spelled correctly, but that's how it's pronounced!)  It's Larry Eisner here (Hi, Karen, Katherine & Rebekah!).  I just wanted to add, before we worship and then start our ministry day, a couple of cultural notes and things I've witnessed here thus far:

1) Our host families have been SO amazing!  We are fed like kings and queens, and they have bent over backwards to accomodate us.  Our host 'mother' is currently doing laundry for the group of guys in our home, and even though it is not common here, we've eaten bacon and eggs for breakfast every day (heaping MOUNDS of eggs, haha!) and we stay up late talking with our host families exchanging information about our homes.  It's entertaining, and very enlightening.  I definitely find more in common than I expected.

2) There is definitely a need for Christ here in Germany.  While we have a large turnout to many of the events we've held in the platz (town square), but it is made up first by people that already attend the church, and later by the occasional newcomer interested in who is playing soccer, or the elderly wanting to play bingo, etc...  But people are quick to say 'no, do not pray for me', or 'Well, I am in the catholic church' (insinuating that Treffpunkt-Leben, the evangelical church we are partnering with here, is too liberal with their music choices, or their activities).  And most people here that ARE affiliated with a church, it is only a social activity, or a token association, rather than any type of personal relationship.

3) However, people in general are VERY interested in why we would go out of our way to come to Germany to pick up trash or to do magic tricks with kids, or whatever we are doing... This was particularly evident as we headed into a dominantly Muslim section of town, where the kids especially could not understand why we would do such a thing.  And in this, I am very encouraged!

4) Finally. another major difference is that the computer keyboards here in germany, naturally, are laid out differently.  (Where the 'y' is on our keyboard back home, is a 'z' here, for example, making for lots of backspacing...haha).  Oh, and one other thing.  EVERYTHING HERE IS CARBONATED!  Water, apple juice, orange juice... you can get it like we do at home, but you have to hunt it out.

Okay, that's a lot of info.  More to come, of course, as we learn and grow, and do more in God's service here.  But everyone at home, please know that while we miss you greatly, we are doing just fine, and that everyone here is in good spirits and again, fed VERY well. (Even if we don't want to see another sausage again.) :)

With love und mit HOFFNUNG FÜR ALLE (and with hope for all),

-Larry

Extra Day #3 (written on day 4) - Hi, Im Stephen Robinson, and I am going to talk about alll of the Missions we've been doing for the past two days. I started off the week with a day at a kindergarten/day care just playing with the kids there, and having fun and helping out for about two hours, then we ended our first mission, and went over to the town square, Arcaden, for some soccer and basketball at the youth day at the square. We've had some pretty great food here, eating at the Schlemmer Grill, having some bratwurst and fries, maybe even some currywurst. The next day, we headed over to the Arcaden for an all day mission, helping with bingo at the Senior day at the Square. Once we got that started up, we started to head out into the shopping center area and the park nearby to hand out church flyers, and the church magazine to people. All in all, it has been a great few days here, helping people and having fun in the city, and I hope we are in your prayers for the rest of our trip.

DAY #3

So today we were at the church at 9:00, and started our morning off with a couple of songs of worship after which we were dismissed to spend some alone time with God and our journals. After coming back together we worshipped more, then had more training on what it means to be a person of influence. Companionship, Commitment, Conviction (we studied the event of the men who carried their paralyzed friend to Christ and because of the crowd lowered him through the roof.) After another great lunch (we’ve really been eating quite well) of pasta with meat sauce, salad and watermelon we got into 9 different groups and headed out for a day of ministry.

Today groups did everything from prayer walks, to garbage pickup around the town square (which turned into some great conversations with people wondering why in the world we were doing that), to taking down wallpaper in the home of someone in the neighborhood. The outreach coordinator at Treffpunkt Leben has been doing a great job of reaching out to the community surrounding the church. We believe our work here is opening many doors for the Gospel in the community! (One day the Lord will reveal to us all the fruit of our labors here!)

After dinner back at the square we had a de-brief meeting (praying together in the square while many people walked by and played soccer) we left to our host homes around 8:30 PM.

Everyone is healthy and enjoying their time and excited about what God is doing in and through us! Thanks for your continued prayers!

DAY #2 additions Just a few updates from yesterday. We had Ethan Hill stand up in our group as we met to de-brief in the town square so we could sing Happy Birthday to him! Becca Dugan is now a pro at cutting lawns (so Jack and Lynn might want to take note J ). The food here is really good!

DAY #2 Well our first day of ministry went very well! We sent out 10 teams who did everything from working with kids at a kindergarten, to setting up a small soccer field and climbing wall and playing soccer with local students from Erkrath. Everyone had a great day of ministry and met some wonderful local people all the while shining the bright light of Christ to a spiritually dark area. We began our day in our host homes with breakfast, then arrived at the church at 9:00 AM. We all had time to spend with the Lord (going through the devotionals that were provided in our trip journals), then we came back together for an extended time of worship and the first of 3 main sessions where the students were trained on what it means to be a person of influence. Today they were taught that influence is lived out on a daily basis (both for good or for bad). So to influence others for Christ we are to remain “plugged in” to the power source (you guessed it…Jesus Christ), turning on the switch, positioning ourselves to shine and allowing God to use us to illuminate dark areas. Students were asked to write down things that hold them back from being a positive influence for Christ, then during a closing time of worship they brought up their respective slips of papers and placed them on a chair. (I went up later and read them all so I can post them on this blog throughout the week. J ). We then had lunch at the church and split up into teams to head into our given ministries, met up at the town square where the soccer game and climbing wall was to have dinner, de-brief as a team and head to our host homes for the night. We’re looking forward to our day of ministry tomorrow. Thanks for your prayers! God is answering them!!

DAY #1 We all have safely arrived here in Dusseldorf, Germany! Here we are with another opportunity to thank God for His answers to prayer. We took off late coming out of Chicago which, in turn, caused us a late arrival in Madrid. Seeing as our group occupied a good portion of the connecting flight, we had an Iberia employee waiting for us as we disembarked! He rushed us along directing our group all the way. We went right from one plane to the next with no time to spare, not even a bathroom break. After hearing how the team which arrived from AZ spent 8 hours waiting in London for their connecting flight, I think it was a blessing in disguise, once we got past the stress of it! So the flights went great. Corey got bulkhead and we all were happy for him!  Believe or not, some of the students actually slept too. After receiving our luggage, we exited the arrival doors to find a self-produced “wave” of sorts, with members of “Treffpunkt Leben” throwing their arms in the air and calling out welcome cheers while they waved American and German flags! They are an incredible infectious and fun group that we have to be serving with this week, it is already so plain to see! Everyone is extremely excited! We boarded buses, drove on the Autobahn and headed to the church. They fed us a delicious lunch, chili/soup/stew type meal (delicious!) and then we joined together for a group meeting. We all are settling in our host homes. Everyone we have met have been so incredible kind and accommodating. Some will return to the church tonight to enjoy watching Germany vs. Australia in the World Cup while others will chose to stay home and sleep!