Moments in May

A few moments of May here... to show you all the exciting places where God, who is so abundantly gracious, lets me move, and grow and love and live! Don't you think the lilac and pink- colored rhododendrons look fabulous?

My friends from Florida, the Sharps, were here & are standing by a famous statue in front of the Theater House in Weimar (neighboring city) of Goethe and Schiller. They say that Goethe was shorter, but they made his likeness the same heighth as Schiller's. This was because Goethe was esteemed the more gifted poet and playwright (he wrote "Faust"-- it's a play, hours and hours long, totally done in verse, like Shakespeare!). Well, any visit to Germany deserves a few visits to a local ice cream parlor-- they have them all over the place, and they're run by Italians. Many of the desserts come in large, fluted glasses creatively decorated with syrup and fruit and candy, etc. Stefan, a student at FSU in Jena, joined us for this evening.

The "Bundeskonferenz" is the Baptist & Brethren churches' Convention's convention each year (does that make sense?!) on the "Pfingsten" (Pentecost) holiday weekend. I was invited to attend & got to hear some sessions & visit the booths (and Christian bookstore-- that in itself was a real treat because I've never been to a Christian bookstore in Germany, other than a limited selection of bookshelves, etc. at a few churches). You can maybe make out from the photo the fact that a panel of dignitaries (governing persons) are sitting at a long table on the stage. I wasn't sure how the system exactly works, but there was plenty of time for people to speak from the microphone from the floor, and hear responses from those on the stage.

A couple of my German "heroes" were there, including 2 men who do full-time evangelism & support of new church starts, Jörg S. and Helmut G. (2 on left). I've been at 3 evangelistic "tent missions" where they have done the speaking. And Helmut was a retreat speaker for our campus group. The other gentleman is Wilfried B. and he organizes Willow Creek in Germany and supports church starts and development.