Jesus said, “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”   — Matthew 11:28-30 (NRSV) Being yoked together with Jesus – placing a bar across our shoulders for plowing the field or pulling the cart – doesn’t sound very restful. But that idea of being yoked with Jesus is the promise of Jesus being with us, every step of the way, to face whatever today or tomorrow may bring. We often would prefer a God who takes away our problems rather than helps us cope with them, who eliminates challenges rather than equips us for them, and who vanquishes our opponents rather than enables us to make peace with them. It’s not usually what we want, but pretty much exactly what we need. For you see, dependence on God, being fitted for that yoke, knowing the burden is no longer carried alone are all ways in which Jesus is telling us that it all about relationship with God.  For God loves the world so much, he sent his son, and on the wooden bar of the cross, he gave his life, so that our sins, our burdens, our selfish desires are put to death.  The burden is taken on his shoulders, and we, like him, are lifted up to new life! Read more…

Well, it is finally here – Election Day. Thank God.

Thank God that we live in a country in which we all have the right to vote for the candidates and issues we choose.

Thank God that we can do this in a peaceful manner, respecting each other, standing in line with each other, no matter our differences.

Eisenach

This is the birthplace of Bach – we visited a Bach museum and were given a mini concert with some of the keyboard instruments at the museum.

 

Wartburg Castle

Built in 1067 by Ludwig, who had a vision of the castle and cried out, “Wait, Mountain – you will become a castle!” The first two words in German roughly translate to “wart- burg.” This is where Luther fled and hid after he was stripped of all of his human rights for refusing to recant his writings against the church. It was here he translated the Greek New Testament to English in just 10 weeks’ time. It is a beautiful castle that holds over 900 years of German history.

Church of Luther’s Baptism

July 24 and 25, 2016  

Today we worshiped in the Town Church in Wittenberg. This is where Luther preached for many years. While the service was completely in German, the bulletin had both German and English to follow along. We were greeted at the beginning of the service as well as bishops from the Congo and a couple other tour groups. We sang the hymns as best we could, communed with those gathered and were filled with the presence of God knowing that where two or three are gathered in God’s name, God is present – no matter the language you use. I also enjoyed worshiping with my wife next to me in the pew.   Read more…

St Thomas Kirche

July 23, 2016

Today we traveled to Leipzig, a fast-growing city that has offices for Porsche and BMW, DHL and Amazon. The train station serves about 140,000 passengers every day – 90,000 for traveling and 50,000 for shopping in the attached mall. 

This is a cIty of music, with an opera house and concert hall. This is the home of Bach, Schumann and Mendelssohn. The orchestra began over 200 years ago – the first civic orchestra in the world. Today it is the largest in the world with 180 instrumentalists. The current conductor also serves Boston Philharmonic.   Read more…

Church in Vellahn

Our final day with our sister congregation began with a beautiful devotion and communion service in the church in Vellahn. Pastor Christian Lange led us in our worship, and I was blessed to serve communion with him. At the end of the service, we were each given a yellow ribbon to wear on our wrists. The ribbon has a blessing written on it. We took a tour of the church, built in 1885. The church has been under renovation for several years. The steeple has been replaced and the stones and bricks are being renovated. Read more…

Tuesday, July 19

Today was a day to remember and celebrate our partnerships with our German brothers and sisters and plant seeds for opportunities in the years to come.

We journeyed from Villahn to Dabel in the morning. Dabel is the church served by Hansherbert Lange when Pastor Larry Hoffsis was invited to partner with that congregation back in 1985. Hansherbert is Christian Lange’s father and Christian was 5 years old when Larry first came.

When we arrived at the church we were greeted by members of the congregation outside the church as the church bells rang. These five huge bells were dedicated on Easter Monday. On the front lawn there is a life-sized bronze statue of a handbell ringer. It was through the efforts of Epiphany that the Dabel started their bell choirs. Read more…

An early morning today – the alarm went off at 4:30 a.m.  We packed up our things, said good-bye to the Will Family and headed down the road to Hamburg. Claus-Peter drove us to the airport – a one hour drive when there is no traffic, but in the morning we needed to plan on two hours. 

We arrived at the Hamburg airport at 7:30 a.m., just in time to greet our first group of travelers to join us from Ohio. Ed and Shirley Wasser and Tom and Sue Rutherford were in the first flight. Soon we were joined by Pastor Christian and Melanie Lange and members of their church who are hosting us the next three days.  Read more…