Sunday, May 9 our daughter Amanda, who lives in Hamburg, and I worshipped at the Zionsgemeide, one of two SELK congregations in Hamburg. After several days of rain, we walked to church in the sunshine. It seemed that all of Hamburg was on its feet—in shorts, tank tops, and everything in between—running and biking. After the meaningful service (in which I would estimate that a third of the congregation were Farsi speakers), to my astonishment, the pastor, Rev. Bernhard Schütze, asked me to stand up and say a few words to the congregation. I greeted the congregation with khodah hafez! (Good Morning!), introduced myself and shared in German that I am currently learning Farsi and plan to begin my ministry in that language in the Hamburg area come fall. Everyone—Germans and Farsi speakers alike—responded with warm smiles and nods. After the announcements we all visited outside in the glorious sunshine. Rev. Marko Turunen and his wife Siiri (who are both from Finland and learned Farsi in six months’ time) invited us to join them for the Farsi Bible class which followed. Two Afghan gentlemen who have been living in Germany for only six months came up and asked me whether we might want to become Internet buddies: I can practice Farsi with them and they can practice German with me, they said. How wonderful! The topic of Bible class was John 12 (see photo. The bold characters at the bottom right are the Farsi characters for “12”). The attendees asked some excellent questions. What touched me most, however, was that the two women and seven men in our class preferred to sit in a classroom and learn more about their new Lord and Savior Jesus Christ rather than go outside and enjoy the sunshine like the rest of Hamburg. Praise God for the enthusiasm with which He has blessed these converts to the one true faith! “For it is You who light my lamp; the Lord My God lightens my darkness!” (Ps 18:28 ESV).
tiewsfamily.org 