Dear friends and supporters of our ministry to Germany—and across Eurasia
In the Christmas season, our lectionary readings demonstrated our Lord’s human nature—as He manifested Himself as a baby in a manger. Now, in the season of Epiphany, our focus expands: the lectionary readings illustrate how the Lord manifests His divine nature by working a variety of miracles—for instance, by turning water into wine, and by healing the centurion’s servant long-distance.
The month of January has already revealed again how Jesus works across time and space. He grew His church in Hamburg, Germany on Christmas Day, when three new brothers and sisters were received in baptism. Then I began a new baptismal class for Iranian migrants. At this point, eight people are attending the class, all of them desiring to be baptized on Easter.
However, I write these words to you not from Hamburg but from Dubai—on the southern edge of Eurasia. How so? This past Saturday I received a call from the LCMS’s Office of International Mission (OIM), inquiring whether I might be available to provide pastoral care to a lady in an emergency in Dubai. I explained that I would be able to break away from my in-person duties to my Iranian parishioners for about a week. Yet thanks to modern technology, I will still be able to hold my regularly scheduled baptismal preparation and Lutheran Confessions class —over Zoom. In addition, in answer to prayer, Lula was able to accompany me to Dubai—in order to provide personal assistance and logistical support.
And so, in this season of Epiphany, in which the Lord once again manifests His divine nature to us—He also continues to work miracles in our lives—through generous people like you; through Mr. Gary Thies, the director of Mission Central back in the States, who takes such outstanding care of us missionaries; and through the super-professional staff of the LCMS’ Office of International Mission which keep us missionaries connected to one another and to the homeland, and provides “help from above.”
Thank you, dear Jesus, for the season of Epiphany, in which you revealed your divinity in miracles—two thousand years ago and also today! Just look for the miracles that He will work in your life this year.
God is good! May He richly bless and keep you.
Pastor Christian Tiews
tiewsfamily.org 