Hey, greetings from the fatherland! What an excellent time we are having over here in Germany! It seems like every day we are seeing a new facet of German life. Yesterday we went to a Sunday evening service with a missionary in Belgium! Really cool. In the past week I've been to almost as many countries as I went to in my whole life! What's really interesting is the fact that because all of these countries are in the European Union, there are no border crossings, no checkpoints, no nothing- just like you are driving into a different state in the U.S! Not much security like we are used to in the States.

Today started at 8AM with a trip to the gym with Bro. Green, his sons, Bro. Isabell and his son, and Stephen and myself. (You know you have to get some exercise so you don't get fat on all of this German food! :o) About an hour of basketball and back home to get ready for a trip to Koln, one of the large cities in Germany. To get there we took our vehicles to the train station and hopped on a train to the city! (First time I'd ever ridden a passenger train!) One ticket covers five people! Got to Koln (Pronounced "Cologne") , got some lunch and took a look at the largest cathedral in northern Europe! Wow, what a structure! Absolutely amazing! This Wikipedia article tells about the history of the church. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cologne_Cathedral

The pictures don't do justice to the magnitude and exquisiteness of it. So big and so magnificent, yet so dead and away from God. Down below there are levels and levels of basement and you have to wonder what they have under there! We got to hike up 509 amount of steps to nearly the top of the building which is 157 meters high! Quite a view.

It was a blessing to be able to pass out some tracts and do a little bit of street preaching in the streets of Koln after we toured the tower. I don't know how many people understood us, but I know some had to!

Well, after a good dinner of pizza I'm about ready to go to bed and start a new day.

I've been thinking lately about 1 Corinthians 9:22 where Paul says he is "made all things to all men". Being in a different country and a different culture, (which is not THAT much different compared to some) you want to be blessing to everybody. How far can you go to reach someone? Some of this is rhetorical, but the question is real. Could you be like Hudson Taylor who grew long hair to reach his people? How far can you go? Talk to some missionaries and you will hear some crazy stories about what they do sometimes to reach people. I understand that as long as it does not violate the Bible and its principles, we can go a long ways to reach souls. At the same time, is it ever okay to do some things like Hudson Taylor did to become like his people? Write and let me know what thoughts y'all might have on this!

Until then,
Serving Jesus,
Jon