Ahh, I can breathe again! Dude, it seems that I have been going nonstop since I came back from Germany! It has been a real blessed time though! Starting 4 weeks ago we were in a missions conference from Monday to Sunday that Dad preached. The Preaching was awesome and the fellowship just as good. Staritng 2 weeks ago,dad preached, we sang, and participated in a Monday through Friday family camp run by Lighthouse Baptist Church in northern Kentucky. As a good camp always has, we had lots of good preaching by Dr. Anthony Frusco, tons of sporting activities, and more good food than I should have had!

All of the week before last we had a tremendous time at the Jubilee in Crossroads Baptist Church in Sellersburg, In. I have made a lot of good friends there, and they are always an encouragement. One of the most fun things that week was to be able to play my bluegrass instruments with Bro. Brian McBride and some of his family and friends! If any of you know Bro. McBride, he is so totally great a preacher and Bluegrass player!

Currently we are at Tri County Baptist Church in Franklin, WI. We will be singing there is the morning and then heading out to Southside Baptist which is on the other side of Milwaukee for the Evening where we will sing and Dad will preach. The plan is to stay parked here at Tri County until next Saturday when we will begin heading up to my sister Kathy's place in the U.P. of Michigan!

Pray that God will give Stephen and I wisdom on what to do this coming fall. I believe that God wants me in missionary aviation and so that is something that obviously I need to get my training for. I have considered several Bible Colleges that offer missionary aviation courses, but I have to weigh that out with my parents thoughts and the ministry needs here. God knows what's best and I'm trusting in Him!

The Good Ol’ USA! That’s where I am right now as I write this! It is a blessing to be back! We have so much freedom in America, and being overseas for more than a couple of weeks has made me appreciate it even more!

The past two weeks have been really busy. This is one of the first times I’ve had time to sit and work on my computer in a long while! We spent the last two weeks of our stay in Germany working hard to help the Green’s get completely ready for their furlough. (Bro. Green is back in the States by the way with his son Jacob looking for a place for his family to stay) I was glad to get on the plane coming back to the States but I was definitely thankful for all of the memories and friends made in Germany. I was able to spend some time with Bro. Gary Lutrick, who is a missionary in Frankfurt, and doing a tremendous work with the Germans there. Working with him is Bro. Michael Falkenburg, a native German who pastors another German work there. He and his wife Sandra were a joy and a blessing to be around.

The flight home was uneventful. (Except for the fact that my stupid and tired self left my video camera on the plane in Chicago! Working on getting it back.) It was great to see the family again! We jumped right into a missions conference that my family has been in at Mount Zion Baptist Fellowship Church in Martinsville, IN. The people are really friendly, and may I mention, addicted to volleyball! J Tomorrow will be the last day of the conference and Stephen and I are going to be preaching in the afternoon! I’m thankful for any opportunity I get to preach!

I have been thinking and meditating lately on the will of the Lord. Being 21 years old, this is the time in my life where the direction of my life is mostly set. I wish I had all of the answers for myself, and I believe I know what God has for me, (That’s being in missionary aviation.) but the truth is many times I want God to speak to me in some wonderful way, or give me an incredible sign, but oftentimes God wants us to have faith in HIM. I sometimes find myself looking at the missing pieces of the puzzle of my life, (I don’t know about you, but I always have missing pieces!) and looking at the Lord and wondering what to do. Not always does He answer in a time or a way that I like! I truly believe that it is here that the Faith Factor kicks in! If I allow my life to be consumed with some unknown then the Devil has won a victory and God cannot work through us. With the thought of Faith in my mind I began to think about a message that I heard Bro. Green preach while I was over in Germany.

He took his text out of Luke Chapter 24:13-32 where two of Jesus’ disciples were traveling to Emmaus after Jesus’ crucifixion and Jesus walked with them and expounded many things to them. His main text verse was verse 32 “And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?” Bro. Green’s thought focused on that phrase “by the way”. His point was that Jesus met and talked with his disciples “by the way”, or while they were going about their daily business. He said that sometimes we can go through a time or times in our life where it seems that we don’t know what is going on and we are looking for answers. Jesus spoke to his disciples “by the way”. He also speaks to us by the way. If we are trusting him and serving him even though we do not always know what to do next, giving ourselves to Him and going about His business with earnestness and fervency, then God can meet with us. If I am surrendered and obeying him in every area of my life, then I am doing His will. If God wants me somewhere else doing something else, then I can rest assured that if I am listening to Him, He will reveal it to me! Matthew 6:33 is very familiar to me and I’m sure to most everybody and it is very applicable to God’s will. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” By the way if I am serving and surrendered to Him, then He will have me where He wants me! In the next verse in Matthew 6:34 it says “Take therefore no thought for the morrow…” I need not be worried or consumed with what God has for me next month or next year or ten years from now, because God wants me concentrating on what He has now. Sure, I should prepare and be ready, but not worry! Work like it’s up to me and pray like it’s all up to God!

Anyway, that’s what I’ve been thinking about the past few weeks and those thoughts and verses have been a blessing to me and I hope they are to you!

We have about 3 weeks of solid meetings (Every night), so I will be staying really busy the next month! It’s great to be back in the USA!

Here's some pics recapping our trip!

Stephen and I beside some ruins of the
wall of Heinsburg, Germany

Looking down a typical
German street

A cool castle

Yours truly at the top of an Alp!
5 mile hike 5000 feet up!

Beautiful alp mountains!

Bro. Green had all of his stuff
shipped back to the States in
a 20 foot container

Anna was baptized in an afternoon
service while we were there.

I got to drive a good bit on the
Audobahn! Only hit 100 mph
once, but it was fun!

Great to see my little brother Jason
again!

Dressed up like true patriots!
God bless the USA!

Things have been going well here in Germany. I have been staying busy running errands and doing my best to help Bro. Green. We pretty much have everything packed up here for the Greens. We just have a few loose ends to tie up and then they'll be moving back to Frankfurt for the short time they are still here. Stephen and I will be flying back to the States on the 6th of July! I can say that I have enjoyed the visit here in Germany immensely but I love the U.S. and look forward to getting back! :)

I have been trying to get into a little better shape while I am here and part of that is jogging. Yesterday Jacob and I went on a three mile run (that's running, no walking breaks). If you have not done that it'll do something for you! I am slightly sore, but it was well worth it! Been running almost every day so hopefully It'll help me out a little!

I recently was able to get the Hooker Family's newest CD. They are from First Baptist Church in Hammond, IN and they are a real blessing. Their newest CD, Through The Storm has been a real blessing to me. Thought you might enjoy a couple of their latest songs. Enjoy!









Yes, I have been blessed! As time goes on and I get older I realize how small I am in comparison to HIM.

Ok, had to post something to let everyone know I was still alive! I've been pretty busy helping the Green family pack up their stuff and ship it back to the States. Monday morning we packed up their shipping container and sent it off on its way to the States. Yesterday we ran some errands in the morning and loaded up a rental van/truck with church equipment and took off for Frankfurt where we unloaded it this morning at a church there. Just got back from there now. We will take another load of stuff to Frankfurt this evening (I'm not sure I will be going on that one) and the rest of this week will be busy getting the house here ready to move out of.

God's been good, and I'm looking forward to getting back to the States in less than two weeks!

Sorry I don't have any pics at the moment. I am hoping to get a camera sometime soon!

Wow, time is flying by extremely fast! I can't believe it's been more than a month that I've been in Germany.

Not too much new and crazy going on with us! We did have a chance to fly up to Nykoping (Pronounced Ny-sho-ping) Sweden and spend a little more than 24 hours there. We booked the tickets on Ryanair and paid 16 Euros apiece round trip!!! Sweden was cool and it was the farthest north I have ever been! Daylight lasted about 19 hours! The neatest thing I think I liked about Sweden, (besides the flight up, I absolutely love flying! I'm working on my pilots license!) was the chance we had to witness on the main street in Nykoping. Bro. Green, Stephen and I stood around the street and sang about 10 hymns and the people were very receptive! We had a great opportunity to witness to people, albeit it was hard because we did not speak Swedish!

We have been busy helping the Green family pack up and get ready to go back to the States on an extended furlough. Pray that they would get encouragement and direction when they return.

I had the opportunity to preach the Wednesday service at the church here! I have been blessed with opportunities to preach in the recent days! I am always grateful for the pastors that allow young men the opportunity to preach and learn.

Well, I have to go and run and errand for Bro. Green! Until next time, LGBM! Let God Be Magnified!!

Sorry for taking so long to update this blog! Yes, I am still alive! Since my last post, I have stayed fairly busy here doing things like running errands with Bro. Green and doing whatever I can to help with the ministry here. Believe it or not they have had Stephen and I sing every service! :O [We were able to locate a guitar so that helps a lot :) ] Stephen preached a wonderful message on Wednesday night. It is hard for the Greens to make the transition back to the States and I pray that we are being a blessing to them!

The mystery of Air France Flight 447: Pray for the families of those that were killed aboard the ill fated flight! It has been interesting to follow the investigation, especially since one of the men of the church here is a maintenance crew chief on a military version of a Boeing 707! He knows a lot about those jets and he was very surprised to hear of that type of plane going down. I'm sure we will know more as time progresses!

I have been thinking lately about Matthew 9:36-38
Mat 9:36 But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.
Mat 9:37 Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few;
Mat 9:38 Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.

Being in Europe has opened my eyes on how desperate the world is in need of missionaries. The city of Berlin has a population of 3.4 million people and not Independent Baptist missionary that we are aware of! You can drive through town after town in Germany and not have any Baptist churches anywhere around! The list goes on and on! And then I think of the nations that don't have any missionaries whatsoever! When I think of this my mind goes to two things.

1. We are, for lack of better words, big babies in America! If a church nearby doesn't exactly agree with us, we will make a big huge deal and make them our primary target! Now don't get me wrong, I think we should stand up for what we believe in, but let God be first! There are missionaries in Germany just like the Greens that are starving for Christian fellowship of any kind! People are starving for the gospel!

2. Where are the volunteers! I think if I wasn't surrendered to God in the area of missions already, being on the mission field here in Germany would make me want to surrender. The need is so great! "Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest." I think the more we pray for the Lord to send people, the more we will surrender ourselves and work as soulwinners for Him!

Anyway, that's just a smidgen of my thoughts this week. God is definitely good! This weekend we will do a lot of work getting the Greens ready to move out of their house, and next week will be flying out to Stockholm, Sweden for a day! :) LGBM! (Let God Be Magnified!)