Fruitfulness from Many Recent Visitors

A significant part of the development strategy is to partner outside churches with the German church plants. We have done this effectively in the other parts of East Germany (Leipzig, Dresden, Chemnitz, and Magdeburg). With the momentum building in Berlin, there is a need for more help, and I am focusing some of the new visitors here.

To that end, the months of April and May were full of activity from the U.S. partners:

Two Rivers Church (Knoxville TN): Continued walking alongside the FeG Chemnitz church, influencing them in prayer, strengthening their leaders and members. On this trip we began the process to develop a partnership between 2RC and the Berlin International Church (BIC) which will focus on several prayer initiatives for the region.

Team from Two Rivers Church serving in Chemnitz

Cornerstone EFC (St Louis): Jerry Orf and John Ritland visited the FeG partnership in Magdeburg. We had the chance to interact over their existing partnership and talk about future direction. The visit to Berlin also showed them another ministry context in our region.

Fellowship Church (Knoxville TN): Kevin & Vicky Huggins (staff), Lee & Joyce Bell (elder) visited Berlin as part of an evaluation and advisory trip related to the ReachGlobal ministry in eastern Germany. In addition to seeing many aspects of the ministry, several suggestions were made to strengthen the work here.

EFCA Central District Pastors: A group of pastors from various ministries in the Missouri/Iowa area visited as part of a three-city tour. This is part of the process of identifying global connections for their churches and possible strategic partnership locations.

FeG/BrookLink: Dietrich Schindler, the leader of the FeG Inland Mission (church planting), and Lee Hayward, BrookLink, visited as part of the initial exploration of a new project focused on beginning an English-speaking church in Berlin.

Pray for:
* Further partnership connection with the church planting projects in Berlin
* Further application of resources to this planting projects.