Settling in, making connections
Sept 12, 2025
A mere 11 days ago we were scrambling around our suburban Minnesota home packing our bags. Today we are mostly settled into our little studio apartment in a small town in Germany just across the river from France. God is already blessing us with new connections. On our first Sunday at church in Freiburg, we were recognized and welcomed by one of the pastors, which felt very encouraging. During the service there was a five minute “say hi to your neighbor” break where we chatted with people sitting near us. One of those chats has led to a lunch date with a young couple from Japan who are new to the area just like us. Calvary Chapel has a very international flavor because it's located right next to the campus of the University of Freiburg, which attracts students from all over the world.
The church itself is 30 years old; it was planted by an American from Calvary Chapel in the US. There have been a few senior pastors since then, and recently the primary senior pastor left to move to Australia. In addition to a vision for a new Bible college, the church has recently started its own Christian elementary school. They are very busy and a little shorthanded at the moment and there is some disagreement about the leadership structure for the Bible college, so it looks like classes will not start this fall. The delay will allow for more time to refine and collaborate on curriculum with other team members.
Germany has experienced a lot of immigration in the last 10-15 years and many of them are attracted to this region of the country. The house we live in has been remodeled and expanded to include several extra apartments. The other tenants come from Ukraine and Colombia; none of them speak English or very much German. We've been fortunate to have a few conversations with Lars' parents who live in this same house. They are in their late 80s; Siegfried was an evangelist his whole life. He was born in Ukraine and raised in the former East Germany, but left home and family for the West when he was only 16. He has a very positive attitude, a lot of wisdom and we feel humbled to sit and talk to him in his “pretty good” English. His lovely wife does not speak English, but is very patient with my (Patience) limited German and we have a lot of fun trying to carry on a conversation!
Cal is preparing to staff the Catalyst International Traction retreat that begins next Thursday. We’re very excited to see what God is going to do and the connections that will be made for this one week that we've had on the calendar for more than seven months. He has been communicating with three of the missionaries in advance via e-mail (each staff member is assigned a few “buddies” to get to know and welcome to the retreat). Two of them are currently serving in Africa and one is serving here in Germany. You can pray for these three men as God grows these and all of our new and still to come connections.