Deja vu or Gnade des Herrn

One of the great theologians of all time - Yogi Berra - is reputed to have said, "Well, it is just deja vu all over again!" That is sort of how I feel tonight as I am writing this. We have spent the better part of all day packing, re-packing and then packing again. We went and got a really nifty scale to weigh our bags. When the first of the big ones went over 75 pounds . . . This is the next in a long series of moves for us. Since we got married 36 years ago, I think we have moved over 30 times. That doesn't count the trips I took to Bahgdad.

We are now under a week until we will be in Germany. We are as prepared as we will get, save the next couple of days here at ILC. We have already got maps from our apartment to the grocery store, a major German department store and, of course, to church on Sunday. We will worship with the Evangelisch-Freikirchliche Gemeinde (Baptisten). We belonged to an EFG congregation in Memmingen when we lived there. We are really looking forward to it.

We had a great trip to Washington DC this past Monday. As you can see, we went to the White House, but the fence was a close as we could get. On the way there from Union Station, we walked up Pennsylvania Avenue, praying for the various government offices along the way. We had lunch in the Food Court at the IRS Building and then walked back up to the Capitol. More Prayer! Paula had the chance to talk with a group of German tourists while we sat in the shade just outside the Capitol Building. We did get our ice cream when we got back to Union Station. (O, boy, did we get ice cream!!!) One of the folks on our team had the opportunity to talk at length about Christ with an international college student at the end of our stay in DC.

Gordon Fort spoke with us from his heart and with great passion the other day about the call of Christ on ALL of our lives . . . not just those of us who are going to the field. Wouldn't it be great to have a MILLION missionaries on the field? Only when we get serious and truly seek to follow Christ is that going to happen.

We will get our tickets to Germany on Monday or Tuesday of next week. The schedule for transportation to the airport has already been posted - we leave the ILC at 11:00 on Thursday to catch our 2:25 flight from Richmond to Dulles. We'll have the opportunity to wait there until almost 10 PM before we leave for Germany. Here is a MAJOR prayer request - Please pray for us while we are at Dulles that we will, even in transit, be BOLD witnesses for Jesus.

Also, please share our prayer concerns from Philippians 1:2-6:

Pray that God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give Paula and me grace and peace as we get on the airplane on Thursday to fly to Germany;
Pray that when we make our requests before God with joy that God will supply us with many partners in spreading the Good News about Christ;
Pray that God, who began the good work within us, will continue His work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.

We are planning to have internet access next week to put out our blog. So, tune in again then to here our hero say, "Herzlich wilkommen ins Deutschland. Wir wuenchen dir viel gluck und gnade des Herrn!"