Our family moved to Hoyerswerda, Germany in June of 2012 to respond to the call of full-time missions work to the Lausitz region of eastern Germany.   The Lausitz region is a heavily forested area of Germany between Dresden and Berlin, along the  border with Poland.   Anna and I first felt the call to this region in 2008 during a short-term missions trip.  I have been traveling to this area of Germany since 1999, when I took my first missions trip to Germany as a student at Ozark Bible Institute in Neosho.

When I first came to Germany, I saw a nation that had been robbed of its spiritual heritage by its own bad decisions, by a compromised religious system, and by the lies and deceit of the enemy.  In the last century, Germany’s rich church history has culminated into a larger number of atheists per capita than any other place in the world.  God began to place within us a deep burden to bring back the message of the gospel to a generation that had arisen that “knew not the LORD.”  After a series of short-term trips to Germany in 2010 and 2011, we moved our family to Hoyerswerda in 2012, where we are full-time legal residents.

Our mission in Germany has a single purpose: to win souls for Christ in these last days. Our method, however, is multi-faceted.  We are currently working toward establishing in eastern Germany the first-ever private Christian school utilizing the ACE curriculum.

Germany’s stringent control of their educational system makes this seem like an impossibility, but God has been doing the impossible throughout our ministry here.  We are currently operating “under the radar” as Lausitzer Christliche Akademie, with only three students…Kellison, Kenna, and Kemily.  Once we have the legal permission to start the first school in Hoyerswerda, we believe that we will be able to start many other schools at some of the regional churches where we minister.

There are four churches in the Lausitz region that we minister to on a regular basis. These churches are:

Charismatisches Zentrum, Hoyerswerda, Germany
Freie Christengemeinde Elim, Lauchhamer, Germany
Christus-Zentrum, Weißwasser, Germany
Landeskirchliche Gemeinschaft, Finsterwalde, Germany

We also have opportunities to minister in several other churches throughout the Lausitz region, near Berlin, and even some across the border in Poland.  It was not our original intention to come to Germany to preach among the churches here, but when God began to open these doors of opportunity, He reminded me of a promise that I made to Him when I first answered the call to ministry.  I promised the LORD that if I were asked to preach the gospel, I would never say no.

God has led us to several of these churches who have readily received our ministry to them.  Many churches do not  have pastors, only a church “leader” or a group of elders, and often there are no preachers.  Because God opens the doors, and not us, we have been invited to preach in places that I never thought would be possible.

Occasionally, we travel to Aschaffenburg, Germany, a large city near Frankfurt, for street evangelism with a local Russia-German church there.  Aschaffenburg is a multi-cultural city with many poor immigrants, and it is rampant with alcoholism and drug abuse.

We have seen several saved and many pray for deliverance at the weekly revival meeting there.  God opened the door for us to minister in this Russia-German church, and to work with them on the streets of Aschaffenburg preaching the good news of the Gospel.

The ministry in these regional churches, especially in the church in Hoyerswerda where we live and operate our Christian school, make up the majority of our day-to-day ministry here.  Each afternoon after the local public schools have dismissed, our apartment is filled with children from our community who come to the church property to play in our big fenced yard.

These children have become the core of the children’s ministry at the church in Hoyerswerda, and Anna regularly teaches them in children’s church, and leads them in worship during the weekly main service.  Many of these children are from broken homes and difficult circumstances, and the LORD has opened doors for us to reach them right inside our own home!

Several of these children have asked Jesus into their hearts, including our youngest daughter, Kemily, and her friend, Jamie.  Jamie’s home life is horrific, and she and her sister have been removed from their home numerous times.  God has seen fit to give us favor with her drug-addicted mother who allows Jamie to come to our house every afternoon.  Jamie loves to go to the weekly church service with us on Saturday evening, and she likes to dress up in Kemily’s church clothes.

We believe that several of these children from the community, just like Jamie, will be able to attend our Christian school once we are legal and recognized by the German government.

A longer term goal of our ministry here is to plant local churches with genuine, born-again converts and German pastors.

We have spent the last two and a half years learning the German language and trying to understand German culture.  Although we know that God is able to raise up churches anywhere, anytime, we believe that church planting in Germany will be a long-term investment, requiring an understanding of the German people, their language, their way of thinking, and their history.

Day by day, God is helping us to make new contacts, form new relationships, and win the confidence of a people whose belief in God has been robbed by the one who came only to steal, kill, and destroy.

Currently, the center point of our ministry here is to establish legal recognition for our Christian school, Lausitzer Christliche Akademie.  Once we have the legal authority to enroll students in our community, we will continue to conduct school on the church property at Hoyerswerda, although we anticipate rapid growth that would necessitate a larger building.  Owning property and maintaining a commercial building is highly regulated and very expensive in Germany.  We estimate that the initial investment for a property around Hoyerswerda large enough to facilitate 25-50 students will be in excess of 50,000 € (about $58,000).  We plan to begin a building fund for this need after we have the legal permission to operate our school.  We hope to be approved in time to enroll additional students for the 2015-2016 school year.

It has been amazing to see the hand of God upon my family since we have answered the call to live, minister, and win souls on the eastern side of Germany.  I’ve watched my children grow and thrive in the ministry, and it is amazing to me how God has given them the German language so effortlessly.  They are bold in their faith, and are not afraid to minister in the street alongside their parents, singing, handing out tracts, or just greeting people in German.

Our main priority on the mission field has been our children, and we have asked the Lord to not only keep them, but to develop within them a Christ-like spirit.  We all have times when we get lonely, or homesick, but God has put within us a deep burden for souls, and a great love for the people of the Lausitz region.  This is why we do what we do:  because Jesus is coming soon, and we want to go with Him, and we want to take as many people with us as we can.  This is the mission, because this is the heart of God…to win souls.

Our prayer is that as long as the call of God for our family is in eastern Germany, that He will keep this burden burning in our hearts.  We hope to master the German language in order to preach to the people the word of God freely in their own tongue.

We envision operating Christian schools in Hoyerswerda, and Lauchhammer, and Aschaffenburg, and anywhere that God makes it possible.  We want to see new churches planted in towns and villages throughout the Lausitz region.

We hope to have the influence and the resources to be able to train new converts in evangelism and pastoral ministry to be prepared to also answer the call of God to eastern Germany.  Our hope for the future is for revival and genuine Pentecost to return to Germany.