It is my privilege to share with you what the Lord is doing in our midst in answer to your deeply appreciated intercession. I thank you also on behalf of my church for all your continuing commitment to our humble work in Frankfurt, Germany.
1) Joyful Growth Church Growth
In a few weeks, we hope to baptize about six
a) Garret, a mathematician writes:
“In early 2019, my parents visited ERB Frankfurt and asked me if I wanted to come with them. Even though I hadn’t intensively dealt with the Christian faith in the past years, I still came with them. The sermons were very different from those I had heard before. The direct statements, the calls to question oneself and one’s actions, appealed to me very much…. Looking back on my life so far, I was made aware that I had lived without God… During this time I began to pray and to read the Bible. I asked Jesus to come into my life and to forgive my guilt. From now on, I want to live for Him and I ask Him to help me to live according to His will.”
b) Elenam, a doctor of medicine, writes:
“At home studying the Bible, I sometimes heard the voice of the pastors and deacons of the church. They had engraved themselves deeply into my heart. The many pleasant words of admonition hit me right into my heart. The Bible became more and more alive for me. In the end, I realized that Jesus died also for me.”
c) Linna, a housewife writes:
… the Gospel is no longer a theory to me, but my truest and most beautiful hope.
Linna
“In prayer, my eyes were opened by God and He led me to true conversion. Since then, the Gospel is no longer a theory to me, but my truest and most beautiful hope. I was able to understand the profound meaning of Christ’s death on the cross… God granted me faith and brought me to repentance.”
May I ask you to pray for all those who came to faith and long to be baptized? Would you pray for all those who would like to become members of our church?
2) A Tearful Farewell
Next to our pleasant church growth, we also experienced a very painful shrinking of our congregation. About two hours away from Frankfurt lives a large, God-fearing family. For several years they weekly traveled to worship God with us. The father served as a diligent and trustworthy deacon in our midst. Two ladies who came to faith accompanied this family in their weekly traveling. We baptized one of them and she has become a valued member of our church. Out of various reasons, this group of 12 couldn’t manage traveling such a long distance on a weekly basis. We have considered and prayed for a long time whether we should plant a church for them locally, but we realized that this was not possible.
After careful consideration and examination, we recommended that the brothers and sisters should join another church closer to them. We found a like-minded church that is about 45 minutes away from their hometown. Even though this is still not a local church for them, it is much closer than Frankfurt.
Surely you can imagine that this is a great loss for our church. At the official farewell, the whole church shed many tears. We remain heartily connected but still, it hurts. Especially for the 12 people who had to leave us, all this is very painful. Please pray for them and for us as a church that the Lord will comfort, and that the brothers and sisters will be able to settle in well in the new church.
Since we also lost a deacon, we hope to appoint more deacons in the course of this year. Recently, I taught through the biblical qualifications of deacons and the church is now praying and looking for suitable men. May I ask you to accompany all this in prayer?
3) Training Men
Currently, six men are preaching beside us pastors. One of them is already preaching on Sundays, the others on Wednesdays in our prayer meetings. In a few weeks, we will begin with more intensive theological training for the men through the London Baptist Confession 1689. We are also working on cultivating the ability to explain and to proclaim the Word of God. In the photo, you can see brothers from our church who have read the book “A Call to Prayer” by J. C. Ryle. We long to train men so that we can appoint more elders and send missionaries to plant churches. The need for biblical preachers and biblical churches in Germany is tremendous. May I ask you to pray for the brothers of our church? Please pray for us as pastors, that we may be faithful to put into practice 2 Timothy 2:2 through the help of the Lord, “And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.”
4) Church Planting Work in Switzerland
Please pray for the ongoing church planting efforts in Basel, Switzerland. I plan to visit the group in a few weeks to serve them. Please pray for the two dedicated men and their families onsite, who make every effort to plant a church according to the Word of God. It’s indeed not easy for them and they need a lot of strength to keep on the good work. Please pray for them and pray for us as we strive to accompany and support them as much as we can.
I am truly grateful for all your support in prayer. It means a lot to me. May our Lord bless you, your family and churches abundantly!
In sincere gratitude and esteem,
Peter Schild
