On behalf of the saints from the Frankfurt Church, I send you greetings and thank our God for your continued prayers and support. I am delighted to share some wonderful news with you. We have a reason for great joy and gratitude because the Lord is building His church.
The Lord is building His Church in Frankfurt
Thanks be to the Lord that He is building His church in Frankfurt! We were able to have three baptisms, and welcomed three more brothers and sisters into the church. Among the baptized is a 50-year-old Portuguese sister who came out of Catholicism, a young Syrian man, and the 11-year-old daughter of one of our deacons, who is the youngest in the short history of our church to be baptized on the basis of a credible confession of saving faith in Christ.
Among those recently accepted as members is a brother from the U.S.A., a sister from Switzerland, and a brother from Portugal. We are happy that our church is becoming more and more international, as it is a beautiful testimony to the biblical truth that in the church there are no differences between nations, but Christ is all, and in all.
The Lord is building His Church in Kaiserslautern
Thanks be to the Lord that He is building His church in Kaiserslautern as well! He has given us the grace to send our brother Paul Sayers as a missionary to Kaiserslautern. Kaiserslautern has a population of about 100,000, and is located about one and a half hours southwest of Frankfurt. For about two years now, we have been sending brother Paul to preach in Kaiserslautern every other week to a group of about twenty Christians who meet in their houses. Now, the Lord has granted that we can send him permanently as a missionary to plant a church there.
This story began a few years ago when a family from Kaiserslautern visited our church service and told us about their situation. The father, Daryl, was American, and had married a German woman with whom he had three grown children. Since they could not find a suitable church, they had begun to worship the Lord with some friends in the family’s living room.
Some time later, brother Daryl became seriously ill with cancer. This was the beginning of an almost unbearable period of suffering for him, during which he had to undergo several operations that disfigured him more and more. He became weaker and weaker. Last year, the Lord graciously ended the suffering of His servant and took him to Himself.
During all that time, we never heard a word of doubt or accusation against God from the mouth of our beloved brother. On the contrary, when we visited him once to pray over him, he burst into tears in front of us.
I can still see it today; this big elderly man kneeling in front of me, his tears falling on the floor. When I asked him why he was crying, he said he was afraid that he would not be grateful enough to the Lord in his suffering and would not be a good witness to the doctors and nurses.
In his deep suffering his greatest concern was not for himself, but for the glory of his Lord.
I have rarely known such a humble man who loved his Lord so much. Blessed be our brother Daryl, that he died in the Lord and may now rest from his labors, for his deeds follow him.
Now that brother Daryl was with the Lord, we had to decide how to proceed with the small group in Kaiserslautern. We thank God that with the support of HeartCry, we can now send brother Paul as a missionary to Kaiserslautern. Please pray for him, his wife, and their two young children, who will be greatly missed at the church in Frankfurt. May the Lord bless them in all the preparations, the upcoming move, and the work in Kaiserslautern. May the Lord use them to build His church. To Him be glory forever! Amen.
In Christ, Tobias
