Hallo, Germany — Jonas + Paige In Germany

It has been a little over a month since we moved to Germany. We spent three weeks in Freckenhorst with Jonas’ family and arrived in Munich two weeks ago. Right now we are thankful to be living in an couple’s apartment from our church who are on furlough in the States. We are actively looking for our own apartment – that has not been an easy search! God’s are the cattle on 1,000 hills, and He has the title to every apartment in Munich, so we trust He will provide us one.

We fundraised for four months before our move, and in that short amount of time we were able to become fully funded. God has blessed us through you! When I (Paige) first heard we had to support raise part of our income I thought, “eeek, no thank you.’ But how humbling and encouraging this process has been for our family. Thank you to the over 50 friends and family to have supported us, 30 of you giving monthly. We have experienced generous, faithful giving first hand.

Thank you for praying for us! God has used your prayers to encourage and sustain us during our move and transition. Below is a quick update from each of us how you can continue to pray.

Celebrating Jessi + Julian's wedding

Making new baby friends

Balcony of our temporary apartment

Our first solo Ubahn ride

I enjoyed my first three weeks as a trainee in the church. Part of my responsibilities will be to team teach the Thursday night Bible study. During the summer we are finishing up the series through 2 Corinthians, then will teach through Ephesians until the end of the year. Another task will be to introduce a bi-weekly course based on curriculum developed by Moore Theological Seminary in Australia. This course is an online course to understand and interpret the Bible. In the bi-weekly lessons we will discuss and dig deeper into the material. There will be chances for me to lead through our church services, preach, and share devotionals in small group settings.

Once a week we have our trainee meetings. We begin with a meal, followed by a discussion of the last Sunday morning service. This includes a review of the music, structure and the sermon. After a brief time of prayer we have a talk about a pastoral topic, such as “How do we deal with psychological diagnosis in counseling” or “How can we further the development of godly character?”

“Hard is not bad it’s just hard,” in the words of Big Jon Estes of Woodlands Camp. These weeks have been filled with lots of emotions and thankfulness that God never changes. Circumstances, location and language have changed, but God has not. Nora and I are figuring out the day-to-day and adjusting to lots of little, new things like the subway and our Celsius oven. A lady took my picture from a double-decker sight-seeing bus while I wore Nora and had groceries in both arms. I wanted to yell, “I’m not who you think, I belong on the bus!” But I guess I am blending in.

We were warmly welcomed by our church and we are eager to link arms with this body. We went to a parent-child play group last Thursday and, naturally, I teared up when the circle sang to Nora that God loved her. I am looking forward to beginning language school- we are trying to figure out what can work for us with the baby.

We came to Munich for Jonas to participate in this internship, and one day at a time God is showing me that He has called me here too.