March Update

Hello Prayer Partners,

Hope this finds you doing well. I'm enjoying a beautiful spring sunny day - the sun doesn't shine a whole lot in Germany, so we've got to enjoy it when it does! Sorry to those of you experiencing blizzard conditions in the upper midwest... spring is near, hang in there!

Would you please be in prayer for our upcoming Spring Break retreat to Italy, April 8-15. We've had 30 students register from our community and AJ and I are really excited about who's coming. Some of the students are solid believers, but the majority of them don't seem to have a personal relationship with Jesus. We are stoked that the Lord has called them to this camp, and we're excited that they will have opportunities to hear the Gospel and experience Jesus. Would you begin praying for their hearts?

We're excited for camp, however, due to the events taking place in Libya, the retreat is currently in limbo. Heightened security measures have led to canceling all DoD (department of defense) sponsored activities occurring off base, where more than 20 people are involved, until further notice. Our youth group is a chapel sponsored program, and therefore we fall under this order. It doesn't effect our weekly Bible studies and youth group times, as those take place at the chapel, but it does impact anything we have planned for off base - mainly retreats. We hope that this order will not last too long, but that it will be lifted in the coming days as things hopefully settle in Africa. We realize that having 150+ Americans in one location, could potentially pose a security risk. And bottom line, we want to keep our students safe.

Some of our families have been directly impacted by the movement in Libya - parents have deployed and others are working very long days to support the efforts. There's no timeline on the events taking place, so we don't know how long parents may be gone or working longer hours. These unknowns cause extra stress for families and presents us with ministry opportunities. Would you pray for our families, active duty members and the leaders who are making decisions.

Please pray for Nate, our CSM field leader and camp director, as he meets with chaplains to discuss the security situation and determine how to proceed. He's coordinating with the team coming from the states to lead the camp, and is also working out logistics with the Italian camp facility and German bus company. Needless to say, he's got some extremely busy days ahead of him.

Thank you so much for covering our ministry in prayer. It's a huge blessing and encouragement to know the military community in Germany is being lifted up before the Lord.

Know that God is at work here!! In the past weeks, my high school girls Bible study is growing and we've had some great conversations about who Jesus is. In our middle school girls Bible study, we've been looking at different women in the Bible and looking at the lives of women missionaries. We began a series on community in our middle school youth group, where we've looked at what community is and how we can build it. We're almost done with the book of Luke in our high school youth group and will finish Easter week. It's a blast doing ministry here and a privilege to serve the families and students of Ramstein! Thanks for joining with me!!

Praise Point: You may remember that my dad left for Afghanistan a few days after I left for Germany. He's been working as a contractor maintaining the predator drones. He made it home to Wisconsin this past week!

Because of Christ,
Beth

Far, Far Away

We had a great retreat this past weekend! A team of students from Truett Seminary in Waco, Texas led SEMP: Students Equipped to Minister to their Peers. It was a growth level retreat, for students who are believers and wanting to go deeper in their relationships with the Lord. It was also an equipping time for students to gain confidence in sharing their faith and ministering to their peers.

Far, Far Away was the theme for the weekend, which was a really relevant theme for our students on a few levels.

Our students are living Far, Far Away, because they are Americans living in Germany; they aren't living in their homeland. And even though they're living in Germany, they are living on American military bases, which adds another dynamic. Our students are also living Far, Far Away, because they are believers whose citizenship is in heaven. This earth is just a temporary home; heaven is their eternal home. And like many people experience, sometimes either God feels far away from us, or we feel far away from God.

The Truett team did a good job addressing these aspects of being Far, Far Away. Our students were encouraged and challenged by their large group meetings and small breakout seminars.

I asked one of our freshman gals from the weekend to share about her experience:

"I really liked being able to meet students form other bases who are Christians. It was awesome to not worry about being accepted, because we all had a shared bond in Christ.

The teaching times were good, a few things I learned where... it's not necessary to act a certain way or put on a mask to encourage people to come to Christ - we just need to be honest and be ourselves. I also learned that being a Christian isn't all sunshine, but when we face trials God will be us."

"Something went down in Frankfurt"

Dear Key Club,

Yesterday, as my middle school girl's Bible study was ending and I was saying goodbye to girls before they went out the door, my phone rang. Seeing it was my co-worker, I answered it. "You might not be able to leave the base, I think we're on lockdown." What? Why?, I answered. "Something went down in Frankfurt, and the base isn't sure if it was an isolated incident or if it's linked to a series of things." Still not knowing the full story or any details for that matter, I finished packing up my things, hopped in my car and headed for the gate, hoping to make it home for the evening before anything was shut down.

I was able to make it home. I went online and discovered that there had been a shooting at the Frankfurt airport, leaving 2 airmen dead and 2 injured. Wow, I had been at the Frankfurt airport earlier in that morning to pick up a new CSM couple and welcome them to the field.

As with any tragedy, our community was greatly impacted - both emotionally and physically. Immediately, the base went into a heightened security state, creating some delays and changes to the usual routines.

A good friend of mine is a missionary in a closed country - she has to be careful how she tells others about the work she's doing because it's a risk to be a Christian where she lives. As we were talking about that, I began to realize how much freedom I have as a believer in Germany. It's an open country where I can share my faith freely. However, the thing I have to be careful about here, is being a member of the American military community. Whenever we travel, it's important that we try to blend in as much as possible and to not stand out as an obnoxious American and to not share a lot (or anything really) about the military, so we don't become targets of terrorism. There are so many people around the world who do not support or remotely like our military and will do anything they can to stop or hamper our global efforts.

I feel this weight when I'm with students off base - whether it's getting coffee somewhere or traveling to a retreat. Our students safety is super important to us. Overall, I do feel very safe here. However, it's instances like these that serve as a wake up call and remind me of the fallen world we live in and the need for people to know and experience God's love and peace.

Would you pray for our students here as they process the shooting? With the travel opportunities in Europe and many cheap flight deals, a lot of families frequent the airport. Some students may really be fearful to get out and explore.

Would you pray for the families and friends of the fallen and injured Airmen? I don't yet know where they are from or what their stories are. I believe they may have just been passing through from another base onto a deployment.

On a different note...

This upcoming weekend, assuming the shootings and security measures don't prevent us from going, we'll be taking 8 students to a high school student leadership retreat. It's a weekend geared towards growth level students, who we believe are spiritually mature and have potential to minister to their peers. I'm encouraged by these students desires to go deeper in their relationships with the Lord and I'm really looking forward to time with them. Would you pray that God would continue to grow them and that He'd challenge them as they step out and lead their peers.

Thanks for praying team. You're a blessing to me and the military community in Ramstein. Thank you.

Blessings,

Beth