Please Pray...

There are always those prayer requests that are tricky to ask. The ones where the doctors say there is no hope, and you wonder if God has some mysterious plan in the midst of the pain. But today I'd like to ask you to pray for a man in our church and his family, a husband and a father to an 18 year old and a 3 year old. He has recently been diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's Disease, and if you know much about that, then you know it isn't a good thing. He's already become weaker, and there is no cure known to man. But we know that with our God, nothing is impossible. Please pray for healing, or for courage to face the will of God. Please pray for the Rader family!

My Almost Tangible God

(This is the article Collin read out loud while we were in Germany)

He is here.

In the breath in my lungs, in the thunder outside my window. In the salt of my tears, in the crack of my voice. 

He is here.

He is everywhere. He moves, He stirs, He is present.

I would like to tell you a story. Many stories, to be more precise. But it meshes together into our story.

So many teenagers. So many hearts. So many lives. Ready, willing, wanting, desirous of one main thing: the perfect will of God.

That is how I view this youth group. Abnormal, really. Different, set apart. Because, well, because of so many things. Because of parents who saw further than their own futures, people who began praying before we were born, but most of all, an all seeing, merciful God.

And two years ago, in June, He became almost tangible. He has been ever since.

Away from the temptations of the world, away from the easy access technology at home, feeling positive peer pressure and the keen desire to do right, a week is enough time to get really close to your Maker. And get close we did.

By Tuesday night of the meeting we were all fully open to whatever our God wanted to do with us. We began to worship Him in earnest, and were just so thankful for all of His goodness. Praising Him was number 1 on our list of priorities.

On Wednesday or Thursday, we were singing in music class. It became powerful, and not only were we meaning every word we sung, but we were singing in four part harmony, clean and beautiful, from the top of our lungs. The song director stopped us for a minute.

“That is beautiful. That is just so plumb beautiful! You reckon they can hear us in heaven right now? Can you imagine how good it’s gonna be up there?!”

In the middle of summer, with not a cloud in sight and one of the prettiest days you’ve seen, a huge, loud clap of thunder sounded above us.

An almost holy hush fell.

“Well, I guess God agrees.”

And that, I believe, was when He became an almost tangible God to me.

Before and After

This is the picture of our "Germany Group" as we stood outside the bus right before we left for the airport:

This is us back outside of the bus to meet our families and others after getting back from the airport (minus J.D. and Drew, they'd been picked up somewhere else):

Singing in Germany on Wednesday night

Bro. Heith's two cents...or should I say Euro cents?

Well, I just fished cleaning all the yellow paint from my fingernails and finally had some time to sit down and write. First and foremost I would like to say how pleased I am with the teenagers from Cornerstone. In the last ten days paving stones have been set, meals were prepared, scaffold was built, walls were painted, sand was swept, meals were prepared, more paving stones were set, more walls were painted, more meals prepared...you get the idea. They also passed out flyers with scripture and an invitation to church in seven villages, I think we passed out over 2,000. I watched as they ministered to people they had never met, they sang from the heart, they put others first, and did it all because they wanted to! If the Lord tarries, I can only imagine what he could do with this group of young people. I remember my first missions trip, I had no idea what the Lord had in mind, I had no idea how God would use that trip to change my life, I had no clue what the future had in store. It wasn't over night, it took some time. Only looking back can I see he had a plan and a purpose for me, and that missions trip was only a small step toward the will of God for my life. I hope that is what this trip will be to nine young men and women. I hope it will be a part of their path they will look back on and see the hand of God. Thank you Cornerstone for making it all possible.

Bro. Heith

II Chron. 15:7

We're Home

I just wanted to write a quick post to let everyone know we made it home safe and sound yesterday! We stayed up all night the night before our flight because we had to leave the Lawrence's at 4am. It was a really good idea, because we all slept through most of our 9 hour flight. I'll write a long article about our trip soon, but right now I'm a little too tired and emotional to write about it in detail. Thank you all so much for your prayers, this trip has meant more than I will ever be able to explain. I love you all!

James was here at 10:35pm taking forever to write his blog.

    Well, we are down to only one more day left, and I'm nowhere near ready to come home. It been such a blessing for me to get to help the Lawrences. 

    I really love it here. The country is so beautiful, but this place could use some Wendy's around here. Of course the prices are a little high too. It's going to be hard for me to leave even though I can't wait to see some of my friends and others.  Lord willing I'd love to come back with the Biermens to help the Lawrences on some more stuff next year. 

      Today we went to a lady's house who's name was Stephanie. She has just been saved, and has cancer. We sang and really just had church. Drew preached (which was a blessing).

Her family is lost, and that is really hard on her. Anyway, we had church in her living room, which was a blessing to her as well as to us. Her son, Thomas is 16, please pray for him. We have become good friends, and I praying for God to open a door tomorrow for me to get to talk to him before we leave for the U.S. Please pray.   Thanks for paying for this trip. 

James and Thomas

So far today...

Today has been finishing up our work here! Drew and Bro. Heith have been on the balcony finishing up painting, the others are on the ground finishing up painting, inside finishing up painting, and this afternoon we're heading out to hand out some more flyers. I'm going to go ahead and upload some more pictures right now, I'm sure I'll have more by tonight, but I may not have time to get on. I'm hoping to get James and Bro. Heith to write something, they just don't have a lot of time!

I'll put up some pictures now and then go eat lunch. I hope everyone has a great day!
P.S. Happy Birthday, Mama! :)

Bro. Heith and Bro. Joel last night.

Collin added the blanket :)

J.D. and Hannah

Drew?

Chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla pudding - made from scratch!

Bro. Heith and Drew painting this morning

Collin, Isaac, J.D. and Paul raking/sweeping dirt for new grass.

My view this morning at 7:00 from the balcony.

Kaylee and Jael

A smiling Paul (Bro. Mark calls him smiley. He said if he wore lipstick it would be on his ears - who would have guessed? :))

Collin working on something.

J.D. painting.

Me, Hannah P., and Amie on the balcony.

The color they're painting the house. It's yellow.

The way Drew's boots look right now - covered in yellow paint!

The boys in the Lawrence's cool hidden room.

The girls on the weight set they have in the hidden room.

Everyone on the weight set - who looks the toughest?

Hannah A. was here at 12:21 listening to J.D. singing at the top of his lungs :D

Hello everyone! I am having a blast! I LOVE it here! The Lawrence family has been such a blessing to all of us. It is such a blessing to see what God is doing here with the Lawrences. It has been a blessing to me getting to know everyone better and watching everyone open up and having a great time. I think Paul has opened up the most. I don't think anyone could smack the smile off his face! We went to a catholic church the other day. Just as soon as I walked in, the absence of Gods spirit could be felt. But it was very emotional. Just looking around at all the people in the building knowing all of them had no peace, no joy, no hope within. Knowing all of them were headed to a dark eternity. I could not fight back the tears. I could not imagine living such a dark blinded life. I am so blessed! Thank you Lord for saving my soul!  

Paul was here at 7:22pm winning all the arm wrestling matches.

Good morning, America! lol This is Paul. We've been doing a lot of work, but I've been enjoying it. I talked to Catholic lady today, and I couldn't understand much of what she said, but I tried to encourage her to come to church. She was telling us we shouldn't be passing the flyers out because we couldn't speak German and couldn't answer her questions. I enjoyed today, though, even though I got left in my room while the others left. I was studying because I have the devotion tomorrow morning. :( lol Thank you all for sending us here, we're having a great time!

Amie was here at 4:55 just chewing her gum

  Wow! I feel like that's just about the only word to describe how I'm feeling about this whole trip. I think the thing that has stuck out to me the most, is the fact that there are so few Christians here. Every time we go somewhere, I can't help but to think of all the people who have never heard the gospel, and some who will never know Jesus. I've been reminded of how fortunate I am to have such a good church, and to have been raised in a Christian home.
  I really do love it here, and as much as I miss home, I know that I'm really gonna miss it. It's been great to meet all the people that Kaylee has told me about, and now I know them personally, and I can put faces to the names that I have been praying for.
  We've all been having a great time, and I have so many fun stories I could tell, but it would take too long! :) Thank you all for the prayers, and I hope this wasn't a boring post. I feel a little pressure writing this because of all the other people that have been blogging, and of course my wonderful writer sister. :) I can't wait to see you all, and thank you to Cornerstone for making this trip possible. I love you!

Pictures from Sunday

Drew and Veronica