“We were like men who dreamed…
The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy...
He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow,
Will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him.”(Psalm 126)
Dear Prayer Partners:
It was last January when we last wrote you after our winter semester’s harvest. In February, we went back to the States for ECM Board of Director’s meeting, drove around to visit our ECM co-workers, stayed briefly with our family and church family, did our routine annual physical check-ups, and hurried back to Dresden where we left our hearts. In April we conducted a baptismal service of 12 students, accompanied students to go to 2 regional retreats, and then for the next 3 months spent most of our time in hosting 13 teams of 21 short-term missionaries from 8 Chinese American churches, to serve
different Chinese Christian fellowships that we care for in 6 eastern German campuses. The result was another semester’s bountiful harvest!
The Lord’s Army Moved in﹕
Our short-term missionaries included pastors, elders, deacons, their wives, and seminary student in their 30’ to 60’s. They are humble, loving, hard working, and well-equipped workers. They know God’s Word and live it out.
A Great Cloud of Witnesses﹕
A Pastor couple in their 60’s came with their team to a campus where there were only a few new Chinese believers and no existing group. They stayed in a German church, and walked back and forth on the hilly streets between church and campus many times in a day, totaling sometimes over 2- hours walk. Before they left, they gave us a long list of student names and their contact information.
The list was arranged by dorm and dorm rooms. Every morning they got up early in the morning to pray for the students, then they set out to the campus and one by one began to knock at the dorm room doors. In the evenings they had appointments with interested students to talk about the gospel in depth and often came back to the church late in the night. Their days ended usually after mid-night with again time of serious prayers of spiritual battle. At the end of their one-month stay, 130 students had been shared with the gospel, and a weekly meeting of 30 was established. But our evangelists still sounded regretful, “There are 380 Chinese students in this town, 250 still have not heard the gospel!”
A young yet experienced Christian woman received an urgent call from ECM for help. She rearranged her work and took a leave of absence without pay in a couple of days. She came with her over-weight luggage full of Chinese dry goods and Chinese Christian resources, as well as her love for the students. She gave herself totally to the students, because she understood the tears and hardships of our young college students. She herself was a young teen-ager when she was left in the United States to go to school. It was only because of the love shown by a church that she was able to survive, get saved, and grow up in the Lord.
A couple were bit by insects and took ill when they came to serve last November. To our great surprise, just about when they barely recovered, they cancelled their vacation package for this year and came back in May to care and teach Bible to the students. Again not very long after they went back in May, they made plans to come back during Christmas vacation.
Another couple stayed in a 650 square ft apartment with 2 student couples. They served joyfully for over 2 months and thanked the Lord for giving them the opportunity to enjoy family life. They come to serve the same fellowship group for the spring semester every year. When they are away from the students, they keep up their shepherding and Bible teaching through Skype. They have truly become the Mom and Dad for the group.
What is it that compels so many co-workers to travel so tirelessly back and forth between two continents, laying their other duties aside and giving up their vacations? It is their love for the Lord and the students, as well as the students’ sincere thirst for the Gospel.
Reaping with Songs of Joy﹕How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news! Believers grew in faith, existing fellowship groups were more firmly established, and 3 new fellowship groups were established in Greifswald, Koethen and Ilmenau. As usual, January and June are harvest months. Workers “return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them.” For the first half of the year, 43 students of 8 fellowship groups were baptized! They were baptized in German churches, in plastic kid’s pool, in bathtub, and in the beautiful Baltic Sea! They were baptized into Christ!
Number of ECM short term missionaries 2005-2006:9; 2006-2007:33
Total months served by all ECM missionaries in a year 2005-2006:23 ; 2006-2007:47
Number of fellowship groups served by ECM 2005-2006:5 ; 2006-2007:8
Total of Average weekly attendance of 8 groups 2005-2006:41 ; 2006-2007:129
Number of people baptized 2005-2006:6 ; 2006-2007:43
Number of seminary students preparing for full time service 2005-2006:0 ; 2006-2007:1
We Were like Men Who Dreamed﹕Looking at the figures above, and thinking back on how only three years ago, we were driving around with our sleeping bags and finding just a handful of new Chinese believers scattered on various campuses of eastern Germany, we say, “We were like men who dreamed…The Lord has done great things for us!” Now there are 129 Chinese students worshipping the Lord in 8 cities at any given week! We give all the praises to the Lamb who died for us all!
At the end of June, before all the short-term missionaries left the fields, we were busy visiting various groups to support and baptize. In July, we are finally able to sit down and catch up on writing prayer letter, making plans for the fall, and paying more needed attention to our local group in Dresden which is growing nicely also. This summer we will not take time to go back to the States, but will stay in Dresden to make up work in communication, Bible studying and caring for the local group. We also need a little time to recharge for the upcoming busy fall semester. The next time we go to the States will be again for our board meeting in the spring of 2008.
Praises and Prayer Needs:
1. Praise the Lord for the great harvest in the past 6 months. Please pray that every new believer will be firmly rooted and built up.
2. Praise the Lord for everyone who sowed, watered, harvested, as well as those of you who watched and prayed back home. May the Lord bless you, your families, and your churches.
3. Praise the Lord for the wonderful partnership in Christ with local German churches. Praise His name for the love and generosity shown to us by our German brothers in allowing us free access to their church facilities, hosting or finding housing for our missionaries, and conducting joint worship services with us for our baptism. Praise the Lord for the great testimony of unity.
4. Praise the Lord for our student believers who are catching on the idea of missions. Working with ECM missionaries, each established fellowship group adopted a newer group in another city for encouragement by visiting and keeping in personal contact through the Internet.
5. Praise the Lord for JIN Lei, our first student getting equipped to serve the Lord full time. She will be studying at the Logos Evangelical Seminary in Los Angeles. Please pray for her studies, her spiritual growth, and her financial needs.
6. Pray for the spiritual maturity of believers. Pray that God will lead some to go back to China and spread the gospel, and others to stay and serve various fellowships here in Germany.
7. Pray for the students during exam month that they do well to glorify God. Pray also for their summer vacation that follows. Pray that believers will continue to stay close to the Lord and experience Him, whether they go back to visit their parents or go to western Germany for summer work.
8. Pray for the urgent need of workers in the fall to carry on the ministries, especially those in the newly started campuses. Right now we are looking for people to come for a couple of months to do shepherding and pioneering work.
9. Continue to pray for God to send a second couple to come and stay long term.
Called by His grace to serve in partnership with you，
David and Margaret
Phone﹕49 351 484-3231
Email: dsfine77@gmail.com; mcyfine@gmail.com
www.ECMinistry.net