germany

Hello,

The news here has reported that America has been experiencing some hot weather. Meanwhile, here in Germany it’s been staying pretty comfortable, mostly in the 70's. Not a lot of sun. Which means the tomatoes and peppers I planted on my balcony haven't been growing as well as I had hoped. I hope that the spiritual seeds being planted are doing better.

We had a baptism last month at church. She had been baptized as a baby and grew up Catholic, but decided it needed to be her decision as an adult and that in doing so she was being obedient to God. Of course, everyone at church was happy about her decision. Her family, however, was not at all pleased. Her parents cut off all communication with her for the next several weeks. They just recently started talking to her again, but have been pretty mean to her and believe she has joined a cult, since we are not Catholic. Another lady wrote me this week also stating that she also wants to be baptized. She wants to have the baptism in the Rhein river. So, I am hoping for warmer weather. I am excited, as this will be the third baptism this year.

Along with the work I am doing at the church here, I am also currently involved in working together with some other churches. Last year I organized a church service in the park a couple blocks from our church. I was able to get 4 other free evangelical churches (a Turkish speaking church, an Eritrean Church, an international church made up mostly of South Koreans, and a Baptist church) from our neighborhood to participate and help plan it. It went very well and everyone is excited for it to happen again this year. The date is set for September 1. And we are already getting things organized for it. The most difficult hurdle of registering the event with the city to be allowed to meet in the park has already been overcome. It was easier to register as a "Rally" rather than a "church service". Since we are registered as a rally or demonstration, we have to wait till later on Sunday so that we don't disturb any church services. Bureaucracy is not fun in any country.

I also met with last week with a group of missionaries and church workers in Cologne. We met together and prayed for the city and Germans for about an hour before eating together and getting to know each other and the work that others are doing. It was a nice and encouraging time. Tomorrow I will leave for the Bible Camp. The kid's camp starts on Saturday and will be a week long. Directly after that the teen camp will start for another week. I originally was only going to work at the kid's camp, but they needed extra help for the teens camp last minute. They only had 4 kids sign up for the teen camp this year, but another 12 signed up in the last couple weeks. It was a hard finding extra workers and help with such short notice, so I am staying for another week. After I get home from 2 weeks of camp, I will preach the next day and immediately get back to

work at the church. At the end of August, I will be in charge of the young adult camp. So, I will head back to camp for a week. I think it will be an exhausting couple of months.

During the teen camp, Alyssa will bring her laptop and be able to do home-office from the campgrounds. It will be nice having her there, especially since we will be celebrating our 20th anniversary while there. We have celebrated several anniversaries at the teen camp, but it has been a while since the last time. I think when we are back, we will have a late celebration. I hope that you all are enjoying your summer, that God is blessing you, and that your churches are honoring God, building each other up, and following His ways.

Blessings,

Zach Murphy