Day 4

The last couple of days have been very full and I am starting to get more comfortable with the German keyboard. The Y and Z are switched and the shift and return keys are in a little bit different places.
Yesterday and today we learned a great deal about the German people and how they think. It was interesting to learn the philosophy and events that shape their attitudes toward the gospel. The presentations were mostly from Germans who are a part of the church in Erlangen.
Yesterday we also attended the midweek service and Jeremy Hargis, the men's coach from Pillsbury was able to preach. When he was first asked to speak, I was a little jealous, but when I saw how difficult it is to get used to using an interpreter, I quickly repented of my envy. He did a great job and I was glad to let him do it.
Today was our last daz of training at Erlangen. Tomorrow, I will travel to Ingolstad with the Maranatha men's team, the women's team will stay in Erlangen, the Pillsbury team will head to Bad Heilbrunn in southern Germany. It snowed there this week - but they are from Minnesota. Another group, that does not include soccer players will head north to Berlin.
Other parts of today were spent in talking about presenting the gospel. We are using the "Bridge" tract as it has been translated into German and Arabic just for this effort. We also spent good deal of time in corporate prayer for our upcoming ministry.
After supper we played our first matches of the trip. The men played Pillsbury to a 1-1 draw. Jeremy Hargis scored for Pills - a familiar sight for me since Jeremy and I played against each other when he was a student at NBBC. The men then defeated a team from the church in Erlangen 1-0 and then Pillsbury defeated the church team 3-1. I appreciate all the cheering for me from the women's team - even though it was embarrassing and I think the cheering was more sympathy for being slow. I also need to thank Jennifer Adam, Melissa Nichols and Abby Kalschuer for filling in as officials at the last minute.
Please pray as we travel tomorrow and as we enter the actual ministry phase of our mission. Also pray for several young men who heard the gospel from some members of the women's team this week.
We hope to post some pictures over the next couple of days.-C