Donnerstag, 24. März 2011

He makes me lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside quiet waters - He restores my soul!

-English in GREEN -

Hallo Freunde,
Hello friends,

Die letzten Wochen hier waren so ereignisreich und besonders...
Die verschiedenen Dienste in denen wir involviert sind laufen weiterhin super und Gott bewegt viel in den Leben der Menschen hier.
Etwas was wirklich jede Woche nur noch besser wird sind unsere Dienstag Abende. Kevin, ein mann aus der gemeinde ist jeden Dienstag Abend mit warmen Essen, Kleidern usw. an der Ecke 1960. Und wir sind auch dabei. Jede Woche kommen unsere Freunde vorbei, die fast alle auf der Strasse leben, und leider immer noch abhaengig von Drogen oder Alkohol sind. Wir reden mit ihnen und sind einfach da fuer sie, ermutigen sie und beten fuer sie, wenn sie das moechten.
Es sind so unglaubliche Zeiten, in denen wir Beziehungen aufbauen koennen. Danach geht es immer Downtown...aber da hab ich letztens noch was dazu geschrieben, leider nur auf englisch, der gruene Abschnitt!!

The last weeks have been so full of amazing experiences and they were very special...
All the ministries that we are involved in are still on and going well, God is doing some incredible things in the lives of people.
One Outreach that's just getting better and better every week, is our tuesday night outreach to Downtown Houston. Well, before we go downtown we meet at 1960, where Kevin, a guy from Church always brings warm meals and clothes for the people living down there on the streets. Every week we get to meet our friends and chat and catch up on life and we have the chance to pray with them if they want to. Unfortunately most of them are not only homeless, but also still addicted to drugs or alcohol. But these nights are really great, because we get to bless them and speak truth into their lives and just be friends to them.

There’s this big bridge Downtown where a lot of homeless people sleep. Every Tuesday and occasionally Fridays as well we go there to hang out with these people and bring them some water and Snacks. Oh how I love those nights. I’ve never thought that I would be able to just go up to someone and say Hi and have a great conversation with him, be able to pray with him and let God’s spirit just touch him. These guys down there are so precious to God and He loves them so much that He wants us to be His hands and feet and bring them His hope and light. Jimmy said the other day: “People think we homeless people are bad people and dangerous, but that’s not always true.” And that is so true. These people have incredibly sad and tragic life stories, heart breaking experiences that brought them on the Streets. Most of them have family that are far away and they miss them terribly. If Jesus would still be here on earth right now, (in physical, real appearance of course, cuz He’s still here :) I’d say He’d be down under that Bridge, praying, healing, sitting and listening…He’d be in the Brothels, in the orphanages, in the prisons, setting people free, loving them, not condemning them. We can’t really get these people off the Streets, but what we can do is go there and bring God’s Spirit, sitting with them on the concrete and listening, being a friend to them and being a light in the darkness. And we can have Compassion on them, just as Jesus had compassion when He looked at the multitude (Matthew 9:36: When he saw the crowds He had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd) God wants to be their Shepherd, He wants to wrap His arms of Love around them and restore their souls. His Heart breaks for these people, He understands their deepest pain and suffering, and he wants to redeem them. He wants to take the broken pieces of their life, caused by many storms that they’ve been through and put them together, make beautiful things out of their dust – make all things work together for their good (Romans 8:28)

‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ (Matth.25:40)

I’m here trying to do these things for one of the least of these brothers and sisters, to glorify God’s name and bring His kingdom! And there’s been so many moments where I’ve felt so inadequate, useless and just not able to give anything, but it is God alone who can change and save lives. It’s His power alone. Let us be filled up with His love, be vessels in His hands, and sit with the people He loves, listening and loving on them.

It’s so amazing - two days ago I was sitting there under the Bridge praying with those two kind guys, who live on the Streets, being cold, hungry, lonely, addicted, and hopeless. My friend Loyd is a lovely man, unfortunately an alcoholic, but a sweet sweet person. Every time I see Him, He is full of gratefulness praising God for what He has done for Him. He is just so thankful that we come down there to spend time with them. I know He knows God, we talk about the Bible and pray together and last Tuesday we were astonished by the fact that God gave His only son to die for us, and we asked ourselves if we could do that with our own child – our answer was “No”. But God did give His only son, because He loved us so much, that we may not perish, but have eternal life. The greatest gift, that we can ever receive - the cross!

Donnerstag morgen gehen wir seit ein paar Monaten immer nach Boca Spring, ein Apartment komplex Downtown, wo viele Fluechtlinge aus dem Irak wohnen. Jede Woche besuchen wir unsere liebe Freundin dort. Sie hat zwei kleine Kinder und begruesst uns jede Woche mit ihrer Gastfreundlichkeit. Wir haben gute Gespraeche und geniessen es einfach mit ihr ein wenig Zeit zu verbringen und sie besser kennen zu lernen.
Morgen sind wir zu einer besonderen Feier eingeladen, eine Art Babysegnung, eine kurdische Tradition, anscheinend nur fuer besondere Freunde und Familie, deswegen fuehlen Leah, Britney und Ich uns sehr geehrt dabei sein zu duerfen. Ich schreibe euch dann bald wie es war, bin schon sehr gespannt.

Since a couple months we have been going to an apartment complex Downtown called Boca Spring, where there's a lot of refugees from Irak. Every week we visit our lovely friend P. She has two little kids and welcomes us every week into her home with incredible hospitality! We have good conversations, her english is getting better and better every week. We just enjoy these times with her so much getting to know her better and being a part of her life - what an amazing opportunity that is!
We are invited to this special baby party at her house tomorrow. It's a real kurdish tradition and apparently only for special friends, so we feel really honored to be able to go there. Leah, Brittney and I are really excited about it. I will tell you more about it soon.

Leah und Ich haben in den letzten Wochen ein paar Mal Worship bei Street Church gemacht. War total genial, wir sind einfach total in unserem Element gewesen, einfach unsere Musik gemacht und gar nicht auf die Leute geachtet. Die Leute sind meistens irgendwie abgelenkt und manchmal auch etwas laut, aber in den letzten Malen war es unglaublich, die Atmosphaere hat sich wirklich veraendert und viele Leute waren total beruehrt von der Gegenwart Gottes.
Es ist schoen zu sehen, wenn Leute kommen, die wir den Freitag vorher Downtown auf den Strassen von Montrose getroffen haben.

Leah and I had the chance in the last few weeks to lead Worship at Street Church. We totally loved these times and it was just amazing!! We were just doing our thing there worshipping and didnt really look at the people. Sometimes they can be quite distracted or loud, but in these last weeks the atmosphere there has changed so much, it's so great. They were so touched by God's presence, soooo cool!!!
Its also good to see people down there that we've met the friday before in Montrose. I love Street Church, such a good time to let God lead you to the people he wants me to talk to.

Bei den Spa's ist es in letzter Zeit etwas langsam gewesen, viele lassen uns nicht rein, andere wollen nicht wirklich mit uns reden, allerdings hatten wir wieder ein paar Interessante und schockierende Momente in diesen schrecklichen Geschaeften!! Bitte betet weiterhin fuer den Menschenhandel in dieser Welt, die Zahlen und Lebensgeschichten sind einfach furchtbar.
Here some REALITY:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snfZdSsYTB4

This is a link to some shocking facts and numbers of Human trafficking.
Our weekly outreaches into the Spas of Houston have been a little slow in the last weeks. There's just been so mant Spa's that didnt open doors or didnt want to talk to us. But there's also been some interesting and sad conversations. So please continue to pray for this huge issue in this world!! The numbers and life stories are just tremendous!!

Im Trailer Park 5Oaks haben wir in den letzten Wochen immer mehr Beziehungen aufgebaut. Weiterhin bringen wir Mittagessen, spielen Fussball oder Basketball, und basteln mit den Kids.
Karen und Andrew versuchen in einen Trailer dort einzuziehen und wir hoffen, dass sich bald eine Tuer oeffnet. 5Oaks liegt uns sehr am Herzen und wir wissen, Gott kann Grosses tun!

In the last weeks we've also been going to 5Oaks every Sunday afgternoon to play soccer with the kids, bring lunch, do crafts and build up relationships with the people living there. Karen and Andrew want to find a trailer there and move into the park, so we are praying that God will soon open a door for them! 5Oaks is on our heart and we know God is going to do great things there.

Unsere Nachmittage mit den Maedels im Heim "Wecare" waren auch sehr gut. Die Kunsttherapie ist so eine wunderbare Moeglichkeit den Maedels Freiheit zu geben um ihre Gefuehle rauszulassen und Erlebnisse zu verarbeiten. So langsam bauen wir auch Beziehungen mit den Maedels auf, was manchmal echt schwierig ist. Viele der Maedels sind depressiv, verbittert, und innerlich einfach zerbrochen. Nancy ist 13 Jahre alt und schwanger. Sie war schon 7 mal im Jugendgefaengnis und hat uns letztens ihre Liste von Drogen, die sie schon genommen hat, aufgezaehlt. Heute habe ich sie gefragt, wo sie sich in vielleicht 5 Jahren sieht, sie meinte, sie will ihren Abschluss machen, eine Arbeit bekommen, und ihr Kunst projekt an dem wir gearbeitet haben, ging darum, eine gute Mutter zu sein, etwas aus seinem Leben zu machen!

On thursday afternoons at "we care" have been amazing. Art therapy is such a wonderful way for these girls to be free to express themselves and deal with emotions and experiences. Slowly we have been able to build up relationships with these girls, which sometimes can be wuite hard. A lot of those girls are depressed, bitter, and just so broken inside. Nancy is 13 years old and pregnant. She has been to jail about 7 times already and the other day she told us tonnes of drugs that she has already used. Today I asked her where she sees hereself in about 5 years and she said she wants to go back to school and graduate, and get a good job. The Art project that she was working on said: being above the influence...being a good Mom, make something out of your life, tak chances...so that was great!! I'm praying that God will radicly restore her heart and give her the strength and desire to pursue her dreams.

Hier noch ein paar Gedanken ueber Ruhe, sitzen und zuhoeren...(wieder nur in englisch, sorry)

We live in a world that is constantly busy. All we do is running around, working, planning, cooking, shopping, worrying … we are constantly DOING. But what about just BEING? Have we forgotten about what it means to REST and be at PEACE? I think we have.
I remembered the story of Mary and Martha, a short little example found in Luke 10:38-42. We all know this story, but it has become so much more REAL to me.
I see myself so often being like Martha. I run around trying to organize and plan things out of my own strength, stressing around, trying to make things be perfect…and sometimes I even complain just like Martha did. And then I look at Mary – She was sitting at the Lord’s feet, listening to what He said. Wow. Isn’t that actually what we should do? Sitting at the Lord’s feet, being at rest in Him, finding Peace in Him, listening to His gentle voice. I think we need to learn to BE and get away from always DO. And that doesn’t mean that we should just hang around and do nothing all day, that’s not healthy either and I don’t think that’s what God wants to tell us in this story. No, It’s about spending time with Jesus every day, sitting at His feet, listening to His voice and finding deep rest in Him. He wants to "make us lie down in green pastures" and "lead us beside quiet waters". (Sometimes He literally has to MAKE US lie down, because we have such a hard time doing that) He wants to be our Shepherd and "let our cup overflow" with His comfort, peace and rest. (Psalm 23) Especially in Ministry where things can be so intense and spiritually heavy, I found myself worrying about things and people. I take things home with me, people and their life stories and experiences are on my mind. I found myself feeling drained and exhausted, because I did not sit at God’s feet, and rest in Him, remain in Him! Of course I need to talk to God about these issues and bring these people before Him, but so often I forgot about being filled up again and just BEING with him. I mean how can I go out and serve these people if I don’t remain in Him? I would go out and do it out of my own strength. Jesus said:
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:5
So, apart from Him I can do nothing, I will be fruitless without Him.
For me this is such a huge lesson and so hard to put into practice sometimes, especially in our busy society of this world.
Most people that I have met that are in full time ministry have said that you can only do this if you spend time with God every single day! You’ve got to be in His word, sit at his feet, worship Him, be close to His heart and hear His voice. Be filled every day with His peace, his love, His Spirit and His REST! And listening to this teaching this morning at our Young Hope meeting He said something about “shutting our mouth” when we’re with God, cause we can’t hear Him. It was not only amusing the way He said it, but it also so true and applicable to be. I mean so often I try to talk and get through my prayer lists and read my chapters in the Bible, but I don’t take time to shut my mouth and listen.


some FUN things I did:

Letzte Wochen hatten alle Schueler hier Ferien. Meine Gastfamilie ist nach Galveston in ein Strandhaus gefahren und ich habe sie fuer 2 Tage dort besucht. Was fuer ein Traumhafter Ort, so friedlich und wunderschoen, ich liebe das Meer!! Wir hatten eine ganz tolle Zeit.

Last week it was Spring Break here in Houston and my host family went down to Galveston to the Beach for a week. I came down there for 2 days to be with them. It's a dream place, absolutely stunning and so peaceful - love the ocean and the beach. We had such a great time and Katy and I went on this Bungee Fun ride, where we were thrown up all the way in the air, i'll post a video about that soon :) we had a blast.

Vor ein paar Wochen war ich mit den Kleinlohs und Mellis Eltern beim Rodeo, das war ein Spass. Kimmy ist auf einem Schaf geritten, wir haben den richtigen Rodeo gesehen, Keith Urbans Konzert, und noch vieles mehr. Toller Tag mit meinen Lieben...
Und gesiedlert haben wir auch noch! Anna und Nona, ihr habt uebrigens auch mitgespielt ;) ihr wart unsere Imaginary friends :) we miss u soooo much!!!
Am Montag haben wir Mr. Lee's geburtstag im Park gefeiert. wunderschoener sonniger Tag, und special time with Jenna. Mr. Lee hat sich so gefreut darueber! (Mr. Lee ist ein Freund von Street Church, kenne ihn durch die Melli, ist so wie unser Opa irgendwie manchmal :)

A couple weeks ago, me Chriss, Mell, the kids, and Mell's parents went to the Rodeo in Houston, that was so fun!! Kimmy did the "mutten bustin" and rode on a sheep, we saw the real bull riding and horse riding show, and Keith Urban of course singing his cheesy songs :) It was a wonderful day with my lovely friends...
On Monday we celebrated Mr. Lee's Birthday in a park, gorgeous, sunny day and Mr. Lee was so happy about that little surprise. (Mr. Lee is a very kind friend from Street Church, I know him through mell and he's become like a real grandpa to us, sweet man!!)

Ohhh, es gibt noch sooooo viel mehr zu erzaehlen, ueber Dinge die passieren, einzelne Geschichten, coole Zeugnisse, lustige Zitate usw, aber ich muss hier leider Schluss machen, es wird spaet.
Bald werde ich ein paar neue Fotos hochladen.

Oh, there's so much more to tell about great things that happened and about different stories, amazing testimonies, and funny quotes....but unfortunately I have to stop here, it's getting late...
I'm gonna upload some more photos soon.

Wetter: sehr warm, ca. 28 Grad taeglich, wunderbar.
Persoenliches: Um ehrlich zu sein vermisse ich euch sehr sehr sehr doll zur Zeit!!! Ich bin so langsam bereit nach Hause zu kommen, obwohl der Abschied schwer wird. Noch 5 Wochen dann komme ich schon wieder!! freu mich immer von euch zu hoeren!!

Weather: very warm, mostly in the 80's, just wonderful
Personal things: Honestly I do miss home very much and I feel like I'm kinda getting ready to coming home soon, but I know saying Good-Bye will be so hard, cause I love my friends here and i love that I have 5 more weeks with them! But I'm really looking forward to coming home!! Love hearing how life is going for y'all!!!

Lots and lots of Love,
Seid reich gesegnet,
Eure Lisa

2 Kommentare:

  1. i would have followed you long ago if i knew this existed! there are some great posts here and it's really good to hear of what you're doing for God's kingdom. your passion and commitment to bringing hope to the downtrodden is very uplifting and inspiring. continue to be blessed and be a blessing through your ministry. xx

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  2. Liebe Sisa,
    noch 24 Tage, dann kommst Du wieder. Wir freuen uns so auf Dich!
    Die 3 Rinns

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