Shaina Stutzman
July 23, 2007
Germany Team Letter #35

So I was laying in bed last night and I realized "Oh no!! I forgot to write the team letter for this past week!!...woops!!"
In our last letter we had a prayer request for us to be able to fit everything into our suitcases. Well, God really heard that prayer because He answered in a really big way. Jen had some stuff that just didn't fit in her suitcase or the rest of ours without being overweight. So, this presented a problem.
The rest of us had either been able to send stuff home with visitors or leave stuff there in Germany, later to somehow reconnect with it. But Jen didn't have some of those options so we were trying to figure out how to help her. One of our friends was at our house calling the airline company for her trying to figure this all out to see if she could have a suitcase that was overweight or just bring another suitcase home and how much these options would cost her. The airline company said that she couldn't bring a third suitcase on because the plane was too small. So in the end, we came up with the solution to pack everything in Brent's huge suitcase and just have it be overweight. But, this would be rather pricey and Jen was prepared to have to pay a price that would not be pleasing to her ears.
The morning came for us to leave our wonderful memory-filled apartment on July 13, 2007. A sad day this was for many people. Our amazing outreach coordinators came and picked us up and took us to the airport in a very large van. (This was needed since we had 12 suitcases all together.) Into the airport we went, pulling/carrying our heavy luggage..up the elevators and into the Lufthansa Airlines line.
We waited patiently in line wondering if our luggage would be overweight since we had used our friend's bathroom scale and had packed so good that most of our stuff was either right on, or just a bit over..well, except for Jen. We finally got to the desk and since we were all kinda together, we all went to the same clerk. We handed in our passports and she got stuff typed in. "Jennifer Henson," the lady said. So Jen put her first suitcase up on the belt/scale. It was underweight!! She had weighed it at home and it was right on. At this point I began to get excited, realizing that mine was probably underweight too. So I started shoving more stuff from my backpack into my suitcases so I wouldn't have to carry so much with me through the airports.
"Next." Jen (with Eric's help) lifted the overweight suitcase onto the belt. We waited..and prayed..
"You know that you're only allowed 23 kilos, right? the lady questioned.
"Uh-huh," Jen tediously responded.
"And you know this ones 49 kilos?"
"Uh-huh."
"Does everybody else in your group have two suitcases?"
"Yes."
"My wife and I each have a guitar and they're both way under," chimed in Eric....Silence...Long pause as she typed away on her computer. She began to tag Jen's suitcase (or rather Brent's suitcase) with the "heavy" label.
"You're gonna have to take this to Bulky Luggage. That's down the hall on your right."
"Okaaaay.....," Jen replied as her and Eric began to take the suitcase off the belt.
"Janae Nolt," the lady said next.....Jen didn't have to pay a dime.
Jen, and the rest of us, were just in shock and totally in awe of the favor God showed Jen, and the rest of us, through this lady.
Then Jen lost her passport on the plane as we were landing at the Frankfurt airport, and we were told to go to lost and found. We were told five or six times where lost and found was and each time they sent us in a different direction. We finally found it and as Jen was on the phone with the lost and found people, Val felt like she should check Jen's backpack one more time. So she did, and way down in the bottom of one of the pockets...was Jen's passport!!!! Jen was our little "miracle child" that day. :)
We arrived safely and without further complications at the Philadelphia airport at approximately 4pm on Friday, July 14. We are now in our second week of "Post Field" or "Re-Entry" here at the Harrisburg Discipleship Center in Harrisburg, PA. Most people are past ready to be home and can't wait to get out of here. But this time really has been beneficial to us for preparing us to return to what we once knew as familiar. Some are excited, some are nervous, and others are just ready to move on.
We've been challenged to find the positive aspects and depth of our home congregations that we'll be going back to, even though they may be very different from what we've been accustomed to for the past 11 months. And to keep our exuberance for serving the Lord alive and burning within us well after we've returned. Well really..forever.
Sadness now wells up within me as I realize that I'm coming to the close of my very last team letter. I have thoroughly loved and enjoyed this phase of my life and have changed and grown so much while I've been away. I have a new World View and a deeper appreciation for God and close, challenging (in a good way) friendships. I left a part of my heart in Germany and I feel that open hurt in me beginning to start the healing process. And soon I will leave another bigger chunk of my heart with every one of my team members that I will have to part with. That day will be one filled with mixed emotions of sadness from leaving people who have become so dear to us, they are like family..to happiness from being reunited and going away with other special people, who are also our families...to a place we call home.

Prayer Requests:
-Good re-connections and adjustments with our family and friends
-Strength and grace for ourselves to continue to adjust to the US culture and being home again
-God's guidance for all of our futures
-For our families and brothers and sisters in Christ back in Germany, as well as the Soli Deo church..they need leaders in their church

Praises:
-We made it safely to the US
-Getting stuff home that we wanted and not having to pay anything!!!
-"Good" times of saying good-byes
-Our re-entry time is going well
-For wonderful friends and family back home and all over the world that have supported us and are praying and have prayed for us for the past 11 plus months...thank you

May God richly bless all of you,
in Christ's love,
Shaina Stutzman

Germany Team Newsletter #34
7/12/07
Jennifer Henson


Hallo Family and Friends,
We are all packing and preparing to say are final good-byes. This morning we thoroughly cleaned the house and did laundry. Now all of us are trying to fit everything in our suitcases.
Latter this evening we will go to Darrel and Miriam's for supper one last time. They have been great outreach coordinators and close friends. It will be hard to say good bye to them. It has been hard to say goodbye to all our friends here.
Tomorrow morning we will leave are apartment at 7 and be driven to the Halle Leipzig Airport. We should board are plain at 9:45. We have a switch in Frankfurt and board the second plain at 1:20. I believe we will arrive in Philadelphia around 4pm.
Now that business is out of the way, I would like to take time to share a God thing that has happened in my life.
Four the past three or so months I have been meeting with the Pastor's wife and working through past pains and dealing with lies I have received as truth. The Lord has really shown me allot about myself that is good and beautiful. Yet because of these lies I believed I could not except my self as anything but a failure and problem.
Through several counseling meetings with Sharon I have been able to see my self more the way God designed me to be. But something still kept me from really embracing the truths of scripture and the free gifts God offers me. One thing held me back from taking to heart all the head knowledge.
Last Tuesday we discovered the root. I felt unlovable. I felt like I was not important. Something inside of me could not except that nothing was not my fault. The lie that when something happened some how I was do blame had dug it's ugly claws in my heart.
Having discovered the root of things I took action. I went to the cross and simply asked for a miracle. I asked for God to fight for me and rescue me from believing these lies any further.
I was laying face down on the floor just waiting for something, not knowing what it would be. Several minutes went bye and I was enjoying the Lord's presence. Then I clearly heard a voice saying, " You are IMPORTANT!! BELIEVE IT!!!" Over and over I heard this statement and it got firmer and firmer. I felt my self tense and my insides tremble.
So I stood up and outwardly declared I am important! The inner confidence and strong conviction I felt was not of my own doing. Truly I have never felt so confident or such a strong conviction in any thing before.
I have always heard that God is good, but now I FEEL and SEE and KNOW that He is!
May God Bless You All, Jennifer Henson


Prayer Requests:
Safety in traveling
Fitting everything in to suitcases
Smooth traveling ( no problems with wait, security, or planes)
Strength to say good byes
Strength to adjust to U.S.


Praises:
We have finished are time out strong
We have impacted and encouraged people here
We all have some idea of what the next step will be
We have all been changed and seen the Lord at work in and through us.

Germany team
July 9,2007
Janae Nolt

Hello dear Family and Friends!!
I am attempting to write this e-mail for the second time! I am praying it works this time!!
This week has flown by!! I cannot believe how amazingly fast it has past!! Monday was like no other Monday I've experienced here in Halle! Val, Jen, Brent and I went grocery shopping for the week. Since we did not have much time on Saturday to do that!! It was a lot nicer with four people hauling the groceries! I enjoyed that very much!! I cannot say that I will be heart-broken about filling the backpacks full with food, lugging them onto the tram (which is full of people), and then carrying them up our 60-something number of steps! I look forward to having a car to go buy groceries when I return home!!
On Tuesday Brent, Jen, Shaina and I went to record songs with Andi's old band, Blooming Desert. It was fun!! We sang the choir in the background for two of their songs! I enjoyed the time getting to know the band better!
Wednesday.....was not like any other 4th of July for us. A newspaper reporter came to interview us as a team. I could not stay for the whole things because I was asked to sing by myself for the Blooming Deserts CD. That will definitely make you feel more confident about singing in front of people! Man!! I have learned a lot from that! After the recording time, I met up with my team at the Norton's house since we were having a 4ht of July celebration! It was nothing like our American party's for the 4ht of July, but it was still fun!! At one point...there were more Germans than Americans there!! I enjoyed the evening relaxing with my friends!!
Friday, the whole team plus Miriam and her friend Amanda went to Buchenwald. A concentration camp. I can't describe the things I saw. Pictures will not be able to tell the stories. It is something that you need to seem for yourself to get the full impact. I was tired after we left there. Fortunately I was able to take a nap on the way home because Brent, Jen, Shaina and I were having some of our friends over in the evening. Our friends stayed until 1:20 a.m. in the morning!! It was a good time for us to have with our friends though!
this coming week is going to be full of me running around, getting the last minute things for gifts and all that loose ends tied up!! I kind of wish I was home already without all this running around like a chicken with its head cut off!!
May God bless you in your week and all the things you do, may He guide you! Have a great week!!
-Janae

PRAISES!!!!!
-We had Stephanie come to our English bible study....that is no more...but Val was able to take her to House group instead!!!!!!!!
-Our health has been good!
-packing is coming along!

PRAYER REQUESTS!
-Eric's finger! ....It's still a little painful and purple!!
-That we will be able to get everything done before we leave
-That our time with friends and host families will have good closure!
-We would still be united as a team!
-We continue to grow closer to God!
-Our safety on the flight home!!!!!!!!!!
-Our health!!!!

this week is like no other week. This week with the germany yes team we went on vacation. where you may ask? Rügen Binz, Germany. one of the northern islands on the baltic sea 15 miles south of sweden and 15 miles west to denmark. we enjoed our time by relaxing, laughing, relaxing, enjoying and touring. and havng fun. we swam in cold water it felt just like canadian water at 54°N latitude which is equivalint to hudson bay if you use your imagination. we played beach volleyball and tour the National park in germany called jasmund national park. the girls got a nice tan and sun bathed. we also did a fun contest when we had time to play on the beach. we did sumo wrestling, long jump, triple jump and fox and geese.we enjoyed our hotel it was very relaxing and we went to tv and nice food. then we played pool and went to restaurants and ate chinese, döner kebaps and german food and american restaurant. but we enjoyed our boat ride out to we went to see the white cliffs on the island the highst one that we past was called the Königstuhl kings chair. which was 117meters high or 350 feet.no one got sick on the boat tour which was a blessing. the girls got food on the ship while I sat out side with eric and val in the wind and the rain. but we saw nice views from the boat. the first few days were brigh and cheery. then thursday and friday was cold and windy and rainy. but we enjoyed our Ford minivan. and enjoyed the warth from the heater. We got the train to the station in Binz and enjoyed the skum card games. and went on 8 different treins.Why ? well we a cable on the train tracks broke over head and so we were rerouted . along the way we meet with germans and french and could witness to those people they. were nice people to get to know. we did good by not being grummpy on the train. but it was a long train ride 12 and a half hours. which was supposed to take about 7 hours then in the end we made it to Halle at 10:45 and to top it off we went to mcdonalds to finish off our vacation time to an end. and so we say thanks for your prayers. hope you enjoyed wait till next week
good bye and god bless brent linde


prayer requests from team.

THAT OUR TEAM CAN BRING CLOSURE TO OUR IME IN HALLE

THAT OUR RELATIONSHIPS WITH gOD WOULD WOULD STAY STRONG THESE LAST FEW DAYS:

AND THAT WE WOULD HAVE GOOD HEALTH AND STAY HEATHY ON THE PLANE AND THAT OUR TRIP WOULD GOO WELL:

THANKS AGAIN
TSCHUSSI
GOODBYE

Valerie Roth
June 22, 2007
Germany YES TeamLetter #32

Dear Family and Friends,

Today as I sit and type this letter, our team is full of excitement and anticipation, because tomorrow we leave for VACATION!!!!! After much discussion a few months ago, we picked our vacation destination, and it´s hard to believe that the time to leave is here. Tomorrow morning we will hop on a train (actually, by the end of the journey, it will be about 5 trains) and head north to the island of Rügen, on the Baltic Sea. We rented an apartment there for a week and are really looking forward to relaxing and spending time together, just having fun. We return on Saturday, the 30th, in the evening.

Last evening Eric and I had the chance to spend some time with some friends from inlingua (the language school where we taught until May). A couple from the Czech Republic, Ronald and Martina, are moving back to the Czech and so there was a going away party for them. A lot of the people we hadn´t seen for over a month and it was really nice to see them again. At one point I looked around the table of about 17 people and realized how amazing it was that we were there. There were Germans, Americans, and Canadians, but each of those people had been to other places because of teaching English. And there Eric and I were, plopped in the middle of this group, where only about 5 others were believers, 3 of them being other missionaries from Soli Deo. Because of my 3 months of teaching English, I now am connected to these other people, and I pray that something I said or did there might impact someone and draw them a little closer to Jesus. On our way out last night, Eric asked Ronald if he could pray for him as they are leaving. Eric expected Ronald to say no, that there are too many people around, but instead, Ronald responded with, " YES! YES! Please! No one has ever prayed for me before!" Eric prayed, and even when he finished, Ronald was still amazed, and said again that no one had ever prayed for him before. Now Ronald has had someone pray for him, all because Eric responded to the Spirit´s nudging.

PRAISES:
-it`s vacation time!
-Shaina made it back safely from Africa, and had an amazing time

REQUESTS:
-for nice weather on our vacation. We have heard that at the Baltic Sea, you either have amazing weather, or terrible weather, no in between!
-that we as a team can enjoy just laughing and playing together
-that Ronald and his wife Martina would come to know Jesus

For the team,
Valerie

Eric Roth

Germany YES Team Letter #31

June 16, 2007

Greetings in Jesus' Name! It is very hard to believe that this is the last Germany YES Team letter that I will ever write. As I reflect back on the last seven months that I have been here in Germany, I am amazed at the goodness of God and how He has cared for us as a team. Looking back at the time, it feels like we have done a lot of work (moving people, painting, pulling weeds, etc.), but it also feels like we have hardly done any work. We have't led thousands to Christ or built churches, but we have done what God has called us here to do. He has called us to plow the hard ground (with prayer), to plant seeds, and to be an encouragement to the Christians that are serving Him here in Halle. As a look at our time here, I am not surprised by what God has done. Even though most people go into missions with the desire to "change the world", they come out being more changed than the culture where they have served. I am not denying that God has done a lot through us here, but I have seen immense change and growth in my team, as a result of the Holy Spirit's work in our lives.

Here are just a few of the things that I have personally seen the Lord doing in the team's lives. I have seen Val grow in her leadership abilities and in her boldness, whether it is sharing with someone or confronting someone. The biggest growth that I have seen in Val is in her love for reading God's Word. She has also become an even more amazing wife, if that is possible. : ) I have seen Brent grow in being able to say "no" to things that he does not want to do, and being a man of his word. The biggest growth that I have seen though is in his Bible reading and prayer times. Seeing his love for reading God's Word and always being in prayer has been a real encouragement for me. I have seen Janae grow in her leadership abilities and in taking initiative. I think that she is and is becoming a very good leader. I have seen Jen grow in her identity in Christ. I have seen her faith become her own and not what someone else has told her. She believes what she believes because she has read it in the Bible. I have seen Shaina become a great encourager. She is always offering encouragement to others. I have also seen her grow immensely in her guitar and piano playing. Especially guitar, since she did not know how to play before YES. Also, her worship leading is a gift that she is growing in as well. I think that she will become and is becoming a very good worship leader. As a whole, I have seen the team grow in their devotional time, knowing what they believe, and why they believe what they believe. I have seen three young ladies become Women of God, and a young man become a Man of God. I praise the Lord that I have been able to see my team's growth, to see the Holy Spirit do His work, and to play a small role in their lives. I am so excited to see the amazing things that God will do in each of their lives.

Praises:

- team unity

- our vacation is a week away

Prayer:

- safety for Shaina as she travels home(Germany) from Ghana

- I still have some pain in my back

- good closure

- safety in travels

- team unity

In Christ,

Eric Roth

Shaina Stutzman Germany Team Letter #29 June 9, 2007 Greetings!! This week we had four Americans from southern USA come and visit and share with us. They were all over 60 years of age and came with some Baptist organization located in Texas although they were from Louisiana and North Carolina, I believe. We had a good time interacting, sharing, and praying together. Also at the beginning of this week, Eric, Val, and Brent went with the Americans (I guess Eric, Val, and Brent are Americans too, aren't they..) to Wittenburg where Martin Luther nailed the 95 Thesis' on the door of a church. They had a fun time going there and spending time together, I'm told. While they were in Wittenburg, Jen and I got the chance to go with two of our German friends to a Christian concert in Eisleben, the birth place of Martin Luther. The group is actually from America and is called, "Lost and Found." We got to see Martin Luther's death house and "birth house" (the original burnt, but this was a remake, I guess :), and the place where he gave his last sermon. It was very interesting and we had so much fun interacting with our German friends, Carol and Uve. We are currently still working on the stairway at the church building and it's finally coming to look like we actually did something on it!! It's a whole lot more rewarding when it actually looks like you did something on a project you've been working on for a long time. :) We also cleaned up one of the apartment in the building because they will have a renter come in August or so!! Praise the Lord!! This really helps out the church financially. Today at church, Jen preached for the first time ever!!! She really has an obvious gift and God blessed us through her today. She spoke on how big God is and how little we can make Him to us sometimes. She was so blessed by the positive feedback she got from the congregation as well. God has really been expanding a lot of our gifts here and has given us opportunities to use them in ways we may have not had the confidence to back home. Praise the Lord for His ever-present faithfulness!!! Praises: -God really spoke through Jen when she preached and it went really well. -God continues to give us opportunities to expand our gifts. -God also continues to give us closer friendships with the people here. -Doors are opening up for Janae for when she returns home to the States. -Team unity Prayer Requests: -Pray for the whole team as many of us are going to different places this next week. Especially for safety as we all will be traveling. And for unity when we all unite again. -Brent would like your prayers for more of a confidence in the different situations he finds himself in. -For God to be fully revealed in us all the time. And that we would be a reflection of Him to everyone. Thank you all so much for your prayers and support. And remember, we never get tired of snail mail, emails, or phone calls!! It's such a blessing to here from those back home. God Bless you all!!! -Shaina Stutzman