What's it all about?

Judy and I have tried nearly always to live open to God’s call on our lives. Recently, we’ve been remembering a time when we thought we were being called to become missionaries. As students at Warner Pacifiic College, each year we were introduced to the life and ministry of a Church of God missionary. When Dean Flora came to campus and shared about the ministry in Panama and with the San Blas Indians, we began to think seriously about that direction in our lives. We spent some time in conversation with Dean but I’m still not certain why that never happened, but it didn’t.

But that awareness never really left us. Not then, perhaps, but apparently now.

For the last few years, we’ve thought that post-retirement might mean a short term missionary assignment, perhaps in one of the colleges or schools outside the US and have lived with some expectancy about that—frankly, I always sort of assumed that I end up at MBC. But as a result of my work there, another door seems to be opening and we want to tell you about it.

After a trip to Mediterranean Bible College to help in a transition process there, Bob Edwards and I were sitting around a table in a boathouse church on the outskirts of Berlin, Germany. Listening there to a dream for a church and a new ministry in Berlin, I heard God calling to Germany and the new face for urban ministry/missions for the Church of God there and, who knows, perhaps around the world. It felt then and continues to feel as if my entire life has prepared me for this time and place.

• We are dreaming of a new church plant in this exciting, transforming city—a ministry to a highly secularized, post-modern culture.

• We are dreaming of a new team approach to leadership, church growth, and discipleship throughout Europe and the Middle East.

• We are dreaming of a new approach to urban education and missional work through the development of a global learning center.

• We are dreaming of a new partnership stance as the work of the Church of God reformation movement goes on in Germany—and throughout the world.

This blog, a new thing for us, is so that we can make this journey in the company of good friends.

Judy and I want you to pray for us. Pray that the journey will go well and quickly. Pray for the Gateway Berlin Team. Pray that our support will come so that this important dream can become a reality.

The next blog will be about its title.......