Mission-Possible: Adventures in Nürnberg . . .

View of Nürnberg in the Fall

As I have mentioned in both of my last newsletters, God is pouring down adventures right and left. In fact, life has been so busy, hopping from one adventure to the next, that it's impossible to share them all in just one or two newsletters (not to mention making things more difficult to find the necessary time to really sit down and write to you all!). Thus the point of this blog--to let you know even more about what all has been going on, as well as to share some pics below! :-)

So, here's the scoop!

I know I shared with you several months ago that as of September our ministry here was coming into a bit of a transition, as our campus leader, Lenny, was leaving for London for the semester, and thus I would be taking over his responsbilities for the time that he is away.

What I did not know for sure at the time, however, was all that it would entail, ie. that I would not only be leading our youth group, but that I would become the worship leader for the church, as well--a definite first-time in my life kind of adventure for me! So, what does all of that look like? . . .

Well, in regards to our youth group, what can I say? I love it! My first goal when coming into this new leadership role was to build on the relationships that had already begun between myself and those in our group. My hope was that there would really be a deep level of trust and comradeship that would develop, so that however the Lord wants to use me in their lives would be able to come to full fruition. Well, that hope has been answered, and then some! God has opened some amazing doors with those in our group--we've really had some quality time and conversations together. And just when I've thought, oh dear, this could be challenging, I have been utterly blown away by the character displayed by the men and women I get to work with everyday.

Practically speaking, I see pretty much everyone scattered throughout the week, whether it's to meet and talk in my apartment or for coffee somewhere, or at prayer on Friday nights, or for fun on Saturday, or at church and our youth group meeting in the evenings on Sunday. We also have a very constant flow of emails and communication through our u-nite staff googlegroup--an email set-up so that we can send emails out to everyone in the group. Sunday, then, is our big day, in which usually I, and sometimes the other leaders in our church, teach on a subject that God has put on our hearts. God always does something great there! We take a lot of time to pray for each others needs and God always shows up in the message. In fact, this past Sunday a guy who has been coming around our group for a while gave his life to the Lord! Yeah God!

If God lays it on your hearts to pray for us, please pray that we continue to grow in unity--that our love for one another increases daily. Also please pray that the foundation we are building now grows ever stronger, giving room for our group to not only grow, but explode as we seek to reach the youth of this city and this nation with the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

As far as leading worship--wow, I love it and I have been challenged by it and I am so very thankful for it! God, I believe, has been using this most of all in terms of training me on the ins and outs of the German culture, as well as working on my own leadership skills--not to mention deepening our dependance on God and our foundation in Him for the group as a whole. How so?

Well, to begin with, I always believed I couldn't sing! Increasingly more and more I have broken out of that belief and have taken steps through being a part of the worship teams both in Innsbruck and in Nürnberg. Suddenly, however, I have found myself leading a whole band and a whole church into worship. . . through singing! The subject of worship for me is not new, but when it comes not only to learning how to train an untrained voice (my own, not to mention others') but to choose to be secure in leading through singing, as well (because, as I have come to learn, it is a choice indeed), I have found that I am on a very steep learning curve. (Thank you Thea for my voice lessons!)

Ontop of that, it's learning how to pick the songs for each Sunday. How best to organize our worship practices and how to provide our team with all of the supplies that they could need, from sheets of music to cd samples of what we will be singing, to . . . etc. Plus, it's learning the art of directing not only the guitar and the drums and the bass and the singers to all blend together to create one song (instead of four or five different versions of the same song, all played at the same time!), it's also leading and working with the personalities behind those instruments and voices, as well! :-)

And, the biggest challenge, which is yielding the biggest reward of all, is that Lenny and I both felt led to transition what we were doing previously, in terms of working with a band, into soemthing much bigger . . . creating a worship ministry. That way, everything we are doing now is laying a foundation for something much larger in the future . . . whether it be training on what worship means, to teaching on the character required for a worshipper, to honing technical skills, we are working towards being in a position someday to train and release, train and release, train and release worshippers that will have a massive impact all over this nation and the continent. Talk about God raining down an adventure . . . .

I think the thing that has me the most excited is to see how God encourages us and me personally with each step forward that we take. Each time we play, each time we meet together for worship practice, and even each time a new challenge arises, it's as if I feel God's hand on our back pushing us one step closer to Him and closer to all that He has in store for us. There is a tangible difference with each step we take--technically, relationally, and most importantly, spiritually. And that is an awesome thing to experience!

So, with the youth group and the worship team, including being a part of the leadership team for the church. God is doing a lot right now. And my expectation is, it will only become more in the future.

For now, though, it's taking one step at a time, building one brick upon the other, taking one step in front of the other. This weekend everything will culminate with our monthly outreach, U-NITE, where the efforts of our youth group and our worship ministry and all of the leadership of our church and our youth group will join forces to touch the heart of this nation . . . it's youth. Please pray with this weekend--for God to move mountains in peoples lives, to touch and transform hearts, and to start a fire for Him that cannot be quenched!

Thank you for being such a necessary and wonderful part of all of this! Love, Deanna (picures below)

C4 Leadership Retreat--band from England
Some of our Group at Dinner at C4