Mission-Possible: Saturday Night Church--A Step Towards the Future

On May 24th our U-NITE band was invited to play for another youth group in the area called SNC, or Saturday Night Church (Pics also below). This, for us, was really an incredible opportunity to 'stretch our wings,' so-to-speak, as, after about 10 years of being in existence, this youth group has grown to about 300 young people.

So, it was definitely the largest crowd that we have played for yet. And it was amazing! By the end of the evening, many youth came up to the front and we basically rocked the house for God! Afterwards, we heard from, well, everyone we talked to that we were the best band they have had in a long time--and even asked us if we had CD's! Obviously, this is no competition for us . . . we were incredibly encouraged, however, and rejoiced in the fact that everyone really felt free to enter into God's presence, and that with His help, we were able to play at a level of excellence that added to the worship experience rather than taking away from it. And of course we are hoping that this is just the beginning for us to be able to serve not only other ministries in the area, but also the city of Nürnberg and beyond.

In addition . . . our playing at SNC has begun to open some incredible doors! For months and months Lenny, my co-leader, and I, have been praying for some strategic connections to be made other youth leaders in the area. We want to build relationships with them in order to promote unity among our groups as well as to see how God would use us to jointly put city-wide outreaches on together.

To meet these people, our intention really was to, well, do what we had already begun to do, which was to begin to attend other youth group and campus meetings and see what God would do. Well, what He has begun is mind-blowing!

Through playing at SNC, a youth group leader from another church in the city approached Lenny, saying that he and his wife had been wanting to make connections with other leaders . . . (sound familiar?). Lenny then invited this man, Matthias, and his wife who was not there, Christin, to a prayer meeting held for the different youth groups in the area on the following week. So, several days later, which happened to be the day of the prayer meeting, Lenny, who was in a part of town that he is not normally in, in a bit of a rush, decided that he would place one newly printed U-NITE flyer on a random car that he saw parked nearby.

Thinking no more about it, well, he attended the prayer meeting that evening (I was out of town)--and although there were much fewer people than expected, Matthias and Christin were also there, as well as Konstantine, yet another leader for a ministry in the area. They all hit if off and something definitely seemed to be stirring.

All of these connections culminated, however, on the next evening when we our U-NITE. To our suprise, Matthias and Christin came with number of youth from their own group. And you know what Christin told us . . . one of the reasons that they ended up attending that evening was only due to their having met Lenny at SNC and the prayer meeting, but because she had found a U-NITE flyer on her car and was intrigued-----the same ONE flyer that Lenny had quickly and randomly left on some windshield in an area of town that he does not normally frequent! Of all of the cars in the city, only God could have organized that!

So, it is clear to us that God has begun something that I don't even think we can imagine how big it will become. Last week Matthias and Christin and Lenny and two others and I met at an Italian ice cream parlor to talk about our visions and the future. At the end, we found an empy parkbench nearby and prayed together. One guy prayed something that reflected how we were all feeling in that moment . . . 'thank you Lord, for you know that it seems as if we have already known each other for years . . .' There was no doubt for any of us that His hand is in the whole thing . ..

And so please be praying with us and for us as we begin to take the next steps towards the future. Next week on Tuesday evening we will meet, along with Konstantine, in order to talk about putting together an outreach at the end of July. Please pray that God leads us, shows us what is on His heart, and opens the doors for us as we continue to walk towards . . . Him!

Thanks for making this all possible! (pics below)