March 2008

Pray for Dorthea Sudbrock

Please pray for Dorthea Sudbrock, pastor's wife at Newton Baptist Temple, Newton, IA, and Paul's mom. She will be having knee replacement surgery on Monday morning. The last time she had a major surgery, we almost lost her, so we are a little concerned about this one as well. Please keep her and her family in prayer Monday.

Thank you so much!

Its a good Friday!

Traditionally throughout eastern Germany there will be Easter Bonfires lit to celebrate the holy weekend. Last year, the weather was so dry, they were banned. This year snow loomed on the horizon. It snowed on Wednesday for the first time all winter. Then again Thursday, it snowed off and on all morning. Our church people had planned a bonfire for Thursday evening. Just an hour before the scheduled start, it poured rain. Then the skies cleared, the fire was lit and the people began showing up. We had 20 children present for games, crafts, stories and roasted marshmallows. A good group of adults gathered around the fire singing songs, eating hot dogs and just having a good time of fellowship. I was able to use the egg shaped cake tins that my sister gave me and the Easter sprinkles to make carrot cakes for everyone. It was a busy day, but well worth it. There were a lot of first time visitors there. We are looking forward to a wonderful Resurrection Day! I pray yours is blessed as well!

Chelli

Passah

13 people attended our Passah celebration this evening. Our evangelistic team decided to host an evening meal centered around the traditions of the Jewish Passover. There were at least 3 unsaved adults present. At each stage of the celebration, the old traditions were explained, scripture was read and the hope of Christ was pointed out. It made for a very busy evening, but a meaningful one as well. Please pray with us that those who attended will continue to pondering the will of God throughout this year's Easter Celebrations.

I hope you are having a wonderful spring and I look forward to hearing how you will celebrate the resurrection this year.

Blessings,

Chelli

Victory

We are praising the Lord for His blessings! Many of you have been praying for our children and their schooling. This week, we recieved an answer to our prayers. The week we arrived back in Germany, the grade school principal called and said that a complaint had been registered against us saying that we were keeping our children out of school. At that point, Samantha was back in school, but apparently, at least one of the teachers was frustrated with us because we hadn't put Serenity into the first grade. We placed a call to the Minister of Education for our state and found that he was sick. We continued to call back each week and he was always sick. This week, he came back to work, though not fully recovered, and called us. After a short talk over the phone, he told us to inform the school principal that Serenity would be starting the first grade in the fall and that we did not have to enroll her now. Any questions regarding this decision were to be directed to the Minister of Education. It is official! We have received government permission to follow through with our children's schooling as planned. Skyler will re-enter the public system in the fall and be in the German fifth grade. Samantha will continue with her class at the German elementary school, attending the 4th grade in the fall and Serenity will start the first grade this fall, leaving Sadie to start the first grade next fall.

Please continue to pray for our children as they attend school in an ahteist area of Germany. This means the number of other children claiming to believe in God is very small. In Samantha's class, there is only one other girl who claims Christianity. It is not an easy path that is before us, but the Lord placed us here and will continue to guide and protect us.

Thank you for praying with us through this victory!

inflation

The cost of ministering in Germany continues to soar. The cost of heating our apartment has doubled every year for the past three years, though our usage has gone down or stayed the same. The price of natural gas just continues to increase along with the decreasing value of the American dollar. Cutting costs, we closed off our son's bedroom, making it a cold room without heat. Since it is a corner room, it should not affect the heating in the neighboring rooms. Skyler then moved his sleeping headquarters into the main part of the house. The bathroom is another corner room, so we turned off the heat in there as well. My DH is currently working on a solar solution to help with the costs. Though the winters in Germany are generally cloudy and gray, there are those days when solar could allow us to turn the heat off for the day. Paul found a solar idea in the Internet using black aluminum mesh screening and he tried it out in our bathroom. Thankfully, February is one of the sunniest months of the year here and we had several days in a row that we could test the idea. It worked! Though the temps outside were between 40-50° during the day, we were able to heat our bathroom ( a corner room with 3 outside walls) to 70° without turning on the radiator. Yippee! So, Paul set out to find cheaper aluminum mesh. Sure enough, God provided us with an American company who donated the screen and had it shipped to us via UPS. It has arrived and we are looking forward to a warm cozy spring, as God provides the sunlight.

We have also working to cut back on the electric bill which has also skyrocketed in the past several years. We are eating more fresh meals and avoiding the use of the oven as much as possible. Strategicly placed candles work great for navigating a dark house in the evenings. Thankfully, we have lots of windows to provide light during the day. We moved our dining table next to the window so that we wouldn't be tempted to turn the overhead lights on during mealtime. God continues to show us ways that we can adjust to cut costs and be wiser stewards of His funding.

Please pray for us for wisdom. Pray for the economies of our lands. Pray for God's provision for our family and our ministry. Pray for our health, that we wouldn't need to spend money on Dr. bills. Pray for our church that it would grow and multiply.

We will pray for you, that the Lord will bless you ministries and your finances. We pray for your health and well being. We pray for your spiritual growth. We have a prayer box for our loved ones. If we don't already have your picture and you would like us to pray for you, please send us your picture and prayer requests. We would love to add you to our prayer card box.

Thank you for teaming up with us!

Chelli Sudbrock

Wittenberg, Germany