Christus Gemeinde - Jena, Germany

What an incredible time of ministry in Jena, Germany. I was at Christus Gemeinde pastored by Mark and Sandi Copper. The weekend started off with a seven hour, pleasant train ride that had very few train connections but a myriad of stops for the first three hours of travel.

By accident, I happened to pick the slowest train possible for the first half of the trip. It was a "milk run" commuter train that stopped about every seven minutes, at literally every stop from my station to my first connecting train stop 90 miles away in Mainz.

After I realized my mistake, I just relaxed and enjoyed the ride. No amount of wishing would make the train move any faster or get me there sooner. As it turned out it did give me time to read, listen to my iPod and enjoy a beautiful early summer day train ride.

About four hours into the trip, I crossed over the former East/West German border. As you enter into the old East German region, you can still see many differences between the East and West. The East continues to improve but slowly.

Saturday, Pastor Mark and Sandi took me to church to get ready for the morning sessions with the children. On Saturday, I did the Kids Prayer Program and Sunday preached in adult church.

I found out they are located in a former Baptist church that existed during the old East German, D.D.R. days. The sacrifice the former Baptist congregation must have made to even exist as a church during the Communist rule must have been incredible.

The Copper's were concerned that because summer vacation had started the day before, they were not sure how many kids would attend. They have a small church so we were pleasantly surprised to see about fifteen kids and ten adults show up for the meetings. We even had adults who were not parents show up. They just wanted to sit in on the class. The classes went great. By the end of the morning, they all had learned something, had a few laughs and found out how much God really loves them.

The Sunday service was unbelievable. Worship was incredible and everyone could feel the presence of God in the service. Instead of doing my sermon first, with permission from Pastor Mark, I switched to praying for people right after worship and then sharing some remarks about how God wants to have a deep relationship with us.

Nearly everyone stayed around after the service just to socialize. It turned into a great unplanned fellowship. I think everyone was blessed. I know that I was. God is faithful and good.

Monday, I was back on the train to head back home to Rolandseck. It was another beautiful day out to enjoy the ride back.

Blessings,
Rev. Lawrence Blakeslee
Missionary to Europe and Asia