Peanut Butter and Jelly is one of the Best dinners ever

Hello everyone,
Well, we haven't kept you guys up to date very well since we've gotten to Koln. Okay for starters, it's a great city, we walk absolutely everywhere that means we could walk 10 or more miles a day depending on what the day holds. Also, there are tons of bakery's and tons of drug stores. It's been pretty fun though so far and we still have 5 more weeks left. Time feels like it's going by really fast though.

So we've really begun doing the bulk of our job this summer which, Bill decided, is for us to create a youth group. The church is associated with about 8-10 kids who are both members there or else have done or currently do LST stuff. So after working at camp and because there is both Brandon and I, he decided that this would be a good opportunity to do something with these kids. They are all really great, sweet kids too and Brandon and I really enjoy being around them.

There's a few things that go along with this. Firstly it is there summer break so it's a great time for us to be here. There summer break is only 6 weeks long (they get a lot of other breaks throughout the year too). This is both good and bad, the good is that they are mostly free to come do stuff with us, the bad is that almost all of them actually take long 2 week vacations with there families. They go to Holland to the beach, or Switzerland to the mountains. Adults in Germany get much more time off than in America. They get a base of 6 weeks off a year, that's like unheard of in the US.

Anyways, Brandon and I do LST reading with all of the students (3 of the boys are still out of town but have scheduled studies when they get back). So right now we have 3 girls (whom I study with about 3 times a week each) and 2 boys who Brandon studies with as often as they are free. Our studies include Bible reading, and then comprehension type questions followed by us just chatting with them for the remainder of the hour or so. The kids have been great so far. Really eager to learn and very accepting of us and willing to hang out with us.

We have also planned other activities with the kids throughout the summer. Today we had lunch with a couple of them (the others were at work) and after lunch we went down to the downtown area to where the cathedral is. The kids thought it would be a good idea to climb all the way to the top of the Dom. I would venture to say this was not a good idea. It was something over 500 steps to the top and ridiculous!! I only made it to the bell tower before I got too sick and had to go down. Brandon got to the top with them and pretty much wanted to die. Although Paul, one of the kids, is a soccer player, a really good one and he was like ready to do it again, practically jogging to the top.

We had a good day with them and even though there were only two of them we felt it went well. Bill said he thought it was great, two is a start and with there not being a youth group at the church or really any of the other churches either, it is an uphill climb but will be good. Next week is a new week full of promise too.

Monday I meet with all three girls for study and Brandon meets with this lady who wants to discuss philosophy. Then he has his boys later on. Wednesday night we will have a teen devotional. *they do not have Wednesday night church). It should be interesting, I wonder how many will come or if the Muslim kids will come too?

Thursday night is another LST party, there is one every Thursday. We had a "Texas" party last night, thrown by Bob and Dianne an older couple from Long view, TX who are here to do LST for 2 weeks. It was really fun, none of the teens came but there were still about 20 people there total.

Then on Saturday we are having a big BBQ at one of the parks. All of the kids have said they will come so far and several are supposed to bring friends, so, if everything goes as planned it should be a good event and hopefully some of the visiting kids will get signed up to do LST.

It is an interesting field. atheism is the norm, belief in God is weird, and Islam is also highly potent. Pray for us as we work with these kids, we are trying to figure out how to love these kids correctly. We can not just Bible bang on them or assume that they know anything about Christianity also, with some of them being Muslim and not actually searching we are in a sticky place. The Lord works in mysterious ways though and hopefully he will plant a seed in these kids that will make them desire to know him more because most of them are so distracted by everything else they don't know what they are missing yet. We are currently just trying to establish a friendship and a trust with them and hoping God will work through that. We are really sad that we aren't here more permanently but, I still feel that our time here will be beneficial at least in mixing the non-Christian kids with the church kids and tying them more deeply to the church.

Thank you all for your continued support and prayers and please really do pray for us over hear. Pray for our kids too, we've never worked with Muslim kids before and it's really a new thing.