McSweeny Family

Dear friends and family,

We trust you had a great Christmas season and have “slid” well into the New Year. (On New Year’s Eve, the Germans say, “Guten Rutsch,” or “Have a good slide!”) Linda and I had a great holiday season. Thank you also for praying for our home fellowship’s Christmas party; it went much differently than planned. Since we originally had no response from our group, we decided to open it up to our neighbors. They all gave a very favorable response but an hour before the start every single one of them had cancelled. However, we were surprised to have a few people show up from our group after all. We sang a few Christmas songs (the godly kind!), I gave a short message on Christmas, and we had the typical “White Elephant” gift exchange. We even had dinner music with a flute to open the buffet!

For New Year’s Eve, we had some good friends of ours come over for the evening. We ate well and then went downtown to watch the fireworks. We managed to get a great place on one of the bridges crossing the Main River. From there we could see the river, the skyline, and both river banks. It was calmer than I expected (I have been in some hazardous New Year’s Eve fireworks!) and the view was amazing. It makes a huge difference being able to hop into the subway and go directly to where you need to go while avoiding the crowds (above ground at least!).

This past weeks was the Alliance Prayer Week, where the evangelical churches in Frankfurt come together for prayer and mutual support. It was a great opportunity for us to get to know some of the churches in Frankfurt and to see what God is doing. The leader of the Alliance has a real heart for Frankfurt and for evangelism. We are looking forward to the various events during the year and to next year’s prayer week.

Thank you for praying for the Pieck family. God has answered them and the family is currently in preparation to go aboard ship. Besides their ship being forced into retirement, the family that was going to rent their home backed out due to financial difficulties. However, God opened a door for them to serve on the other OM ship, and they decided to rent to this family for a reduced price. Please continue to pray for them, that God would use them and that He would provide for their every need. On top of the support money they need for themselves, they also have to make payments on their home.

Linda and I have decided to move to a new direction for our Wednesday evenings. After a time of prayer and worship at home (we need to wait in case people show up), we are going to go into the city and pray for it. This is also a good way to get vision for the city and to get to know the various city districts.

Here are a few prayer requests on our heart:

1) Please pray for peace in our building. There is a lot of unrest in the building and one tenant is being forced out over something very minor. The issues are mainly due to stubbornness and pettiness. So far Linda and I have managed to stay “neutral” and we still have favor with the owner. Pray that we could be a good witness and that there are no further evictions.

2) Pray that our Saturday fellowships would be more attended and that God would use them to build up those that come.

3) Pray for a blessed time during our Wednesday prayer walks through the city. Pray that God would give us vision and direction.

4) Pray for the Pieck family, for God blessing and provision for their missions venture.

5) Please pray for my father-in-law’s business. The financials from last year have come in and the year was worse than expected. The “financial crisis” apparently is not over for the company. Not only does Linda’s entire immediate family work there, they also have other employees to care for. They desire to be a good witness for the Lord so please pray for them.

Thank you for your prayers and support!

Dear friends and family,

The holiday season is  now here and we have much to share! First of all, we made a website for our home fellowship so now people can find us in the internet. We hope to tweak it so that when someone uses a search engine, they can find us quickly. We know there must be people in the area who know and enjoy Calvary Chapel churches and this is a great tool to get in touch with them (or for them to get in touch with us!). The website is only in German at this point and can be found here: www.mainchapel-frankfurt.de

(Don’t get confused by the term “MainChapel.” The Main, which rhymes with the word “eye”, is the river that runs through Frankfurt. It is also a play on words: it is pronounced just like the German word for “my.”)

The attendance of our Wednesday evening Bible study has steadily dropped off the last few weeks. While there are many reasons for this, the chief reason has to do with people’s work schedule and the fact that during the week there is not much of a desire to come. We took a step of faith anyway in starting the mid-week, but now we are down to Linda and myself. We have decided to continue simply because it does us good as a couple. We use this time for worship and prayer regardless of who shows up. However, Linda and I know that we will be building an entirely new foundation and a Wednesday evening study is probably not the best way to start. We are seeking the Lord on how to concretely go forward.

The Lord has ministered to us with a couple of scriptures, one of which is Acts 18:9-10: “Now the Lord spoke to Paul in the night by a vision,  ‘Do not be afraid, but speak, and do not keep silent; for I am with you, and no one will attack you to hurt you; for I have many people in this city.” We are sometimes intimidated by this city but we also know God has us here, and there are people in this city God wants to put us in touch with. We are encouraged to continue on in boldness, knowing that there is a work for us here.

The second scripture comes from the parable of the wedding feast, where the invited guests did not come. Then the king said, “go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding.’ So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests.” (Matt. 22:1-10) The Lord is challenging us to focus more on the people around us, and less on those who cannot or will not come.

With that in mind, we are having our annual Christmas party on Dec. 5th and will use it as an opportunity in invite our neighbors. We are excited about this opportunity to get to know each other better. We have received a good response from them and plan on having about 15 people present. We want to be a good witness to them.

I would like to ask for special prayer for some friends of mine. I met Mark & Katharina Pieck soon after moving to Germany and they have been a great source of encouragement to me. Over the years they have demonstrated consistent growth in the Lord and a desire to serve. Meanwhile, they have three small children and also have heard the call to serve on the mission field. They will take parental leave from work and rent out their home for two years to serve with OM ships. Unfortunately, the ship they will be serving on is suddenly being retired, leaving them with no place to go. They already found a renter for their home and they cannot simply return to work. This basically means that they will be homeless and jobless for two years. I ask that you keep them in prayer that God would direct them and provide for them. They were planning on going on the ship in January. We are praying that OM will find a place for them because that is where their heart is and changing missions organizations/destinations takes time. They are in need of a miracle but God is able.

Prayer requests:

Please pray for a special holiday series I am doing on Wednesday nights during advent. This is more designed for the holidays and for unbelievers. Pray that people come and that God anoints the messages.

Pray for our Christmas party on Dec. 5th, that God’s peace would prevail. Pray that God would touch people’s hearts and for concrete witnessing opportunities.

Pray for the Pieck family, that God would open doors of ministry within the missions organization they are in. Pray for God’s direction, provision, and comfort during this time.

Thank you for your prayers and support!

Dear family and friends,

Wow, time is flying by and it has been a while since our last update. You may be wondering what in the world the McSweeny family is up to!

For one, we have finally moved to Frankfurt and it has taken a little while to settle down and get ourselves organized. (We were also without telephone & internet for over two months.) We love our new surrounds and feel like we have the best of the city life with the best of nature. We live in a small village that is incorporated into the north side of the city of Frankfurt. There is a lot of nature around us: fields, trees, and even a river. (Not to mention ducks, swans, frogs, and muskrats! Really!) In spite of this, we have a subway station and are only 15 minutes away from the city center. Our place is accessible either by subway, bus, fast train, or two different freeways. We also have a little more space than our last apartment, which is good for our home fellowship. A couple of weeks ago we just had a large housewarming party here as well.

The ministry is going well here. Now that we have settled in, we are ready for more ministry to take place. We had a great BBQ with the home fellowship where we decided to move the Bible Study to our place and have it every Wednesday. We are going to keep our once-a-month Saturday meetings but use them as more of a fellowship time to reach out to people who may not come to our Bible Study. We have had two midweek studies so far and we are going through the book of 1 John. I decided to teach entirely in German, which is a major milestone for me. That was a lot easier than trying to organize having a translator every week. This past week I taught in German for a full hour, so my capacity is definitely increasing. Praise the Lord! Otherwise we feel our ministry is to the people around us. We enjoy inviting people over and getting to know them

Work is going well for both of us. I am enjoying the extra hours that I have because I no longer have to commute so long. (It was previously over 5 hours a day!) I really enjoy working and love the “routine” that it brings. (I never thought that a routine could be positive!) Linda is able to work from home most of the week, but often drives to Siegen for business. Speaking of that, the family business is going through some hard times at the moment. They are having to cut costs and take some extreme measures, but so far they have not had to lay anybody off. They have dedicated the business belongs to God and they want to be a witness to Him.

In late August my mom and step-dad visited us. Linda and I took some vacation so we could host them and do some sightseeing. We all had a great time and I am very thankful that our immediate family gets along so well. It would be too much to list all that we did, but a vacation did us well. We enjoy having guests and were able to put our new sofa bed to use.

Prayer requests:

Please pray that God would bless our midweek service that people would have victory over the things that keep them from coming.

Pray for the family business, that God would continue to provide business for them. Pray that their faith in God would impact those around them.

Please pray for a couple of the husbands in the home fellowship. They show little interest in the things of the Lord. Pray that God would touch their hearts, and that we would be able to effectively minister to them.

Thanks for all your prayers and support! God bless!