April showers bring May flowers
It’s a beautiful time of year here in Bavaria. The days are longer and warmer, the flowers are blooming, and the Lord’s blessings are evident.
During the month of April we had a number of different families visit the church. Our prayer is that they would be blessed and feel that Calvary Chapel Ansbach is the place for them to plug in, to be fed, to be challenged to walk closer to the Lord, and to grow in the knowledge of His grace.
One of the German teenagers who had been coming this last month asked me if I would visit his school and share with his class. So, last Friday I drove the 30 minutes to Grafensteinberg. I was met by Chris and his teacher, and they escorted me to their classroom. On the way the teacher told me that the topic they were discussing that day was death. He asked me if I could speak about death and my belief of an afterlife. With a rather large smile I said, “Okay, I think I could say something about that.”
After a short time of class business, I was introduced and given the floor. For the next 45 minutes I shared about God’s love, sin, the cross,
forgiveness and the certainty of heaven if a person would receive Christ verses rejecting Christ and the certainty of hell. The classroom, full of 14 and 15 year old students, was silent, every eye fixed and every ear waiting to hear more about Jesus and His heart for each of them. The Lord blessed and it was a great privilege for me.
Afterwards the instructor thanked me and told me it touched his heart. He asked me if I had time in the future, would I consider coming back and sharing with the class again. He said it was a message that the students needed to hear. I gave him a card and told him I would return anytime and as often as he wanted me to. Praise the Lord for open doors.
On a family note, Bryan has been working on post as a projectionist in the post theater. He has been saving his money for sometime now in hopes to get an old German motorcycle. If you know Bryan and Austin, you’re aware that they have quite a collection of WWI and WWII artifacts. A German motorcycle would be a great addition to Bryan’s collection. Well the Lord blessed Bryan with a really great price on a fairly rare motorcycle. He purchased a 1941 DKW NZ 350. God is so good! He enjoys blessing His kids with things that are special to them. Thank you Lord for your grace.
Finally, I would encourage you to please be praying for us and the church plant. Pray for our family, our devotion time and our walks. Please pray also that God would bless and establish Calvary Chapel Ansbach. And please pray that God would give us vision and wisdom for the work He has entrusted to us.
Thank you for your prayers and support.
God bless,
Gary and Tina
Posted in Update by Mike Thiemann with comments disabled.
Easter 2012
All last week the weather was wonderful. I was certain that it was the beginning of spring and summer was just around the corner. Isn’t it funny how quick things can change? When things around us are changing, it’s then that we need to remember that our Lord is a Solid Rock, a Sure Foundation, the same yesterday, today and forever, with no shadow of turning. That is such a wonderful truth to me and the Lord has been pressing it upon my heart.
Even though the weather was not cooperating, our Easter was a great 
success. We had a great turn out for church, we sang praises, celebrated our risen Savior, and afterwards our Bar-b-que, albeit indoors, provided a great time of fellowship. Afterwards when we were saying good bye to everyone, a German teenager told me that he really 
enjoyed coming to church today. He said it wasn’t as boring as his church and that he never knew that the resurrection was pictured in the Old Testament or understood why it was so important. Praise God, he’s family said that they would be back and wanted to start coming to Calvary Chapel regularly.
Other changes, which you are looking at, is our new update format. We very excited to be affiliated with Saving Grace World Missions and hope you enjoy the new look of the updates. Our goal is to better communicate what God is doing in the church and in the lives of those coming to Calvary Chapel Ansbach. We want to encourage you to pray for us and ask God to establish and bless Calvary Chapel Ansbach. And please let us know how we can pray for you.
“We serve a risen Savior, He’s in the world today. I know that He is living, whatever men may say. I see His hand of mercy, I hear His voice of cheer. And just the time I need Him, He’s always near. He lives! He live! Christ Jesus lives today, He walks with me and He talks with me along life’s narrow way. He lives, He lives salvation to impart. You ask me how I know He lives? He lives with in my heart.”
We hope you had a wonderful Resurrection Sunday.
God bless,
Gary and Tina
Posted in Update by Mike Thiemann with 1 comment.
Welcome
Gary and Tina Barrow serving in Germany
Tina and Gary both grew up in southern California and met in high school. Tina knew that Gary was not a Christian so she began to pray for him. After about a year of praying, Tina had a chance to share the gospel with Gary and he gave his life to Jesus in 1979. Tina and Gary were married in 1984.
God opened doors for them to move to Oregon in 1995 to help a Calvary Chapel get established in Corvallis. As the young church grew, Gary labored faithfully in many practical areas, in addition to serving as an elder and leading the men’s ministry for several years. While at Calvary Corvallis Gary was also involved in a number of outreaches to Eastern Europe.
Eventually Gary and Tina sensed the Lord calling them to move their family to Europe permanently. After selling his Chiropractic practice, Gary and his family moved to Hungary in September, 2002. Their service in Hungary included a year of teaching at the Calvary Chapel Bible College in Vajta before moving to Esztergom to help with the church there. The Lord also opened doors for Gary to lead Bible studies in neighboring Slovakia, help with church plants in Hungary and Slovakia and teach conversational English in high schools located in Hungary and Slovakia. For eight years Gary lead Bible/English camps in Great Briton resulting in many Hungarian youths giving their hearts to the Lord.
In December of 2006, Gary and his family moved to Germany to be part of what God is doing through the Calvary Chapel movement in that nation.
Gary and Tina are currently working to plant Calvary Chapel Ansbach and reach out to the American military, the German people and the international students in the area, through personal evangelism and solid verse by verse teaching through the entire Bible.
Posted in Update by Mike Thiemann with comments disabled.