How’s things?
I thought I’d take a brief minute to share a little about what’s been going on here.
A son of a friend on ours in California sent us “Flat Stanley.” He wrote and told us that he was going to do a presentation in his second grade class and wanted to share about what missionaries around the world were doing for the gospels sake. He asked us to cut “Flat Stanley” out and show him around our area. We invited Flat Stanley to our home fellowship and took a picture of him before the Bible Study. That’s him between Tina and I. We have been studying through the Life and Ministry of Jesus Christ in Chronological order on Sunday Mornings. We’re about 4 years into that study now. On Wednesday nights we have our prayer meeting and then follow that with our Wednesday night Bible study in Exodus.
This is a picture of Flat Stanley outside of our Village. We live in a 
little village called Jochsberg. Our village is very small, and I mean very small. There are no stores or bakeries in our village at all. There is, however, a brewery. I guess that shows you the German priorities.
While taking Flat Stanley around we stopped in the next village over and took a picture of Bryan, Tina, and I, with Flat Stanley, with a typical Bavarian timber framed house in the background.
Bavaria is beautiful, 
especially this time of year. The weather is great, T-shirt weather currently. It allows us to have church pot-lucks and bar-b-ques outside. This is one of the sunsets taken from our back door. It’s so wonderful to see what an amazing artist our Lord is.
“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard.” Ps 19:1-3
I started a new job this last Monday. I’m now working in the health clinic on post as a physical therapy technician treating injured soldiers and family members. I’m looking forward to being able to meet more people and invite them to church.
Bryan just left for Jordan April 1st to visit Ashley and Elijah. It’s a chance for him to get away, to be a refreshment to them and to be refreshed by them. He’ll be gone for just over a month. He said before his Egyptian Air flight took off from Frankfurt Germany, they read the Koran for 5 minutes. Imagine if we could read the Bible before our flights took off. How cool would that be?
Gunter really misses Ashley. I took this picture of him while Tina was talking with her on Skype. He loves her so much. How ridiculously cute is that?
Austin continues to study in England. He is in his second semester at Calvary Chapel Bible college York. He is doing well. He’s hoping that the Lord will reveal His heart and show him the direction he should take in life. Austin has a sharp mind and loves the Lord, and he desires more then the “normal” Christian life.
Ashley and Elijah are doing great. 
Elijah continues to learn Arabic. Ashley has been reaching out to a number of arab girls and women. She has been doing a few side photography jobs for extra money. We’re praying that we can visit them later in the year. We’d like to scout out opportunities for us as a church to reach out to the Syrian refugees in the northern part of the country. We also want to drive into Jerusalem. We’re hoping that we can familiarize ourselves with the area and then lead a group from our church in 2015. We’ll see what the Lord has for us.
May 2nd, Tina and I are leading a small group from our fellowship on a “Rest and Relaxation” weekend in Prague. We did it once before a few years ago and it was great. Prague is about 3 hours away by car from where we live. It is such a beautiful city that during the second world war both the Axis and the Allied powers agreed not to bomb it. We’ll go there and show our group around on Saturday, have a Bible study on the street Sunday morning and return home Sunday evening. It will be fast, while at the same time fun.
Please continue to keep us in your prayers. We need your prayers more 
then you know. Please pray that God will bless me in my new Job, that I would be a witness to my new co-workers. Our hearts are to be a bold witness for the Lord where ever He has us. Pray He would open doors for us to share Christ with more and more people. Pray that God would pour out His Spirit on us, revive us, refresh us, renew us and strengthen us in the work He has for us.
Pray for Calvary Chapel Ansbach too. Pray that the Lord would take us deeper with Him then any of us have ever gone before. Pray that He would breathe life into each Bible study and that He would speak to our hearts. We also have need of a worship leader. Please pray that the Lord would give us a worship leader after His own heart who would lead us into His presence.
We continue to pray for everyone who has shared requests with us. We’re thankful to have the privilege to stand with them. We’re thankful that you are willing to stand with us too.
We’re always happy to hear from you. Let us know what’s new with you, what you’re looking to see God do for you this year. We’d be happy to pray for you in all those areas.
Until next time.
God bless,
Gary and Tina
Posted in Update by Mike Thiemann with comments disabled.
Discouraged, Disappointed? I don’t think so!
Psalm 93 begins by declaring “The LORD reigns…” How wonderful is that knowledge? He reigns in good times and bad, in times of health and times of sickness, He reigns in the storm and in the calm, He reigns in the valley and on the hilltop. David asks, “The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” (Ps 27:1) As believers we have nothing to fear while we cling to Him because we remember that He is in control.
February 20th our sponsorship application that allows us to apply for a visa in England expires. What that means is that we will have to apply again at a later date, pay another $300 fee and when we get another sponsorship number from the government, then we can apply for a visa to move to England. “What happened?” you might ask. In short we were not able to raise the funds needed to apply for the visa. Are we discouraged or disappointed? Not at all. We took a step of faith and we rest in the fact that the Lord is in control. His timing isn’t our timing, it’s better than our timing. In fact His timing is always perfect. England continues to be firmly planted in our hearts, but like I said in my last update, England is not the goal, following Jesus and bringing glory to His name is our goal. And we are okay with however He may want to accomplish it.
A funny thing happened Friday February 7th. I applied for a job that will give me a little more income. Our plan is to save the extra money and apply it towards our English visas, moving expenses and getting a house in England. The position is a Physical Therapy Technician at the Army post’s health clinic. As I was being interviewed by the Lieutenant over the department and three physical therapists, they asked 
me what my professional goals were?
First off, I really dislike the interview process since I stink at selling myself. It feels so unnatural telling strangers how great you’d be in the job and how knowledgeable you are, along with how you’d be a benefit to their organization; all the while trying to sound like a team player, while at the same time trying to be humble.
So when they asked what my professional goals are, my mind instantly responded with my hearts desire, “I want to give my life for the cause of Christ and die on a foreign mission field sharing Jesus with lost souls.” I didn’t say it, but I wonder what they would have said had I voiced my deepest desire.
I left the interview thinking I really blew it. There’s no way they are going to offer me the job. I struggled with getting my thoughts and words out. In my mind I sounded more like an idiot then one who is over qualified for the position since I am a Doctor of Chiropractic with a license that includes physical therapy within my scope of practice. I was certain that I was not going to get the job. To my surprise, the job was offered to me. I’m filling out the paperwork and will be starting the job soon. Praise God! Thank you Jesus! So we will continue to seek the Lord for His timing while trying to save the $3000 to reapply for the sponsorship number and visas.
We are experiencing a sweet time of Bible study and fellowship at Calvary Chapel Ansbach. The Lord is taking us deeper in Him and growing our hearts closer together as a group of believers. As a fellowship we are seeking the Lord for a ministry He would have us engaged in. We’re praying about opportunities in orphanages, English camps, and maybe a baseball camps in France, joining forces with a sister church there.
Ashley and Elijah are busy settling into their marriage while studying Arabic full-time. Austin is back at school at Calvary Chapel Bible College York. He has a heart to get to Jordan himself. Bryan is looking for another job on post seeking the Lord for what direction He would have him take. Tina is spending time with the Lord, busy being a wonderful wife and mother (I love her so much), and a gracious host for our Wednesday night and Sunday morning Bible studies.
January 31st, I returned from the annual Calvary Chapel Western 
European Pastor’s Conference. What a blessing it is every year. There was approximately 50 pastors in attendance from places like Kosovo, Kashmir, Italy, Denmark, Netherlands, France, England, Portugal, Hungary and of course Germany. It’s a chance to reconnect with friends pastoring churches across Europe. Pastor David Guzik, from Calvary Chapel Santa Barbara, formerly the Calvary Chapel Bible College Siegen director, comes every year to teach us. He brought with him pastors Danny Hodges, from Calvary Chapel St. Petersburg Florida, and Keith Hortenberry, from Calvary Chapel Bible College Santa Barbara. The teaching was refreshing and rich. If you’d like to share in the teaching here is a link for you. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/vgptb90arf5415d/hWvxa0TDSj. If you don’t want to listen to all six of the teachings, I thought session 5 and session 6 were exceptional. I hope you enjoy them.
Please continue to pray us. Pray…*For God’s heart, direction and timing to be revealed to us. *That our lives would be consumed by the Lord. *That God would overwhelm us with His presence. *That our walks would be worthy of His calling. *That the Lord would baptize us in His Spirit and continually refresh us in His work. *And pray that Jesus would be able to freely express His life through ours, that we would be a witness for Him, for all to see.
Finally, please take time to repost this update on your Facebook page, forward it to a friend or two, or “Like” this update by clicking the “Like” button on our web page. It’s very helpful to us to get people who you know praying for us too. We really appreciate your help with this.
As always, we are thankful for your friendship, prayers, love and support. If you haven’t written is awhile, let us know how you’re doing. We’d be blessed to hear from you.
God bless,
Gary and Tina
Posted in Update by Mike Thiemann with comments disabled.
2014, Now What?
I remember, years ago a lady came to our church and she said something I will never forget. She said, “I used to think that prayer was a big part of the ministry. But now I know, PRAYER IS THE MINISTRY.”
We all have experienced difficult times and circumstances. As a fellowship we have recently looked at what the Bible says about spiritual warfare. And as you know, “…we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore…”
We live in dark and difficult times, there’s no other way to describe it. 
Our enemy tries to trip up believers causing them to fall, and to capture the hearts of the unsaved through casual sex, drugs, alcohol, pornography and undelivered promises of happiness. Evil isn’t decreasing in our life time, it’s getting worse. Living in Europe we see that it’s 15-20 years further down the road of immorality and rejection of Jesus then the states. It’s estimated that only 1/10th of one percent is Bible believing born again Christians. But, “…the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God…”
I shared this idea, that “PRAYER IS THE MINISTRY,” with Ashley and Elijah just before they went back home. Ashley commented, and I’ll paraphrase, that if you’re praying for us then you’re just as involved in the work God has entrusted to us as we are. She continued to say that even though you’re not present physically here with us, the Lord knits our hearts together in the work. As we call people to come out of the world and run after Jesus Christ, through your prayers, it’s as if you’re standing right next to us. It’s through your prayers that the enemy is bound and the work of the ministry is enabled.
Thank you for your prayers, we need them more than you know. I believe your prayers are vital to the work we are engaged in. We have experienced much adversity this last year. Our missions pastor, Mike Thiemann, reminded me recently that “if you’re not getting shot at then you’re probably not in the battle.” Since we are not ignorant of the enemies devises, we suspect the adversity will continue with even greater intensity as we continue to take a stand and call others to repent from sin and follow after Jesus Christ.
I would ask you to pray for God’s blessing and protection on our family. Please pray that God would overwhelm us with His presence. It’s our heart to have walks worthy of His calling. Pray that we would honor our Lord and Savior with our lives. We desire to see the power that raised Christ from the grave to be working mightily in our lives. Pray that God would give us faith, that we would not just wait for Him to move with an attitude of reluctant resignation, but with a worshipful anticipation of His goodness. Pray that the Lord would open doors to us to share Christ with boldness. And please pray for our health. Pray that God would bless the Calvary Chapel Ansbach, and that He would cause the teaching to come alive by the Spirit, to draw the hearts of those in the fellowship into a deeper love of God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ.
Many people have asked us what’s going on with England? 
Where are we in the process? Well, we have our sponsorship number and are able to fill out the paper work to get our visas. Our hearts are unwavering in our desire to follow the Lord to Exeter. All we are waiting for is God’s timing and provision for the visas and the move. Until He moves, we wait. When He opens that door, that’s when we will go through it. But until the Lord opens that doors, we wait, and continue to serve Him in Germany. Ultimately, England is not our goal, our goal is to be committed to follow Jesus wherever He would lead us.
As always, I want to remind you, even as you are linked with us through prayer in the work here in Europe, we want to be linked with you in whatever the Lord is leading you into. So please, if you have need of prayer, let us know, we count it as a blessing to pray for all those who share their request with us.
Check out our “Photo Gallery” on our web page. We have updated it with a new look and a lot of pictures of the family, of places we have had a chance to share the gospel, and random pictures that are special to us.
As always, we thank you for your prayers, friendship, love and support.
God bless,
Gary and Tina
Tina and I 2014
Posted in Update by Mike Thiemann with comments disabled.