Hi. You thought I forgot about you didn’t you. Don’t worry I haven’t. I think about you quite often actually. Praying for you; thankful for you.
The last couple of months have been quite eventful. As I am now settled and moved into an apartment of my own here, I feel like I actually live here now in Chemnitz. Independent. It’s nice to feel so and have a place that I can call home and invite others to come and visit. The location of my apartment is advantageous. I am not far from the center of the city and is easy to get to from various directions. (at least I think so!) Several readers now come to my home every week to study the Bible. I can make coffee and we can share a conversation about Christ around the table. There is a good feeling in that.
My days are still not quite routine, but in this type of work, routine isn’t exactly a luxury I will receive. I just ended my second German course last week. It was over 16 hours of class each week. Quite rigorous and jammed pack of grammar and vocabulary. I enjoyed the class immensely, not only because learning German, which is always fun and very useful, but because of the people I have met there and attend class with. Everyone is motivated in my class to learn German. Everyone comes from different countries around the world with different experiences and have been brought to Chemnitz for various reasons: marriage and family, work, war, language learning, studies and the list goes on. All my classmates are incredibly nice and enjoyable. My classes have given me an outlet to meet new people and tell them about what I do here. For our last class day, I invited my class over and we had brunch. It was nice to get out of the classroom and just chill for a few hours and get to know one another on a more personal level.
I have began with two classmates to meet together to discuss the Bible. They are both very eager to learn and talk deeper about something they didn’t have a chance to before in their home country. One lady comes from Russia and grew up in the Soviet Union. It was not allowed to be talked about before and while she always wanted to read the Bible, she didn’t have freedom or the community to help her. She feels this is now her chance. We are starting at the very beginning; that was her wish. She is ready for the challenge to read the book. Her excitement for it energises me and makes me more enthusiastic to study with each of my readers. It is amazing how God shows up in people’s lives and the timing he chooses. These moments are when I think, “maybe God brought me here at this time to meet this lady who he brought here at the exact same time.” It’s not something I could have made up, only God could orchestrate such an encounter and such a longing in someone’s heart. I think each of us will encounter God at some point in our lives. It is amazing when we realise that he is there and always has been, we just weren’t looking.
Lately in the youth group, we have been talking about the “domino effect” in our lives. How what we do or decide impacts and influences us and leads us down a path of other decisions and influences. Sometimes it is our decisions that influence us; sometimes it is the decisions of others that influence us. Hopefully, we wake up every day and ask God to give us the strength to lean on his understanding so we will make decisions with him and influence others toward him and decipher the influences on us and if they are helping us be directed towards or away from God and then make good decisions based on his guidance. We should not be walking the path of life alone and let our dominos fall randomly; no, we need God’s hand to be over us and give up our will to choose. He knows the past, present and future and is the only one that can take us on the correct path and show us which dominos to knock down.
I pray God helps me knock down the right dominos to lead me more to him every day. I pray he helps me make wise decisions and have a positive impact on others and help them see him more and more each day. I cannot do it alone. God please guide me.
Peace be with you,
Kye
P.S. Here are some photos from the youth group’s iceskating outing and the members of my class who were able to come to brunch.
Mission Chemnitz 