From the Pastor: Happy New Year!

Dear Friends,

Happy New Year from our home to yours!

Many thanks for your Christmas and New Year’s cards, notes, and gifts. We are very touched by your loving gestures. It is a tremendous blessing to our family to be celebrating our first New Year’s Day in Munich as part of the ministry of Starnberg Fellowship. We are excited about what God has done in the past few months we’ve been here, and we look forward to his plans for 2016!

Last night, we had an interesting experience. While in the midst of the crowds at Marienplatz, we got news about a strong possibility of an attack in Munich. The Polizei München tweet read: “There is the danger of an attack in the area of munich, please keep away from crowds, avoid the central station and the rail station pasing.” Police are currently searching for up to seven people involved in planning the attack.

We were torn between wanting to stay where we were and enjoy the fireworks and festivities, or to do the smart thing and extract ourselves from the crowds. For those of you who’ve been in Marienplatz when there is something special going on, you know how crowded it gets and how easy a target it would be. People are involved in the joy of the moment and have enjoyed many years of predictability and safety, so are oblivious to a rapidly growing dangerous environment.

But events like these are reminders that we are temporary residents, living in an alien land—far from our ultimate destiny. The Bible tells us we are strangers and pilgrims passing through. We are transients. God has appointed times and places for us to reside, build his church, and to fulfill the purposes for which he has placed us here. In the Starnberg and Munich area, we have to understand that we’re living in the midst of terror, but as Christians we’re secure as we place ourselves in the center of God’s purposes. This is a great opportunity for us to be light in a world that is growing increasingly fearful and dark.

The sermon for this Sunday is Light on a Dark Path. We’ll be looking at how God brings his light into our many forms of earthly darkness, replacing anxiety and worry with hope. The Scripture we’ll be using is Isaiah 42:10-17.

Praying for safe travels for those who are returning “home,” and prayers continue for God’s blessings on us all in Starnberg Fellowship and our communities.

See you on Sunday.

In Christ’s love and hope,
Pastor John

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Photo by Scott Lin via Flickr