Report from Germany!

We rode into Hannover HBF train station ten minutes late. Originally our connection was only a seven-minute gap to move from platform 9 to platform 7. The Conductor was aware of our tight connection and guided us to Platform 7 and told us to hurry and jump on the train so we would not miss our high-speed ICE Train.

We raced up and down the stairs with our luggage and barely made the train as it pulled away. We rested up against the wall and took a deep breath. The train began to move and I thought to myself that this is the wrong direction. I spoke to the train personnel and discovered the train was taking us North to Hamburg instead of South. The conductor had mistakenly guided us to the wrong platform!

The detour took us two hours out of our way. We made a turnaround in Hamburg and finally made our destination in Mannheim and finally Worms. We discovered the computers had gone down and you couldn’t trust the boards guiding you to various trains.

This month has found us visiting numerous towns, friends and ministry settings throughout Germany. We have felt like a pinball bouncing from place to place and watching God do things in His timing, wisdom and favor. We have been in Bible studies with students at a University and discussions with couples about the challenges of marriage and ministry.

I stood in the offices of Greater Europe Mission in Kandern and saw a map of Europe marked with hundreds of red dots. These marked the ministry locations they have served over the years. Kim Garrity pointed out some small countries that I had never heard of and the ministry settings we had visited him in Greece. It is very impressive to see where God has taken the team!

Then we learned that just two days ago fifteen people drowned trying to get from Turkey to Greece and the Island of Lesvos. The saga continues with refugees still running from the evil of radical Islam and war. Yet information about this tragedy appears to have faded into the fog of inattention.

Some days we ask God, where are you taking us? We wonder if we are on the right track. We pray that God gives us the eyes to see and the heart that is tender to serve as He desires. Once you are privileged to see into someone’s heart and share concern with a hurting friend, at that moment, God’s pinball route makes sense.

Where is He taking you today?

Cathy and Danny Sartin
[email protected]

Fun with our Grandson!

​This is a picture of Ben when he was three years old. We have always had fun, playing chase, hide and go seek along with many other games. We would wrestle and eventually he would grab my glasses.

Over the years of being a grandfather I have had my glasses smudged, bent, smeared and thrown. It was a natural by product of wrestling with Papaw. At the same time it was an easy target for little hands when there was tickling and laughter.

Each one of our grandsons have taken the glasses and put them on. I want to see like papaw! Ben said in this picture, I am papaw! Then he smiled for this picture and chuckled. I loved it and so did Cathy. You can see the joy on Ben's face even though the glasses blurred his vision.

Our aging eyes need correction so both Cathy and I can see better. When Ben grabs the glasses today and puts them on he doesn't see so well. He realizes that my glasses change his view of the world. So now he takes them off.

There have been many times in our life that we have wanted to see from God's perspective. We wonder what he sees that that we are missing. Paul tells us in his letter to Ephesus that our hearts have eyes. But he prays that those eyes would be open and have a light cast on them. There is so much to know about God!

Ephesians 1:18 (NIV)
18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightenedo in order that you may know the hope to which he has calledp you, the richesq of his glorious inheritancer in his holy people,s

We pray that the eyes of your heart will be opened so you can see all that he has called you to do. May you be blessed today.

Cathy and Danny
www.deeperstillmissions.com
_________________________
o  Job 42:5; 2 Co 4:6; Heb 6:4
p  See Ro 8:28
q  ver 7; See Ro 2:4
r  ver 11
s  Col 1:12
  The New International Version. (2011). (Eph 1:18). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

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Report from Europe!

​This week finds us in Germany. Today we are visiting some short-term missionaries who we met in South Africa. This month finds us visiting missionaries at five locations.

Cathy is seated making Russian Dumplings called Pilmeni. It is one thing to share the Bible with one another but another all together to comprehend their life, culture and worship.

My mind raced back to the movie Dr. Zhivago as we talked with the Oma (grandmother) of the family. This Russian-German family moved to Russia at the invitation of Catherine the Great to establish German villages in the North of modern day Ukraine. They spoke German and continued their evangelical church tradition in the village of Raditsch.

Oma, called Friede, was born in 1936. Her father was the lay preacher of their congregation when Lenin and the revolution took over Russia. In October 1937 soldiers came and took him away and shot him a few weeks later. Friede said, I still have his Bible. We asked if we could see it.

Proudly she rushed off and brought back the precious memory of her father. There was an inscription in the beginning as the Bible was a gift from two women who had been ministered too. They gave it along with a book of songs.

When World War II began, the German’s came to Ukraine to reclaim the land and villages of Germans. When the Germans faltered, and retreated, Russians were killing all the German descendants who had remained German. Frieda said, we prayed all night thinking it would be our last! As a miracle of God, they were spared and returned to Germany and the village of Petersdorf.

Less than a year later Friede was taken captive by Stalin’s troops and placed on a train with her mother and sister. Over the next three months they lived in the train while being transported to Siberia. Siberia was their home until 1959 after the death of Stalin.

They lived on cooked grasses, a few mushrooms and cups of flour swapped for dresses. Their prized possession of her Father’s Bible came with them and the Russians allowed them to read it. What a joy to flip through the pages of this Martyr’s book and see underlined words and notes.

They could have church but only in small groups of fifteen or less. They sang hymns in a whisper and worshiped quietly.  They were always afraid of soldiers coming and taking them away. Friede said, I understand the pressure and fear of being a Christian in a hostile country. I pray for those who must endure it even today.

What phrase was most underlined in the Bible? The fear of the Lord seemed to be noted over and over. She could understand fear in a way that I never have! In 1959, the entire family moved to Kazakhstan to get away from the brutal winters of Siberia. But the oppression of the Communist leadership continued to limit their worship as a church.

In 1989, the Berlin Wall fell and the entire village of German’s moved to Detmold. Finally, they were free to worship and live without oppression.  What a joy to see their Russian-German traditions today, to live in their home, share meals and worship. Tonight we join the Russian-German congregation for communion, and a Good Friday Service tomorrow.

We look forward to Easter Sunday this week. Let's worship our Christ as the whole Christian World lifts Him on high. He is Risen! . . . He is Risen Indeed!

Cathy and Danny Sartin
www.deeperstillmissions.com