Guess what??!! The Campbell Family has made it here in Berlin, Germany for SIX MONTHS!! Woohoo!!! At times, it seems that we have only been here about two months or so. Then we start to think of all the loved ones that we miss and it seems like an eternity!!
We want to give a 6month update, but only to the glory of God. We do not want to sing our praises or dwell on things that do not point to Him. So that being said, here we goooooo!
During the past six months the LORD has allowed our family to trust Him in so many new ways! He is so good and so faithful!! He has trusted us in situations and with people that He loves so very much. We have died a little more to self everyday and in that, He has poured out His great love on the people of this city and started a great work in many lives!! Praise His name!!
We have settled into our home, by the grace of God! We have all that we need and much that we don't need. In His great provisions for our family, He has overwhelmed us and grown our faith in the truth that He IS Provider!! We are so very thankful to all of you who have heard His invitation to be the vessel in which He provides much of our family's needs!! What a blessing you are to us! We pray His rich nearness over you and your loved ones daily!!
During our time here we are reminded over and over again that we have GREAT reason to rejoice!! We have HOPE! We have a SAVIOR!! We have LOVE! We have JOY! We have PEACE! We have a true IDENTITY! We have ALL that we need in Jesus!! He is so kind to remind us of this through the precious souls here who have yet to trust Him as Lord. It is our daily prayer that thousands in this city will come to know that Jesus is Lord and share in the same promises that we have!! We came to Berlin with a limited people group in mind for ministry. However, the Lord has opened up many opportunities for us here among a variety of people groups, including the Germans and Americans living here. What joy it is to follow HIS lead and not our own!!
God has been gracious in placing persons of peace in our paths that know English. This is another beautiful example of His invitation to our family to join in the work that HE is doing! While we have not felt the language here to be a barrier, it HAS been super fun learning the language! We don't really take ourselves too seriously, and honestly the language presents a TON of hilarious moments!! David and I take almost private lessons with our friends, Heather and Rob. It is a crazy time that we get to have at least twice a week and we are incredibly thankful for it. Our teacher is a German woman who loves the Lord and is amazingly gracious to us in teaching her language for FREE!
At this time of the year, we are also celebrating our 1 year anniversary of starting with YWAM. In our five month Discipleship Training School we met many folks who love Jesus and His ways. These friendships have been priceless to our crew. We love these saints and trust that our work together for the LORD has just begun. God has benevolently allowed these sweet friendships to continue and graced us with visits from these friends. Our prayer is that they would be encouraged in the work that He is doing here and that His great name would be made known. We look forward to, Lord willing, many more visits from our DTS family this year!
God, in His grace, made us missionaries on a different continent from which we were born during a time when technology is zooming. We are thankful for that!! He has provided a way for our family to stay in touch, face to face and the ability to HEAR dear voices through FaceTime and Skype. We praise the LORD for these things!! At a time when many abuse social media or look negatively at it, we praise Jesus for it and rejoice that it EXISTS so that we can keep up with our family and friends all over the world. God is so good!!
Today was the first day back to school for the three kiddos. We are thrilled to say that Ben is doing well and walked in on his own today withOUT tears!! You may have to ask David what his manly bribe was for Ben this morning...but regardless, Ben went in and did not cry!! This is HUGE for a mommy~heart!! Praise Jesus with me!!
David and I both have felt that the Lord is doing a work in our lives, a work of building our faith and growing us more into His likeness. In the growing, an insatiable hunger is felt and a true knowledge of Jesus' words "my food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to accomplish His work." Oh, sweet King, please don't let this fade away!!
Thank you!! Thank you for encouraging us! Thank you for praying for us! Thank you for supporting us financially!! We are so very thankful that Jesus had our lives intertwined so that we could all be a part of His work in Germany together. If you are reading this, consider yourself a missionary in Berlin, Germany!! In one way or another you are on our team and we are humbled to have you!!
Happy SIX MONTH ANNIVERSARY, Team!!
Grace upon grace to you and yours.
The Campbell Five
David, Keri, Emma, Jacob, and Ben