Our Kids

Here are some pics of our little "doggies" and one great shot of Noah!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Yesterday was THANKSGIVING DAY and for us Americans it is a very important day for us. As I noted in our last blog, Rebecca was preparing for this day all throughout the week. As you will see in some of the photos below, we invited some of our friends over. There was the Lohmann family, Catherine, and Kristiana. The Lohmanns have really become some good friends of ours since we have been here in Deutschland. Catherine (from South Africa) and Kristiana (a fellow American) are in my German class and we invited them over to join us for this special meal.

Now just so you all know, this was Rebecca's first time cooking the complete Thanksgiving Day meal all on her own. She was completely nervous. She was asking for advice on Facebook on how to cook a turkey and was reading up on it for days. But to sum it all up. The meal was absolutely amazing! She did an amazing job! To be completely honest, it was probably the best Thanksgiving meal that I have ever had! The LORD has truly blessed me with a wonderful wife!

So what was it that we had? Two turkeys! Thats right, not just one turkey, but Rebecca prepared two Turkeys! Way to go babe! Sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, green beans (which were amazing), freshly made cranberry sauce, freshly made rolls, stuffing, gravy, pumpkin pie, pecan pie, and a pumpkin/pecan pie. I hope I didn't forget anything! Like I said before, it was absolutely amazing!

Enjoy some of the pics from our day!

Noah - enjoying his first Thanksgiving Meal (he enjoyed the sweet potatoes)

Aliyah loving on her little bro!

Dennis, Gabriel, Claudia, Kristiana, Catherine, Aliyah, Rebecca, and Noah - the other kids were playing around else where!

MMMMMM - LECKER! - YUMMY!

Of course, my wonderful wife made the whole place look amazing!

Enjoying the food and fellowship!

The girls loving on mommy at the end of the day!

Preparation for Thanksgiving

All this past week Rebecca was preparing for our special Thanksgiving Day here in Deutschland! Since we were going to have so much to make, she started making different parts of the meal throughout the week. Well, when it came to making the pies, she had the girls help her. So here are a few pics of our little cooks in training. Enjoy!

A Powerful Testimony

Hello Everyone,
I wanted to share this powerful testimony with all of you. The name of the women sharing is Catherine Bezold. She is one of the students in my German class. She comes from South Africa and she is a missionary to Sudan with a mission group named Diguna. She has been a complete blessing to all that she comes in contact with. It is such a blessing to have her in the class with me. If you are encouraged by this video or know of someone who would need to hear it, please get to them this video. The LORD is already using it in a powerful way.
Be Blessed!

Night of Worship & Prayer

This past Saturday night our church had a night of worship and prayer. There were are 20-30 of us there that evening and I believe that the Lord really blessed it. We started off the night with looking at two verses that the Lord had laid upon my heart for the beginning of that evening.

Psalm 100:4 "Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name."

Hebrews 13:15 "Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name."

As we come into His presence, we truly do have so many things to be thankful for. So we need to enter in with thanksgiving and also with praise for He is worthy of it all. And I believe that is exactly what we did. We brought to Him the praise that was due to His name. After a great time of worship, I was blessed to be able to share a little devotion on the following verses...

Hebrews 10:19-25 "Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching."

Hebrews 4:16 "Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need."

I want to encourage each of you to read over these verses again and ask the Lord what they mean to you specifically.

As the night went on, we were really able to pray for specific situations in the church, pray for one another, pray for those who have walked away from the Lord, and many other things. I do believe that the LORD really ministered to us as we drew near to Him! Praise the LORD for all that He did!

Katie's Kindergarten Pics

We thought that we would share with all of you some of Katie's Kindergarten pictures. Our little girl is growing up!

Isaiah 43:1-5a

Isaiah 43:1-5a "But now, thus says the LORD, who created you, O Jacob, And He who formed you, O Israel: "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are Mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, Nor shall the flame scorch you. For I am the LORD your God, The Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I gave Egypt for your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in your place. Since you were precious in My sight, You have been honored, And I have loved you; Therefore I will give men for you, And people for your life. Fear not, for I am with you;"

In this blog, I want to talk to you about the TRUSTWORTHINESS of the God of the Bible. So as we get into this, I want to ask you a few questions...

• Are you currently going through a trial?
• Do you currently doubt the Lord with something?
• Are you wondering how a “certain situation” is going to come to an end?
• Are you a non-believer today? And you wonder about this God of the Bible?
• Do you ever wonder if God is really “There for you”?

If this is you today, I want to share with you through Isaiah 43 how we can truly TRUST the God of the Bible with all of our lives. Take some time to read over the points and the verses and ask the Lord to really speak to you in your situation.

1. His Words of Ownership
Vs.1 “But now, thus says the LORD, who created you, O Jacob, And He who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are Mine.”

As we consider the fact that He has created us and formed us, I want to share with you some verses out of Psalm 139...

Psalm 139:13-16 “For You formed my inward parts; You covered (wove) me in my mother’s womb. 14I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made (distignuished); Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well. 15My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. 16Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.”

Next, we consider the point that He said that He has redeemed us. What does that mean? The word redeemed means to regain possession of something in exchange for a payment; to buy back. I think that this little story is a cool little picture of redeeming something. (Maybe you have heard of it).

There is a story about the little gingerbread boy; there was a little girl who had worked hard to bake the perfect gingerbread man. Having formed him, baked him, as she was putting the final raisin button on him, he suddenly jumped out of the pan, and began to run away. She began chasing after him as fast as she could run. He called back, and he said, “Run run, as fast as you can! You’ll never catch me, I’m a gingerbread man!” Sure enough, she couldn’t catch him, he ran away. She went home crying. But the next day as she walked down the street, she looked in the window of the bakery store, and there smiling at her, was her little gingerbread man.
So she went into the store, and she said, “Sir I want my gingerbread man who is in the window.” He said, “He will cost you ten cents.” She said, “No, it’s mine, I made him.” He said, “He will cost you ten cents if you want him.” So she went home, and got her bank, and got the pennies out and went back to the store, and said, “I want my gingerbread man”, and she put the ten pennies down on the counter. The man went to the window, and took the little gingerbread boy out, and handed it to her. As she went down the street, clutching it tightly, she said, “Now you’re really mine. I made you, and now I bought you.”

Have you ever wondered how much you are worth?

Consider these two verses...

1 Peter 1:18-19 “knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.”

1 Corinthians 6:20 “For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.”

2. His Forewarning & His Promises
Vs.2-3 “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, nor shall the flame scorch you. 3For I am the LORD your God, The Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I gave Egypt for your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in your place.”

This is an amazing point about the LORD. He is so faithful to forewarn us of future trials or tribulations. Note what He says... He says, WHEN you pass through the waters... He continues and states... AND through the rivers. WHEN you walk through the fire...

It is not an IF, but it is WHEN... You see God's Word does not promise the believer that they will never go through trials or tribulations, in fact He says, WHEN you go through ___________ (fill in the blank).

Consider these verses…

John 16:33 “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."

James 1:2-4 “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”

But something that you must note, is that it does not stop there. The next detail that He tells us about future tribulations, are His precious promises!

Listen to these promises…
• I will be with you

Is this Promise Enough for You?

If this was the only promise that He gave to you through your trials or tribulations, would that be enough? I mean, think about it. Let's consider some of the worst things that could happen in our life... Losing a loved one to death. Losing everything financially. A fire burning up everything you own... Would the promise of HIS presence be enough for you? Think about it!
But He didn't stop there in these verses, He goes on to say...They (the rivers) shall not overflow you...You shall not be burned...Nor shall the flame scorch you...For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior

How do you respond to these promises? Do you TRUST Him with these promises?

3. His Words of Love
Vs.4 “Since you were precious in My sight, You have been honored, And I have loved you; Therefore I will give men for you, And people for your life.”

A. You were precious in My sight.
The word precious means to be prized; to be highly valued. You need to understand something with this point. He is telling this to: A nation that constantly turned their backs on Him. A nation that had hardened their hearts many times with Him. And yet He says that they were PRECIOUS in His sight! Such Love & Grace

Deuteronomy 7:7-8a “The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; 8 but because the LORD loves you,”

B. I have loved You

Jeremiah 31:3 “The LORD has appeared of old to me, saying: "Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.”

1 John 3:16 “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us.”

Romans 5:6-8 “For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

4. His Promise
Vs.5a “Fear not, for I am with you;”

One of the greatest things that destroys our faith is FEAR. If you note, the LORD told them not to fear two times in these five verses. My question for you is... Why would He say that? Why would He say... FEAR NOT? Simply put, because they had fear. Look at these next few statistics about fear in the Bible:

• 51 times in the Bible it says – DO NOT FEAR
• 50 times in the Bible it says – DO NOT BE AFRAID
• 11 times in the Bible it says – FEAR NOT
• 3 times in the Bible it says – DO NOT BE DISMAYED

We are a people that constantly have fear in our hearts and minds. You need to reminded about this. Fear will absolutely destroy you. Can I ask you a few questions? IS IT? IS FEAR DESTROYING YOUR FAITH? Have you forgotten about this next promise that the Lord gives to us once again...

I am with you

As we come to the close of this message, I want you to think about all that was said…
• They are HIS words of Ownership
o He has created us
o He has formed us
o He has Redeemed us
o He has Called us by Name
• HE has forewarned us of future trials and tribulations
• He has promised us His presence!
• HE has spoken words of LOVE to us
• HE has given us HIS promise of HIS presence again
• It is all based upon HIM
• Not upon US!
• HE IS TRUSTWORTHY!
• HE IS FAITHFUL!

Hebrews 6:13 “For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself,”

• Do You See How He is TRUSTWORTHY?
• Have you placed your trust in Him?
• Will You give over that “situation” and TRUST Him with it?

HE IS TRUSTWORTHY!

Trustworthiness of God

Tomorrow night I will be doing the study of our Wednesday night series entitled "Thus Says the LORD." Once again I want to ask all of you to please be praying for this last study. In this last study, we are going to be looking at the Trustworthiness of God. As I have been reading over the passage, the Lord has radically be speaking to me in it and so I am excited to see what He will do in all of our lives.
For those of you who are here in Deutschland, be praying, and I also encourage you to invite someone to come with you. I believe that this will be a great message for the believer and the non-believer.
God Bless you all!

CC Montebello - Last few Days

Hey Everyone! I wanted to share with you all what took place in the last few days with the CC Montebello outreach team. On Sunday and Monday, we had our two-day outreach in downtown Herborn for the Martini Markt. (no, they don't sell martinis). Through these two days, we were able to share the love of Jesus with many, pray with many, bless the kids with balloon animals, etc. They were two long days, but we were all really blessed in being a part of it.
The next day, Pastor Edmund was able to take them to Marburg for a few hours to check out a museum and other things, but then they had to immediately rush back to Gießen to do some prison outreach! From what I heard, they were really able to minister to the guys in the prison. On Wednesday, they were able to go into another prison in Butzbach. After about 9 days, they were finally able to have a day off. Praise the Lord. They needed it. But in that evening, Pastor Abel taught our Men's Ministry here and they were all able to minister to the men.
On Friday, we then packed up, cleaned up, prayed all together, and then I went with them to the airport to see them off.
We do praise the Lord for each of these men. Not only were they a blessing out on the streets, in the prisons, at the church, but they were also an extreme blessing to us as a family.
We want to thank all of you who did participate in prayer for us these past days. To the LORD be all the glory!

Martini Markt Outreach

Martini Markt Outreach 2009 from Joey Roper on Vimeo.

Music by: Scott Cunningham "Till the whole World Hears"

A Pic of Noah

We had to put this pic up to share with you all! Hope he brings a smile to your face!

Test Results

Hey Everyone
I forgot to tell you all how I did on my test for my German lessons!
I got an 89%!
Pretty Stoked!
Next test in February or March and then I will be finished

20 Years Later

The Berlin Wall-1989-20 years ago from Dave on Vimeo.

CC Montebello Outreach (Days 3-5)

Hello Everyone, like I said, I would try my best to keep you updated everyday, but I have fallen short of that, but I do want to keep you updated as to what has been going on. On Thursday, the guys went up to Köln (Cologne) and Düsseldorf with a brother in our fellowship to do some prison outreach. They shared with us that the Lord really blessed the time. We were also surprised to here that a few of the brothers from CC Düsseldorf went into the prisons with them also. They were really able to minister to these men in a great way.

On Friday, we had a work day at the church. To make a long story short, we are starting to work on putting in our new heating system in at the church and so we started to do all the ground work for the location of all of the machines. We had to cut down some trees and do all the clean up work that goes into that. So each of these men really worked hard all day long and then in the evening the spent time with our youth. Pastor Abel was able to teach through some verses in Acts chapter one as well as share his testimony. From what a few of the youth shared with me, they were really blessed.

We then all woke up really early this morning (Saturday) and headed up to Düsseldorf once again for some outreach. The Lord really blessed us with many different opportunities all throughout Düsseldorf to share the Gospel. It was a long day of driving, walking, sharing the Gospel, etc.

I do want to share with you one opportunity that Patricia (one of the translators) and I had today. While we were in downtown D-dorf, the Lord directed us to this one girl in the midst of the hundreds of people that were surrounding us. Patricia started to talk to her in German, to which she quickly responded, "Do you speak English?" So, I then took over the conversation. To make this story short and sweet. This girl was from France. She and her younger sister were on holiday (vacation) or something for two weeks. We shared the Gospel with them for about 40 minutes or so. But the amazing thing was that her younger sister didn't understand too much English. So she (Maria) then became my translator to her younger sister (Jan). For the next 40 minutes we began to tell the about the love of Christ for them, and Maria not only heard it, but translated it into French for her sister. At the end of the conversation, they did not make a decision, but their minds were radically challenged to the truth of the Gospel. So if you can please pray for these two sisters, that would be great! There is so much more to this story, but it is late, and I need to get some rest for tomorrow.

These men are continuing to be a great blessing. Please do continue to pray for these next two days as we have the Martini Markt Outreach in downtown Herborn. Both of these days are going to be all day outreaches. So please be praying for strength, endurance, compassion for the lost, salvation, health. It is starting to get colder and it rained a lot today. Please pray that it does not rain. That would really help!

We thank you for your prayers and we continue to ask for the constant prayer coverage for this outreach!

CC Montebello Arrival

I want to let you all know that I am going to do my best to keep you all updated to what is going on with our outreach team here from CC Montebello.
First of all, we are so excited to have these men here. We are super blessed that they would desire to come alongside the work that the Lord is doing here for these next 10 days.
Today was just really the beginning details of this outreach. Pastor Edmund went to pick them up from the airport, brought them back to his house for some food and then we all met up together to get them into the place they will be staying and to bless them with some homemade American pie that my beautiful wife made, cookies, coffee, etc.
We just spent some time together talking and enjoying the fellowship. We noticed that they were starting to get tired, so we got them up and to them to Rewe (a local store in town), did a little bit of food shopping and then headed over to the church to give them a little tour of the church. We then brought them back to their place, spent some time in prayer with each other, and let them get some rest!
I know that this isn't too much yet, but I can definitely tell you that we are already super blessed by these men and look forward to what the Lord is going to do in and through them.
Keep us all in your prayers!

CC Montebello Outreach

We want to ask all of you to please be praying for our outreach that we will be having with CC Montebello. We are really excited to have these 5 men come out and minister alongside us. You can see the daily schedule by clicking here. Once you have the schedule, please be praying for all of us!

Please Pray - Philippines

Hello Everyone, here is a prayer request from some friends of ours that are missionaries in the Philippines. They have been going through some pretty intense storms. I am pretty sure that you know that. Here is a recent prayer request from them that we want to share with you all. Please do be praying for them.

We are OK. The storm passed by Metro Manila Friday night into Saturday morning. We experienced strong winds and rain although not as much rain as the previous storms, Praise God!. We did not have any damage in our home. There were some flooding in certain areas, but very minimal compared to the previous ones. Boy, this country has been bombarded, and we hear there’s another storm brewing, so please keep praying.
God bless!
Joe and Cynthia