Church Retreat Update

Hey Everyone,
I wanted to give you all an update of what is going on at our church retreat here in Austria. We are officially midway through the retreat and today has been a very warm beautiful day! These are the topics that we have gone over so far:

• Knowing our God
• Knowing our enemy (temptation)
• Knowing our enemy (deception)
• Knowing our enemy (accusation)
• Knowing our Armor (belt of truth & breastplate of righteousness)

The Lord has truly been aligning each of these teachings and many of the people have been sharing on how much they have been blessed with each of the teachings. Please continue to be praying for Pastor Edmund, Pastor Brent (from CC Rome, Italy), and myself with the rest of the teachings!

The fellowship has been really sweet as well. Some people have gone on boat rides together, others have gone rock climbing, a lot of us today went down to the lake to go swimming. On a side note, both Katie and Aliyah were stung today by wasps, so please pray for healing for them!

We know that the Lord wants to continue to do a deeper work of His Spirit and so we do really ask that you would all join in and be praying for each of the people here at the retreat. Thank you so much!
Love the Roper Family

Church Retreat - PLEASE PRAY

Today is the day! We will be leaving later today to drive down to Austria for our Church Retreat! We are really excited to see what the Lord is going to do at this year's retreat! The theme this year, as you can see, is "Spiritual Warfare." Our guest speaker this year is Brent Harrell from Calvary Chapel Rome, Italy. Pastor Edmund and I will be doing some teachings as well.

We ask all of you to please be praying for everyone (around 60 of us)

• for traveling safety down to Austria
• for health
• for good weather
• for the Spirit of God to work in each of our hearts in a mighty way
• for the Lord to bless the Children's Ministry and the translators for that!
• and so much more (be led of God in your prayers)

thank you so much

Love the Roper Family!

Aliyah's MRSA Results

Hello Everyone,
I just got off the phone with the doctor concerning Aliyah's MRSA. A few weeks ago they tested here once again to see if she continued to have it or not. According to the doctor, the results came up negative which shows that she does not have it any more!
PRAISE THE LORD FOR THAT!

We truly believe that the Lord heard all the prayers and brought forth a healing!
Thank you so much for your prayers!

Love the Roper Family!

Come Expectant!

I really want to encourage all of you here in Germany that are reading this to come on out tomorrow night (Wednesday Night) for our next study in the book of Hosea. I do believe that the really wants to speak to us in a powerful way through His Word and that He is looking forward to meeting with us tomorrow night! So come ready to meet with your Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ!

Weekly Devotional

Hello Everyone!
We will not always do this, but just want to remind you that another weekly devotional is up on the new ministry webpage. Just a reminder that I will have weekly devotionals (every Tuesday) in English and German! Pray that you are blessed! Click here

PLEASE LISTEN TO THIS!

Struck Down But Not Destroyed from Reality on Vimeo.

We want to strongly encourage all of you to listen to this message. We listened to it last night and were extremely blessed! We also encourage you all to please continue to pray for the Merrick family. To continue to follow the details about Daisy Love Merrick, you could go to the following webpages:

Britt Merrick

Pray for Daisy

The Truth

THE TRUTH from Bob Botsford on Vimeo.

Pray for Daisy

Hello Everyone!
We want to ask you to please join us in prayer once again for Daisy Love Merrick! Daisy is the 6 year old daughter of Pastor Britt Merrick from Reality Carpinteria. She is currently in surgery once again as they have found cancer once more. They will try to get as much of the tumor as they can to biopsy. Some of the results so far is that it is connected to major organs and blood supplies and is very critical. They are waiting for the pathology reports.
PLEASE IMMEDIATELY ENTER INTO PRAYER FOR THIS LITTLE GIRL!!!

Hosea Begins tonight!

You are welcomed to come! If you cannot come tonight, please be praying for God to speak to us as His people tonight!

Reis Family & the Word of God

Last night, Dominik Fritzsche (an elder in our church) and I had the opportunity to go to the Reis' home last night to pray with them and encourage them during this tough time, in the loss of their husband, father, and grandfather.
As I have already shared with you, this past weekend, he passed away while helping work on their new home. Last night we were simply able to pray with them and talk with them through many verses in God's Word.
It was also a blessing to hear that many other people have been giving them many verses during this time!
We do once again ask you to please continue to be praying for them during this time of grieving. Here are there names so that you can pray for them by name.

• Gerda - grandmother and wife of deceased
• Mareika - daughter of Gerda
• Karsten - husband of Mareika
• Silas - youngest son of Gerda
• Torsten - oldest son of Gerda
• Sandra - daughter of Gerda
• Many other family members as well

THE WORD OF GOD

As we came home last night, I could not help but think of the power of the Word of God! Truly the Word of God is alive and active in our lives today (Heb. 4:12). Through all the situations in our lives, the Word of God gives us the truth in each of these situations.

As a pastor, going to visit someone who is grieving the loss of a loved one, what else can I give or offer to this family. In and of myself I have nothing to offer. But when we are able to look at many verses all throughout the Scriptures and share them, meditate upon them, write them down for future reference, and allow them to sink into our hearts - there is truly nothing else in this world that can give us such hope! Only the Word of God!

New Ministry Web Site

Hello Everyone!
I am writing to let you all know that I have started a Ministry Website. The point of this website will simply be to encourage you in your walk with Jesus Christ. Through this website you will be able to:

• Read weekly devotionals (both in English & German)
• Check out some books that I am encouraging you to read
• Check out some other churches websites
• Check out some other blogs that I currently read as well
• Once in a while there will be some video devotionals as well

I encourage you to go there now to be able to read in both English and German the introduction to this website. Click here to go!

PLEASE PRAY FOR REIS FAMILY

Hello Everyone,
I am writing all of you with a very important prayer request. Yesterday, Saturday, July 10th, the Reis family was continuing to work on their new house that they are building. Many of the relatives were coming over to help work on the house. While they were working on the house, the father of Mrs. Reis fell off of the scaffolding and landed on his head. Yesterday in the afternoon, he passed away. Pastor Edmund, Dominik Fritzsche, Pastor Edmund Jr, and I all went to the house to go and comfort the family. I am not going to go into too many details right now, as that is not really the point of this blog.
I am asking all of you to please join us in prayer for the Reis family during this difficult time.
Thank you for joining us in prayer for them!

God Bless you all!

Hosea starts July 14!

On Wednesday, July 14th, we are going to begin to go through the Minor Prophets in our church. We are going to be starting with the book of Hosea! Pastor Edmund has given me (Joey) these Wednesday nights to teach through the Minor Prophets, so that he can begin to focus on his German Lessons. I am not sure if I will be teaching through all of the minor prophets, but I am looking forward to begin to teach on a weekly basis once again.

I do ask all of you to keep these Wednesday nights in your prayers as I do believe that the Lord will use the minor prophets to really challenge us and change us as a body here at CC Herborn!

Those of you here in Deutschland - come and bring friends and family!
Those of you elsewhere - please be praying!

God Bless you all!

New Elders

This past weekend we had our annual "Gemeindetag" (Church Day). This is usually a day when some of the ministries get the opportunity to share what the Lord is doing in their ministry and also make some of their needs and prayer requests known. This year, we had a couple different things that took place. One of the main things that took place on this day was that we introduced our new elders to the church. It was truly such a blessing to hear from these men as they shared with the body here at CC Herborn how they are here and available to minister to the people. The first one that was introduced, was Hartmut Nickel. He has been serving in the prison ministries for over 20 years, has served in our Children's Ministry, and is currently the assistant in the Men's Ministry. He is definitely a servant and a prayer warrior. So we are really excited about having him come alongside in this new venture for him and serve as an elder.

sorry I don't have an actual picture

The second one that was introduced was Dominik Fritzsche. We are also really excited about how the Lord is going to continue to work in and through him as an elder in the church. He is currently the main leader over the prayer ministry, he is one of our faithful translators, and I will say on a personal note, he is a great encourager.

I do ask that you would please pray for these men as they step out in faith and serve the body here in a new way!

The second thing that was a little different this year is that we had a BBQ, but not just any BBQ, we grilled up some original American Hamburgers and Cheeseburgers. Earlier in the week, Pastor Edmund, Martha, Rebecca, and myself drove out to Kaiserslautern where there is an American military base and we were blessed from the pastor there in K-town to go and get us these American hamburgers to be able to sale. To say the least, the people loved them! So many people came by the grill and commented to the men serving on how great the hamburgers were!

It was truly a Great Day!

Gemeindetag diese Sonntag

Nach dem Morgen-Gottesdienst sind alle eingeladen und ermutigt in der Gemeinde zu bleiben. Zum Mittagessen gibt es Hamburger mit frisch gegrilltem Fleisch, die verkauft werden. Ihr braucht dazu weder Teller, noch Bestecke, Gläser oder ähnliches mitbringen. Das wird alles in der Gemeinde angeboten.
Das einzige, was wichtig wäre, dass jeder, der möchte, sich einen Stuhl mitbringt, damit alle nach dem Gottesdienst draußen sitzen und essen und das Wetter, sowie die Gemeinschaft genießen können.

Deception of the Nations

Last night, June 30th, Amir Tsarfati spoke at our church on the topic of "The Deception of the Nations." There was a great turn out of people and the Lord really did bless the evening. It was once again a blessing to have Amir come out and minister to the people here in Herborn. His passion for the Lord, the preaching of the Word, and his heart for the believers and unbelievers is definitely evident each time he comes. He is faithful to preach the Word of God and remind the believers in Christ to be awake and alert to what is going on in the days that we live in. He is also faithful to bring the truth of the Word to the nonbeliever and put before him/her an opportunity to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior. I personally know of one young man that the Lord really did minister to last night and I do ask for your prayers for him. His name is Rico. I met him over a year and a half ago during an outreach in downtown Herborn and last week one of the young women in our church who has known him for many years had the opportunity to share with him for hours about the love of Jesus. She invited him to come and he came with her. Rico and I had the opportunity to talk before and after the service. We now have exchanged each others numbers and I am looking forward to meeting with him some more. The Lord definitely used Amir to speak directly to Rico last night! Please be praying for this follow up with Rico.
So praise the Lord for all that He did last night!