Please pray for this weekend!

In just a few hours we will be beginning our Prophecy conference here in downtown Herborn, Germany! Please be praying!

Lord please fill the place! Bring forth salvation this weekend! Be glorified in everything.

European Pastors Conference

This week I have been extremely blessed once again to be able to attend the Western European Pastors Conference here in Siegen, Germany. It is such a blessing to get together with all of the fellow pastors, elders, and co-laborers within Western Europe and be able to be refreshed in the Word of God, worship, prayer, fellowship, encouragement, and so much more. One of my favorite parts of this conference is always on the first day as we sit together in a circle and here from each of the guys, where they are serving, what the Lord is doing in their lives, their church, and the city where they live. As well many share about the struggles and difficulties that they had in this past year. Every year I wish we could truly video tape this session or some how "funnel" all of the statements that are being said to all of the pastors or churches somehow in the states or other places in the world so that people could hear what is going on in Europe.

first opening session

Many of these guys are such examples to me as they continue to press on no matter what it is that they are facing or going through. Now I know that it would have to be the Lord who would call individuals to come alongside these guys, but I also know that there are so many others that are out there seeking the Lord and are available to be used as co-laborers. So many of these churches are in need of worship leaders, assistants, helpers, co-laborers, and so much more. Again, I know that it has to be the leading of the Lord, but I do once again pray that the Lord would even stir your heart as you are reading this to pray for the Lord of the harvest to send out His laborers into His harvest. Maybe you could be one of them!

During the Wednesday evening service at CC Siegen, the pastor at CC Luxembourg was ordained! What a blessing it was to be a part of that time and to have 3 different pastors pray in 3 different languages over him. English, French, and German.

Please do continue to pray for the work of the Lord that is taking place all over Europe! God is working, and yet there is so much more to do! Thank you very much!

Joel tomorrow Night

Tomorrow night we will be getting back into the book of Joel and will be looking at a portion of Scripture that is very special to me. I believe it was when I was 11 years old or so when my mom had given me a new bible and we were reading it together. This one particular evening she asked me what my favorite verse was. Now to be completely honest, I had no idea, and so I began to flip through this bible and began to read a lot of different Scriptures. After a short time of looking through some verses, I picked this particular portion of Scripture. Now I didn't pick it out of the book of Joel, but I read it out of the New Testament where it is also found. Can you guess what it is? When I look back at that time, I am not exactly sure why I picked this particular portion of Scripture, but as I look at it once again in preparation for tomorrow night, it is my prayer that the Lord would truly do what it declares. So I know I am leaving you hanging by not giving you the verses, but I want you to do a little research and figure it out, if you don't already know.

I also want to ask you once again to enter into prayer on behalf of myself in preparation and on behalf of His Church here in Herborn, Germany to hear what the Spirit wants to speak to the Church!

Thank you very much!

Less than Two Weeks!

We are less than two weeks away from our Bible Prophecy Conference that we will be having at the downtown Herborn Conference Hall. This year we are going to be having two guest speakers: William Koenig and Martin Erdmann. We are looking forward to all that the Lord wants to do, but we want to really ask all of you to please get involved in this conference! The greatest thing that you can do for this conference is to be praying for it! And so I am going to be giving you a list of Prayer Points that you can be praying over.


Prayer Points:

• Guest Speakers: Martin Erdmann & William Koenig
• Worship Teams
• Translation (both English and German)
• All Technical details (sounds, video, recording, powerpoint, etc.)
• good weather
• good health
• an outpouring of the Holy Spirit
• Repentance
• Salvation or Re-dedication
• an awakening for the Church
• against all Spiritual Warfare
• Preparation of the people's hearts and minds that will be coming
• for all of the final flyers and posters to be handed out
• And whatever else the Lord puts on your heart!
• PRAY PRAY PRAY

Thank you so much and may the Lord richly bless you!

Some Pics of the Roper Family

Here are some pics of the family between the morning and evening service yesterday. Enjoy!

I love this one! The Roper Family strollin' through Herborn

these little kids are the cutest little kids in the world!

Our Nephew was born!

On January 12, 2011, our nephew, Justin Luke DeGrado was born!

• 8lbs 10oz
• 20 1/4 inches!
• with a head full of hair

Allianzgebetswoche abschluss Gottesdienst

This past Sunday was the ending of the Allianzgebetswoche (Alliance Prayer Week). On this particular Sunday, all of the churches in our village get together for a morning service together. This final service brings the Prayer week to a close. This year it was a blessing to have Martin Kamphuis, our men's ministry leader, to be the guest speaker for the final service together.

Through the week, our church was really involved. Our worship team was able to lead two of the services in worship, one of our elders was able to lead the Wednesday night meeting, our youth pastor was able to lead the Friday night meeting, and then the Martin closed the week teaching out of John 17.

I do pray that the Lord continues to use His Church here in this area to reach out to the lost and to become a Church of prayer in 2011.

Here are some pics from the closing service together...

the trumpet band

as you can see, it was pretty packed

Allianzgebetswoche

Tonight was the third night of the Allianzgebetswoche. Hartmut Nickel, one of our elders, was the one who lead the evening in devotion, prayer, and in challenging the people. I absolutely loved what he shared out of Nehemiah and the Gospel of Matthew. The Lord really used him to boldly proclaim the truth of God's Word!
Yesterday during our Tuesday morning prayer meeting the Lord had really laid on my heart verses out of Matthew 5 where it talks about how we are to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Tonight, Hartmut publicly proclaimed the same statements that I had privately prayed yesterday!
PRAISE THE LORD FOR THAT!!!
Please continue to pray that the Lord would revive His church and bring forth salvation to this land!
We desperately need both:
REVIVAL & SALVATION

Wanting More!

O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more: I am painfully conscious of my need for further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, the Triune God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still. Show me Thy glory, I pray Thee, that so I may know Thee indeed. Begin in mercy a new work of love within me. Say to my soul,"Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away." Then give me grace to rise and follow Thee up from this misty lowland where I have wandered so long.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.

The Pursuit of God
A.W. Tozer

Celebrating 8 years of marriage!

Today Rebecca and I are celebrating 8 years of marriage! We were blessed once again to have Franzi watch our kids for us so we could go on a date night! I am so thankful and blessed by my beautiful wife! Happy Anniversary Schatz!

Who is Jesus in the Bible?

Happy Birthday Katie!

Our big girl turned 6 today!

The Power of Prayer

In 2010 I read through four different books on the topic of prayer. The Power of Prayer by R.A. Torrey was one that we as a church read through. Pastor Edmund encouraged the body to read through this small and yet powerful little book to prepare us for the prayer and fasting week that we had and also to stir our prayer lives up! I have had this book for many years and yet this was the first time that I read through it. I guess that is what happens when there are many books on the bookshelves. Anyways, I would definitely have to say that I was challenged, encouraged, convicted, and reminded once again about the importance of prayer in my daily life.
I personally love how R.A. Torrey not only writes on different topics of prayer throughout the book, but how he gives many testimonies of how these principles applied in many peoples lives and how it changed and transformed many lives, churches, cities, and even nations.
I would definitely encourage you to pick up this book and read through it! May the Lord use it in your life to get you back to your knees in prayer and may you and I be used in a mighty way as we come before our mighty God and ask Him to do the impossible things!
GET IT, READ IT, & BE BLESSED!

Calvary Chapel Düsseldorf

This past weekend I was given the opportunity to teach at CC Düsseldorf. My friend who is the pastor, there is currently in California for two weeks spending time with his family and also being refreshed at the Missions Conference there in CA. It has been over one year since I last taught at CC D-dorf and it was such a blessing to see what the Lord is doing in and through the church there!

FELLOWSHIP
Since the weather has been off and on with the snow recently, I decided to drive up the day before. I was extremely blessed to have some friends of mine, Hannes and Leah Bremicker, to host me and allow me to spend the evening at their apartment. When I arrived there, in the late afternoon, there was also a good friend of theirs that was also going to be spending the evening with them and would be helping them out with worship and would be my translator for the morning service. Before the 3 of us guys headed out for some dinner, we decided to spend time in prayer for the service that would take place the following day.
So Hannes, Erwin, and I headed out into the city to go eat at one of my favorite restaurants in the city that is called VAPIANO! I absolutely love the place and think that they should open up some restaurants in the states! They would do great! Well, besides the food, it was an extreme blessing for me to hang out with Hannes and Erwin and to talk about all that the Lord is teaching us in His Word, what He is doing in our lives, and so much more! These two guys really stirred me up and really encouraged me in keeping my eyes on Jesus!

Hannes & Erwin - on the way to VAPIANOS!

PRAYER
Later on in the evening, after watching a movie documentary called RIPTIDE, we decided to go out into the city and to go on a prayer walk. Since it was New Years Day, there was not really anyone out in the city. I asked Hannes if he knew of some local spots that we could go and pray over. He knew of 3 spots that were in the local vicinity. So we spent the next hour walking through the city and praying for the Lord to do a work of His Spirit in the city of D-dorf, for Him to tear down the strongholds in the lives of the people, for Him to set people free from the bondage of sin, for Him to revive His people, and so much more. One of the great things that we prayed for was that the Lord would deliver Düsseldorf into our hands for the Gospel's sake. I know that this city is one of the biggest cities in all of Germany, but we do believe in a really BIG GOD that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask or think of (Eph.3:20).

(by the way, watch the movie RIPTIDE)

one of the catholic church's that we passed by during our prayer walk

breakfast at the Bremicker's

CC DÜSSELDORF
Edmund Jr., the pastor of the church, had asked me to teach on KEEPING PRAYER A PRIORITY. And since the Lord has really been speaking to me on this topic of prayer, I was extremely excited to come alongside the believers there in D-dorf and encourage them with this topic of prayer. As this was the first Sunday of the year, it was truly a great topic to really be challenged with. I do believe that the Lord spoke and really ministered to many of the people there. After the service I had the opportunity to talk with and pray with one of the young men in the church in regards to this topic of prayer.
I do want to encourage all of you to continue to pray for the work that the Lord is doing at CC Düsseldorf! May He continue to bring forth salvation to this city!

Hannes and Leah leading us in worship!

Fellowship taking place after service!

Hanging out at the Bremicker's after lunch!

Starting off the Year

Happy New Years Everyone!
Can you believe that it is already 2011? I believe that 2010 was probably the fastest year in my life! Now I know that I am only 30 years old, but when I began to tell others that 2010 was the fastest year in my life, they began to tell me, "That's what happens when you get older. Years will just seem to fly by." Well, if that is the case, then I pray that this year of 2011 will be a year where Jesus is absolutely glorified in all of our lives!

PRAYER
As we begin to look ahead into this year, I am really excited to see what the Lord is going to do! One topic that I am specifically excited about is the topic of Prayer! I am excited to see how the Lord is going to transform my life, my marriage, my family, His Church, and the area of Herborn through prayer.
I am currently staying the night at my friends house in Düsseldorf and we just got back from a prayer walk that we took through the city. I asked him if there were some specific spots that he knew in the nearby area that we can go and pray over. He knew of 3 specific areas. And so the three of us (Hannes, Erwin, and I) walked through the city and simply began to pray over it.
May this increase in our lives and the areas that the Lord has called us to!

"For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,"
2 Cor. 10:3-5

CALVARY CHAPEL DÜSSELDORF
Tomorrow morning I have been given the opportunity to teach at CC D-dorf! Edmund Jr is currently in California for a couple of weeks and he has asked me to teach for him! I am pretty excited and do pray that the Lord would use His Word to radically speak to His Church here in D-dorf! I will be teaching on KEEPING PRAYER A PRIORITY! What a great topic to start the year on!
Please pray!

God Bless!