Hi praying friends,

I have to tell you about this amazing experience I had last night!

In August, while I was in the US on home assignment, a friend of mine who came to Berlin in 2015 from Syria sent me a message. This friend has such a great story! Coming to Berlin had given him a chance to finally dig deeper into the gospel. He had been being drawn to Jesus but could not explore that as he wanted to until he came here. We studied the Bible together as he involve himself in a variety of churches. One beautiful Easter Saturday, I was invited to his baptism service. What a blessing!

Over the years, his cousin had gone from being an angry young man who made fun of my friend for his newfound faith to someone who was also following Jesus! The message from my friend was asking if I could baptize his cousin.

But, as I said - I was in the US, and would not be back until November! His cousin did not want to wait that long, so I was happy to put him in touch with some of our Alliance workers in Berlin. Connections were made, the young man ended up going to a different church, where he met someone in the church that could help answer more questions about faith and baptism, who "just happened" to also be a part of one of the Alliance works in Berlin, and he circled back around to our Alliance colleagues, and suddenly - the baptism was on again!

By this time, I was completely out of the loop - and had no idea what was happening anymore. The last I had heard, the young man was in a different congregation. The Alliance worker who was going to baptize him had to quickly return to the United States because his mother was going through a serious health crisis (she is, Praise God, now doing better) - and I got a message from him asking if I could baptize this young man!

In English, we would say "What a small world!" Germans say, "And the circle closes." What an amazing God we serve.

So last night, I opened Romans 6 and expounded briefly on baptism, with translation from an MBB church leader. A young church leader led a song. The baptism candidate shared his testimony. I prayed for him, and we entered the baptistery. The witnesses included several MBB church members, 4-5 friends from the young man's workplace, my friend ((his cousin) also an MBB), and other church members. I said the familiar words, "Based on your confession of faith, I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit." As he came up out of the water to cheers of the congregation, I spoke to him quietly, "Buried in the likeness of his death, raised in the likeness of his resurrection, walk in newness of life."

What an evening!

Funny thing is, if you would have asked me last Friday what I was planning for this week, baptizing a new believer with my brothers and sisters in the Arabic church in Berlin would not have been on my list! I didn't find out I was on the docket until Sunday!

Germans have another saying: "Man plans, God laughs." In this case, I think he was laughing with joy at the plan he had for me.

Thanks for your prayers - just one big prayer request this week!

Pray that we stay flexible enough to be a part of God's unfolding work in Berlin.

Blessings,

mike