Moritzburg, Germany Part 3

I never dreamed really, that there would be a Part 3, but I cannot tell you how excited I am to be adding to the beautiful story that is Come Before Winter in Germany.

In the first two posts where I talked about our trip to Germany (if you haven't read those, click the November 2005 link to the right and scroll down -- you'll find them eventually), I mentioned in passing how beautiful the hotel was where we stayed and how impeccable the service was at the hotel. This was due mostly to one person, Frau Metzger. Tanja (or Frau Metzger as we called her that week) was the manager of the hotel. She was the friendliest, most servant hearted person I have ever met. Any time we needed something, she did it. That included rearranging our main meeting room 3 times the first day in order to get it "just right". She was always there, always smiling and always doing anything she could to make our stay easier and more comfortable.
(Frau Metzger (center, in pink) during our time in Mortizburg)

At the end of the week, she said to Karen, our director, "I don't know what you all are doing in there, but I have never had a group like this before. There is something different about you. Everyone is so friendly and genuinely thankful." This comment, of course, made us all feel a little proud of ourselves. :) But little did we know, that the Lord was working very hard in the heart of Frau Metzger.

The last night, when it was just the team, Karen and Cynthia spent a long time talking to Tanja. Then invited her to join us for our worship time. The team had the opportunity to pray over her and bless her. It was a sweet time.

Shortly after we left Germany, Tanja quit her job and moved to Berlin. The Lord had done something amazing in her heart that week and she wanted to know more. She was searching, hard!
(Tanja on a swing in New Orleans while on her trip to Texas.)

At this point in the story, I'm going to steal excerpts from an email I received from Karen today.

"Tanja believes that she was at that hotel for the sole purpose of meeting all of us and witnessing the Spirit she observed there. For that reason, she followed up on an invitation issued by both Cynthia and I on the last night, “Come to Texas; you can stay with us.” “Really?” she had asked. “Of course!” Since she did not feel that was appropriate, she wrote asking if she could “rent a cottage” in my neighborhood to continue the discussions we had begun—only so briefly—in Moritzburg. When I told her that there were no cottages in my neighborhood, she agreed to stay in my home “a few days” but planned to leave shortly. Only after she arrived did she feel comfortable in thinking she might stay with us the full time. She also stayed at Cynthia’s for four days before Cynthia began her spring classes.

At one point she told me, “I came to Texas to see if I could make it with God. If I cannot make it with God, I do not want to live.” I was driving, as I usually was during these talks, and I looked at her questioningly. “What would that look like, if you did not want to live?” I asked. With tears, she looked me squarely in the eye and said with resolve, “You know.” It was not the last time that I saw the depth of her depression or understood the significance of this trip. Missionary Pam Sullivan, who had kept in touch with her after we left Germany, had written: “I cannot tell you the importance she is placing on this trip. It is truly a pilgrimage for her.

Tanja is convinced that the trip to Texas was the will of God, that it was necessary for her LIFE and that she was richly blessed while here.”

Tanja decided she was going to make it with God and was baptized last week in Austin, Texas! Praise the Lord!! She came to Texas to find what it was she had seen in Moritzburg, and He answered her here. Now she is returning to Berlin (she left yesterday). The future is unclear. Her parents think she is crazy for going to the states, they have no idea what the Lord has done in her life. She has been given the names of Christians in Berlin. Please pray that they will love her, encourage her and disciple her and that she will find a place to belong, to grow and to minister in return.

Just when you think you know what it is God is calling you to (go around the world ministering to missionaries), you realize that He thinks so much bigger than we do. He is not confined to a ministry having one angle. He works at it from all different angles. How exciting!!!