First Leg of the Journey!

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Hello All,

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We have successfully completed the first leg of the journey in Poland! This means, in short, one show at the Slot Art Festival as well as supporting David's speaking at the festival, and a week of the Steiger Gathering which includes lots of intense and great discussion as well as prayer regarding all things Steiger. Also included in all of this is the joy of reconnecting and spending time with wonderful Polish and German friends I've made through the years, hearing of all the things God is doing and has done in their lives. And I've been able to spend time getting to know Kate and Bryce, Annadore and Johannes, and Melissa and David, whom I will be joining in Karlsruhe in October.

At the Slot festival, we saw around five thousand young people from Poland and surrounding countries come through the gates to camp and enjoy displays of arts, various workshops and 4 stages that presented a wide variety of bands. One new stage this year was a hard core stage which attracted many young people who would not have normally come to the Slot Fest. Every year, a team of prayer-focused people are assembled to make themselves available to the festival goers, and this year, they were happy to report that there were many testimonies of changed lives.

After one of David's speaking times under the big tree, I met Martin and Mary (not real names). Martin was not a Christian and had had a difficult life. He felt that he wanted to search out the truth for himself, and to really know that God was real, but didn't feel ready to commit himself to God. He was open for prayer and I was able to pray for him for peace and rest from burdens, and that God would reveal himself to Martin. Afterwards, he said that he felt a peace.

Our show during the festival was on the main stage on Saturday night in the prime spot for the night. The nights before I stayed to hear some of the bands that played during that spot. When I looked from the stage at the start of our show, our prayers were answered that many many people had stayed after the event prior to see our show, and the whole large courtyard was packed! Our preparations went well, though during the show, I felt very clumsy in remembering the things I was responsible to do. But in the end, everything went swimmingly.

Towards the end of the concert, while the coffin was being dragged to the front of the stage, my ears heard something that sounded like one of my instruments hitting the floor of the stage. Of course, and unfortunately, this had happened before, so I was only hoping for the best, that nothing serious had happened. When I came out to play violin during the reconciliation that happens between the character of Jesus, and the two characters in the show, I saw the strings of my violin loose, shining in a curved and unnatural way. The glue connecting the neck of my violin to its body had come apart and the two parts were separated in a way I had never seen before! It was a shocking sight, but I felt a peace, feeling that it was not an irreparable break.

We asked that all of those who wanted to know Jesus come with us to a large hall in the building adjacent to the main stage courtyard. The hall was filled to capacity (maybe 300) with those wanting to know more, and those available to pray with people. There I saw Martin and Mary waiting for prayer so I went to them along with Michael, our band manager, and was able to talk with him and with Mary about their individual journeys with God and was able to lead Martin in a prayer accepting Jesus into his life. It was wonderful to see that he was ready and willing to begin his walk with God.

Regarding my violin: During our last day at Slot I searched for a new violin online with a violinist from Wroclaw, but didn't find anything promising. I asked those at Slot who I suspected might have leads to more violinists (or unused/inexpensive violins) or a repair person for information. I followed leads, and ultimately the search ended with Irek, a musician. After discussing options, we decided to go with lo-fi repair with he as the repairman. So the next day he bought some epoxy glue, glued the pieces together and secured them with string. I waited about 48 hours, prayed for healing, removed the string and put the parts of the violin back in place. And it is completely fine! It's been assembled for about 4 days now, and I am so happy to be able to play it and know that I have an instrument still.

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The Next Leg
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Our next leg of the tour is Lebanon. We have only one show at an American Lebanese University in which we are not allowed to preach and have only 40 minutes to do our show. We will have to tailor the show to fit within that timeframe, and we have to decide, after discussing with the organizer, which part of the show to do. If the show is well received, we may have the chance to do another concert, and we may have the chance to do an outdoor show on a mobile stage by the beach. But we need to have wisdom in what to do.

So as far as I know, that's all we know.
We will leave for Berlin on Monday morning, and then will leave for Lebanon on Tuesday morning.

When we were praying about Lebanon, this picture came up in one of the guy's minds. There is a very thin melon plant vine that has blossoms on it. From these blossoms will come melons that, when they are left will leave many seeds for new melon plants. We are thinking that this represents what God wants to do with those individuals or those church bodies that are there. He wants for them to be multiplied after bearing fruit.

Please be praying for our time in Lebanon:
For this one show to go really well
For us to play more shows!
For safety
and for what God wants to do in Lebanon

Thanks for reading, and I'll be sure to post another update as soon as I can after our time in Lebanon!

Love,
Christa