In this Update:

LST Campaign

Singing Campaign

Stand-ins

Furlough

Prayer Requests:

The Martins

We ask that you continue to keep the Martin family in your prayers as they continue to jump the culture-shock hurdles during their 8th month back in the States.

Marion

We want to say thank you for the prayers on Marion's behalf.  She is now working a part-time job with benefits, which is a great relieve to her financial situation.

Move

We also ask that you pray for us as we are preparing to move across town, closer to the church building and the school.  Since our mode of transportation is public transportation, we need this close proximity to lessen the stress of our day.  We are in negotiations for an apartment and we ask your prayers that it goes well.

The Church

As you pray for the church throughout the world, please include our small group and our endeavors to reach out to the community.

We Thank You!

We want to thank you so much for your prayers and support in all that we do here in Dresden. We truly feel the power of your prayers and we appreciate also the care and concern that you show for this small group of believers.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

--Romans 15:13

Are You A Missionary?

Are you a missionary interested in updating your newsletter or website format? Contact our former co-worker and web designer, Steve Martin, who designed our newsletter page.

Links:

	Carroll Family Website
	English Play Group
	Dresden Church Site
	Our Sponsoring Church

LST Campaign

During May, our Let's Start Talking campaign workers, Abby and Emily arrived in Dresden.  They stayed with church members, Kai and Annette and worked nearly everyday up at the church building.  Their activities included signing up readers (which was an on-going event), reading with people out of the book of Luke, planning parties, hosting parties, baking and hanging out with church members and readers.  They had a great blend of serious one-on-one bible study and fun, easy-going parties that even had the most reserved readers participating.  We feel blessed to have received two such beautiful souls in our midst, willing to sacrifice their time and energy to our group here.  They kept a journal of their time here in Dresden and the LST campaign which is still online.  If you would like to read about it, please go here.

The once a week parties that took place during the LST campaign in June and also through the summer (hosted by Ben and Spencer) were such a success that we are going to try out a once-a-month English meeting beginning in September.  We hope to conduct it at the church building as a group bible study, focusing on current themes or problems that are on-going in our lives today.  We will use videos and short printed thoughts or scripture to provoke open discussion.  Please pray for this endeavor!

Singing Campaign

Chad and Stefanie Anderson of Edmond, Oklahoma annually bring a group of university students to Germany every May and June for an outreach campaign.  This last May, they worked in Oelsnitz and Chemnitz, Germany.  Brianna sang with them this year in the "Liederabend," or "Song Evening" in Chemnitz, where they gave a concert in English and German of spirituals and contemporary Christian hymns.  Interspersed among the songs, members of the church in Chemnitz offered thoughts about some of the song texts and biblical references in the songs.  Friends and contacts from the area were invited and the turn-out for the concert overflowed the seating.  If you would like to hear a few of the songs, take a look at this webpage on facebook.

We would also like to announce that the Andersons have agreed to conduct their campaign in Dresden next year as an outreach program for our group.  We are very excited to host such an event and ask for your prayers as we begin plans for next spring and summer!

Stand-ins

As mentioned in our last newsletter, Ben Peterson and Spencer Goad from Oklahoma Christian University made the decision to stay on after their participation in the singing campaign in Saxony ended and take over the LST program and Monday night English bible studies here in Dresden while we were away.  They stood in for the "Native English Speakers" (us!) in the church and gave up time with their families and friends this summer to spend it in conversation ranging from biblical to personal issues with people of several nationalities.  They also continued the LST tradition of giving English parties once a week, complete with themes and games and conducted the weekly evening English study .  In essence, they spent 80% of their time at the church building and took over outreach without any missionaries in residence.  This, of course, says a lot for both their character and maturity and the church was very impressed with their commitment and enthusiasm.  A heartfelt "thank you!" goes out to Spencer and Ben!

Furlough

We took off for the U.S.A. for our furlough right at the beginning of school break and got back just in time for Olivia to get over jet-lag before her second year of school started.  We take a furlough Stateside to see our family, friends and supporters of the work in Dresden and reconnect with our home culture a little bit.  Well, for two of us, at least, it's a home culture!  Since the kids were born here in Germany, they view the US as some sort of big playground or vacationland since we only go back there for those things.  I reassured them that the friends they have there also have to go to school!  We can't say that we had a "real" vacation, but even if it was hectic trying to fit in as many things as possible, we still benefit from going back and seeing family and Christian friends that we haven't seen for two or more years.  We landed in Texas first to see Randy's family, then headed up to Oklahoma City to see friends and supporters, then on to Arkansas briefly for a visit with friends and supporters from Searcy and then on to Florida, where our sponsoring congregation welcomed us with open arms and made our stay so very wonderful.  We want to take this opportunity to say an enormous "thank you" to our fellow Christians there at the Northwest Church of Christ in St. Petersburg, FL for supporting this little group here in Dresden (and we count ourselves blessed to be in that group!) and sponsoring our work for over eight years now.  We also thank each and every one of you who has been praying for this work or supporting it financially.  We were happy to thank some of you in person on this trip.

If you'd like to see photos of this trip, you can check them out on our Flickr site.