The summit ended very well.  We were able to see a spiritual movement here experiencing a surprising number of new church plants.  One of the most memorable moments of the last few days of the summit was the concert of prayer… loads of worship (in german and english) and loads of prayer for these church plants and the leaders involved in them.  It was a beautiful night that really pulled together the themes of the summit.

The next day, we went down to Dresden (a 2-hour train trip) to visit with a church that First Free has been in a partnership with for several years now.  It was really encouraging to see a young church that has matured quickly and is now planting new churches in their area.  They have planted 2 churches that we visited as well… all I can really say is that it was motivating and encouraging to spend this time with them.

Since then, we have been trapped in Berlin waiting for the volcano ash cloud to lift.  We have spent the time being a little touristy and connecting with our local missionary as well as spending more time with one of the church planting teams that a few other St. Louis churches are partnering with.

We have been doing fine during our entrapment in Berlin.  We have had a bed and a shower every night… Kevin hasn’t used that second part everyday, but it has been available.

We are scheduled to be on a flight on Thursday from here to Dusseldorf >> to Chicago >> to St. Louis.  They have started doing international flights again, so as of this point, our flight to Chicago is on, but our flight to Dusseldorf has been cancelled… so we have got to figure things out.  Hopefully we will see you guys back home soon!

Thanks for your prayers!!

Yesterday afternoon we got registered and spent the evening introducing ourselves to all of the Germans and American attending and enjoying a nice meal at one of the local churches.

There are several churches being represented here, all interested in seeing revival of faith in this area.  There are 2 other churches from St. Louis, as well as churches from Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Chicago, Washington D.C., Iowa, and California.

Today we broke up into groups and went to visit a couples of church plants.  The first one we saw was called the “Berlin Project”.  They are a young adult focused church located in the City Center (or Mitte) that meets in a movie theatre.  The location is in a very trendy part of town that attracts a lot of young professionals and varying types of artists… in fact, the most liberal political party has an office right next door to the theatre!

Berlin Project has been in existence for about 5 years and has grown to 400 people, most of whom were previously unchurched.  They actually had a lot to teach us about how to find true relevance in a community that isn’t actively seeking God.  One example is that they host an art gallery in the store front area of their offices for local artists who are desperate to display and sell their works.

Lastly, the Berlin Project is currently striving to plant one church every year… the next three years are already in process!  We visited with the pastors of their first plant in one of the other downtown sections- this area is heavily populated by Turkish immigrants.  They are about to launch a Sunday afternoon service, but in the meantime have been meeting in a small group setting.

Prior to these churches there were no protestant churches serving this community (besides Lutheran).

As of now, we are still looking and praying for tangible ways for our community (that’s you guys) to get involved with this community.  We have engaged several Berliners that we have run into about their view of the spiritual climate within the community.  The consistent response is that they see very little reason or need for church… they believe in God, but the church provides them little to no benefit.

Please continue to pray for us to find the right way to get involved here and for the people here who are intently trying to spread God’s truth and love in an effort to take back: berlin.

We are leaving on Sunday afternoon after church, and after 2 lay-overs we will be in Berlin.  We are very excited about the trip and all of the support that has been raised- Thanks to everyone for their contribution… financial and prayer support!

Currently, we have raised 50% of the needed funds.

As you might have noticed above, we have added another guy on the trip… Travis Hughes.  The only photo I had available was from a ski trip that I went on with him (and thanks to the power of photoshop, he fits right in!).  We are very excited about him joining us and are praying for his impact on and from this trip.

In that same way I am joining a small team to investigate the future possibilities of widening our partnership in the former East Germany. As you probably know First Free has been active in a partnership in Dresden, Germany for some years. We will be taking a day to visit our partnering church in Dresden to discuss summer plans. As that effort in Dresden is beginning to wind down there is a new possibility opening up in the same region with some of our German contacts in Berlin. It appears that the gospel is taking root in this major metropolitan city and is beginning to grow! Twelve years ago Berlin was one of the darkest cities in Europe as to church life and the gospel. The German Free Church estimated that only .001% of Berliners in 1997 attended a church of any kind on a Sunday morning. Today that has changed to about 1% born again Christian population. There is a fresh wind of the Holy Spirit blowing in this city in recent years. At the same time, Berlin has become one of the dominant cities in Europe as the Germans have moved their political center back to Berlin and they have rebuilt this city. It is quickly becoming one of the most influential cities in the world as to culture, art, music as well as economics! There is also an emerging movement of young German church planters coming to Berlin. Check out a short video clip on-line that one of our team members created and posted recently: http://takebackberlin.wordpress.com

Our missionaries in Berlin, Mike and Debbie Edwards, are asking that First Free and Free Churches in the St. Louis metro area consider “partnering” with these young church planters and churching planting efforts in a metro Berlin to metro St. Louis partnership for the sake of the gospel and growth of the church.   They are asking us to send a small team to a “Berlin Summit” April 13-16 in Berlin, Germany. The goal of this time will be to personally meet many of these young church planters/pastors and to examine how we might encourage the growth of the gospel in Berlin. As our small Berlin team goes, we are confident that by your prayers, the Lord will give us clarity as to how First Free should invest ourselves for a more “rapid spread” of good news and enable us to might partner in the future.  By prayer, you can lay hold of God’s willingness to accomplish great things in Berlin.  By the power of your prayers, the Lord will do immeasurably more that all we ask or imagine (Eph. 3:20)!

Each of us on the team is praying, working hard to prepare and giving of our own funds to cover our team costs.  We are asking God to raise up prayer supporters and generous donors to meet the needs of this team.   I will be contributing from my personal funds toward the cost of this trip.  The total cost per person of $1990 per person or $7960 for all four of us to attend.  We need to raise all the funds before the team departs on April 11.  Would you join the team through prayer or a financial contribution?  Please use the enclosed response card as the Lord leads you–so your help will be made available to our team! You can also give on Sunday (if you are at First Free) in the normal offering but mark your check, “Berlin Summit” in the memo section. Or if you would prefer to send a check, send it directly to me and make your check payable to First EFC, St. Louis. I will deposit this into our Berlin Summit fund and make sure you receive a receipt. Of course, you can give on-line as well by going to http://www.efree.org then in the upper right corner of the page click on “on-line giving”.

I greatly appreciate your consideration and prayer in behalf of this effort of church growth and gospel proclamation in a dark area of the world! If God gives you a burden to pray for me/our team, give financially and possibly in the future considering joining a team to Berlin, I will appreciate it deeply!

Gratefully yours in Christ,

Rick Burke

Jeremiah Foertsch

Jim Barnard

Kevin Hughes