Theme of the day from Madison, WI:

"We stand and lift up our hands
for the JOY of the LORD is OUR STRENGTH
we bow down, and worship HIM now,
HOW GREAT, HOW AWESOME IS HE!!!
And together we sing...
Everyone sing...
HOLY is the LORD, GOD ALMIGHTY
the EARTH is FILLED with HIS GLORY..."

Ok, you all probably know the rest of this song, but it's the theme of the day. So, I woke up this morning to a glorious sunrise (lights reflecting off the sun, window and curtain in the perfect shape of a cross) to this song on the radio. For once, I didn't stay in bed and snooze (seriously, how could anyone snooze and not literally "stand and lift up our hands" in that case?!). Little did I know what was coming.

A long day of work. I was tired when I finally got home, exhausted, and felt as if I was getting a fever. Amazingly, I decided against taking a nap, to meet a German girl named Ethel. Let me tell you about Ethel:

So, last week, I got an e-mail from a lady at my church, saying that Ethel was in town, and that I should call her, or else I'd meet her in church on Sunday, because she's German (like me) and currently in Madison. I was busy with work, and so (inexcusably) I ignored the e-mail and waited for Sunday to roll around. Oh, and did I mention that I haven't been reading my Bible much, or memorizing scripture, or praying lately. Yeah, as usual, I've been pretty self-absorbed, trying to fix the little problems in my life (problems that are not really problems, but I make them out to be the end of the world... ok, enough said).

So, here I am, Sunday morning, and I meet Ethel, who is really outgoing, sits next to me in church, and we end up going to my friends' place after church for a "waffle lunch." So, turns out that Ethel has studied in the US for the last 8 months, and is now in Madison for 7 more weeks to work on a thesis project. She just arrived, and doesn't know anyone here, but she's a Christian. So is her entire family (now, that still amazes me: a whole German family who are true believers!!! EXCITING!!!). So, yesterday, we decided we should spend some time together, just exactly why I'm not sure, mainly because... I think it was God's plan (but I thought I'd be nice to a girl who's all alone -- nice ego I have:)

Tonight, we caught up, and I went to pick her up to do, well, just something. It looked like we'd have this big thunderstorm, but when I got to campus, the sun was back out, and it was just one of those perfectly cool summer nights, if you know what I mean. So, we decided to go for a walk along lake Mendota (you just gotta love the lakes of Madison; just gotta). Ethel sees that I'm not quite well, and asks if I have allergies, or if I cried. Truly, I just felt "not well," but I don't have allergies, and for once, I hadn't cried (yet), I told her:) And so, we talk. Ethel mainly wants to know "my story..." which, of course, is over a mile long, and just so full of God's hand working one step after the next, just so I could come to know HIM, and then to begin living my life for HIM... but "my story" is really HIS (and another) story, and come to think of it, some of it is probably already on this blog somewhere. And as we walk and talk, both of us, including me, who has told these stories many times over, get really excited about just how good God has been to me, and just how powerfully and greatly HE has worked in my life. So, we finish our walk, and head over to the Terrace. We get some ice cream and something to drink, and head out to sit on the lake, and, of course, we keep talking. Ethel gets goosebumps because of my stories. And then she starts sharing...

Her little church in Germany had just last summer made some big leaps of faith, bought a new building, and now had already more than doubled in size (and I'm saying, that's mostly newly saved souls, not just people switching churches). Just how God had connected her father, the church's pastor, with two pastors in/near Dallas, TX, how by God's grace, he sent a team of Texans to be missionaries to Landau (when the leader who went on the trip was really "supposed" to "focus" on China and, was it Spain?). But God made a way for him to go to Germany through a "church plant" that had grown out of his other pastor-friend, who "happened" to also know about this same, small German church... Ok, anyway, I probably confused you, but now I was having goosebumps (but certainly not a fever).

And, so, all of a sudden, I found myself in this most impossible situation: Praising the LORD, with another German, at the Terrace, in the middle of this mostly non-believing campus, and (get this) ending up praying, out loud, in English, in public, at the Terrace, with another German, for God to move in power, giving us PASSION, for the UW campus, for the city of Madison, my home church, the church and city of Landau (Germany), the country of Germany, and really, for the church throughout the whole world!

Amazingly, Ethel was saying how much Lake Trails reminds her of how her German church was, just before it started growing. How the growth wasn't about the building, but about reaching the community for Christ. How it all started with faithful people praying, about 100 of them. (That's about the size of our church, and last Sunday, we had a "concert of prayer" instead of Sunday School, because Pastor Ed was out of town). How it took her church big leaps of faith to move ahead, and yet her story showed how God provided for them, and provided and blessed them so abundantly. And here she is (not even sure why she came to Madison), just such a light and a joy, and a sister... it's as if God sent her to prepare us, and our church, for some HUGE outreach ahead, which is what our new pastor Ed has been trying to get his sheep to see for the last whole year. And there comes Ethel, just picking up the topic right where it left off. And Ed wasn't even there last Sunday, so Ethel's never even met the man, and she's already praying for him and his family... WOW! What an example, and what a young leader!

And I just cannot describe it any better, other than that tonight, the same excitement that was so obvious at Passion '06, just returned, revived both of us (who had been a little out in the desert), and left us full of HIS JOY and a PASSION for HIS NAME.

Much love to all of you, even though I continue to fail to pray for you all as I should, may Christ be your strength, your joy, your love, and your ultimate passion.

Silke

P.S. On the way home, this CD I had on in the car... well, it came upon the same song that the day started with... and I was back to worshipping wholeheartedly... again.