Back in Germany!

Sunday, September 13th me, Sebastian and the Gospel Express bus left on another adventure. We drove down to Helsinki where we checked in at a campground close to the harbor and did a short ride with our bicycles before we went to bed. I woke up in the middle of the night and I did not feel good at all. I checked the oxygen level and it was low again. I also had fever and my blood pressure was very low. I called different places but all told me I need to go in for a check up. I did not have time for a check up as we were going to leave with the ship from Helsinki, Finland to Travemünde. Germany in a few hours.

For a moment I gave up and thought that we have to cancel the tour and return home. I took some medicine, prayed and spoke to my wife who said that our Boss will take care of me. i started to feel better and made the decision to board the ship. Thirty hours later we arrived in Travemünde at 9pm in the evening. Instead of driving right away we checked in at the campground and stayed there for two nights to rest.

Actually I am glad we stayed there for a couple of days. I felt better the following day so me and Sebastian did a couple of light bicycle rides and we had a wonderful time. i love Travemünde, it is a beautiful little town by the sea and it was good to rest since I believe I had a lot of stress on my mind before we left as well as I drove the bus non stop down to Helsinki and was pretty tired when we arrived. With my COPD lungs I get easily sick but it is weird it always happens just before we are leaving on a missions tour. It was the same time before we left for Sweden this summer. i got pneumonia and came out of the hospital two days before we left. I think it is a spiritual battle and that someone does not like us going out on the road telling people about Jesus.

On Thursday we had a long drive and we left in good time. We drove the 600 kilometers down to Scwarzenbach Am Wald with one short stop on the way. Brother Dominic and some youth were waiting for us at a youth hostel where we parked the bus and they fed us well when we arrived.

The following evening we had our first event on this tour and it was such a wonderful evening in the local sports pub. The tour could not have started better. I did two hours of music and told my life story and encouraged people to have faith in Jesus. I was so blessed when we were done.

The following day, Saturday we started with a youth group in the morning. This was not planned but it just came in while we were there. I am glad we did it. In the afternoon there was a special service for an elderly priest who had served the Lord for a long time time and now he was retiring so it was a service to thank him for his many years serving God and people. It was actually funny to do two songs and share the short version of how I met Jesus since I had never met this older brother but I had heard good things about him.

We have made sure we stay on the bikes but also made sure we take it easy. After the church service we took a 20 kilometer bike ride down to Naila and back. So beautiful scenery.

Later brother Dominic picked us up and took us to the pub Täubla in Naila where we had another wonderful evening sharing the message of Jesus with music and my life story in a pub. I love doing these pubs as this is where the people are. I see it as an important part of our ministry to do these places and just keep sharing the Gospel wherever we go.

Sunday morning we got up early and drove to Tirshtenreuth, close to the Czech border. There we parked the bus on a store parking lot and set up the gear and started to play some music for the people who came for the Motor & Message service at the local church. I did three songs acoustic in the actual service inside the church and an interview with Pastor Lehmann about my life. When the service was done we continued outside the bus with some music and talks to the people doing their ”gasoline talk” around their enthusiast cars.

When we were done we drove to Treppendorf where we parked at our usual spot at the Muskhaus Thomann parking lot. Yesterday we visited the new store for the first time. Last time we were here they were still working on finishing it but I was really impressed. It is always worth a visit. We picked up some goods that are going to our guitar store in Sweden when Sebastian have fixed the guitars. A little help to keep the Gospel Express on the road.

From Thomann we drove to Nurnberg where we are parked now and yesterday we did our first ride with the bicycles here. I actually feel really good with my electric bike. My hurting knee is not hurting anymore and my plan is to continue riding on a daily basis. It makes me feel good and my mind gets clear and clean as well.

We have some meeting with parts of our team this week and on Friday we are visiting a biker club right outside Nurnberg where I am going to do some music and of course share my life story.

We still have gaps in the calendar and we left in faith so we believe that we are goingt to get some more bookings and that God will meet our financial needs. We still have over one month here in Germany. IF you want to help us out the details are below. What we do we do from the bottom of our hearts. We want people to find Jesus and God’s plan for their lives. The time we are living in is very ”different”. We had 3€/l diesel prices when we arrived in Germany and it is not easy but we do what we do with joy!