Monday

From my hotel window I can see the massive Cologne Cathedral which is just a couple blocks away. This morning we sang in the Cathedral. I have had the privilege of singing in that beautiful place several times. We sang a few songs and drew a crowd pretty quickly. I met some very nice tourists from England after we sang and was able to share with them about what we were doing. After lunch, we loaded the bus and headed to the nearby village of Wiehl. Matthias Eckelmann met us at a retirement home near the church where we ate dinner. Matthias has been a strong leader with the German Baptists for many years. I first met him 20 years ago when we were working with church plants doing the tent missions. It was great to reunite with him and sing in his church. The drive up was absolutely breathtaking. There was a good bit of snow on the ground, in the trees, on the roof tops and even on the roads! After dinner, there was some concern that the snow might preclude our getting up the steep hill to the church and might keep people away from the concert. Our bus driver, however, put chains on the bus tires and we headed up to the church. Shortly after we arrived, people began to come in and before long a very nice crowd had gathered. This seems to be a strong and healthy church and I believe we encouraged them with our singing. An interested thing about these German Baptists…they don’t ever want us to quit! We sang every song we knew and they just kept wanting more. It’s a lot of fun to sing in a setting like that. One highlight of this one was when we sang “Silent Night.” As we sang, they began to sing along (in German of course) with us singing in English. Bill Dixon accompanies that song on guitar. It was a neat moment. Keep praying for us and I will try to keep you posted. chip