 March 17, 1999
Germans blitz Grand Saline
with the gospel message
___By Orville Scott
___Texas Baptist Communications
___GRAND SALINE--The first German Baptists to serve in Texas through the Texas-German Baptist partnership that began Jan. 1 "impacted our entire community," said Larry Jones, pastor of Main Street Baptist Church in Grand Saline.
___Fourteen teenagers and four adult leaders from the Baptist church in Hildburghausen, Germany, visited in Grand Saline schools and nursing homes and at the city council. Among other activities, they
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GERMAN BAPTISTS Nicole Wyzgol (left) and Dorothee Zuprit attend computer class at Grand Saline High School with Tim Herron, a member of Main Street Baptist Church in Grand Saline.
| participated in an area True Love Waits rally at First Baptist Church of Canton.
___At the rally, Susanne Fischer, the only member of the German Baptist youth group who wasn't already a Christian, professed faith in Christ as Savior.
___"The German Baptists became an integral part of the community," said Jones, who served as a pastor in Germany before coming to the Grand Saline Church.
___"Whenever they were asked, 'Why are you here?,' they responded, 'To tell you about Jesus.'"
___The impact of the German Baptists on the host church was expressed by longtime member Letha Cumbie, 88, who said, "This was the best thing I've ever seen happen at Main Street Baptist Church."
___Culminating the German Baptists' 10-day visit to East Texas, Faith Baptist Mission of Main Street Church prepared and served Mexican food at a race-relations banquet. At the event, each of the German youth gave a testimony before a packed gymnasium. They said that in East Germany where they live, "You must still pay a price for being a Christian because of the carryover from communism that it is not good to be in church."
___The German Baptist youth were accompanied by their "church leader," their youth director and by their pastor and his wife, Steve and Celeste Brubaker, who serve under appointment of the Southern Baptist International Mission Board. Brubaker is partnership coordinator for the German Baptist Union.
___Church leader Herbert Boettcher told of the challenges of being a Christian while communists controlled East Germany and urged
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DELIA VILLANUEVA (right), wife of the pastor of Faith Baptist Mission in Grand Saline, along with Zoila Paz Ortega and Graciela Rodriguez, serves Mexican food at race-relations banquet to German Baptists Ulli Bolduan, Dorothee Giernoth and Marco Tager. (Photos by Orville Scott)
| Texas Baptists to share their faith in Germany, where "only about 0.3 percent of the people are real disciples of Jesus."
___Partnership volunteers from Main Street will serve in Germany May 27-June 9, helping Hildburghausen Baptists repair their church buildings. During spring break next year, Main Street youth will serve in Germany.
___Last fall, volunteers from 17 Texas Baptist churches participated in prayer walks with German Baptists to lay the groundwork for the evangelistic partnership. A German woman who carried her baby in a stroller as she walked with Fannie Cox of Calvary Baptist Church in Lufkin reported that her pastor subsequently has baptized 16 young people who attend a school in the community where the volunteers walked and prayed.
___Projects Director Joe Bruce said the Texas Partnerships office has more than 50 requests from German Baptists. Requests for youth volunteers this year include teams for youth outreach at Belzig, Rinteln and Eisehhuttenstadt, for youth evangelism at Gronau, for a music team at Villingen, for a drama/music team at Spremberg and for a youth group to participate in schools in Linz.
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