親愛的弟兄姊妹平安，
「求你指教我們怎樣數算自己的日子，好叫我們得著智慧的心。」詩篇90:12
感恩聖誕聚會之後與幾位弟兄姊妹去瑞士參加一對中德基督徒的婚禮。雖然雙方家長與親人都不是基督徒，但一對新人就盼望藉著婚禮與婚宴，讓親人好友都有機會聽聞福音。由於他們都參加過不同國家、地方的教會（他們曾經在德國讀書，現在先生在瑞士工作，姊妹在奧地利讀書，她往奧地利之前在法蘭克福華人教會受洗），所以眾多的弟兄姊妹從德國、瑞士與奧地利去參加他們的婚禮與幫忙。婚宴持續七個小時，當中有各地教會、團契、小組的表演節目，場面溫馨！回程的時候與一對母女坐在同一輛車，我們有幾個小時的溝通。女兒是我們教會的姊妹，畢業後找到不錯的工作，可是年齡有點大了，還沒有機會結婚。母親過來探親，女兒趁這機會帶她出去見識不一樣的婚禮。母親看見女兒年齡大了還不結婚，就開始批評她因為信仰基督教而令她找對象的標準提高了，所以到目前還沒有結婚。因此，她對信仰有抵觸，女兒邀請她去教會，去了一次就不願意再去了。她是共產黨員，但是為求女兒能出嫁，她也去廟裡祈求。她的觀念是只要能出嫁，哪怕將來會離婚，總比不出嫁強。剛好同車的一位姊妹就是嫁了一位未信者而陷入非常痛苦的狀態，連她十幾歲的女兒都大喊寧願她媽與爸爸離婚，免得她也過得痛苦。可是那位母親未能體諒姊妹的痛苦，還是認為只要女兒能出嫁就好，不管嫁後是怎樣。這就是獨生子女的壓力，特別是在國外信主而堅持找基督徒為對象的弟兄姊妹，他們的父母不明白子女在國外所承受的工作壓力與生活的孤單，還經常逼他們早點嫁娶，因此引起雙互之間有些張力。其實弟兄姊妹也想找到合適的對象，但是找不到，他們也很無奈！
聖誕節前有姊妹提到她鄰居朋友的女兒突然發現得了白血病，那位非基督徒女士來德國兩年多，女兒才十八歲，打擊很大。加上女兒住院兩個多月期間，她一個人幾乎每天往返醫院二、三次，為的是陪伴女兒用餐，而家裡還有一個年幼的女兒要照顧，她睡不好覺，心理壓力大，想找心理醫生，可是約心理醫生的時間很長。後來我與她見面，了解情況，就藉著微信與她聯絡，她主動向我要禱告的詩歌。女兒出院前，我也帶了一位癌症病人去跟她聊聊她的經歷，離開前我問她願不願意我為她禱告，她說願意，她說她班上的伊斯蘭教徒同學，耶和華見證人同學也為她禱告。她還需要接受媽媽的骨髓移植，但願她媽媽能因這次的打擊，認識真 神，有平安去面對這次的骨髓移植。
感恩與代禱事項：
- 感恩有機會去海德堡團契服事！為他們的傳道人感恩，得到從 神賜下的寶貝，師母是高齡產婦，蒙神保守，母女平安！
- 感恩一對新人有向親友傳福音的心願，藉著婚禮播下福音的種子，求主使用他們作美好見證。
- 為教會單身的弟兄姊妹禱告，求主賜下合適的婚姻對象。求主賜下智慧給他們，在婚姻的事上能與父母有良好的溝通，避免衝突，失去見證！
- 求主醫治得白血病的年青人，骨髓移植順利。求主保守，藉此病患讓她與媽媽接觸真正的福音，不受其他宗教、異端影響！
- 春節將至，弟兄姊妹開始準備春節活動。求主帶領，讓弟兄姊妹邀請未信朋友參加。吉森團契第一次邀請德國教會的弟兄姊妹來參與，求主給弟兄姊妹有足夠力量預備多人的飯食。求主預備講員普師母（德國人）的信息，藉著她流利的中、德語把信息傳得清楚，讓慕道友得聽聞福音。
- 聖誕期間各團契因為弟兄姊妹的休假、回國都暫停聚會！新年開始，團契也慢慢回復正常，求主帶領新一年的聚會。
祝你們新一年裡福恩滿溢！常常喜樂！
神的使女
鄧秀珍
二零一九年一月八日
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Dear brothers and sisters,
“Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”
Grateful to be able to attend a Chinese sister and a German brother’s wedding in Switzerland with several brother and sisters after our church’s Christmas meeting. Although both parents and relatives were not Christians, the newly-wed were hopeful that they and their non-believing friends would be able to hear the gospel message during their wedding ceremony and at their banquet. Since the couple had attended churches in different countries and places (They studied in Germany; now the brother works in Switzerland, the sister studies in Austria. Before she moved to Austria, she was baptized in our Chinese church in Frankfurt.), there were many brothers and sisters from Germany, Switzerland and Austria to attend their wedding and offered their help. The banquet lasted for 7 hours during which many groups performed. The atmosphere was very warm. While riding back home for several hours, I was able to talk to a mother and daughter. The daughter is a sister from our church. She became a believer while studied in Germany. She found a good job after graduation. She is considered a bit over age and is still single. Her mom came to visit her. She took the opportunity to bring her mom to experience a different kind of wedding. The mother saw that her daughter was growing older and older and was still single and started criticizing her. She thought that it was her belief that limited her to find a husband because she insisted to find a Christian brother. Because of this, she resisted her belief. Her daughter invited her to attend church service. She went once and never returned. She was a communist but for the sake of her daughter to get married, she even went to pray in a Buddhist temple. Her concept was that it was better for her to get marry first than being single regardless of future possible divorce. It just happened that in the same car there was another sister who was in a great distress now because of her non-believing husband. Even her daughter screamed out that she wished that her mom and dad would get a divorce. She was also living in pain. However, that mother didn’t understand the pain of this sister. She still thought that no matter what would be the consequence, it was still good to have her daughter married. This is one of the pressures of ‘single child’ from China, especially those who become believers overseas and insist on finding a Christian as marriage partner. Their parents do not understand their child’s pressures from work and living alone in a foreign land. Because they always request their child to get marry soon, there is a tension between them. Actually, single brother and sister also would like to get married but they feel helpless without finding the right one.
Before Christmas time, a sister mentioned to me that a daughter of a friend of her neighbor was diagnosed having leukemia suddenly. The friend was a woman who just came to Germany more than two years ago. Her daughter is only 18. It was a big blow for her. In addition, she went to the hospital 2-3 times per day to feed her daughter during her daughter’s two months stay there. She also has a younger child to take care. She became sleepless because of the pressure. She wanted to see a psychologist but the appointment was a long wait. After learning what happened, I started communicating with her using WeChat. She even took the initiative to ask me for hymns of prayers. Just days before her daughter was discharged from hospital, I brought a cancer patient to see her and talked about her own experience. I asked if I could pray for her before we left. She agreed because her Muslim classmate, Jehovah Witness classmate also prayed for her. She needs a bone marrow transplant from her mother later this month. Pray that her mom would come to know the true God and have peace to face the transplant!
Thanksgiving and prayer items:
- Thank God for giving me the opportunity to serve the Heidelberg fellowship! Thank God for giving the pastor couple a lovely daughter and bless the mother and daughter in good shape even the pastor’s wife is a bit old for her first child.
- Thank God for the newlywed couple to have a desire to spread the gospel to their unbelieving families and friends! Pray that the gospel seed was sown in their hearts! Pray that God would use them to witness to them!
- Pray for our single brothers and sisters in our church! Pray that they will find a matched marriage partner! Pray that God will give them wisdom to talk to their parents to avoid conflicts because of this marriage subject!
- Pray that God will heal the leukemia patient and she will have a smooth bone marrow transplant! Pray that God will lead her and the mother to hear the true gospel and not be influenced by other religion and cult!
- Chinese New Year is coming soon! We are preparing for the event! Pray that brothers and sisters will invite non-believers to attend! Giessen Fellowship will invite the brothers and sisters from the German church for the first time. Pray that God will give them enough energy to prepare food for so many people! Pray for the message that is being prepared by our speaker, Mrs. Buchholz who is fluent in both Chinese and German! May her message be a blessing to the seekers!
- During Christmas time, our fellowships stopped for meeting for people left for holiday or returned to China. Now that new year starts, our fellowships will start meeting again. Pray for new guidance for the new year!
May God bless your new year with abundant blessings! Rejoice always!
Serving Him,
Karen Tang
