Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Visit to Vilsbiburg, Germany

One cannot stay angry when singing before God!
Teen Challenge Gutes Land
After Jan's visit to Teen Challenge Slovenia he left for Germany. A five hour drive brought him to the small town of Vilsbiburg, in the vicinity of Munich. Last year we visited Teen Challenge Gutes Land there, upon invitation of the directors Dirk & Meike Hellmann. They showed us around the beautiful farm and told us about the work they do there: bringing hope to the hopeless! The farm gives room to men with life controlling issues. Often it is the first time they truly hear the Gospel and they can experience the life changing power it brings.

Too cute to eat, right?
The centuries old farm currently houses 7 men who are in the Teen Challenge program and two families who work as staff. The program receives part of their income from the pigs they farm and from a kinder garden school they operate and of course from gifts! Local supermarkets and stores that are in favor of the program donate a lot of food which is really wonderful, because feeding 10-12 people three times a day is costly. Dirk travels around the schools in the region to teach drugs and alcohol prevention. In cooperation with Teen Challenge Landshut (a youth center) he is also involved in street evangelism.

Sing & make music for God!
Jan was invited to share a word from the Bible during their Tuesday night meeting. This is always a great way to bring encouragement to both students and staff! As always they started with singing several songs for God. When we do that, something wonderful happens: problems, anger and difficulties disappear during praise and worship. Jan really experienced this in both Slovenia and Germany, one cannot stay angry when singing before God!