Aurich Germany Baseball for Jesus

Mike Garst and the Germany Baseball Camps for Jesus
First Day at Aurich Report

I had planned something else for today’s blog post, but when I received Mike’s email reporting on the amazing first day at the Aurich Baseball Camp for Jesus, I thought I should share that. I asked you to be praying for Mike and his ministry efforts in Germany for the upcoming weeks, so I thought I should also keep you up to date to some level to keep Mike and this ministry in our thoughts and prayers!

Here is Mike’s email reporting on the first day at Aurich:

Dear friends and prayer warriors,

This is an update on our first baseball camp in Aurich, Germany, after the first day of camp. Our first praise is that all the Americans arrived with all their luggage on Friday. I was the only person who missed my last connection in Munich, but the American team from Maryland was going through Munich a couple of hours after me, and I was rebooked on their flight. That turned out to be a blessing since I was able to spend some time with the people in that group who were coming for the first time and whom I didn’t know.

We had better weather than expected because the forecast had rain in it. But it only rained lightly off and on in the morning, and it didn’t keep us from playing baseball. Plus, the wind dried it out in the afternoon, and our high temperature was 68. That’s the forecasted temperature for the next two days, and then it is supposed to warm up to 75 by Friday. There’s only a small chance of rain in the forecast for tomorrow in the late afternoon, and the rest of the week isn’t showing any rain at this time.

We had about 115 participants today and expect 5–10 more by the end of the week. If you add to that the American and German team leaders, as well as the German service team, that would put us over 170 people involved in the camp and make it the largest camp we’ve ever had.

The unity of the American and German leadership team is excellent, and it appears that most of the teams had two good Homebases (Bible time) today. We will be focusing our Bible time around John 3:16. The only challenge we’ve had is that one of the American families here—a father and two daughters—has been hit with a stomach bug. So please pray for God’s mercy, that it will not spread, and that they will all be healed and at the camp tomorrow.

Please continue to keep all the original prayer requests in your prayers.

In Christ’s unconditional and unfailing love,

Mike

Please take note that this has the potential to be the largest baseball camp Mike has held in the 24 years he has been doing these camps. That is awesome and amazing.

If you are able, I would encourage you to go back to the first blog post I sent out to see Mike’s list of prayer requests. He had ten, and they are certainly important. But at this moment, for those of us reading this blog, I want to give you four so that we can really focus the intensity of our prayers:

1. Pray for God to move on the hearts of the youth and adults who are participating in heart- and life-transforming ways. This would include people being saved!

2. Please pray for those who are teaching, speaking, and leading, that their hearts will be filled with the love and the grace of God and the power of His Word.

3. Please pray for the weather. This is always so important. They need to have good weather to be able to have the camps.

4. Please pray for unity and love within the team, which includes the American and German leaders. When the camps get larger, this becomes all the more important.

I would also remind you that Germany is about seven hours ahead of us, so you can try to time your prayers accordingly. For me, this means praying for Mike and the upcoming day as I am going to bed. By the time I wake up in the morning, they are in the afternoon activities. As we sit down to eat lunch, they are moving into the evening activities, which include the worship services and the opportunity for God to really move in power.

So, as we go to bed to sleep and as we eat lunch, those are two of the most important and powerful times to pray!

Move in power, Lord Jesus! For Your Kingdom and Your glory! Touch hearts and lives. Use Mike and the leadership team to touch hearts and lives with Your love and Your grace! In Jesus’ name!