Here are scenes from:

• Worship Service, July 20, 2008

The worship service on Sunday afternoon was especially enjoyable for me as pastor. Visitors came to the service from Madagascar, Paris France, two states in the US (Tennesee & Michigan), Cameroon and a few other places that I can't remember at the moment. More former members of the church came to the service as well and were very pleased to learn how well the church is doing now. So we continue to make progress in strengthening the congregation and positioning it for meaningful growth.

The sermon yesterday was titled "How Big Is Your God?" and was based on Isaiah 6:1-8. For a copy of the Sunday bulletin, click on here. God continues to bless. Bro. Solomon, who leads the music, and I are learning more and more how to work together in planning out the music etc. around a central theme. God continues to lead us to just the right combination of hymns and choruses. The worship theme yesterday was "Celebrating the Greatness of Our God." Gradually Solomon is teaching me how to sing African choruses; my main problem is that my skin is just not the right color to do it well!

• A Stroll around Siegburg (#2)

On Monday, July 14, Claire and I had some free time in the late afternoon, so we went walking down the path to the southeast of our apartment in Siegburg along the Sieg River. This time we went the opposite direction from the previous walk. We were able to get some beautiful photos of the wheat fields and the river. Also there are some pictures of the abbey, Michaelsberg Abbey, that was the basis for the establishment of the town in the middle ages.

• Sightseeing in downtown Cologne

First, on July 5 Claire and I went with Linda and Nosa, walking around the central part of Cologne. We are gradually learning more about the city that will become our home in the days ahead. Claire was able to find some yarn for her crocheting that she continues to do here. Then, yesterday afternoon after church Cezar and Vingie took us to the downtown area again where we saw more areas and learned the locations of several excellent restaurants. Although it was raining and very cool (in the lower 60s), we enjoyed seeing some new areas. Cezar made certain to point out a major computer store where one can find electronics etc. at very competitive prices.

Cologne is a very distinctive town in Germany with its own culture and traditions. In general, it is much more laid back and easy going than most other cities in Germany. Because of its proximity to Holland the culture is a little bit like that of the Dutch. The dialect of German spoken in Cologne is distinctive; slowly I'm learning to recognize some of the different ways of speaking German here to even that spoken in Bonn, some 20 miles to the southeast.

Prayer requests:

1. That we can gradually reclaim most of the former members, almost a 100 people total, who have left the church over the past five or six years out of dissatisfaction with the way things were being done. A growing number have indicated interest in returning to the church once they see that the past troubles are indeed in the past and aren't going to plague the church in the coming days.
2. For Calvin and Betty Ann Hogue, the founding pastor of the church, as they finish up an interim in Stockton California and begin finalizing plans to return to Cologne to begin an interim here the first Sunday of September. God is miraculously making financial provisions to pave the way for their return until Claire and I return in January to begin as regular pastor of the church. They will be here from Sept. 4 to Dec. 30, serving the church.
3. That the mission team from the Virginia Baptist Mission Board, who will be with us August 4-11, will have safe traveling and a productive week helping us create greater awareness of the IBC church throughout the Cologne Bonn metropolitan area. We have numerous outreach activities planned, along with some sight-seeing activities to introduce them to a city whose beginnings reach back in history to 57 BCE.
4. That the church can quickly recover from a devastating loss of funds over the past few years and regain solid financial footing to be free to expand its ministries to the people of Cologne. Significant progress has already been made, but much more remains to be achieved.
5. That the process of our obtaining the German Visum (visa) for permanent residency here will go smoothly and without delays. Much, much paper work is involved in setting up health insurance, residency status etc. The process got underway seriously last week, even though it took a phone call to the German consulate office in Atlanta, Georgia in order to get clear instructions on necessary documents etc.

Progress continues on setting up the apartment in Wesseling. Most of the renovation work was done last week, but more is sheduled for this week. Several men from the church moved donated furniture and appliances into the apartment on Saturday. More is yet to come this week. The telephone and internet connections are scheduled to be installed on July 29. So we will be moving to the apartment once all of this work is done. At that time we will post pictures of the apartment.

Here are some sample pictures:

1) Front entrance to the building, ;

2) Entrance to the apartment, ;

3) living room with couch .

Lorin & Claire

Please note a correction to our German home telephone number; it was incorrectly listed at the beginning.

IBC - International Baptist Church Cologne  
Pastor Lorin Cranford
Postfach 800518 
D - 51005 Koeln


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