September 6, 2005

Dear Friends,

Greetings to everyone! And greetings from Berlin, where a new flood of kids seeking help with homework has signaled the end of a very eventful, challenging, and encouraging summer.

However, before I move on, I must make a big apology. I sent a letter to the PC(USA) headquarters in Louisville in May, which they were then to mail to all of you. Somehow, my email was lost in cyberspace, and it wasn’t until I was in the United States in August for the New Wilmington Missionary Conference that I discovered no one had heard from me in 2005! I apologize for this mix-up.

The biggest event this summer was our annual English camp, which is as physically, emotionally, and spiritually exhausting as it is rewarding. English camp is a summer camp for about 40 Kurdish and other international youth from Berlin between the ages of 12 and 22, who struggle to learn English and German (both are new, foreign languages for most). We combine typical summer camp activities such as sports, arts and crafts, music, and theater, with English classes—two times a day. A group of about 20 Americans from congregations all over the United States came to help us this year, which means that most of activities are in English with German translation.

For more about English camp, visit the Web site of our ministry in Berlin. Click on the “HOT NEWS” link at the top to see lots of pictures and a summary of each day’s activities. It’s definitely worth a visit. You’ll see lots of the kids that I work with on a regular basis.

After English camp, I had about 36 hours to get ready for the summer’s next major event—the 100th New Wilmington Missionary Conference. I was outrageously blessed to be able to attend this, our denomination’s largest, most unabashedly youth-oriented mission event. I helped out at this year’s conference as the leader of a small “Mission Study Group.” I met daily with a small group of high school students and talked about what it was like to live overseas, be a missionary, and serve the Lord. However, as with English Camp, I definitely received more than I gave. Hearing the heart-rending and triumphant stories of people serving God all over the country and the globe was for me a true banquet of spiritual food. I left the conference with a bittersweet feeling of refueled excitement for the work in Berlin and a longing to spend more time in the presence of over a thousand Christ-centered brothers and sisters in the faith. As I told the kids on the last day of English Camp, there’s nowhere I feel more at home than when I’m with fellow believers.

Now, the blur of summer is fading as new challenges and adventures are charging over the horizon. I’m currently preparing for our monthly Kurdish worship service, which will include lots of music and a skit about forgiveness. My right ear is still ringing a bit from swimming with the youth on Saturday (the Chechnyans showed up, too!), but they love sports, so the next two weeks are Ultimate Frisbee Saturdays, while an indoor soccer tournament is in the works for October. Of course, the biggest goal and challenge of the coming months will be to form a youth group of kids interested in faith issues that meets on a regular basis.

A 16-year-old Kurdish guy who has become a Christian was here with me today for help with his English homework. Out of nowhere, he looked at me and declared, “Isn’t it amazing how we can just talk to the Lord anytime we want?” It’s true, it is amazing. Therefore, I ask you to please keep the Kurdish and Chechnyan youth, our pre-natal youth group, and our ministry team and me in your prayers.

I thank you all for the support you’ve given me, financially and through prayer. I pray that God blesses you in incredible ways, as you have been a blessing for me. Vielen Dank. Thank you.

Yours in Christ,

Kyle Joachim

Read my May 2005 newsletter here.

Visit the New Wilmington Missionary Conference’s Web site. If you’ve never been to the conference, plan to go next year! It will radically change your view of mission.