the weirdest thing ever happened today

ok we all know that sometimes things tend to happen in our lives that we can't explain so easily but what happened to me today is by far one of the strangest and most exiting things ever, here the story.

back on the ship i was given the opportunity to be part of a photo shoot. we had a local photographer on board from australia and on a sunny day we went out and she shoot some nice pics of us. we never knew what would happen with the pictures and in some ways we didn't really care as we had a lot of fun and that was rewarding enough. well a few months later the picture appeared at a christian event on a banner. it was nice to see the picture and to have all the flashbacks about the day we went out and had the shoot.

BUT today this was topped. we were sitting at the table and had a nice chat with my sister in israel as one of my brothers, dominik had a flyer of a bigger german super market in his hands. suddenly i saw this familiar face of Jack Piaget and the of Konstanze Döring and then my own one. i was shocked and ripped the flyer out of his hand and really there it was THE PICTURE. and here the proof.
here the cover of the flyer

and here the picture in the top right corner


what a funny thing, there you sit at the table and think "why are there so many flyers of these random supermarkets on the table" and then you find yourself in it. what a strange thing there is an australian photographer who takes pictures of this international crew living on a ship and years later this picture appears in a german supermarket flyer. what a strange world we live in ;)

TeenStreet

it is tuesday a rainy day and i am not happy about the weather. the summer in essen has been terrible for the last weeks and i haven't had one good day on my longboard in ages. sadly it does not look so good for the next days and weeks to come. well i wane share my TeenStreet story with you guys as i have been more then just blessed this time.

i was frightened when i thought about the fact that we only had rain and stupid stupid weather and then that TeenStreet was on the way. can you imagine having a teens conference in germany with more then two thousand teens and then just bad weather? right thats like having marshmallows without a campfire, it just doesn't taste that good.

the fact that i had the chance to go to teen street was a small miracle for me. i had applied for holidays a while ago in order to be able to go to a mouth trip with my church which was a huge hassle to decide. well i wasn't given that holiday so i just tried again for the time of teen street and indeed this time it worked. so i had time to go but in fact that it was only to weeks before teen street i wasn't even sure if they needed someone. the only way to find out was to call them up, so i did. i got hold of barbara who is/was in charge of all the applications. i told her that i was free for teen street and that if they needed someone i would love to help. her response was short clear and came as a shock "sure you can come, we need a M&M". the M&M are the ones with a lot of responsibility which scared me at first but i said yes. as i prepared for teen street i looked forward to be an M&M and my M&M partner seemed really nice. well two days before i left i got a call from the TS office telling me that there was a problem with a different M&M group and that the lady i was supposed to do M&M with was from now on needed in a different group. now i was asked to be a co couch. i was happy about that as well as it meant that i would be a group leader with someone else and that i could count on him in all the programs as i wasn't really prepared for couch. the day i arrived at TS and 5min before we met our teens i was given the information that i would be a couch all by myself with a group of 6 teens. as flexible as i am i said "sure what ever you guys need" seconds later i did freak out a bit as i wasn't sure how it would go. it was a group of 6 younger teens and all of them visited TS for the first time. i felt a lot of pressure as i wasn't sure how to deal with this totally new situation but i soon gave it all up to god and asked him for help and then total peace came over me.

and then it happened from the first evening i met them until the moment i left i was in love with them. 6 young guys in the age of 13 and 14 totally on fire for jesus captured my heart. this teen street was the most emotional and challenging one i ever had. i decided to tell you a little bit more in greater detail about what happened, so here is one of the stories:

all of the guys had a real longing to MEET jesus and to FEEL him. i sometimes think that TS has a rather strong way to push the teens to ask god for a personal moment with him which is amazing but also dangerous as if they don't think that they get this moment they can easily crash and end up disappointed. this did happen with my little brother a few years back and since he has turned away from god. i do not blame TS but i know that it had a huge negative impact on him.so there i was with 6 young christians that longed for a personal touch of jesus and sure me being the couch made me think that i have to do special things for them so that they would feel him. but i decided not to do anything un normal instead i gave it all up to him and asked him to touch them. and then this happened: we sat together for our group time and i started to ask a few questions. suddenly one of them started to cry. at first i wasn't sure if my question triggered it or if something else made him cry. the others all at once stood up and left us to give us time to talk. alone that impressed me so much. they totally understood that i needed time with him alone and that they should better leave and they did all at once without me asking for it i then asked him to tell me the whole story.he then opened up and told me that he had a "situation" with a older Teen and that he got into a little "fight" with him. he was bleeding at the head a bit and without a question totally broken inside and really mad at himself, god and the other teen. SURE he was mad at god. there he was asking for him to reveal himself to him and then this. o how mad it made me how angry i got at the situation. i reacted calm and contacted the other coach and my M&M and we sat together and talked about it and prayed. and there i was at TS having these teens in my group that seek god in such a pressures and holy way that it made me wonder where i was standing with god. i was so at peace with god as i haven't been in a long time at TS and it felt amazing. The thing that happened to my teen made me cry, no really it made me cry in a way i haven't cried in a long time. i started crying when i told the others about what happened i cried when ever i saw the guys and later the day when we prayed again. i was so broken inside and so touched by what happened that it made it impossible for me to stay calm. i cried out of happiness and sadness at once and i couldn't stop.

at the end of the day the teen and i sat together again and we prayed once more sharing thoughts and tears together as we said amen he looked at me and said "semi today i met jesus for real and he touched me" you can imagine that from there on i wasn't able to keep the tears in. i was so touched and moved and happy .
i came to Teenstreet and was taught by 13 andd 14 year olds what it means to be a christian and how to love jesus.

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this is just one of many stores from this years TeenStreet.
thanks for reading
sebi