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The Baptist Church (EfG) Brunsstraße, one of the two Baptist churches in Harburg, invited us as International Missionary Church for a common church service on 7th of August into their house. This was in conjunction with services of Jan who occasionally preaches at their church as a guest speaker, and this time from their side the idea arose to give to the members of both churches a possibility to get to know each other. The EfG was even ready to shift their service time to our time, thus starting at 11 am.

Many members of both churches followed this invitation and joined the service. Our responsibility covered sermon and worship. The frame program and the coffee-time were prepared by the EfG. The presence of the Lord could be experienced, and the participation of many people as well as the feed-back of single persons made clear that the interest to get to know each other was not only among the leaders. In a short leadership meeting at the end we concluded that this service should not have been a sole and final event. However, it was a common service of two churches of different church alliances, with different histories and of different cultures and thus had to combine different styles, and some reflection will now be due. But a first next appointment might be seen as a signal: On the 10th of October the EfG Brunsstraße will not have an own morning service, since there will be a thanksgiving ceremony in the afternoon. Some of their members may follow our invitation and visit us that morning at Georg-Wilhelm-Strasse. We are excited how the process goes on.

Jan Pahl

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