March 2006

Dear Friends, Family and Ministry Partners,

What a joy it is to serve the Lord in a way where we can see lasting fruit, where men are trained to reproduce themselves in the ministry of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

This time I would like to highlight two events in our ministry of the Training Centre that will be of encouragement to you. One is the report of Greg Stoever (a guest Professor at the EBTC Berlin) the other event is the future expansion of the EBTC to Zurich, Switzerland.

Pastor Greg Stoever of Sacramento River City Grace Church was with us during our February weekend to teach through Paul's letter to Titus. Below are some encouraging words he sent after his week with us.

"The privilege of preaching and teaching this wonderful epistle for such concentrated and extended periods of time at EBTC was really a preacher's dream. Especially in ministering God's Word among men who are present because they hunger so strongly for His Word and are equally hungry to minister it skilfully to others, well, all I can say is there was a real "spiritual synergism" taking place among us. And the glory and goodness of God in Jesus Christ, revealed through His Word, was at the centre of it all. While in any human achievement the glory immediately begins to fade the moment it is acquired (like winning an Olympic gold medal, or fulfilling some professional pursuit, etc.), in matters concerning the eternal Word of God, His glory and grace in Jesus Christ only shines more and more brilliant as it is beheld in the pages of Scripture."

"I alluded to the hunger of the men for the Word of God. Their hunger was very evident. Because there is such a famine of expository preaching in Germany and throughout Europe, the men seemed like they just couldn't get enough. Knowing that the men came from roughly 10 different churches throughout Germany and Switzerland, and represented almost 4000 people in those churches, this amplified the significance of truths from Titus I was privileged to preach/teach. It magnified the importance of godly elders "...holding fast the faithful Word, which is in accordance with the teaching...". What a joy to sense the men embracing these truths, and being eager to apply them to their lives and ministries.

"Those of us who have been blessed with training in an expository approach to the ministry of the Word have been given a great stewardship. Our need to be faithful with this stewardship applies not only to the primary place of ministry God has called us, but also with ministry needs around the world. In other words, the mandate of 2 Tim. 2:2 has implications for both local and international ministry opportunities. What a privilege to partner with TMAI and the EBTC in this way. I can't imagine a better investment of time, money, and energy. All for God's glory in Jesus Christ!"

Pastor Stoever said this so well, he can't imagine a better investment of time, money, and energy then to train men who are eager to study God's Word and proclaim It for glory of Christ. This is what we see as our responsibility: to invest our lives in these men in Germany and Switzerland who want to do the same. There are other churches who have asked us to join them by training their leadership to preach and teach God's Word. Please pray with us that we will be faithful in using this great opportunity.

Multiplication - that is the keyword! In order for the church to live up to its calling, it must be planted and thoroughly rooted in the word and truth of God. EBTC would like to come alongside of the local churches and help them to train und equip the next generation of preachers and teachers. This will include a strong emphasis on expository preaching. The format is specially designed for men who cannot attend a fulltime seminary for reasons such as time, money and responsibilities they have within the local church. In Switzerland and Germany we find a lot of young and smaller churches who simply cannot afford to be without the church leaders for a longer period of time. Some of the students come from existing ministries and they want additional training in expository preaching. This format proved itself to be very efficient in Berlin and will be applied in Switzerland.

How did EBTC Zurich come about? The fact is that God has moved the hearts of several godly and well respected teachers and churches in Switzerland to actively help and support the EBTC Zurich. Here some of the comments given during the time and process of founding EBTC Zurich: "We have been praying for something like that for a long time." "That is exactly what we need around here." God has been very gracious to us in the way he orchestrated and brought everything together. We are grateful to be able to use the facilities of "Mitternachtsruf" church.

We expect to have 30 students in the first year of Bible Survey and Practical Theology classes. Next year we will offer a full 3-year program, like in Berlin. Please pray that God may provide the staff and professors needed.

Family highlights:

Philip became the German Champion in archery Long Bow for the 2nd year in a row.

Support Needs:

As we mentioned in our last News Letter, our personal support needs to increase due to the growing family, rising living costs, expanding ministry and travel expenditures for the European Bible Training Centre. We have be asked by our sending agency GMI (Grace Ministries International) to increase our monthly support by at least 20 supporters of $50 or churches that are willing to commit to larger amounts each month.

Home Service:

We are looking forward to seeing many of you during our home service!
July 4th -13th East Coast
July 14th- August 24th West Coast

Christian & Sheryl
Serving Christ in Berlin, 2. Cor. 4, 5-6

January 2006

Dear Friends and Family,

We are looking back with joy and thanksgiving to the last years of ministry here in Germany. Yes, it has already been more then 8 years here in Berlin and God has answered many of our prayers - or should I say, directed our steps as we planned the past 8 years.

Just 2 months ago, God directed our family to a new church (a German-Russian church) where the EBTC has been located for the last 1 ½ years and where we held the last two Berlin Shepherds' Conferences. As the training ministry is steadily expanding and the need for assistance in other local churches has grown, our team sees this as an opportunity to serve the Russian-German Community by assisting one of their local churches in Berlin the "Evangeliums Christengemeinde Hellersdorf". We will assist Pastor Johann Friesen in equipping the leadership of this local ministry. Please pray with us as our family serves in the context of the Russian-German Church in Berlin.

• Grace to You - Deutschland (GTY-D) -three new books from John MacArthur were published in 2005 are: Think Biblically, Hard to Believe and A Faith to Grow On. Other books that are planned to be published in 2006 are JMA Commentary on 1 Corinthians and How to Preach Biblically
• The European Bible Training Centre Berlin has grown to 23 students, and we are expecting to expand to 45 in the fall of 2006.
• An extension of the 1st year EBTC program was started January 14th in Cologne, Germany with 37 students.
• In September 2006 the EBTC extension in Zurich, Switzerland will be opened with a two day conference focusing on training the next generation of men for the local church in Switzerland and Germany.

All this to say, that God has directed our steps to train faithful men to preach God's Word in Germany & Switzerland! God willing, we will have 90 students in Bible Survey classes (in Berlin, Cologne, and Zurich) and 40 in the Preachers Institute by this fall. While the ministry is steadily growing and expanding, our support has gone down. A growing family, rising living costs, expanding ministry expenses and travel expenditures for the EBTC have increased our support needs. We need to increase our monthly support by $1000. Please pray with us that God will provide Christian brothers and sisters who can invest into the lives of those men we are allowed to train in Germany and Switzerland.

Serving Christ in Berlin,
Christian & Sheryl Andresen
Katrina, Stephanie, Philip & Elisabeth

Shepherd's Conference 2005

We are anticipating our upcoming Shepherds' Conference (September 8-11) with John MacArthur, John Glass, Steve Fernandez and Doug McMasters. All of them, as well as the faculty of the European Bible Training Centre will focus on the centrality of God's Word in preaching. Many of the men we will be hosting will be here for the first time. Please pray with us that this will be a time of strengthening and encouragement. Our sessions will be translated from English into German and Russian. We are expecting to nearly double the size of the conference from last year, with participants from Switzerland, Romania, Poland, Spain, Germany and as far away as Paraguay.

Please pray for the technical aspects of the conference, since John MacArthur will be with us over video conference. Also please pray for all of the hosting families since more than half of the group will be in private homes.

Just a few weeks after the conference, we will start with our 5th year of the EBTC! Our Preachers' Institute class has the 15 students which is what we have prayed for. We are now praying for more students for the first year Bible Survey class, which also starts in October.

We are excited to present to you a different look at the ministry of the European Bible Training Centre! With the help of a friend, Shannon Halliday, we were able to complete a video clip for the promotion of the EBTC-Berlin. You can view this clip under the following website http://www.gracechurch.org/ebtc/

Serving Christ in Berlin,

Christian & Sheryl Andresen

Katrina, Stephanie, Philip & Elisabeth