Dear friends, " Hello" from Germany after a very eventful summer.

Doris and Chad had a wonderful wedding here in our town. It was a big family enterprise in which everybody had their part and did it well. As a whole family, including Lisa's Luke and Cathrin's  Mike, we worked together in preparing and carrying out the big event. Here in Germany, there is a short reception after the wedding ceremony to which everyone can come. Then there is a big dinner and celebration for the invited guests in the evening with a program of skids, picture shows, songs, games, etc. There were 60 people in the evening. The wedding ceremony was at a many centuries old church 2 miles away (Mappach, for those who have been there). My brother Hermann and his family did all the music, and the two dads did the actual wedding ceremony. After that, the young couple and a few of us rode to Gupf in a beautiful carriage with a "Just Married" sign drawn by two big draft horses (friends of ours did that with joy and for free). In our own little town of Gupf, we had cleaned out and arranged the hay loft of the also centuries old barn where we had once kept our horses. Lisa and team did a wonderful job of decorating church, carriage and barn, and visiting family helped immensely. The weather was wonderful, and we all had a good time. Even Mark, who had come home with a very bad case of bursitis in his knee 10 days before the wedding and needed antibiotics for 2 weeks, was able to walk again. Luke and Mike were able to do the jobs he would have done and had a great chance to show what kind of guys they are - and we more than appreciated them. And even the small budget we had, more than covered all expenses. I felt a little bit like in the story of the feeding of the 5,000 where there were even left-overs. Thank you all who prayed for this big event!!! Your prayers were answered beyond expectations!

Doris and Chad are now settled in Detroit, Chad with "Youth Works Detroit" and Doris with a job she is going to start tomorrow (Sept. 30). Lisa and Cathrin are in their last year before their Master's degree. Lisa just experienced God's faithfulness in giving her the right project for her Master's thesis and the people for the committee she needs (plus she also has a teaching position), and Cathrin is still very busy doing her internship in Georgia (where Mike lives) and doing her online-studies. Susi was able to go on a short visit to Georgia, NC, MD and New York City. (Thanks, Joan and the O'Conners for your hospitality!) Her health is improving, and I am so glad that the treatment of her heart problem was so successful.

Jana and I are back in school. Even though she still says she hates school, she actually enjoys it more and more. God in his faithfulness keeps sending the right people her way who can help her grow out of the "I am stupid, I cannot learn" mode which had been implanted in her heart by the bad times 2-3 years ago.

I am "just" an aide to my special needs student for the 4 core classes without the afternoon class of German, which gives me more time than last year. And on Wednesdays I still enjoy attending our international bilingual CBSI bible study where I translate the opening part and the lecture at the end. This is a great way of reaching women who seek God.

Mark just came home from a trip to Romania, which went very well, and is getting ready to fly to the US on Tuesday.  There will be our bi-annual EBF conference in Michigan, the missions conference at the Church of the Open Door in Fayetteville,NC, and Aarin Walker's wedding in Indiana - all in 3 weeks. We hope he will be able to see many of you during this time. Since he also wants to be available to help his parents in Michigan, he might not be able to do as many visits as he had hoped. But I am glad that he can be there to help - Germany is very far away otherwise.

Thank you so much for being our friends and sharing our ministry. God bless you all, Maria for the whole Walker family

 

Dear friends, when Jana and I flew back to Germany on May 30, we left Indiana with temperatures over 90° F and arrived in Germany at 60° and the end of 3 weeks of rain. Several towns were totally flooded in the eastern parts of Germany, with only roofs looking out of the water. Now we have temperatures between 90 and 100°, and the land is craving for rain. The Muslims are not allowed to eat or drink between sunrise and sunset because it is Ramadan. There are many Muslims living here, mosques are being built more and more boldly. Germans have less and less children, but our Muslim fellow citizens compensate for this with large families. And since Germany is not (yet) a Muslim country, life has to be carried on as usual, even for the Muslims who may not drink all day long.

I just read Isaiah 45, and the phrases struck me that sound a little bit like the Muslim statement of faith: (V.5) "I am the Lord, and there is no other; besides me there is no other God." - But Mohammad is not His prophet, but Jesus is His son: (V.21) "... there is no other God besides Me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none except me. (V.22) Turn to me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other." - If only the dry mouths of the Muslims were thirsting for the ONE GOD and the dry lands of post-reformation Germany were thirsting for TRUTH! And may we be ready to speak up and share God's love and righteousness with every open heart!

Right now, Mark is helping out at the moving company where his colleagues are either very profane Germans or not really practicing Muslims. It is a daily challenge and opportunity!

We are very thankful to be able to share that the blood work last week showed no raised level of PSA, that means that he does not need radiation. He has to have regular check-ups, but there seems to be no further evidence of cancer.

Mark stayed 12 days longer than Jana and I to help his parents move to Michigan where they are now living with their daughter Mary. That was very hard for everyone, most of all of course for his parents. But we are glad it is done.

Isn't it good that we have a permanent home in heaven, and we even do not have to pack up and move there in a big effort, but He takes care of this? We just need to be ready.

We want to thank all of you we met and we stayed with during our time in the US. It is always very refreshing and encouraging to see you all.

It was also good to see our "American" daughters and be at Doris' and Chad's graduation and meet Chad's parents. Doris and Chad also had a formal courthouse wedding, since the paperwork for a German wedding with a non-European is immense. But they still live separately until August 17 when they will have their church wedding over here. In Germany this is two-fold anyway. You need to get your marriage license at the city hall, and then you can have a church wedding. Doris and Chad spent the past months in Detroit, MI, where they did a summer internship with an inner city youth ministry. Chad will work with this ministry full-time, starting in September, Doris is applying for a job in business management.

All the girls will be come home soon, Lisa arrived tonight to help get things ready for the wedding. Then Doris and Chad are coming the following week, and on the same day Cathrin and MIKE will fly in. We have not met him yet. He works at the same place where Cathrin is doing her internship until Christmas. Cathrin really experienced God's fatherly love in a special way. She found a place to live for free with full room and board, with a family from a church Willard Larose got her connected with. And the internship is going very well.

Luke is also going to come over for 2 weeks. Lisa had a summer job on campus as a gardener for which she was very thankful. Now my yard is waiting for her skillful hands.

Susi had a final check-up this week. The occludor that patches the almost 1 inch wide hole between her left and right atrium is doing its job, everything is tight and in place, even though it will take some time for her lungs to fully recover from not having had the right blood supply for over 30 years. But she was able to pass her private pilot's license test, an old dream come true. And it was through the aviation doctor that this whole issue was found out about. So we are thankful that she did pursue this even though we sometimes wondered why she had to do this.

Jana finished her school year so much better than last year. We are very thankful for all God has done in her life. Now we are working to help her catch up what she is still missing in math, and she is making good progress.

Please remember us in your prayers that all the preparations for the wedding will go well.

Mark asks for prayer to discern what the "good works" are, "that God has prepared beforehand that we should walk in them".

There are three specific areas:

1. Our mission partners in Romania are requesting a higher volume of deliveries of aid (clothes, shoes, household items, furniture, etc.) which they use for their outreach ministries.

2. Mark was asked to come and see the camps for African Muslim refugees in Sicily. One of my helpers in the warehouse developed this ministry of taking humanitarian aid down there which opened wide doors for the local churches to reach out to these desperate people. Now his advise is being asked on how to improve the logistics.

3. Christians in the Ukraine would like to receive humanitarian aid for themselves and for outreaches, but it is almost impossible to get truckloads across the border without much delay and enormous costs. Now there is the idea that the churches along this side of the border (Rumania, Hungary and Poland) could take in small amounts on day trips. And for this we need qualified local people to step up to this task and develop these "open doors".

By the way, we did get some good rain over night.

Thank you again for being our friends and part of our ministry. God bless you, Maria Walker

Trip to the U.S.

Dear friends, today is a German holiday, "Karfreitag", all stores closed as with all national holidays. We had a worship service with communion this morning. While we were singing a wonderful old hymn, God reminded me of Good Friday in 1974. I had been a Christian for a long time, but I had fallen into a 3-year-long depression that had left me stifled and almost unable to live. Then on that Friday, God spoke to me through John 17. He touched my heart and soul and made me well again. That was 39 years ago, and I am still as thankful for this experience as back then. One blessing I got from having gone through this was that I can feel with people who go through such a time. I know the pressing darkness AND the rescuing light. And John 17 has always been special to me since then.

Last Monday, my dear friend Barbara's 84-year-old mother passed away. When my friend was planning her wedding 33 years ago, her mother was so opposed to her Christian faith that she told her daughter: If you invite Mark and Maria - I won't come to your wedding. I told my friend that a mother is more important at a wedding than friends. BUT a few week before the wedding, my friend's mom accepted Christ as her savior and personally invited us to the wedding. And now she was allowed to join the big feast in heaven.

These two thoughts followed me throughout this day and increased my thankfulness for the gift of salvation. Then I listened to Handel's Messiah and thanked God for giving this composer such wonderful music to write. The great Hallelujah topped it all!

Now to our travel plans. We booked a flight out of Basel for May 14, and this is how we would like to fill the 16 days in the US:

Wednesday, May 15: Saranac, MI

Thursday: back to Indiana to Mark's parents

Saturday: Doris' and Chad's graduation at Huntington University, IN, where Lisa is planning to join us, then on to Rockford, OH, where Chad's family lives.

Sunday night: McConnellsburg, PA, with Anna Richards (and the Hodges)

Monday, May 20: Beltsville, MD, to the Franks where Lisa lives. Cathrin will join us there for her 26th birthday. She will travel with us for a week.

Tuesday: Annapolis, MD, where we will stay with the Skinners.

Thursday, May 23: down south to Fayetteville, NC, where we will stay with Joan Bitterman and her family and be at Church of the Open Door.

Monday, May 27: up north to Kentucky where we will drop off Cathrin

Tuesday: back with Mark's parents.

Thursday, May 30: flight back to Basel.

If anyone would like to see us at one of these places, you now know where to find us.

This is a very short and tight trip, but we cannot get more time off from school. We are thankful that it is possible at all, especially considering the fact that Mark does not have to undergo radiation instead.

But we hope to see as many of you as possible in this short time and greet you in the name of our Risen Lord Jesus Christ, Maria Walker

Dear friends, just a short update:
Last Friday, Susi had her "hole patched", it turned out to be 20-22mm
wide instead of 13mm. So we are even more thankful that it was
possible to do this procedure through a vein without
open-heart-surgery. She was in the hospital for 48 hours and could
come home with me for a week of recuperation. She must have been born
with this problem, and it became more severe with time. Now for the
first time in over 30 years her heart pumps blood with enough oxygen
through her body! I was allowed to be with her in the "heart catheter"
room until she was fully asleep, and they called me in while she was
waking up.

Mark's MRI today showed no more cancer or unusual lymph nodes. Next
week he will see his urologist who will decide if anything (and what)
is necessary as follow-up.

Thank you for all prayers and encouraging emails/phone calls. God
answered these prayers the way we had asked for!
In Him, Maria Walker

Dear friends,
we are already through 1/6 of the new year! Time is flying fast!
I had meant to write sooner, but there have been some problems
concerning which I wanted to wait for more information.
Last summer Mark's urologist had scheduled surgery on an enlarged
prostate gland for this winter since there did not seem to be any
urgency. So this was done in January. But the removed tissue turned
out to be malignant after all. So the new diagnosis is prostate
cancer.

Right now, no further procedure has been planned. There will be an MRI
on March 11 and another doctor's appointment after that. Then they
might be able to decide if Mark will need radiation. There is the
possibility that all malignant tissue was already removed in January.
In this case he would just be closely monitored (once a month).
Otherwise he might need radiation. So far it does not look like a very
troubling scenario. But it must be taken seriously.

Therefore we will not book a flight for our planned trip to the US
(May 16 -31) for another 4 weeks. By then we will know more.
If it is possible, we would like to come to Doris' graduation on May
18, then travel east to Maryland to visit our daughter Lisa and our
friends in Annapolis. On the way, we would like to see our dear friend
Anna Richards and also the Hodges if they still are in the area. From
Annapolis, we would like to go south on Thursday, May 23, to spend the
weekend in Fayetteville, NC, and travel back to Indiana. On May 29, we
could come up to Saranac, MI, until the next day, and fly back to
Germany on May 31. This is a lot for 2 weeks, but Jana and I cannot
get away longer since the school year will not be over by then.
Cathrin and Doris would like to join us on this round trip. That would
be great.
But all this is still a conditional clause, "If .....". As actually
everything in life, as we are told in the book of James. Only these
times make this more real.

Another concern is with our oldest daughter Susi. She is in the
process of getting a private pilot's licence and only needed a
physical by a doctor specialized on aviation. And he discovered a hole
in her heart (between the left and right atrium), 13 millimeters wide,
that needs to be fixed. This finally explains all the dizziness and
fatigue she had been experiencing more and more over the past years.
On March 8 she will have that hole "patched" through a tube through an
artery. If it turns out to be too big for this procedure, she will
need open-heart-surgery which would be done the following week. Please
pray that the simple way will work.

In Lisa's life there is a young man she has known for more than 2
years. They met while she was doing her internship in Annapolis, MD.
They are both in their late 20s, so this is quite a challenge. They
are seeking God's wisdom in their decision about as common future.
Lisa has struggled through the first months of doing everything in
English, that was hard for her. She enjoys her life of being a student
and a teacher at the same time. We are so thankful for the Franks
where she is boarding. Lisa really feels at home there.

Thank you for all prayers on Cathrin's behalf. She did find a good
place for her internship at a preschool/kindergarten for mentally
handicapped and autistic children, and at the same therapist's place
where she did internship hours last year with horses and children. Her
school also sends groups of children to this place, and she is in
charge of this. The only drawback is that she does not earn any money
and even has to pay her own health insurance because she is not
enrolled at a European university. But all that is manageable. At the
same time she keeps up her online studies with all kinds of books to
read and papers to write. There is still some time left to help me.
She is still looking for a place to stay during her next intership in
Covington,
Georgia, from June to December.

Doris got engaged to Chad Shellabarger (from Ohio) during Christmas
break here in Germany. He is also a student at Huntington University,
IN, and will graduate at the same time. They are planning to get
married this summer, with the church wedding here in Germany on August
17. They will probably get "legally" married in the US because of all
the paper work this would involve for a wedding over here with a non
EU bridegroom. And with Doris' dual citizenship it is no big deal in
the US. They need a lot of wisdom for their time after graduation.
Chad has been involved in an inner city ministry in Detroit, MI, and
would like to do an internship there plus possible full time work in
this field starting this fall. Doris is going to look for a job in her
field of business management in Detroit. For the summer until August
she is looking into some outreach programs, possibly among Muslims, or
an internship. She would appreciate your prayers to find the right place.

Jana is making great progress in school. She is catching up really
fast. In math she is still half a year behind her class, but has a
special math class together with two other students. The Discovery
Program (2-3 times a week for 80 min.) is also doing her a lot of
good. Her reading and writing is getting better from week to week. The
teachers are amazed at her progress. There is still a lot of ground to
cover, but this won't happen over night. Once she was let out of her
box of being considered "just not smart enough", it has been going
uphill. Thanks for all the prayers!

I myself am doing quite fine. I am in the process of reducing my
prednisone dosage, and my body is taking it well. Prayer and daily
workout work together and keep me in pretty good shape with longer
times without pain. I am very thankful.

Last week God really watched over our house. There was a fire in the
adjoining building, wall to wall with our house, around noon. The
neighbor heard his dogs go crazy and found his furnace room on fire.
Since it was discovered soon enough, the fire only damaged their
basement so that they can still live in their house. If the neighbor
had not been at home (none of us were at home) the whole building
complex could have been destroyed. I wonder how often we are spared
and do not even know it.

This week Mark is organizing 4 truckloads of aid. He can tell that his
health is not the same and would appreciate all prayers.

This turned out rather long, so I better stop before you fall asleep.
I will keep you posted about the latest news. God bless you all, Maria

Mark & Maria Walker Serving in Germany & Eastern Europe

Mark Walker reports that the German mission he is "on loan" to (Regio Rumänienhilfe = regional help for Romania) is in the middle of their "fall offensive".

September
Mark attended and spoke at a mission conference from the partner mission group "Evangeliums Mission" in northern Germany. There was one collection drive in a local church that had just finished building their new church home. Many people came and quite a number stayed for a cup of coffee - and a conversation!
Mark was scheduled to drive a 40-ton truck in the last week of September to Romania.

October
On October 4th Mark will drive the 40-ton truck (belonging to GAIN = Global Aid Network = Campus Crusade for Christ) to Romania. On Oct. 9th he is to meet up with 3 other mission groups that minister in Romania. The object is to show each other where and how we minister and then decide how we can benefit each other's ministries. Mark then returns the truck back to Giessen (north of Frankfurt) with pick-up points on the way for GAIN.
November
Every year, Mark and his "side-kick" Martin leave for Romania again. If GAIN can spare the truck, Mark will drive it again. Martin will follow with a small team for the annual November outreach mission trip. The goal is to deliver aid to missionaries and churches (especially gypsy churches), help two single missionary ladies with some repair work and getting their mission centre ready for the winter, conducting a week of training / advising / mentoring a group consisting of those involved in 7 gypsy churches and conducting the annual German Bible Conference in Sibiu (in the last German speaking free church).

December
There are collection drives in local churches and therefore we will need to order a truck to haul all the collected items away, otherwise our ware-house would burst.
We received a phone call from a missionary in Italy who received access to the ill-famous refuge-island of LAMPEDUSA off of Sicily. As this missionary would have more mission opportunities if he could enter the camp with a truck and aid

clothes, shoes etc. but also he needs various kinds of hospital equipment.
You might know that all of these refugees have risked their lives to leave Libya and other African countries crossing the Mediterranean in shabby vessels. I understand that an estimated minimum of 20% perish at sea, especially women and children. The living conditions on Lampedusa are under par, as the Italian government is broke. The place is supposedly fenced in like a high-security outfit! At least these are the pictures we see in our German media. So do pray for the Italian missionary TONIO as he struggles to minister to these displaced people!
We have prepared the first 18 pallets and need to reorganize our ware-house to provide enough space for the rest.

Mark is especially grateful that more helpers are coming to operate the ware-house and to help with pick-up runs. We are now praying especially for young people born in the 80'ies and 90'ies to join our team! Will you join us in prayer??

The ministry of providing training for church planters in Romania is progressing well - especially in Tirgoviste (near Bucharest) and in "gypsy country".
Our gypsy missionary there - Mitika Omlecu - has had two operations on his back, and is doing very poorly health-wise. He is not letting his health stall his ministry, but he is totally unable to take up his summer job in Germany as a harvest hand. Two of his young assistant pastors have taken his slot - and are performing well.

But we are concerned for Mitika's income, as it is only at 60%. We are praying that the LORD might provide him with at least 700$/month in order to "keep him on the job", i.e. provide for his family and ministry needs. Mitika started out with us in 1996 - and concentrated on children's' work. Then developed these kids further in youth work with a very deep impact. 4 of his youth have gone on to Bible school and have returned - and are the driving force with Mitika in church planting efforts!