Sebastian Heck writes,

We were able, in God’s providence, to hold the first stated worship service in Heidelberg, Germany – the first Reformed presence and worship service there in roughly 150 years! About 45 people showed for worship at 9 am. For many of them, it was a first time ever experiencing a Reformed liturgy and worship service. The Lord enabled me to preach on Ephesians 1:1-3, the first sermon in a series on Ephesians, this time with a strongly evangelistic bent.

Many stayed for lunch and fellowship. And even more guests came for the opening celebration at 3 pm in the afternoon. We were around 68-70 people for that joyful occasion where we also sang, had special music, I preached on the message of Heidelberg Catechism Question 1 & 2, a beautiful summary of the gospel. Then we had three words of greeting: Rev. Jon D. Payne from Grace Presbyterian Church in Douglasville, GA; Rev. Dr. Jürgen-Burkhard Klautke from Gießen, Germany; and Mr. Marius Timmermans, secretary of the Foundation “Stichting vrienden van Heidelberg en Dordrecht” in the Netherlands. Afterwards, there was a reception with great food!

We had several surprise guests (including a Catholic Priest, our landlord, a local Baptist pastor), as well as family (some of them unbelievers), friends from the U.S., the Netherlands, even one from Sweden, and regular visitors.

Please check out some pictures of both events here.

Please continue to pray for us as we gather this coming Lord’s Day “on our own,” without the boost of friends and guests. Sadly, we also lost an elderly couple of our core group. They no longer agree with our philosophy of ministry. Please do pray for them as well. And pray that the devil would be weakened as he seeks to destroy the church.

We look forward to hearing from you and thank you for all your prayers and support!

You can hear Sebastian talking about this work in a recent episode of the Heidelcast.