News Update

We have been very much aware that the weeks have rushed by since our last news update and the time has been pretty eventful!

Phyl and I had an enjoyable time in North Wales in March with a very useful and encouraging 'Reunion' at Penrhyndeudraeth but also with some days to relax. The photo here was taken by friends we called to see on the way back to Kent. 

We returned to Utzenfeld in time for our Easter conference which was a very successful and blessed time with the Messianic Jewish evangelist Tom Lori as our guest speaker. Just before Easter I received a short notice date for the operation I had been waiting for on my back. At first this looked impossible but then we decided I should aim to go for it. It meant a quick dash to Ashford, Kent for a pre-op assessment and then returning to the UK a week later for the operation. With the 'Friends prayer weekend' scheduled in April we decided it was best for Phyl to stay in Haus Barnabas while I went for the op. We were very much aware of the loving and prayerful support of so many friends during this time and with the Lord's blessing I was fit enough to return to Germany overland by train on 30th April, three weeks exactly after the operation. Only the loving care and hospitality of our kind friends Margaret and David Harman in Ashford enabled us to do this.

Since being back in Haus Barnabas our Reformation Week has started and we have already enjoyed lectures on the four 'sola' of reformation doctrine: Grace alone, Christ alone, Scripture alone,  Faith alone, from Dr Bernhard Kaiser of

www.irt-ggmbh.de

Phyl is very tired and we hope to escape to have a couple of days to ourselves at the end of this week.

Scripture readings with meditation

Scripture readings

You are my hope in the day of doom.

       If there is calamity in a city, will not the Lord have done it? - O Lord, I have heard Your speech and was afraid; O Lord, revive Your work in the midst of the years! In the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy.

       His wife said to him, "Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die!" But he said to her, "You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?" In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

       In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord; my hand was stretched out in the night without ceasing; my soul refused to be comforted. I remembered God, and was troubled; I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed. - But I will sing of Your power; yes, I will sing aloud of Your mercy in the morning; for You have been my defense and refuge in the day of my trouble. - The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and He knows those who trust in Him.

       My soul, wait silently for God alone, for my expectation is from Him. He only is my rock and my salvation; He is my defense; I shall not be moved. - I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

Jer 17:17 - Amos 3:6: Hab 3:2 - Job 2:9-10 - Ps 77:2-3; Ps 59:16 - Ps 62:5-6; Rom 8:18

Suggested additional reading: Psalm 46

Meditation - (adapted from C.H. Spurgeon's 'Morning & Evening')

You are my hope in the day of doom — Jeremiah 17:17

       The path of the Christian is not always bright with sunshine; he has  his  seasons  of  darkness  and  storm. True, the Scriptures tell us that “Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace;” (Prov 3:17) and it is a great truth, that our faith in Christ gives us happiness below as well as bliss above; but experience teaches us that if the “path of the just is like the shining sun that shines ever brighter unto the perfect day,” (Prov 4:18): yet sometimes that light is eclipsed. At certain periods clouds cover the believer’s sun, and he walks in darkness and sees no light.

       There are many who have rejoiced in God's presence for a season; they have basked in the sunshine in the earlier stages of their Christian life; they have walked along the “green pastures” by the side of the “still waters”, but suddenly they find the glorious sky is clouded; instead of the Land of Goshen they have to tread the sandy desert; in the place of sweet waters, they find troubled streams, bitter to their taste, and they are tempted to say, “Surely, if I were a child of God, this would not happen.” Oh! you don't need to think like that, you who are walking in darkness. The best of God’s saints must drink the wormwood; the dearest of His children must bear the cross. No Christian has enjoyed perpetual prosperity; there are times when every believer will want to hang his harp on the willows (Ps 137:1-2).

       Perhaps the Lord planned a smooth and unclouded path for you at first because you were weak and timid. He tempered the wind to the shorn lamb, but now that you are stronger in the spiritual life, you must experience the riper and rougher path of God’s full-grown children. We need winds and tempests to exercise our faith, to tear off the rotten branches of self-dependence, and to root us more firmly in Christ. The day of evil reveals to us the value of our glorious hope.

 

Prayer

            And now, Lord, what do I wait for? my hope is in You. Deliver me from all my transgressions.      Ps 39:7-8

News Update

After motoring across a snow covered France, we, Len & Phyl, are now in Britain combining a series of engagements with churches and personal visits with some time to relax a bit.

'Frauentreff' in Haus Barnabas

Before leaving Utzenfeld we enjoyed the visit of the ladies of Utzenfeld for one of their monthly get-togethers, and also a visit from our nephew and his family from Australia.

Cousins together with their wives.

  We've had a number of interesting engagements since being here in UK. Our London 'reunion' at Stanmore Chapel has now been an annual event in Stanmore for nearly 20 years - where do the years go? Some of the friends in the pictures below have used the occasion to keep in contact with us for most if not all of this period.

 

 

Colin Leyshon, Pastor of Stanmore Chapel and father of our daughter-in-law Ruth, gave us an encouraging epilogue after our time of sharing about the work and enjoying holiday pictures taken by our guests over the season. Colin reminded us of Jesus' first miracle at the wedding in Cana and looked at the role the servants played in this. Under the title of 'the significance of the insignifant' we were all encouraged to be aware that although insignicant in ourselves being used by God in his purpose makes us significant.

A little later in February we are heading northwest into Wales and our Welsh reunion is scheduled to be held in the school room at Capel Fron, Penrhyndeudraeth, near Porthmadog on Saturday 9^th March. The chapel is near the top of the hill on the Beddgelert Road out of Penrhyndeudraeth and parking is on the roadside just beyond the Chapel over the brow of the hill. We aim to begin at 3.00pm and there will be refreshments following the meeting. Do try and come if you live within travelling distance!

We aim to be back in Utzenfeld in good time for our Easter Conference when Tom Lori is guest speaker. Our new website is up and running and although not fully complete gives details of our Easter Conference and other special events planned through the year in Haus Barnabas.

www.haus-barnabas.com

News Update

above:- Haus Barnabas garden from landing window in December

Turkey dinner at our family get together

Apologies for lack of communication on our blog in recent weeks. We, Phyl & Len, had a busy but productive time in UK in Nov/early Dec and returned to snow in Utzenfeld. See photo of our garden from upstairs landing window. At our level it had disappeared by Christmas but there was plenty at higher levels to provide entertainment for our guests.

We were very satisfied with the response we had locally to our Christmas Carol Service on the fourth Sunday in Advent and then all of us in the house enjoyed Christmas together with Shirley our guest from Blackpool. Between Shirley leaving and a larger group of New Year guests arriving, we had a great evening with our children and grandchildren in Dan & Martin’s spacious manse home in Riehen, Basel. See David, Sophia and Ruth helping themselves to turkey!

The highlight for Haus Barnabas over the period was the New Year retreat week with Marilyn Baker and Tracy Williamson. We had 13 guests and a young lady to help us and it was a time of much blessing for all of us. Several guests asked about a repeat next year and subject to confirmation Marilyn and Tracy see the possibility of a pre-Christmas retreat in 2013 which would include visits to local Christmas markets! Watch this space if you are interested!

Our programme for 2013 is coming together well and you may be interested in our new website which although not yet complete is up and running on www.haus-barnabas.com

News Update

Haus Barnabas Christmas cards

  

Buying from our range of charity Christmas cards helps to support the  ministry of Haus Barnabas and this year we are offering a selection of eight different cards, pictured below. They come in packs of 10 cards of the same design and each has a Scripture text, a simple Christmas and New Year greeting and our 'Friends of Haus Barnabas' logo. Each pack of 10 cards costs £3.50 except HB Card 4 which is enhanced with gold and silver foil and costs £4.50 per pack.

 

 

HB Card 1 - The Wisemen: size 125mm x 125mm

HB Card 2 - The Shepherds: size 125mm x 125mm

HB Card 4 - 'Jesus': size 70mm x 150mm

HB Card 3 - Snowdrops: size 110 mm x 150 mm

HB Card 5 Shepherd Boy: siz 1120 mm x 150 mm

HB Card 6 - Robin: size 125mm x 125mm

HB Card 7 - Snow scene: size 70 mm x 150mm

HB Card 8 - Joy: size 125 mm x 125 mm

If you would like to order please send an email to David Barnes at:

d.cbarnes@yahoo.co.uk

or alternatively to us at Haus Barnabas:

len.holder@haus-barnabas.com

Please be sure to state the quantity of packs and the card ref number(s)

and give us an address for posting.

We will enclose an invoice with your cards and in addition to the cost of the cards as stated above we will add the cost of postage.
Payment can either be by cheque or direct transfer into our UK account. Unfortunately we are unable to handle credit/debit card payments.    

If you order 10 packs or more postage is free.

(Why not accumulate orders with family or friends to take advantage of free postage!)

We, Len and Phyl, plan God willing to be in the UK during November and also again in the New Year. We have reunion and information meetings planned as follows:

Saturday November 17th - Basildon, Essex

Saturday November 24th - Tollerton, York

Saturday Feb 2nd - Stanmore, Middx, N. London

Saturday March 9th - Penrhyndeudraeth, N. Wales

We would love to welcome as many of you as possible to these 'reunions' so please drop us an email if there is any possibility of you coming and we will send full details of place and time. 

    

News Update

The above group pictures give evidence of our busier weeks this summer. The Sportsreach young ladies enjoyed their five days with us at the end of July. They had good Bible times together and played some good football against local ladies' teams and had some very encouraging responses as they shared the Gospel and offered New Testaments at the end of their matches. They are already talking dates for 2013 and have suggested coming for more days to give more time for matches against teams from other towns and villages! 

The Pitsea Family Holiday was a challenging time for David & Christine Barnes who had organised it and for David & Liz McCann who led the Bible teaching. Each day was full of holiday activities with outings mostly using public transport, and each evening there were two separate children's Bible teaching sessions to cater for the wide age range of the youngsters, followed by a session to which everyone else was invited. It has been very encouraging to see at least two of the group expressing interest after the holiday in attending church back home in Pitsea. The journey home by public transport was an additional challenge. The journey began at our village bus stop when after a phone call the local bus service kindly ensured that the normal service bus that morning had the capacity to stow the luggage for 32 travellers, ie. nearly 50 cases and bags plus a 'rollator'. Our neighbours had watched the whole week with great interest.

It's good to have opportunities for local people to come into Haus Barnabas and a musical evening attracted an audience of about twenty earlier this month. It was arranged by the language school when Ben Burge, Allen & Annette's son-in-law accompanied his own voice on the guitar and brought us a range of songs, many being his own composition. This coming week we are also pleased to have been asked to host a golden wedding celebration for one of our village residents to which the couple concerned have invited about a dozen guests.
 

News update

Our summer season is now well under way and although not so consistently sunny as some might wish, compared with the weather in the UK our guests have felt very blessed.
The picture taken by one of our guests of the sign advertising the nature reserve area of the glacier basin where our neighbouring village of Prag is situated, will interest some of you. It shows some of the rarer flora and fauna to be found here and I can give the following translation:

Fluegelginster - Arrow broom  Chamaespartium sagittale

Alte Schwarzwaldhauser - Old Black Forest houses

Zippammer - Rock bunting (Emberiza cia)

Arnika  - Mountain Arnica or Leopard's Bane or Wolf's Bane (Arnica montana)

Warzenbisser - Wart-biter cricket (Decticus verrucivorus)

Auerhahn - Capercaillie  (Tetrao urogallus)

Hinterwaelder Kuh - Our local 'Hinterwalder' breed of cows

Wasseramsel - Dipper (Cinclus cinclus)

Schwarzspeckt - Black woodpecker (Dryocopus martius)

Weidbuche - lit 'Pastureland beech' -A variety of the European or Common Beech (Fagus sylvatica) which has taken on this particular form through being grazed by cattle when a young tree.

Wachtelweizen-Scheckenfalter  - Heath Fritillary butterfly (Melitaea athelia)

Geflecktes Knabenkraut - Heath spotted orchid (Dactylorhiza maculata)

This weekend we have a Sportsreach group of young ladies with us who during their five days here are playing football against three different local ladies' teams. They use the opportunity to talk about their faith and to share the Gospels Please pray that their witness may prove to be part of God's plan for a spiritual awakening in our upper Wiesental. We had a extremely encouraging worship service together this Sunday morning.