News update

This past week has been an eventful one for us and we want to thank and praise God for a number of significant happenings:

1. Pastor Peter Ninnis gave us a helpful study on the Old Testament book of Ruth. He preached from Ruth chapter 1 in our morning service last Sunday and then gave us three further studies on the following three chapters on Monday Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. These expositions with helpful application for our faith and practise today were ably interpreted by Deb into German and were appreciated by both English and German guests in the house and one or two German friends coming in each evening. We would like to think that this can be the first of similar weeks of Bible ministry!

2. The installation of our new hot water and central-heating boiler was completed at the beginning of the week and proved itself very satisfactory until after the last guest had left on Friday when a significant part failed on Saturday leaving us without hot water or heating over the weekend. Our heating engineer was prepared to motor 30 miles to Freiburg on Sunday to fetch the necessary part to install but we told him we had no guests over the weekend and Monday would be soon enough, which he appreciated! New guests are due to arrive Tuesday.

3. John Lowther had worked hard on the en suite bathroom in Tim's old office in the roof and when he left on Wednesday there were only a few details for us to finish off before the room can be used by the 'helpers' coming to work with us at the end of the month when Tim and Deb and family are in the UK. Please pray with us about this week 23rd -30th May. We have a group of ten coming from Essex including 5 children. Several of the children are a 'Good News Club' and their parents are with them. David & Liz MacCann and family are coming to provide a programme for the children each evening and we are praying that this together with our Sunday service and the general witness of the house may be a real blessing to the whole group.

The guests had a very successful visit to Mainau, the Isle of Flowers, on Lake Constance with Tim this week, when the the snow covered Swiss Alps could be clearly seen across the lake to the south, the orchid house full of hundreds of blumes and the island's gardens and fields full of colour.

Guest bookings for the whole period May to October have continued to come in most days this week and we have had the first two bookings for the Tracy and Marilyn retreat week entitled an 'Encountering God renewal break' 1st -7th September.