News Update for week commencing 31st August

The glorious summer weather has continued here this past week and our guests have enjoyed an active week, walking, sight-seeing and generally relaxing. The free use of public transport as a benefit of the compulsory local tax has again been greatly appreciated this summer and the picture shows our guests of last week eagerly waiting at the'Engel' bus stop for the 10.00 am bus to Titisee or where ever. The morning devotions, Wednesday evening Bible study and Sunday service and fellowship has been appreciated and the comment has been made, more than once: "coming on holiday in a group with other members of the Church has enabled us to get to know one another in a new way." Thankfully this has always been said in a positive way!!

Although we have had the café open less hours this year, we do, as happened again today, have a few ladies from the village coming in for scones, jam and cream! We pray some will choose to come to Marilyn Baker's concert next Sunday evening.

Emily is proving to be a tremendous practical help and the lads helping us in the past weeks have been great and greatly appreciated.

We are looking forward to, and preparing for, the retreat week with Tracy Williamson and Marilyn Baker due to begin Wed 2nd September, entitled 'Encountering God'.

News Update

August is proving to be a month for groups in Haus Barnabas supplemented with additional guests. We have appreciated and valued the fellowship and input from a group from Nicholaston House, Swansea, (see picture), and this week a group of 11 from Essex and Cambridgeshire. It's so rewarding for us to see our guests relaxing as they get into their holiday and in 'becoming themselves' better able to take in nourishment from God's Word in a sincere way from the daily devotions, and contribute through their prayers and spiritual conversation for the mutual blessing of all.

Of interest for many of our friends is that this year for the first time we have seen a kingfisher on the stretch of the Wiese river by our house. Guests taking a walk before breakfast have reported this two days running. They have also been thrilled to see a family of dippers.

We have been pleased to welcome Emily this week who is now due to be with us for about four months on a voluntary basis as part of her gap year. We trust and pray we will all be of mutual blessing to each other and Emily may have opportunity to improve her German language skills.
Dave is with us for about another two weeks and the two young people are working and relaxing together well. Patrick left us on Wednesday to begin a job in Bern.

News Upate

During outings with our guests to the Mainau - the Isle of Flowers on Lake Constance we will often deviate into the city of Constance to see the Huss Memorial Stone. John Huss was born in about 1380 in Bohemia and became a pastor in Prague and dean and rector of the university there. Being enlightened to biblical truths through the writings of the early English reformer John Wickliffe, he began to preach and teach in a new and vital way which soon brought the condemnation of the archbishop of Prague and eventually excommunication from the Church of Rome. The emperor sent him a certificate of promised safe-conduct to a Church Council in Constance in order that he might defend his views, but once he had arrived in Constance the pope refused to acknowledge the emperor's promise and John Huss was burnt at the stake as a heretic. A year later his loyalist supported Jerome of Prague was also martyred on the same spot. The stone seen in the picture above commemorates the spot where the two men died for their faith in Jesus and their steadfast belief that obedience to the teaching of the Bible was more important than adherance to religious traditions and what they saw to be a corrupted church system.

We are pleased to have a full house of guests for the rest of August and into the first week of September and there has been 20 of us around the meal table the last few evenings. It's good to have Tim & Deb and family back from holiday.

News Update

Tim and Deb and children are having a weeks holiday on a campsite in France. We trust they have a really lovely, relaxing time. Len & Phyl are appreciating the help of Patrick in the house as three guests leave today, five more come Tuesday and then a further eight on Saturday. An increasing number of guests are using the Eurostar train to Paris and then the very fast TGV line to Mulhouse or Basel where we meet them.

It's a quiet time in Utzenfeld generally with school holidays and and some of the firms closing for holidays too, but the pensioners group which met in Haus Barnabas last week was well attended and with obvious activity in the restaurant a Swiss couple passing came in for ice coffees. We would very much like to be open more to the public as all coming into the house are confronted with evidence of our faith in Jesus and there are free bookets, Gospels and New Testaments to be picked up if they wish.

Patrick is helping us put the new website into German so hopefully very soon these pages will be added to the site.

News Update

Last Sunday saw the largest gathering yet this summer in our lounge for our Sunday morning international service. There were four with us from the locality, one of whom was a gentleman with us for the first time who still had personal questions about fairly basic biblical issues of faith. We also had a couple from Holland and guests from north-west Wales, Cheshire, Bedford and London. After a day of fellowship there were 20 of us for the evening meal and we really sensed the 'house' was fulfilling it's ministry of bringing encouragement and blessing to the full spectrum of ages. The picture shows some of the Welsh group, who were with us for the week, at the Todtnau waterfall.
Dave leaves us this week, after contributing in many helpful ways in the every day chores as also in longer-term organisational aspects of the work. We hope to welcome him back with his wife Rachel in the not too distant future for a further spell of voluntary help but in the meantime Patrick, who is Swiss and from the Freie Evangelische Gemeinde in Balsthal is taking his place. We are very pleased to have Patrick with us and he is already showing his worth as a valuable 'Mitarbeiter'.