News Update

This weekend we've had the pleasure of the company of a team of young ladies from different parts of Britain and Germany under the auspices of 'Sportsreach' with us in the house. www.sportsreach.org.uk They have encouraged one another spiritually through their devotion times, shared actively in our Sunday worship service, enjoyed the Black Forest and played football and netball on our Utzenfeld playing field and Schönau sports stadium. One of the high lights of their visit was a soccer match against the Schönau ladies team! The final score of 5:0 to Schönau doesn't reflect the skill and enthusiasm with which our girls played! After the match their leader, Sue Marsden was able to explain their Christian faith and the commitment to Jesus and His Gospel which brought them together and motivated them. They had one or two gifts for the Schönau team and then presented each member with a Christian booklet explaining the Gospel. We are praying that there will be on-going contacts through this visit and fruit to God's glory.

News update

We have this week past, amongst other things, been giving our website a face lift and bringing it up to date. We shall continue to work on it but do please draw our attention to any spelling errors or other mistakes. www.haus-barnabas.com
We continue to appreciate the voluntary help of young people in the house and this coming week will see a change. Anna's six weeks are coming to a close and we have much appreciated her assistance including, at her own initiative, clearing weeds in parts of the garden, adding a few new plants which have smartened the view from the window considerably. Today, Monday, we are expecting a young lady from Switzerland, Damaris to be with us to help with things for two weeks. She wants to use the opportunity to improve her English.
We also this week expect to have several contacts with the village. The ladies club (Frauentreff) in Utzenfeld come to us for their regular get-together on Tuesday and at the end of the week a ladies football team from Sportsreach in northern England come for a long weekend and are scheduled to play the Schönau ladies football team. We are hoping that some of members of the latter will accept an invitation to come to the house to meet us all socially. The Sportsreach team are eager to share their faith and that should give an opportunity.

Sometimes our guests hear a scurrying sound across their ceiling during the night or early morning. Up to now our 'roof-dwellers', stone martins, a close relative of pine martins found in parts of the UK, have been very secretive and have only rarely been seen and then mostly as they clamber up the rock face at the back of the house into the forest beyond. However this year they have become more sociable. We have used our 2nd-floor rooms for helpers and one night one of them saw a furry face peering through the window at them from the roof outside. Yesterday one came running down the rock face to stare chatteringly at us in the garden. It's God's house and He is sending all sorts of guests to us!!
We've this weekend enjoyed fellowship with a family from Perth, Australia and in two weeks time we are expecting a ladies football team from Lancashire. Under the auspices of Sportsreach these use sport as a means of contact for sharing their faith in Jesus and communicating the Gospel. We have been able to arrange for them to play the Schönau ladies team on the splendid Schönau sports ground and are hoping that some of these local ladies and their friends will accept an invitation to Haus Barnabas to meet the English team socially and to hear about their personal faith that binds them together and motivates them. Please pray about this.
Phyl unfortunately kicked a rock rather hard when playing football with the children on Saturday. It seems likely that a big toe is broken. Please pray it will heal quickly.