Friday 31 August 2012

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.