News Update

Our, (Len & Phyl's) UK trip in November took us up the eastern side of the country. It was good to meet up with our friends in Basildon.  David and Christine Barnes had arranged a reunion for those who have come to Haus Barnabas for the Pitsea Family Holidays in recent years. Richard and Michelle whose conversion dates back to a week in Haus Barnabas in 2009, cooked us all a roast dinner.

It's so encouraging to see this couple growing in the Christian faith and to hear how God has been working in their family and particularly in their oldest son Ricky. David McCann who with his wife Liz have led the Bible programmes during the holidays, came up from Southampton and organised a number of activities for us. We also were able to talk with several who were expressing interest in coming to HB in 2014! On the Sunday Len preached at   Fryerns Baptist Church in the morning and gave a report of Haus Barnabas at Kingswood Baptist Church in the evening. We spent two very comfortable nights in our campervan in the Kingswood Church car park by kind permission.

During the following week we enjoyed visiting and catching up wtih friends in Cambridge and  Norwich before arriving in Durham on Thursday evening. It was very interesting to revisit Ripon on our journey north and to drive by our old haunts of thirty years ago!

We were wonderfully entertained in Durham and Phyl's birthday on the Friday was celebrated in style with a meal out in the evening. On Saturday we motored down to Otley in Yorkshire for our 'Northern Reunion'. This is the fifth year we have held this and was the best attended ever with a large contingent from the Yorkshire Christian Ramblers Association and friends from the Yorkshire Dales in the north, and from Derbyshire further south.  We are pleased to have an enthusiastic organiser from the Ramblers Association promoting holidays with so much interest for a 2014 holiday that we are already needing extra accommodation outside the house. 

On Sunday morning Len preached at Langley Park Baptist Church, Durham and it was good to renew fellowship with our friends there, several of whom have holidayed with us in past years.

We made a number of calls on our way back south including a brief visit to a longstanding friend in Braintree who was delighted to show us how her grandchildren had grown. The campervan enables us to be independant. We can as necessary overnight in motorway stops or secure parking places, cook ourselves a simple meal on the two burner gas stove, deal with any emails needing attention and sleep comfortably in our double bed with its memory mattress. Although very compact it's real luxury camping, even in winter with a heater blowing hot air around and a boiler for hot water.

Our next call was Horley, near Gatwick airport, where we had our first home and our two sons were born. It was wonderful to visit another longstanding friend who had been a young teenager in our youth club there in the early 1970s, going on with the Lord and now Church secretary in Horley Baptist Church.

So back to our UK base with our kind friends in Ashford where I'm allowed to use the dining room as an office and we could spend many hours printing and stapling our 2013 news report to get into the post before we returned to Germany.

To read the annual news report you can find it via the following link to our website. 

www.haus-barnabas.com   

News Update

This autumn's reformation programme in Haus Barnabas included for the first time a day's visit to the city of Geneva. The photo shows us in the university park by the 'reformation wall' in front of Theodore Beza (1519-1605), John Calvin (1509 -1564), William Farel (1489-1565) and John Knox (c.1513-1572).

    The majority of our group were from Scotland so, in addition to John Calvin himself, there was a special interest in the Scottish reformer John Knox!

   Dr John Glass who pastors a reformed church in Geneva showed us around the Calvin sites of the city, giving us many interesting facts about the reformer and the influence of his Biblical preaching and writings not only in Geneva but throughout many surrounding countries in 16th century Europe.

    Our programme this autumn had John Calvin as its main emphasis and our guest speaker, Ian Jemmett, gave us four sessions on the man Calvin himself and then warmed our hearts in directing us to the teaching he expresses in his famous Institutes on the nature of God as Trinity and also His providential control of the world and of each of us as individuals.

   We aim to give time for more relaxing moments in our programme and in visiting Ulrich Zwingli's birth place in Wildhaus we took the opportunity of a lovely October day to take a cable car up the surrounding Swiss Alps. Our photo shows some of us picnicing 'on top of the world' at well over 7,000ft!


    Once again in 2013 we are offering charity Christmas cards and this year all profits will help the building fund in Haus Barnabas.
Click www.haus-barnabas.com for full details and order form

 

News Update

We apologise for lack of news for so long. The summer has been a busy time for us in Haus Barnabas and we have been glad to welcome guests from a wide area of the UK ranging from Yorkshire across to North Wales and down to Frome, Southampton, Ashford and Basildon in the south.

 The Basildon Family Holiday group above were with us for 10 days. David and Liz McCann led an evening programme for both the children and the adults based on some of Jesus's challenging words in His sermon on the mount. The group photo above was taken after an enjoyable BBQ in the garden on their last evening before we saw them off on the bus to Basel from where they travelled by train back to Ebbsfleet and home.

Following on from this large group from Essex a further group came to us for a different type of holiday. Seventeen members of the Christian Ramblers Association mostly from the Yorkshire branch descended via Basel airport for a walking holiday. They expressed great appreciation for the Christian family atmosphere in the house and most entered enthusiastically into our morning devotions. Here are a couple of pictures of them enjoying the Black Forest.
 

   We have been extremely grateful for voluntary help during this busy season and the students and young people who have devoted part of their summer in assisting us have entered well into community life in Haus Barnabas. Most have spoken of the spiritual benefit of their time with us and are returning year after year as long as their circumstances allow.

We look forward now to providing a reformation programme in early October when our house accommodation is once again insufficient for the number of participants booked and we are needing to use additional rooms in the village, as we have already had to do several times this summer.

Marilyn Baker, the blind singer and song writer, together with her companion and co-worker Tracy Williamson are due to be with us again in the New Year (8th - 14th January 2014), God willing. We are only just beginning to advertise this so there is still room availability if you  are interested.

Blessings,

Len & Phyl and team

 

News Update

The weekend May 24th - 27th was very busy but very enjoyable. Our booked speaker for the weekend conference on evangelism and local churches, Barry King, was unable to come at the last minute due to ill health but we were pleased to accept the offer of his son Ryan to take his place. Ryan has done this very ably, giving us four sessions on the nature, evangelism, ministry and fellowship of the local church under the umbrella theme of church planting. We have entertained up to 20 guests over the weekend from India, Switzerland, France, Austria, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England and with one local German gentleman joining us for our Sunday morning service.

With Deb and Tim in Kent for the school holidays we couldn't have run the conference weekend without help and the Lord provided this very adequately. We have been particularly thankful to Isobel for help in the house generally, Carol who has been helping with clerical work, and John with airport transport and DIY. The Lord is good and faithful.

The photo shows Ryan chatting to our longer term helper Michael in the kitchen.

During this past week, on Tuesday and Thursday, we have provided meals for two groups from the village which has nurtured contacts and friendships. Both evenings went well and as prayers were clearly answered at a practical level we trust to see spiritual answers also.

 I, Len, am extremely grateful to the Lord that I appear to have completely got over my operation and am able to do a full day's work without the old pain.

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.

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