News update

This past week has seen more activity in our garden than for any other week we've been here. We're extremely grateful to Andy Ninnis for his skill and hard work in rebuilding the 2 metre high dry stone wall which collapsed some months ago. (see picture). With his father's help he also felled six largish trees to let more sunshine into the garden and brought to light the old bowling alley of by-gone years. Peter Ninnis also contributed significantly to the spiritual ministry of the house in giving us an encouraging exposition of the book of Habakkuk in four sessions, which were ably interpreted into German by Deb. A full house of guests, including our Hungarian friend Gabriel and a local German bus driver appreciated this ministry greatly.
Also this week we have finalised arrangements with 'charitycards.co.uk' for the sale of Christmas cards with the Haus Barnabas logo which we would like to recommend for your interest as an additional way of supporting our work and ministry. The cards can be bought online through

www.mycharitycards.co.uk/haus-barnabas

News update

We had a friend with us this past week whom we hadn't seen for 26 years. He very kindly told us we hadn't changed at all in the intervening period and wanted a few pictures of us. We've made one of them our blog picture for this week! At the end of this month we have a break from guests for a few weeks and are travelling across to Britain. We hope to get a bit of relaxation but have a guest reunion meeting in Otley, Yorkshire on 14th Nov - come and enjoy a Black Forest tea and an update on news and information - all are welcome, past guests, future guests and interested friends. See more information alongside here on blog spot. We also have a meeting at Langley Park, Durham on 17th and are speaking at a parish breakfast in Patcham, Sussex on 21st and at Herne Bay, Kent on 1st Dec.

News Update

Tom having enrolled for a second year of football training in the village is now playing short matches in the junior team against other local villages on a series of Saturday mornings this autumn. As the picture shows he is very proud of his kit, supplied by the village and with 'Utzenfeld' blazed across his back, and also his first real football boots. For his weekly training he wears an England shirt!! What will happen if he's ever chosen to represent the national German team?

This week we are providing the venu for the Utzenfeld pensioners' club's monthly meeting. This now happens several times a year. We provide food and drink and get to hear all the local gossip. This contact has also helped a number of the older folk to feel more comfortable about coming into our 'evangelical Christian' house. Some now come fairly regularly to our café and we were delighted when eight from the village came to the Marilyn Baker concert in September.

The second half of October becomes busier with guests before Len & Phyl come across to England in November. See details of our 'northern reunion' opposite.

News Update

On Sunday our worship service concentrated on thanksgiving for harvest and all God's visible, material gifts to us. We noticed however that in Psalm 65 David praises God for both material and spiritual blessings and that the New Testament shows us that God's invisible blessings are eternal and therefore more important than His material blessings. (2 Cor 4:18). Our very simple harvest display, seen in the picture, illustrate His visible gifts given for the good of our bodies. They come to us with God's love, but the greatest demonstration of his love is His gift to us of His Son Jesus, through whom He gives us eternal life. When we know and receive this gift we begin to know God Himself, which should bring us to the position where we can be happy in Him whether the material gifts are there or not. The prayer of the Old Testament prophet Habakkuk illustrates this. (Habakkuk 3:17-19)
After the service 17 of us enjoyed a fellowship lunch together.
Martin Leech from the European Missionary Fellowship was visiting us for the weekend and in our evening fellowship we valued hearing about EMF and its work. This led us into a time of earnest prayer for a movement of the Holy Spirit in revival across Europe and also more specificially in the lives of those we ourselves know and love.

News Update

With fewer guests and the much appreciated practical help of Emily in the house, who is with us for about another ten weeks, Len has been able to spend a few hours on two days helping our son Dan construct new cupboards and book shelves in the manse the family are moving into for their new pastoral responsibilities. After ten years of ministry with the Swiss Reformed Church in Muhen, Canton Aagau, Dan and Martina were unanimously accepted by the Church in Riehen-Dorf, Basel as a husband and wife partnership to fill the vacancy of their retiring pastor. The picture shows the church with the large manse on the right. The whole family are excited about the move but it will of course involve a change of school for the three older children, Sophia, David and Benedict. The Riehen Church has a long-standing evangelical tradition and the manse itself has a claim to fame being the childhood home of Leonhard Euler an important Swiss Mathematician, born 17o7.
www.gap-system.org/~history/Biographies/Euler.html. Tim has this week been in England to celebrate his father's 80th birthday but since his return has also spent a day assisting in the move. We wish Dan & Martina much blessing in their ministry in Riehen, Basel.

News update

Tom and Esther return to school and kindergarten this week. Tom beginning his second school year and Esther continuing at the village kindergarten. After six weeks of speaking essentially English this sudden re-immersion into their respective German-speaking environments can be quite traumatic. We have been praying for them. Tom also begins another session of football training with other youngsters in the village, this term on Thursday evenings. They both have local friends who they often play with outside of school hours and Deb encourages this as much as possible.
Emily who is helping us in the house for four months is a great favourite with the two children at the moment and this should be particularly helpful when Deb re-commences her English-teaching afternoon sessions shortly.
We have been pleased to have a guest from Bendigo in Australia this past weekend and others from the UK are joining her on Tuesday. We have shared our lives with more people than ever before these summer months and although the house has no 'empty' days before the beginning of November these next few weeks look like being a little less hectic as far as guests are concerned.
We pray that the following comment in our guest book may have been true for many of those who have been with us - 'Thank you for encouraging us through your life' - after all we see this as one of the more important reasons for the existence of Haus Barnabas.

News Update

A retreat week in Haus Barnabas entitled 'Encountering God' and led by Tracy Williamson and Marilyn Baker culminated in a public concert by Marilyn in which she sang her own songs and gave personal testimony, as a physically blind person, to God's love and grace in her life. This is now the fourth such concert Marilyn has led in Haus Barnabas over the past five years and her name is becoming known locally here. It was tremendously encouraging to us this past Sunday evening to see nine Utzenfeld villagers walking in groups of two and three to the concert, most of whom had never been to any 'spiritual' event in Haus Barnabas before. We feel the café has helped people to feel easier about coming to us, as four of those who came had been in the café that afternoon and received personal invitations to the concert.
A few weeks ago Marilyn had fallen off the platform on to the rail at Tonbridge station when her guide dog had underestimated the the amount of space she had needed to get around a group of workmen. She testified of God's providential protection in enabling the oncoming train to be stopped just in time and that she had no broken bones. A visit to the warm thermal baths whilst with us together with prayer had helped to relieve the pain and stiffness which were hindering her sleep pattern and we praise the Lord that she and ourselves and each of the group of ten who took part in the week had found blessing from it.