A family wedding

Congratulations to Daniel (Claudia's brother) and Nadine who were married last Saturday at a service in Schönblick Christian Conference Centre, Schwäbisch-Gmünd, Southern Germany. Also in the photograph are Claudia's mum and dad and sister.

German Speaking Bible Colleges growing

An article in the Evangelical German magazine "ideaSpektrum" has reported a 4,2% rise in the number of people in Germany, Austria and Switzerland attending Evangelical Bible Colleges.
At present, over 3,000 young Christians are attending ca. 50 Bible Colleges.
According to "ideaSpektrum" the top 5 are:
1. Martin-Bucer-Seminar Bonn (159)
2. Marburger Bibelseminar (156)
3. Bibelschule Brake (147) (Claudia and I graduated from here in '99)
4. Bibelseminar Bonn (140)
5. Freie Theologische Akademie Giessen (132)

Photo: Claudia's sister graduating this year from Bibelschule Brake

Office at Kilchzimmer

Since last week I now have an office at Kilchzimmer. As we had a snow covering for the past couple of weeks, the view from my window is very peaceful!

Online giving

Thanks to a new system set up for the CEF workers at Kilchzimmer, it is now possible for you to give towards our ministry using Credit Card (£, $, €) to give - click here and then click on our name in the left column!

Binzen in late November

Home again!

Preaching in Kiev

Time for one more service before I went to the airport. Many people in this little fellowship pray and support the local work of CEF. The man on the right is the chairman of the local CEF committee. This was a very fitting end to a great trip!

Ukraine JYCIC Group Photograph

Ukraine update

The course is now in its final days. We praise God for the good group of students we have and their desire to learn so that they may be able to train others in how to have an effective ministry among junior teens.
(Photo: myself with Igor & Victoria Dragunov, leaders of CEF in Ukraine)

Preaching in a Ukrainian Church

Photos: Snow is melting but there are not enough drains to collect the water; the chairman of the local CEF committee and his wife at the back of the church; Nastja and Vika are the two local CEF workers who are teaching with me; inside the church where I preached and shared about the work of CEF in Europe.

Some more news

(Photos: Illustration of the depth of snow; our accommodation and training centre; some of our students)
It is Sunday afternoon and I am just back at our accommodation after speaking at a church in Kiev. It took 2 hours to get through the city traffic!
It was a wonderful experience for me to worship with these dear believers. The service lasted for 3 hours and I was one of 3 preachers! A youth orchestra from another church was visiting and brought an excellent and very professional programme. The church choir also sang a number of pieces. The chairman of the local CEF committee and my translator accompanied me unto the platform. Nastja and Vika who are teaching with me this week are the local workers. The Lord really helped as I spoke and we pray that this church will open the door to CEF. All of our team felt that the meeting was very worthwhile and that I managed to get the message across in the time allocated. (I took some video and stills which I will publish here with the next opportunity.)
The course is going really well. I am enjoying the fellowship very much. The snow is starting to melt but there is still a lot of it lying around the streets.
Today I also received an invitation to speak at another church next Sunday morning before I fly home. So praise God for this also.

Day 2 - Kiev

I praise God for 19 students that God has given us. Snow is falling outside (below you can see the view from my room window).

First day at JYC Course in Ukraine

We held our first class on Thursday evening. The students have come from Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and even further afield. One of the students traveled 3 days in the train from Siberia!
The larger photograph is a live web cam overlooking Independence Square in Kiev.

Teaching in Kiev, Ukraine

Just to let you know that I arrived today (Wednesday) in Kiev. We are expected 26 students and staff to come for the JYC Instructors Course. Many of them will be traveling at this moment so please pray that everyone will arrive safely and that we will have a good start to the course.

New JYC manuals in other languages

I just got two pieces of good news today concerning our JYC literature:
1) German CEF are about to start printing "God Says" and they hope to have it ready for distribution by the end of the month. The James manual sold very well in the German speaking countries and we believe that this, the first manual of the 5 year cycle to be translated, will also sell very well.
2) Romanian CEF are planning to have their third manual "The Christian Soldier" ready for distribution at their regional conferences in February 2008.
Praise God with us for these positive developments and pray that everything will run smoothly so that these materials will soon be in the hands of JYC teachers across Germany and Romania.

Christmas is coming... if you are looking some gift ideas then click here. Thanks ;-)

Deputation in South Germany

Preaching in the South of Germany near Stuttgart

Brakenheim Baptist Church

Claudia sharing part of her testimony

Outside the church

Peter and Edel Reuschle

On Sunday we visited a Baptist Church near Stuttgart were a friend of ours from Brake Bible College is now the Pastor. Over this past week we have travelled 1600 miles up and down Germany on deputation, visiting Neumünster, Kiel, Lemgo and Brackenheim. Although mostly smaller gatherings, all of our meetings went really well and we were encouraged by the interest people showed in us and our ministry.
Pray that as a result we will gain new prayer and financial supporters.

Deputation in Northern Germany

Yesterday we made the 10 hour journey to Claudia's parents home in Neumuenster and this morning we shared in Claudia's home church about our ministry and I preached from Matthew 18. We are so thankful for this opportunity and for the warm welcome we received. This evening we will share at a house meeting and during the next 14 days we have more meetings planned. Please pray for safety in travel and that God would lay it on peoples hearts to pray for us.

Online peer pressure

I have submitted to the pressure and fear of being out of vogue... it's official, I now am a member of Face Book. If you want to be my friend :) click here and sign up!

Also, tonight we had our second JYC meeting and it went really well again. Everybody came back and we had one more new person there.

First JYC in our new home

Tonight we were delighted that 10 young people turned up for our first JYC! Most of them either go to our church or have some connection to it.
As it was the first night, our priority was just to get to know each other better, so we played a few games, got everyone to introduce themselves and discussed some of the themes we want to look at in the future. Claudia gave a short testimony and then we had some refreshments. The two hours were over quickly.
We felt that all in all the night went very well and that the young people really enjoyed themselves. We will move it around the leaders homes for the next while and hopefully by the new year our church will be into its new building where there is lots of room for us to meet.

Teaching at a German Bible School

Today was a public holiday in Germany (Reunification Day) so the boys were off school. That meant that I was able to take the family with me for the classes I had at the Bodenseehof Bible School on Lake Constance. Claudia was able to share some of her testimony and the boys behaved themselves. I am so glad that my new role within CEF allows for this type of work. I love sharing with people about the work of CEF and speaking to a large group of young people. We finished the day with a visit to the Rhein Falls, the biggest waterfalls in Europe.

Following in her sisters footsteps

We spent this weekend as a family at our former Bible College (Bibelschule Brake). It was great to meet with students and teachers again and to sit under the ministry of Dr Erwin Lutzer (Senior Pastor at Moody Church, Chicago).
However the main purpose of our visit was to attend the graduation service for Claudia's (wee) sister Ann-Christin. We praise God for His work in her life and pray for her as she goes now to the University in Flensburg, Germany to study to become a teacher.
It was a special honour for me to be asked to take part in the Saturday evening service by reading the scriptures and opening in prayer.

More photos from the conference

Ministry News

The latest news from Youth Challenge in Europe.

Download the Challenger as a PDF

Simply the best in Word and Song

Since first hearing him speak in 2002 at the Evangelical Ministers Assembly (EMA) in London, and meeting him personally in Portrush at the Irish Baptist Pastors Conference in 2003, I have frequently visited the Truth for Life website to download the sermons of Alistair Begg. He is, in my opinion, up there among the best when it comes to faithfully expounding the Word, illustrating it appropriately and earthing it to our lives.

The second person(s) that have greatly blessed my life in recent years have been singer/song writers Keith and Kristyn Getty. I have never met them personally (even though they come from my home country N. Ireland) but their music has been used of God to give me many wonderful and intimate times with my Lord. Although most of Keith's best known hymns were co-written with Stuart Townend, Keith and Kristyn have recently started to release recordings together. Their hymns are now well established in many churches across Europe and North America, hymns such as, In Christ Alone, See What a Morning, Higher Throne and that hymn, which I can hardly sing without being overcome with emotion and deep, deep gratitude that my sins are forgiven, The Power of the Cross. This song, for me, is deserving of being up there with John Newton's Amazing Grace.
It was so wonderful to learn last year that Keith and Kristyn had accepted an invitation from Alistair Begg to join him and the staff at Parkside Church, Ohio. What a team! The best in Word and Song. However, it gets better! Parkside have just started to offer video streaming of their services on their church website, where the Gettys can often be seen leading the worship before the sermon! So if you want to be truly ministered too then go get a Bible, turn up the speakers and click here.
Have you too been blessed by the ministry of these dear people? Use the link below to leave your comment.

A Sunday afternoon cycle = 3 countries - 33 Km - 40,000 people

Yesterday I took part in the "slowUp Basel-Dreiland" along with 40,000 others on bicycles (90%) and Rollerblades (10%). This was the first time on my bicycle for two months (since my elbow operation) so I opted for a 33 km route rather than the full 45 km which went into Switzerland, Germany and France. The route crossed the border 5 times and the Rhein river 4 times. All of the roads were closed to traffic and everyone (well most people) went around the route in a counter-clockwise direction. The weather was superb as was the organization of this huge event. This was the first time for this event in Basel but it looks to become a yearly event. Next year I want to do the full route. Anybody want to join me?