JYC Seminar in Munich, Germany

Each year CEF-Munich organise a training day for the local churches and CEF volunteers. This year I was invited to speak on the theme "Teenager work - no thanks!". We met in a church above a Christian bookshop, right in the centre of the city. About 30 attended the sessions. It was great to get to know some of those working with the teens in this part of Germany – to encourage them in their ministry and to introduce them to out youth challenge literature.
The journey was about 5 hours on the train, so I was able to go down on Friday evening and come back on Saturday evening. I even had a few hours to have a look around the city.

Renate, the local CEF worker wrote the following, "...dankbar blicken wir auf das gute Teenagerseminar mit Gary Cousins zurück, das am Samstag war. Wir hätten uns zwar mehr Teilnehmer gewünscht bei ca. 1000 Einladungen, die an Gemeinden und Einzelpersonen verteilt wurden. Doch mit ca. 30 Teilnehmern hatten wir eine schöne und offene Atmosphäre und es kam manches positive Echo."

Sorry - I forgot to take a photograph of the group (Photo above of the Town Hall and Marienplatz by David Iliff)

Our first running event

The Lörracher Stadtlauf is the sporting highlight of the year for many serious and 'less serious' runners in the region. Over 1500 runners (including ca. 500 under 10s) took part. The event was very well organised and well supported with crowds lining the 1.3 km route and cheering us on. Our group was the last to leave and two minutes before the start it began to rain. I lined up on about the third row only to be completely shocked by the speed at which the front runners sprinted away from the line. I had to remind myself to ignore them, to slow down and to find my own comfortable pace. The rain was quite heavy and we needed to take care especially on the corners during the 5 laps of the 6.2 km race. I was aiming to be inside 35 minutes and I was delighted to manage a time of 32 minutes 48 seconds.The previous day, Joel decided to take part with other children from his school. Their 435 m race was earlier in the evening. At the finish I was very proud to see Joel coming in towards the front of the main group! It was a good positive experience for him.
By the end of the evening we were wet, tired and thankful for the whole experience. Next year we hope to be there again and David wants to join in - we're still working on Claudia :)

 

Afterwards

Joel on the front right.

Granny's visit

My Granny Cousins (82) from N.Ireland is over to visit us with another family friend (Kathleen). Here she is outside our home with Joel and David, complete with Black Forest Gateau and chocolate rings from the bakery across the road.

Hello from us

The blog has been a bit quiet lately so I just want to say a quick hello. We praise God for His goodness to us as a family. Thank you for your continued interest and that many of you have committed to pray for us.
We had a few days off to recover from the conference and on Sunday past we were at the Rhine Falls, near Schaffhausen in Switzerland (where we took this photograph).
As usual, a prayer letter is long overdue. I really should write it some day soon. Just to remind you that I do send out monthly prayer requests by email. If you would like to receive them, please click here.