A favourite cartoon of mine

We have found a house in Germany!

Thank you for praying for us during the past week as Claudia and I went over for a short visit to Germany in order to view this house which we found on the Internet . We put down an offer and praise God, the owners have accepted it. The house is exactly what we were looking for and more!! Not only that, but it is ready for us to move into in July (DV).

The house is located in a little town with 2,900 inhabitants called Binzen . It is in the very SW corner of Germany in the borough of Lörrach which straddles both the French and Swiss borders and is also on the edge of the famous Black Forest.
It is around 10 minutes from both Joel's school and the church. The autobahn on-slip is 2 minutes away. The journey time to Kilchzimmer will be about 50 minutes. The town has excellent bus connections and it is only 15 minutes by car from Basel airport.
The house itself has a large room on the ground floor with a separate entrance, which I will be able to convert into an office. There is also a guest room and a spacious living room area for entertaining.
Not only has God provided all that! Joel always said he wanted to live near a train line. Well guess what? There is an old restored railway, which passes about 50 metres away from our front door. It only operates in the summer months on Sundays using a steam locomotive. Of course the boys are thrilled about this.
Please pray for us as we now fill in lots of forms and make all the practical preparations for moving to Germany.
We praise God once again for His wonderful provision in this way!

GoogleEarth view of the journey from Binzen to Kilchzimmer.

Easter in Portrush

Just back from a great CEF Ireland Easter Conference in Portrush. Two years ago, in the same place, God planted a new seed in our hearts with a desire to get more involved in the work of the mission (little did we know then...). Last night we gave a Keynote presentation of how God has led us to this point and a run down of the work that we will do when we move to the European mainland in July. What a blessing it was to be prayed over and to hear so many encouraging comments from those present. We were especially glad that Philippe Mayhew was able to be there.
Of course, no visit to Portrush is complete without a visit to Barry's - Joel and David loved it!

Technical Support

Over the years I have often been called upon by people to help them out with their computer problems. A lot of the time I enjoyed the challenge of problem solving, although more often than not, the innocent question of "could you have a look at my computer when you have 10 minutes" became something that took up many hours.I am laughing more every time I watch this, it's so like what happens today. I am dedicating this post to my friend Andrew Roycroft who is not only rapidly turning into a techie, he has also maintained and simultaneously rediscovered his love of that fabulous invention, which the rest of us seem to be forgetting about - the book! (sorry for the Pauline sentence construction)

Oswald Chambers Devotional

May this challenge and bless you as it did me.

He went out, not knowing where he was going —Hebrews 11:8

Have you ever "gone out" in this way? If so, there is no logical answer possible when anyone asks you what you are doing. One of the most difficult questions to answer in Christian work is, "What do you expect to do?" You don’t know what you are going to do. The only thing you know is that God knows what He is doing. Continually examine your attitude toward God to see if you are willing to "go out" in every area of your life, trusting in God entirely. It is this attitude that keeps you in constant wonder, because you don’t know what God is going to do next. Each morning as you wake, there is a new opportunity to "go out," building your confidence in God. ". . . do not worry about your life . . . nor about the body . . ." (Luke 12:22). In other words, don’t worry about the things that concerned you before you did "go out."

Have you been asking God what He is going to do? He will never tell you. God does not tell you what He is going to do— He reveals to you who He is. Do you believe in a miracle-working God, and will you "go out" in complete surrender to Him until you are not surprised one iota by anything He does?

Believe God is always the God you know Him to be when you are nearest to Him. Then think how unnecessary and disrespectful worry is! Let the attitude of your life be a continual willingness to "go out" in dependence upon God, and your life will have a sacred and inexpressible charm about it that is very satisfying to Jesus. You must learn to "go out" through your convictions, creeds, or experiences until you come to the point in your faith where there is nothing between yourself and God.

New Website Just Launched

I have been planning to do this for the past 3 years... but here it is - finally!
www.thecousinsfamily.org

Joel's Lego Church

Click here to see a short video of Joel's Lego Church
Click here for a short video of David on his first bicycle (warning 10MB!)
Both videos require the free viewer QuickTime for Windows or for Mac

The Vic 20 and the Commodore 64

According to the BBC, veteran technology firm Commodore has just launched a new generation of high-end gaming computers at the Cebit trade fair in Germany.

In 1982 I became the proud owner of my first computer! Did anybody else out there own a Vic 20? It arrived in the US and Europe in 1981, it was one of the first home computers to feature a colour display.

I then progressed to the Commodore 64, which became a 1980s icon. It remains the biggest-selling computer model of all time, selling more than 17m units worldwide. Do you remember how we loaded programmes and games by playing a tape in a cassette deck and typing 'load' and then 'play'. But what about the huge memory expansion cartridges which could be plugged into the back to up the RAM to 64kb !!! (I'm serious!)

JYC Missionary Rally

Around 150 young people attended our JYC Missionary Rally on Saturday night past in Dungannon. It was great to see a number of the JYCs represented, some who travelled a considerable distance to be there. Claudia and I put on an 70 minute programme of quizzes, singing, testimony, presentation of the work and an epilogue to close with the missionary challenge.
Photo: David Crutchley on guitar - Angie on the keyboard and me on the PowerPoint with the new banner in the background

CEF Europe - steady growth continues!

Our statistical reports for 2006 have just be released and the figures give much cause for rejoicing - we praise God for all He is doing!

• There are now 536 full-time workers, serving in 46 European countries.
  
• Last year 715,000 children were contacted through at least one of CEFs' ministries and 14,000 were counseled for salvation!
• The Youth Challenge ministry also continues to grow with 345 JYC groups now in Europe reaching 4,400 junior teens. 215 were counseled for salvation in 2006.
  
• Romania once again has come out top with almost 1,200 young people attending JYCs. I recently received an invitation to visit Romania and to teach in an JYC Instructors course. We are now planning this for February 2008.