Armenia - Day 1

I arrived in the early hours of this morning and was met at the airport by the CEF leader for Armenia and brought to our centre. The 20 students have just finished their practical week and they have been given the weekend off. In the afternoon, Terenik took me, his family and those of us who were around to see a nearby lake and the orthodox church at the top of the hill.
Tomorrow I will share about the work and preach in a church in the centre of Yerevan (Armenia's capital city). Then from Monday to Friday I will be teaching in the CMLC (Children's Ministry Leadership Course).

Happy 500th Birthday Jean Caulvin *10 July 1509

John Calvin
(Born 10 July 1509)

Read more about the signifigance of John Calvin in this online version of Tabletalk Magazine
This issue celebrates the 500th birthday of John Calvin by looking at his legacy. Contributors include R.C. Sproul, Thabiti Anyabwile, Richard Gamble, David Hall, Keith Mathison, Iain Murray, David Powlison, Gordon Reed, Philip Graham Ryken, R.C. Sproul Jr., Derek Thomas, and Gene Edward Veith.

Disbelief and shock

Two German women murdered in Yemen were Brake Bible College students. Anita G. (24) and Rita S. (25) were working at the Al-Dschumhuri hospital in Saada, Yemen as part of their summer internship. The hospital is run by the Dutch humanitarian organisation Worldwide Services. The women were taken hostage north of Saada on 12 June along with a German couple, their three children, a British engineer and a South-Korean woman. (At the time of writing, the fate of the others was still awaiting official confirmation.) The two women came from a Russian-German Baptist Church in the Gifhorn area near the city of Wolfsburg in Germany.

On Tuesday evening, the German TV news networks had this as their top story. The principal of the Bible College featured on many of the reports. While there is shock and sympathy in the secular media there are also many aspersions being cast which are only adding to the pain. The college has stressed that the women were not involved in evangelism but only in humanitarian work in a local hospital. If you understand German you can read the statements from the Bible College here.

CEF Europe has had a close relationship with Brake over many years. Many former Brake students have taken our Leadership Course at Kilchzimmer and are serving the Lord across the globe. As former students ourselves, we are also deeply troubled by the news of these murders.

Now the photographs of the women have been released to the press – their faces are very familiar! Through several visits to Brake Bible school in the last few years, I have gotten to know many of their classmates. I remember speaking for a long time to Anita in 2007. Now I am trying to remember the conversation... but I know I shared with her how God had led in my life and encouraged her to trust God for each step in her own life. She listened intently and seemed to soak in every word I was saying. She struck me as a young lady with a real deep desire to serve the Lord. Now she has paid the ultimate price. Today Anita and Rita are in the presence of the Lord. We don't understand why but our God knows best (Phil. 1:21).

Please pray for all affected, especially the families, friends, school colleagues and staff in Brake.

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News report from the German Evangelical News Agency IDEA in English

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Discovering the Black Forest

Pentecost Monday is a public holiday in Germany so we took advantage of a special train ticket deal to go and explore some of the Black Forest.

Another weekend

Friday night JYC (twister, smelly socks, new muscles and Bible study)
Saturday - school outing to the local bird park
Sunday - church (we eat together every second Sunday)

4.5 on the richter scale

At 3.39 am this morning we jumped out of bed screaming. As the children came running into our bedroom we instinctively knew that we had just experienced our first ever earthquake. It was scary! It's not uncommon for this area to have minor tremors but this was certainly above average!
The bed shook and it was over in less than a second. The noise was a loud, deep rumble, like many lorries driving through the house or someone using a power drill with hammer action.
This morning I checked the website and confirmed that it was indeed a tremor that could be felt within a 100 km radius. When we put on the news, we discovered that they have pinpointed the epicenter to the town of Steinen. Heard of it before? It's the town 7 miles from here where we go to church and where God has been really blessing recently. Maybe I should have titled this post "Church causes seismic waves in Steinen" :) Steinen actually is the German word for 'stones'. Well the stones were certainly moving this morning!
At this time, no damage has been reported. We are thankful that it wasn't worse. In 1356 a huge earthquake destroyed the nearby city of Basel.
Listening to the reports coming in, most local people here were woken by the quake, but simply turned over and went to sleep again. Everyone is talking about it but they don't appear to be overly concerned. The authorities have said that aftershocks can not be ruled out.

"Gott ist treu!" 50 years Bibelschule Brake

Since its foundation in 1959 under John Parschauer, Ernest Klassen und Heinz Weber, Brake Bible School in Germany has trained over 1,800 people many of whom are serving today in over 60 countries worldwide. Claudia and I graduated in 1999 and we both look back with thanks for the privilege of spending 3 years living and studying at this wonderful place and to be a little part of this history.
The missionary exhibition, which this year was held outdoors, proved to be a great success. The beautiful spring weather and circa 2000 visitors provided the perfect backdrop for meeting old friends and catching up with what God has been doing in our lives.
Some of the current students are interested in joining CEF. Pray that the conversations we had with them over the weekend will be used of God to direct them to the next step.

mission-net photo album

mission-net

Follow here on the mission-net website!

Mission-net continues until Sunday evening. We are really enjoying being here and so thankful for this privilege. I have 2 more seminars on Sunday to interpret but it is going well. Thanks for your prayers.

The worlds' leaders are coming to Germany are you?

This weekend will see the worlds' leaders descend on the French-German border for a NATO summit (about 1 hour north of us). Preparations have been ongoing for months and the locals are having to put up with a number of restrictions on their movements during the weekend.

What most of the delegates probably don't know is that around 3,000 young people from all over Europe are expected to descend on Germany (8-13 April) for a summit that could make an even bigger mark on history – the mission-net congress.
CEF and 150 other mission organisations, Bible colleges etc will be there. Through the speakers, seminars and conversations at the missions exhibition, we are seeking to mobilize young people who will go out across Europe to tell men and women and boys and girls the Good News of the Gospel. What about you? Are you coming? It's not too late to sign up! You can still register online.