Another race

No we didn't do the whole marathon (maybe next year) just 12,5 km of it! Really enjoyed it. This has to be up there among the top marathons in the world for both the view and the supporters. More photos here.

26 students at the Autumn CMLC in Kilchzimmer

The Lord has once again answered our prayers and sent us 26 students from N.Ireland, Rep. Ireland, GB, Ghana, Italy, Slovenia, Zambia, Albania, Cyprus, Germany and Switzerland. As with each Autumn, classes are taught separately for English / German speakers. I am looking forward to teaching this group for the first time next week. Please continue to pray for a good, warm harmonious atmosphere as this group lives and studies together for 12 weeks. Pray that they will study hard so that more children might be saved and helped in their faith.

First Half Marathon

This past weekend I ran in my first competitive half marathon in Basel - photos. I was quite nervous before the race because although I have run the distance twice in training, this was the first big test since I injured my knee back in June.
Taking into account that I only starting to run 7 months ago, I was very pleased with my time of 2 hours, 12 minutes. David Austin (volunteer worker at Kilchzimmer) ran with me for the first 8 km behind the 2 hour pace-setters until I could no longer keep up! He put in a great performance, finishing just under the 2 hour mark.
The atmosphere over the 21 km of the course (13 miles) was something of a unique experience. Starting and finishing in the city of Basel, the majority of the course was along the Rhine and Wiese rivers, a truly beautiful setting – although I can't say I took much notice of it while concentrating on keeping the right pace. Pushing but not overdoing it. Slowing down when the pulse got to high but being careful not to loose momentum. It's amazing how the sound of the crowds cheering, the clapping and the sight of a familiar face along different parts of the course, really does help you to find some extra strength from somewhere. Perhaps the apostle Paul knew a thing or two about running when he wrote: 
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
(Hebrews 12:1 ESV)

Kilchzimmer CMLC - Summer 2010

These are the 9 students who are currently at Kilchzimmer taking our Children's Ministry Leadership Course. They come from, England, Germany, Ireland (North & South), S. Korea and Estonia. This week they have classes on the biblical basis for child evangelism (Henry Berry - Ireland) and on teaching doctrine to children (Gerd-Walter Buskies - Germany). Next week they will be introduced to Good News Clubs® (Dorthe Jensen - Denmark), how to prepare and teach a Bible lesson to children (Jennifer Evans & Angie McKeee - Ireland) and also the pre-school children (Martha Heidinger - USA).

As you can see, there is still lots more space in the classroom. Please pray with us for more students to enrol for the autumn CMLC from 25 September – 17 December 2010 (taught in English and German).

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.

European Conference links

The conference is now a memory of great times of fellowship, challenging messages, helpful seminars, excellent facilities and many emotional moments as we said thank you to Roy and Ruth Harrison for their 40 years of service in CEF and especially for the past 16 years as European Directors. Below are links to what some other bloggers have been saying:

• Tim Shirey's blog – video, webcasts, etc
• Brent Hautle's blog – keynote slides, lights, conference design, etc
• Aapo Pukk – Artist who did the painting for Roy and Ruth Harrison
• Stafford Carson - Conference speaker
• Official conference website with videos from all the main events
• Twitter feed

Next conference 2013 DV (date and venue will be published here in the coming weeks)

CEF European Conference

It was my privilege for the first time to organise our European Conference for 350 people from 45 nations. The conference is only every 3 years and this year we held it for the first time in the Schönblick Christian Guest Centre near Stuttgart in Germany.

Tonight was the last night. More photos and news to come later.
www.cefeuropeanconference.com