NW Europe Area advisory group

This week while in Denmark for the advisory group meetings we were able to visit the film studios where CEF make the children's programme – GPS.

St. Patricks outreach in the FES Lörrach

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„Slemish war super! Klasse Aktion“, so die Stimme aus der Grundschule nachdem die Gruppe Slemish den Unterricht mitgestaltet hat und im Pausenhof unserer Schule spielte.Diese Begeisterung war auch am Samstagabend beim Konzert vom ersten Lied an zu spüren. Der Spannungsbogen hielt bis zum Schluss an und animierte Besucher nach Konzertschluss, begleitet von der Band, sich im traditionellen irischen Tanz zu üben.Paul, Nigel, Andy, Albert, Andrew, Kevin & Davy verbanden traditionelle Musik mit den Erzählungen zu ihrem Glauben und der Kultur Irlands. So entstand ein bunter, unterhaltsamer und hinreißender Abend mit phantastischer Folk Musik, direkt von der Grünen Insel. Die Musiker beeindruckten auf ihre besondere und irisch-fröhliche Art das Publikum, und brachten so auch einen Hauch des Irischen Nationalfeiertags St. Patrick's Day am Vorabend nach Lörrach. Bilder von Städten und der Landschaft Irlands, die parallel und abgestimmt zu den Liedern gezeigt wurden, rundeten das traditionelle und geistliche Liedgut ab.Gegründet wurde die Band im Jahr 2005, dabei bezieht sich der Bandname „Slemish“ auf einen Berg in Irland, auf dem, der Überlieferung nach, Saint Patrick seine Verbindung zu Gott gefunden hat. Er wurde als Jugendlicher versklavt, in diese Gegend verschleppt und musste Herden auf dem Slemish hüten.
Auch ein Bandmitglied berichtete von seiner besonderen Verbindung zu Deutschland, hat er doch hier zu seinem Glauben an Jesus Christus gefunden.2008 erschien das erste Album von „Slemish“, nach erfolgreichen Auftritten in Irland, Frankreich und Spanien. Die Bandmitglieder sind keine Musikprofis, sondern nehmen sich jedes Jahr rund um den St. Patrick Day einige Tage Urlaub und reisen auf eigene Kosten in Städte um dort ihre Musik und Ihren Glauben weiterzugeben.

Man-centered vs. God-centered Teaching from Children Desiring God

Man-centered vs. God-centered Teaching from Children Desiring God on Vimeo.
David & Sally Michael explain the difference between man-centered and God-centered Bible teaching. From their March 2011 presentation "A Vision for God-Centered Worship in the Next Generation". Watch the full video: http://vimeo.com/21400553

Teaching CEF workers to teach others also

Instructors and students at the 2013 IOT-1 course in Kilchzimmer 
Photo by Tim Shirey (13/02/2013)

Praise God for the help given to lead the IOT-1 course held in Kilchzimmer this month. We had 22 students (mostly CEF workers) from Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Portugal, Finland, Greece and Kosovo. They were taught by experienced CEF Instructors from Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Ireland, Denmark, Finland and USA.
Pray that each student will be able to be involved in TCE (Teaching Children Effectively) training back in their own countries, so that more teachers will be trained and more children reached.
Pray for the European Education department, that we will be able to reach the goal of training 120 people this year at CMLCs in Europe.

Happy Christmas - Northern Ireland style flashmob

We want to say Happy Christmas to all of our blog readers with the help of the Northern Ireland Tourist Board. This has been really well done. Read the story behind it here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-20807844

Driving to Kilchzimmer is often quite an adventure

Driving up to Kilchzimmer in the snow from Gary Cousins on Vimeo.

Happy Christmas to all our blog readers

Learning how to care for your support team

In November I taught a Support Raising seminar in Kilkeel, N.Ireland with Tibi, a colleague from Romania. We had 25 (mostly) CEF workers from (N.) Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Kilchzimmer attend the seminar. I was greatly encouraged by this time of helping other workers build their own support team. This type of practical workshop-training for our full-time workers is something I really enjoy doing.

We asked some of the students, "What are some significant things you have learned through the seminar?" Here's some of what they said:

• "Learning to depend on God, yet being willing to take responsibility that I must share the need."
• "My primary goal in deputation is passionately sharing about what God is doing, rather than pleading with people to give me money! Makes it more of a joy than a burden."
• "I thoroughly enjoyed the classes, the 'biblical perspectives' on support raising. I was amazed at the number of references to money/support in the Bible."
• "I enjoyed learning how to write a prayer letter. After taking to Gary, I worked for 2 hours on a new prayer letter! "
• "To continually look to the Lord for the resources needed (vertical) and not to focus on the horizontal."

They're all praising God

I have lost count of the number of times I have watched this since I first saw the full message over a year ago. The boys were also fascinated by it, so we jumped on their interest and read this to them in the evenings before they went to sleep: Indescribable (Illustrated Edition): Encountering the Glory of God in the Beauty of the Universe by Louie Giglio

PB 1:49:03 in Lucerne Half-marathon despite wintery conditions