Dear Friends of Eastern Europe Renewal:

The Peace of the Lord be always with you.

"God alone is God, but God is not alone."

This couplet has been a major theme in my teaching in various places and contexts recently. The God of the Bible alone is our source of Truth and only the God of the Bible is the foundation of human relationships.

Where has this teaching been? Right after the lecture in November on Buddhism in Cambridge for Christian Heritage a week of evangelistic meetings was held by the Czech Brethren Assembly of Nitra, Slovakia. The theme was "Spirituality" and the venue was the beautiful old Synagogue. This was my first teaching in a Synagogue and an emotional experience. About 50 people came and the Church members met several New Age, Naturalist, Humanist and Pagan neighbors who were interested in Spirituality. We had very interesting discussions. Then back to Basel to preach in the Brethren Assembly before taking off for a week in Hurlach, Germany at the YWAM base.

December was a bit quieter with a sermon in the Basel Brethren Assembly, a weekend conference for the Vinyard Church of Landsberg, Germany and teaching 2 groups of 80 teenagers about epistemology and spirituality at the Basel Explo. The Explo was another first time experience for me. It was out of my comfort zone, but the teens were great and I would gladly do it again. Keeping teens engaged for 105 minutes is a challenge. Working interactively helped a lot.

In January the Brethren Assembly of Basel organized an outreach of 2 Wednesday evening lecture/discussions and 2 connected Sunday sermons. It was an experimental effort, but the response was positive and we are all encouraged to try it again sometime. At the end of January the SCALD school of Arts invited me for a week in Germany. The first 2 weeks of February I taught at the YWAM base in Switzerland. It is much better to teach for 2 weeks as we can go more deeply into issues and get to know each in a more personal and relaxed way. Between the 2 weeks at YWAM the Swiss Reformed Church of Gossau in Kanton Zurich had a weekend seminar; lectures Friday evening, Saturday morning and afternoon and a sermon on Sunday. Our dear friends Jurg and Anne Faeh hosted me for the weekend and Anne translated all the teaching. This was the first time I had been priveledged to preach in a Swiss Reformed Church and a real joy to me.

Tiredness and the flu caught up with me in mid February and I am improving just in time to take off for 6 weeks teaching at the Gospel in Society Learning Community of SEN in Bratislava. During this time there will be a week of teaching at YWAM in Germany, a Church seminar and Easter sermon in Vienna and...

Mary has recovered very well from her broken back and is encouraged. The new cat, Timothy, is a great blessing and loves Mary especially. Our best friends and neighbors, Martin and Christine Berendt, whom I married, are moving to Zug, which makes us sad.

Please pray for my mother, Kathryn, who is alone and wanting to move.

Only God could explain our finances to you, but we are OK. Thanks to you through whom God blesses us financially and in other ways. We know several missionaries in Europe who should have collapsed financially because of the weak dollar, but God wants them where they are so they manage. This is a witness and encouragement.

Please let us have your news. May the Lord bless and keep you.

Yours in Christ,

Ellis & Mary Potter

PS - If you have a broadband or DSL connection, check out Skype. http://www.skype.com It is a good, free/cheap way of communicating.

SCALD school in German YWAM

Church on the hill in Gossau, Switzerland

Discipleship Training School, Switzerland

Timothy and Friend

Teaching in Nitra Synagogue

Nitra Synagogue exterior

Return to Top

Copyright © 2005 Ellis Potter.