Basel, 22 October, 2005 

Dear Friends of Eastern Europe Renewal:

The Peace of the Lord be always with you.

We are very thankful for you who follow our lives and the work of EER with prayers and support. It is good to be able to send you news of the recent activities.

PAST: The German L'Abri mentioned in the last letter was a very good experience in Eastern Germany. Old and new friends from Dutch L'Abri came to help with the teaching and tutoring. The team organizing it made an amazingly good community of themselves and worked through several snags with a good heart. The two weeks had a real L'Abri atmosphere and everyone was excited at the end to do it again. I will also hope to be involved.

English L'Abri was a real joy for me. Marsh and Tuula Moyle from SEN in Bratislava were there. We lived in the same flat at L'Abri and went for a weekend together to their home Church and the home of Marsh's parents in Hinckley (the center of the universe, as they say). L'Abri was packed with students and visitors with a great variety of backgrounds, needs, hopes and plans. The community is very healthy. A woman was there whom Mary I met at Swiss L'Abri 27 years ago. 

This has been the L'Abri season for us and we also went to Swiss L'Abri for their Arts Week, where I gave a couple of lectures and got to know the students at long meal conversations. The branch was very full and lively and they are making a valiant effort to keep the old buildings in good repair.

The Swiss Reformed Church in Gossau/Zurich invited me back to give a lecture on evil. 50 people came and all stayed until after 10:00 for the discussion. I could stay with my dear friends, the Faehs, who hosted a formal meal for 13 on the Saturday which involved one of the most worthwhile conversations in my experience. I hope they are encouraged to continue in this kind of activity.

We are close to 2 Churches; the International Church in Lausanne, where I could preach the last 2 Sundays and the Brethren Assembly of Basel where I gave a public lecture on Spirituality last Wednesday and will preach tomorrow. Contact and involvement with these communities is a rich part of our lives. 

PRESENT: Mary enjoys her new walker very much and is much more active with it. She still gets dizzy if she does too much and needs to be careful. A new cat has come to live with us. This is the right one. Her name is Tanuki and her photo is below. David Richter, whom I met at German L'Abri visited us twice from Heidelberg to help me get a Palm. This thing keeps all my files and photos, 25 hours of music, makes sound and video recordings, gets and sends emails, goes on the web and contains 3 Bibles with study helps. It does not make coffee, but is still a great help to me, especially while traveling. I needed a lot of help to get it and learn to use it. The new mobile phone number is in the signature at the bottom of the letter. After being mostly at home for 3 weeks I will be taking off again for Bratislava and the

FUTURE: 6 weeks of Learning Community in Bratislava, broken by preaching in Vienna and a week of teaching in YWAM Germany. After coming home in early December there will be a week of teaching in Swiss YWAM. Then comes a break from mid December to 19 January, which will include a surgery on an abdominal hernia. Plans are shaping up for a University student weekend houseparty in Scotland in January, a large Arts Conference in London, Church and student conferences in Hungary and Slovenia, daunting teaching responsibilities at the European Leadership Forum in Sopron, Hungary, a weeklong Church conference in Abidjan, Ivory Coast in March, and a week in Norway YWAM. The Spring schedule is filling up. There was a possibility of going to Australia, but that has been put forward to the next year, perhaps for the best. 

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

Yours in Christ,

Ellis & Mary 

Tanuki 2

English L'Abri-Greatham Manor House

Plenary Session at European Leadership Forum, Sopron Hungary

Return to Top

Copyright © 2005 Ellis Potter.