Dear Friends of Eastern Europe Renewal:

The Peace of the Lord be always with you.

I hope Christmas and New Year were both blessings for you. We were quiet. I'm having a break from travelling for a couple of months. It is good. After Ukraine I was in Bratislava and other places in Slovakia for a week and then flew to the US for Thanksgiving with dear friends in Dallas and my mother in California. My mother has moved into a retirement home and is happier, healthier and safer than she was living alone. Everyone is thankful. While with her I could get my Dad's large, old Bible with all the beautiful illustrations and study helps, which I spent 100s of hours pouring over as a child. It was falling apart a bit but is now beautifully bound in black leather and gold letters by a Swiss craftsman.

Soon after coming home from the US I went to a YWAM base in Germany for a week of teaching on worldviews. The classes are open for discussion and we came to the issue of Biblical Anthropology - what is the image of God? Many students have been taught a tri-partite division of the human into "body", "soul", and "spirit". I questioned the Biblical accuracy of this understanding and we had quite some discussion. It seems to me this system does not include "heart", "mind" or "will" and regards the supernatural part of God's creation as more real and permanent than the natural part. It also is a description of the individual and the Image of God is clearly "them" in Scripture and must include relationships. Any truly Biblical Anthropology should express the relationships instead of only the identity - should be "other-referential" rather than "self-referential". It was a challenging and worthwhile week, as usual.

Before and after Christmas people came to visit us, instead of me flying all over the place. Antonio Halitchi from Romania who works at SEN in Bratislava came for a week and Tim Dale came from England for 5 days. It was great to have visitors. Even the cat was glad.

We continue to be very glad for our Church involvement here in Basel. Usually I only contribute teaching to the community but at the Christmas feast I could play the recorder in a little Renaissance quintet of 2 Gambas, Lute and 2 Recorders. It was great fun and not bad.

Some friends near Zurich have begun having formal meals in the style of L'Abri - 3 so far. We are hoping to do one every two months for 2007. They invite people, choose a topic, someone primes the conversation pump and we eat and talk together for the evening with about 12 people. It is a wonderful ministry by these people and the guests really seem to be blessed and eager to do it again. I love to go and support this activity.

The web master for the EER website has found more space and says MP3 files of lectures should be available soon. Check it out.

Please pray for a possibility of working with a Church in Lausanne. They have no pastor and someone they hoped could come from the US cannot do it. I have offered to go to them 2 weekends/mo. We will talk about it when I go there to preach on 4 February. Mary and I have known this Church for almost 30 years and visited them more or less often over the years. Recently I have preaching there a bit more often. We all want God to show us clearly the way forward on this.

In early Spring when the travelling picks up again I hope to be in a YWAM base in Switzerland for 10 days in February, 2 weeks in Bratislava for their new Open House program, which will be similar to a L'Abri term (with DTY in Vienna, Banska Bistrytsa, Nitra and Zilina), in England for the Word Alive Conference and some teaching at English L'Abri, 2 weeks in Norway at a Worldview School, 3 weeks in Australia (!) with YWAM, a conference in Kiev in June as well as the European Leadership Forum in Egers Hungary, an Arts Conference in So. France. In July and August there is only 1 week at an Arts Festival in Wroclaw, Poland and a week in St. Petersburg. After that there are no bookings abroad, but that could change. The schedule will be on the website.

Deteriorating hearing in my Right ear has become annoying, perhaps more for others than for me. Now we are working toward getting a device to help, hoping to find the effective device for the effective price.

May the Lord bless and keep you now in the beginning of 2007 and throughout the coming year.

Yours in Christ,

Ellis

Dad's Bible rebound

Preaching in Zhitomyr, Ukraine Evangelical Church

View from my window in Zhitomyr

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Copyright © 2007 Ellis Potter.