Dear Friends of Eastern Europe Renewal: 

The Peace of the Lord be always with you.

In the last letter, I mentioned the upcoming trips to Norway and Australia. They are in the past now. In Norway, Youth With A Mission let me teach for 2 weeks in their School of Biblical Christian Worldviews. The school is right on the Trondheim Fjord and I was able to go fishing it it 3 times. I love to go fishing and the fact that I didn't catch anything was no discouragement. A special feature of this visit was the visit of our friend, Prof. Markus Zehnder, who taught with me for a few days. He has since gone to teach there for a week on his own. Aside from the school, there were 2 meetings of the pastors' association of Trondheim and a lecture in the University for a Campus Ministry. Non-Christians came to the University lecture and we had a very good contact and discussion.

Australia was a great adventure, beginning in Brisbane with the first Worldview School in Australia. The people I usually work with in Germany were there pioneering the school, so there were some familiar faces in an unfamiliar place. The students were bright and active and constantly questioning everything. We went to a Church on Mt. Tamborine, where I gave 2 evening lecture/discussions in a great Church. The second week we went to beautiful Byron Bay for teaching and Beach Evangelism, which I had never done. The students and staff were willing to do it my way, so I gave them two goals: 

1. have such conversations with people that you will see them again, and 

2. raise in their minds the questions that can only be answered by Jesus (about meaning, hope, guilt, identity, eternity, etc.). Some of the students reported that they actually enjoyed evangelism for the first time and found that they really liked the people they met and would be glad to see them again. For my birthday the students had a T-Shirt made with a Bible verse I had chosen printed on it. See photo. I love this verse because it is not religious, but real. It is literal, incarnational and has a voluminous subtext.

The third Australian week was in Sydney at L'Abri. This was home territory for me with old friends and colleagues and stimulating people in the audience. I could preach in a Presbyterian Church on Sunday and give a lecture for 120 people in a Baptist Church on Tuesday evening. I want to do it again.

Many people heard something of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, some for the first time in a real way. Thank you so much for praying and supporting this work in the many ways you do.

The work in Lausanne as 20% interim pastor has begun. Actually I will really begin going 2 weekends/mo in July. I'm quite excited about this new thing and looking forward to getting to know the people there and serving them in various ways.

Mary and I decided to give away the cat and get a new couch/bed. A manic cat and a new couch somehow don't belong together. Overnight guests will be very glad about the new bed.

If you read "The Geography of Thought" by Richard E. Nisbett you will have some very interesting thoughts to talk about. The same thing will result from seeing the film "Breaking and Entering".

In 2 days I should be off to Ukraine, then London/Kent, Hungary, Southern France near Toulouse, Herrnhut in Eastern Germany and Poland. July and August should be a bit more at home. The berries in the garden will want to be made into jam then.

May the Lord bless and keep you.

Ellis

The Birthday T-Shirt

The Birthday T-Shirt

The Birthday T-Shirt

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Copyright © 2007 Ellis Potter.