Marky B's Excellent Adventure

This is my blog post for May so first of all, sorry that it’s late :/

It’s been a great month, I turned 26 at the beginning of the month and celebrated with a BBQ with some friends and the largest marshmallows I have ever seen :) The BBQ felt like being back in England, we were never sure if it was going to rain but thankfully the weather held :) A few days before it was great to enjoy the nice weather and go for a hike in the Kaiserstuhl near Freiburg :)

Over the last week my parents came to visit and I was able to take the week off from Starbucks and do less for the church (just for that week ;)). It was amazing to see them and spend time with them and also just to have a bit of break from work. We enjoyed a few days in Freiburg but also a day in Heidelberg and in Basel. The picture with the bear is in Heidelberg (I’ve named the bear Heidelbear, although I’m not sure if that’s his real name :)) and on the bridge is in Basel. It really was great to spend time with them, I’m truly blessed to have the parents I have.

And over the weekend I was in Mauerstetten with Darja and her family. It rained a stupid amount but the weekend was great and it was really nice to be able to have a Sunday off and spend time with her family.

I had my first exam at the bible school a couple of weeks back. It was an oral exam about the New Testament, looking at Matthew - Acts. I had to memorise 62 bible verses, be able to talk about what happens in every chapter of those books and know about the history of what was happening at that time. I’m happy to say that I passed!! :) and I really enjoyed the exam too :) I’m looking to do the next part of the New Testament exam by the end of the year.

Church has been really encouraging recently. I’ve been so encouraged to see more new people and especially encouraged to see how the team is growing spiritually. It’s so exciting to me to see God working in people and to think about how so many people have moved forward compared to last October. A couple of Fridays ago we had a team meeting together and God led us to take a long time to pray for one another at the end of the meeting. The sense of family was just incredible and it was amazing to see God speaking to people, encouraging them and strengthening us as a team.

God has also been speaking to me a lot about praying for people, especially for our team. To lift them up in prayer and to take time to listen to God about what he wants to say to them, about how he wants to build them up and encourage them. He’s also been speaking to me about praying for people in my surroundings who don’t know him and has been deepening my desire to see them know him. There are so many people in my surroundings who I just want to get to Jesus because I can see how much they need him. They’re carrying heavy burdens that he can take away, struggling with situations that he can help with, seeking satisfaction that only comes from him and I just want to get these people to Jesus and let him transform their lives.

God keeps on speaking to me about my role here and keeps revealing more and more of the things that he’s put in me that he wants to use and I’m working on making more and more room for him to do that. And I can see where God is continually working on my identity, that I might know my identity in him more and more, he’s teaching me to find my rest in him and to put him first. I’m hungry to know what God wants to do with me and I’m learning to open myself up more and more to his voice, to his direction. I’m continually striving to make it less about me and more about him, that I might point people to Jesus and that none of the attention would be on me.

It’s so encouraging to me to look back and see how much I’ve changed and grown and I’m excited about what God still has planned for me because I know he’s still got a lot more in store :)

Thanks for reading and before I go here’s my favourite German phrase of the month: Hast du einen Clown gefrühstückt? Literally: Have you had a clown for breakfast? But actually is a way of saying that someone thinks they’re funny when they really aren’t :)

God bless you all!

Marky B!

Hi there!

April has been a pretty busy month but it’s been really exciting to see what God has been doing both in my own life and in the church. As I mentioned in my last post we did our HUGE Easter Egg Hunt on Easter Weekend. The weather was horrendous, it actually sleeted as we set up and our generator didn’t actually have enough power to inflate our bouncy castles :/ But it was amazing to see what God did! The janitor came and very kindly opened the toilets from the park to us and even said, “You can just plug your stuff into the sockets in the toilets.” :) And despite the weather we saw about 300 kids turn up with families and parents, it was a great afternoon! :) And it was great to see parents stay and hang out with us :)

What was also cool was that I had the opportunity to do the input for the kids with another girl from church, and it was in German! It was pretty nerve-racking but also really fun :) You see this is what happens when you tell God you’ve got the aim to preach in German, he starts answering it ;)

And he’s taken it one step further and I’ll be preaching at some friends’ wedding in August :)

I also want to say a special thanks to the team from Cornerstone Church for making the Easter Egg Hunt possible and for coming to help.

We’ve also had Jon back with us over the past few weeks and it’s been really good to have him here. He’s flown back now but it was so good to catch up with him for the short time he was here.

I’m excited about the season ahead of us and excited to see what God does in the church. It’s been amazing to see new people come to the church and really get involved with what’s happening there. It’s so encouraging to see more and more people saying they want to step up and invest with their time/energy and finances in the church. The church really is blessed with a fantastic team and I’m excited to see where he leads us.

God continues to do work on me and is continually shaping me and helping me grow. I love this about God, that he loves us too much to just let us stay where we are but continually helps us to move forward and to grow. It’s not always easy but there’s something so good about it. Recently I’ve been working through the book of Luke and I love Mary’s response to finding out she’s pregnant. First she says: “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” (Love it!) and then in verses 46-56 of chapter 1 she sings an incredible song. I think what was happening must of been confusing and must have been challenging but she sees the good work that God is doing. God is good and when he works in us it’s for our good and he will bring something amazing out of what seems difficult/confusing/painful.

I’m also continuing with my studies and have registered to do the first half of the New Testament test next month; it will be about Matthew-Acts. This involves me learning 70 bible verses off-by-heart, knowing roughly what happens in each chapter and being able to talk about the background of each book (who wrote it and why etc.). I really enjoy learning this stuff and it’s been especially interesting looking at the background of each book and why they were written.

I’m still loving learning German and have recently taken out a digital subscription to a local newspaper; partly to help with my German and partly to keep me up-to-date with what’s going on in the world. I’ve also learned some great phrases/interesting words recently. Thanks to the newspaper I learned that the word “Diäten” can mean both diets and how much MP’s are paid. So when I read that the government was discussing “diets of the MP’s” I was pretty confused. I thought, “What does it matter what they want to eat!?” Thankfully the newspaper has a helpful side-column for kids which helps explain complicated/strange things to them…..I’m very thankful for this section of the newspaper :)

Some other phrases:

Die Suppe auslöffeln = Face the music (literally - spoon up the soup)

Es geht ab wie Schnitzel = it’s all kicking off here! (literally - it’s going off like schnitzel)

Fass dir mal lieber an die eigene Nase = Look who’s talking - or - you’re one to talk (literally - why don’t you touch yourself on the nose)

Oh and I have a new bike that I’ve named “Green Lantern” because it’s green and black :)

Thanks for reading!

Marky B!

So I’m all moved into my new place and feeling right at home :) I moved in on Saturday and went for a shopping spree at Ikea today. I’m still waiting on a few more things to make my room “complete” but I’m already loving being here! It’s been so nice to be in a space that’s mine and it’s been so fun buying things for it and setting it up, I love my new home! :)

It’s also helped inredibly by my new housemate being an absolute legend, he’s really made the whole moving in process so easy and has very kindly cooked for me a couple of times already. It’s been really nice to hang out with him over food and talk about God. We also want to take time once a week on a morning to get together and pray for one another, I’m really excited by that :) 

I’m still continually encouraged by church at the moment and by what God is doing there. God continually takes me by surprise, through conversations or emails I get and shows me how much he’s doing in people in the church! It’s so exciting to me to see God at work and the cool thing is I know he’s got even more planned for us :)

We’ll be doing our monster Easter egg hunt again this year with about 11,000 or so eggs in a local park here in Freiburg. It’s therefore going to get busier and busier but I’m excited to be part of it and excited that we as a church have an opportuniy to bless this city by doing something out of a giving heart, not expecting anything in return. I believe that’s how God wants us to be giving, to give out of sheer joy, not because we want or expect something. I’ll put up another post with pictures after the smoke has cleared :)

As I mentioned before, I did some more preaching in the last weeks which I really really enjoyed and you can hear the mp3’s here: http://watermarkfreiburg.de/wp10//2013/01/14/service-mp3s/ I’m so honoured to be able to do that and so thankful to be used by God, that God wants to use me to speak to the people at church. I’m preaching again in a couple of weeks and I’m already excited about it. I’ve really noticed something about my sense recently, that as soon as I learn something I want to pass it on to somebody else, I want to share what I’m learning with others. God has spoken to me so much recently through my studying and opened my eyes to things that I just didn’t expect, it’s great!

I’ve been working on praying about things I need to change in my life too; things that I need to cut out and it’s so good how God gently highlights things to me BUT then helps me deal with them and teaches me! God is so good! I love how he works in us, shapes us and makes us better; that he’s continually seeking to give us something better; that he’s always got bigger and better things for us :) We need to cut out the things that are blocking that especially the feeling that we’re unworthy to receive things from God. It’s not true! God has made you worthy by grace!

(This by the way all came out out of reading the parable of the sower in Mark 4 after I said to God, “The parable of the sower again? I just read that and you already spoke to me through it.” Obviously I wasn’t done with it :))

So yeah studying has been really good recently and I especially enjoyed the lecture the last time I was there on 1 John, it was incredible stuff! And God has also been using the lectures to challenge me in ways I didn’t expect. Last time, God said to me, “I want you to speak today Mark.” I usually don’t say a lot because I don’t always trust my German with people I don’t know too well but I said OK. The first time I spoke it was horrible, the sentences were all over the place but funnily enough, someone really got something from what I said and God really highlighted to me, that I have more to say than I think and it doesn’t have to be 100% perfect. After that it made it a lot easier to speak up and give my opinion/ask questions. So God is really stretching and growing my confidence in myself and also pushing me more and more with my German.

I’ve set it as a goal of mine to be able to pray comfortably in German. I can already pray in German but sometimes I find it so difficult and I want to be able to pray with Germans in their native tongue even though they often understand quite a bit of English. The goal after that is to be able to preach comfortably in German. I actually think it’s something I could do and I really want to work in that direction :)

I wanted to be able to tell you some more funny phrases I’ve learned recently but I can’t really think of any :/ I’ll post some if they come to mind :)

Thanks for reading and God bless!

Marky B!

Hallöchen!

First of all I want to share some really good news with you. I’ve finally found a new place to live! :) I’ll be moving on the 1st of March to the east side of town, in an area called Littenweiler and I’ll be living with another Christian guy there. Thank you for all your prayers and support with finding a place, I really appreciate it :)

It’s been an interesting past few weeks. God has really been working on me which is always really exciting but can be quite hard at times. A big thing has been learning to forgive myself as I often tend to have very high expectations of myself and think it’s unacceptable that I might make a mistake. God really highlighted that to me and it’s been challenging but good to work on that and learn to forgive myself when I do mess-up :) Sometime’s I also expect myself to be a fully-trained pastor, have time for everything in church and to be able to pray constantly for it. It’s good that I want to invest more into church but sometimes I just simply don’t have the time to invest what I’d love to and that’s ok. I’m still in training, still learning and I’m still studying and working at the same time.

God’s also been working on a lot of things to do with my identity and finding my strength in him. This has especially related to preaching. I’m not standing at the front in my own strength but God has put something on my heart to share; he’ll reveal it to the people and he’ll make them grow. The amazing thing is that God has chosen to use me as part of the process and I feel so privileged to stand at the front and share what God’s shared with me. I’m currently doing 3 sermons in a row as part of our series on the Fruit of the Spirit. I’ve done 2 so far and the last part is this coming Sunday. I’ve definitely noticed the change in how I feel standing at the front and I feel so much more confident to preach :)

You can check out my most recent sermons here: http://watermarkfreiburg.de/wp10//2013/01/14/service-mp3s/

And a really cool thing happened on Sunday! A guy gave his heart to Jesus for the first time :) I felt so privileged to be used by God in that way and to be able to pray and talk with the guy after the service. We’ve had a lot of people come and make recommitments recently and that really is awesome but it was such a big win that this guy gave his heart for the first time! I was so encouraged by that and so thankful that I got to be a part of it :)

Recently I’ve not had as much time as I would have like to work on stuff for Bible School but I have been working through the New Testament as part of preparing for my exam in May. As I’m reading I’m also working through a study guide called “Der Schlüssel zur Weissheit” which means “The Key to Wisdom.” It’s been really helpful as it breaks the Bible into smaller chunks and asks you questions about what you’ve just read. It’s been really good as it’s forced me to look a little deeper into everything I’m reading and not just read the bits I like :)

It’s also taught me some incredible words like “zermalmen” which means to squelch, squash or crush…..I’m yet to find a real use for this word but I’ll find one soon enough :)

Thanks for reading! I’ll post some pictures of my new place when I’ve moved in there!

Blessings!

Marky B!

Ahoy there!

I hope you all had a great Christmas and had a good slip into the new year :)

I had the privilege of spending Christmas in Bayern. It was ace….and yes, I did try on Lederhosen :):) It was great to have a break over Christmas and meet Darja’s family, they’re all lovely! For New Year’s Eve I was back in Freiburg. I enjoyed it with friends and experienced something of German’s sense of safety when it comes to fireworks!

Bible school is going really well, I’m really enjoying it. I’ve got a much better idea of how the course works now and know what I need to be working on. I’m starting with a subject called “Bibelkunde” and this is a subject focussed on the study of the Bible itself. So I’m looking at a lot of things a long the lines of who wrote parts of the bible, why, when etc. I’m also working through the New Testament from cover to cover with a study guide. As part of the course we have to do an oral exam on the New Testament, which involves knowing what happens in every chapter of the New Testament and knowing 130 Bible verses off-by-heart. I’ve been set the goal of doing the first half of the exam (you can split it in half if you like) by May. I’m really enjoying studying and really excited to see how God is speaking to me and teaching me through it :)

Church is also going really well :) The director of the bible school said the following to me when I told him about Jon going on sabbatical: The enemy doesn’t attack from the outside, he attacks from the inside. We’ve definitely seen that between us as a leadership team and seen how he’s trying to get between us and damage our relationships. We’re learning how to stand firm together though and learning how to deal with issues between us as they arise, before they become major issues. And I’m so encouraged to see God at work in us and help us in this process :)

Yesterday at church was a really special day for me, I was so so encouraged by it! Darja preached a great message on following God with an undivided heart and how he gives us grace to make that possible. That grace isn’t given to us so that we can just stay how we are, but to help us change and move forward. You can hear the mp3 here:http://watermarkfreiburg.de/wp10/2013/01/14/service-mp3s/ I’m translating if that gives you more incentive to listen to it :) Check out part one of the series too that Brandon did on the 6th, it’s good stuff!

It was great to see God stirring people and after the sermon we did a response time with the song “The Stand” from Hillsong. It was so incredible to see people stand up one-by-one during the chorus as if to say: I’m going to make a stand for God, I’m choosing to follow him with all I have. I was so encouraged by how God moved in the people’s lives.

Things at church aren’t always going how we expected but we’re still seeing God move in people’s lives, seeing him changing them and seeing them move forward and that excites me so much! I’m full of anticipation for what God has in store for our church over the next year.

Next week we’ll be starting a new series on the Fruit of the Spirit. I’ll be doing the first part of that this coming Sunday and I’m really looking forward to that. I’ll let you know when the mp3 is online.

Thanks for reading!

Marky B!

I’ve been talking for a while about starting Bible School and I officially started on the Saturday just gone. I’m really really excited to have started and I’ve been given a whole bunch of introduction materials. I haven’t properly looked through them but they seem pretty huge….one of them is 360 pages long!! I’m planning to have at least one day (hopefully I can make it two) a week that is dedicated to studying, my first one is tomorrow. I’m hoping to discover how I work best and find a weekly rhythm between studying, working and church stuff.

It’s quite intense that all of this is in German but that actually really excites me :) I love German and I love that I’m studying Theology in German. I’ve been finding a new confidence in my German, it’s not by any means perfect but that’s OK. God really spoke to me about this and reminded me that I’m English and I don’t have to apologise for that, I don’t have to apologise that my German isn’t perfect. This has really helped me just speak with a different confidence, I know that I can communicate with people well with the German I do have…..and some people for some reason even think I’m German. One guy who was visiting the Bible School actually said that I sounded a bit Schwäbisch, which is a German dialect from the area around Stuttgart.

I’m really excited by my Bible reading too at the moment. I’ve been working through the book of Hosea and I think you can really see something of God’s heart in this book. Israel has rejected him and he chooses to discipline but the whole time he’s aching for them to come back to him, that they would be in communion with him. I think we especially see this in Hosea 6:6

I want you to show love,
    not offer sacrifices.
I want you to know me
    more than I want burnt offerings.

God doesn’t want them to come back to him so that he can get some nice offerings, he wants to them to know him; he wants to have an intimate relationship with them. The same is true today, God doesn’t want things from us, he wants us.

I feel like God is shaping me a lot at the moment and challenging things in me, it’s not always easy but I’m thankful for how God is speaking to me and working in me. I’ve really been liking memorising scripture at the moment, trying to get it in me, to really know it and believe it. I’m especially enjoying writing at the moment too, I feel like I have a lot I want to share and have been working on some material for our worship team for next year and working on our new sermon series that we’ll be doing January/February time. So yes I’ll be doing some preaching in that time and I’ll let you know when that’s available for download/to stream.

During December we’ve got a guest speaker, Sean Blacksten, at the church and it’s been really nice to have a bit of a break from speaking and now we’ve got some good time to really work on material for next year. Sean has been really great and so supportive of what we’re doing at the church, he’s been an amazing help. I’m thankful that he’s been able to come and be a part of what’s happening but also thankful for this bit of breathing space. We’ve got our last service of the year on Sunday and then we’ll be taking a two week break until January 6th.

I’m encouraged by every Sunday we have at church at the moment. It’s exciting to see God moving in people’s lives, to see them change and grow. It’s really exciting to see people step up, work in new areas and find a new confidence in it, this is especially cool with our worship team and we’ve seen it too with preaching as Brandon stepped up for the first time a couple of weeks ago and did a fantastic job :)

Church isn’t always easy, there are days where I feel overwhelmed and discouraged but I choose to remind myself why I’m doing this. I’m doing this for God, I want to build his kingdom, I want to see his church grow. And I’m doing this for his people, I want to see people grow, I want to see people come to meet their Father and grow in their relationship with him. Although things at church aren’t always pretty or perfect, God is at work and he’s shaping us and growing us and that’s where I have to keep my focus. Otherwise we just get focussed on the doing, this wears us out because we forget the why behind it.

Thanks for reading!

Be blessed

Marky B!

Hi there!

Thought I’d attach a few pictures of me “in action” from some of our recent services…..yes, I did do a sermon in my Starbucks uniform :) I spoke last week as part 2 of our October series “”Stuff” Happens” and I’ll be speaking this coming Sunday as well. I’m doing a 2 part sermon on loving our neighbours as ourselves and you can find the MP3’s for that on our website here: http://watermarkfreiburg.de/wp10/2012/01/11/service-mp3s-2012 I also highly recommend listening to part 1 :)

We’ve had 2 services without Jon and I’ve been really encouraged by both of them. It’s been great to see new people coming, to see one guy recommit his life to God and to see God at work amongst his people. Whenever I pray about church stuff I’m always overwhelmed by this sense that God is for us and not against us. His heart is for this church and it’s people and he has good plans for us. Some things are daunting but God is with us and he’s helping us work it out. We saw this yesterday when we went to sort out some of the finances of the church at the bank but weren’t really sure how to approach it but we were helped by THE most helpful man ever who explained everything to us and helped us solve our problems. I really think God provided for us in that case. It’s one small thing but God is continually with us in this and won’t abandon us in it, this is his church and he’s building it. I’m just honoured to be involved and I feel privileged that God wants to use me :)

It’s been amazing to see how team members have stepped up too. I’m continually thankful for our team at Watermark and I’m still so excited to see what God does through them.

God has also been challenging me on a lot of things about myself and highlighting some weak points that I need to work. At first I kind of felt like, “Man, I suck!” but I actually feel quite positive about these things I need to work on and I don’t feel in any way like God is showing me these things to make me feel bad. God wants to work on me and help me to get better. He’s not just going to show me these things and then leave me on my own, he’s working these things through with me. Again I’m seeing that God is for me and not against me, he’s showed me these things for my good, because he wants to help me.

Philippians 2:13 “For God is working in you, giving you the power to do what pleases him.”

In other news:

- I’m still looking for a home

- I’ve filled in my application for bible school and I should be starting in December. I’m planning on heading to the school this weekend and I’m planning to discuss me starting when I’m there

- I’ve mentioned before that I’ve been playing for a singer/songwriter. We’ll be doing our first show at the end of this month and I’m really looking forward to it.

Thanks for reading!

Marky B!

Why hello there!

I had the privilege of being back in England in the middle of the month and it was so good to be back even if it was just for a little while. It was great to have some time just to think, pray and breathe. Over the weekend, while I was back, was my niece’s dedication and it was so amazing to be able to meet my lovely niece, be with my family and just catch up with them all. I did of course eat a lot of “exquisite” English cuisine….yes I know I’m weird for missing English food, but it really is great! :)

A lot has been going on over the past month and a lot has been changing here in Freiburg. Jon (the pastor) has now officially left to go on his sabbatical and so I’m now leading the church with 2 others. Although this is quite daunting and there is a much greater sense of responsibility and pressure, I’m still really excited by it all! I’m really excited to see what God does during this time and I think we’ll see ourselves stepping into areas/gifts that we didn’t even know we could do. I’m really really excited to see how God uses our amazing church team in this time as well. God really has brought together a terrific team at Watermark and it will be great to see more of them stepping up and getting more involved in what is happening here; I’m excited to see them all grow through all of that. I still have this incredible sense that God is fully with us in all of this, that he isn’t going to abandon us suddenly; he knows exactly what he’s doing. This coming Sunday will be our first Sunday leading the church as a staff and although that is a little nerve-racking, I’m quite looking forward to it :) We’re starting a new sermon series at church called “Stuff” Happens, I’ll be translating this Sunday and the week after I’ll be preaching.

We, as a church, are still going to be meeting at the Kinder Galaxie (giant indoor soft-play) here in Freiburg for the foreseeable future. Although this is frustrating for us, we’re making the best of it that we can and we’re thankful that we have a place that we can do church. I also haven’t found a permanent abode but I’m currently staying in the basement of the Strödter family. Charly (the dad) is someone I’ve mentioned in previous posts as my German teacher and he’s very kindly offered that I can stay here for the time being. I’m really thankful to have this place and especially thankful for the great home-cooked meals :) I am, however, searching for my own place, I still really want somewhere that’s my own space so please be praying about that.

I’ve mentioned previously that I’ve been debating about the choice to go to a Bible school in a nearby city on a distance-learning course. After thinking and praying about it and asking a lot of questions I’ve decided to go ahead with it. I filled in my application yesterday and sent it off and I’m hoping to start at the beginning of December. It will be really difficult at first, will really stretch my German (which is a good thing) but I’m looking forward to starting :)

So please be praying for me and for the church. Exciting times are ahead of us!

Thanks for reading!

Marky B!

I thought I’d include some more pictures of what’s happening in my life at the moment, I’ll explain a bit more about them below:

- The first is my old room, now empty :(

- Some things from my breaks at Starbucks….yes I do take a bottle of ketchup with me to work :)

- Then some pictures of where I’m staying at the moment

- My new favourite prayer spot

- Lastly, our current home for the church

So yes, I’ve moved out of my apartment and I’m currently staying in a student dorm for a month. It’s a bit of a change going from living in a flat to sharing a kitchen, 3 toilets and 2 showers with 15 other people but it’s not too bad. I’ve got that until the end of the month and then……

Currently I don’t have anywhere to move to so I’m regularly checking websites/newspapers and the such but not really getting anywhere at the moment. The renting market is currently so saturated especially with the new semester starting next month. One guy told me he’d received 91 replies to his room advert in 18 hours, it’s mental really!! This doesn’t mean I’ll be homeless but may mean I have to sleep on some friends’ sofas for a couple of weeks while I continue to look :)

The month started with me having the privilege of doing the first 3 parts of a sermon series called “Old Camel Knees” here at the church. I really really enjoyed preparing the messages and preaching them. I was also able to identify things I need to work on when I stand up and preach and then work on them. I’ve already noticed an improvement :) You can find my sermons either to download or stream here: http://watermarkfreiburg.de/wp10/2012/01/11/service-mp3s-2012  

We as a church are also currently in temporary accomodation (so to speak). We’re meeting at a place called “Kinder Galaxie” here in Freiburg which is basically a huge indoor play area for kids. We’ve got an area off to one side from the main area to run our services however. The cool thing is our kids (and slightly older church members ;)) are allowed to play on any of the trampolines, bouncy castles etc. that we want to :) We’re currently setting up everything we need every week which isn’t always fun but we are getting a lot quicker at it…..it does however mean that I don’t get to play drums at the moment :( The place isn’t ideal and we are sometimes interrupted by a family sitting at the back of our service eating a tray of chips :/ but it is working for the meantime. We are however looking for a permanent building that’s ours, that we can use throughout the week and to reach out into our community. So please be praying both that I find somewhere to live and the church too :)

Work is still pretty fun :) I still can’t spell people’s names but I actually find it more amusing now than anything else and a friend of mine at work has recently started a list of weird German names we encounter. Our favourite was a woman called “Biggi”, who after stating her name said, “And please don’t spell it with a “P” like the person did yesterday.” Amazing! 

A couple of weekends ago I went to visit a Bible school in a nearby city called Pforzheim. The school is called MBS (Martin Bucer Seminar). The school runs seminars twice a month and the rest of the work is done in private, through reading material or essays etc. I enjoyed the day there but the German was pretty hefty….in the last hour I heard words, couldn’t tell you a thing that was being said though! I’m going to go again next month and have another look; this time I know how to prepare myself a little better so I’ll see what the difference is. I’m looking to potentially start in November. How long the course takes is up to me and how much work I can put in on a weekly basis but it will eventually lead to me getting a Bachelors/Masters in Theology.

I’ve been taking a lot of time recently to pray at a little brook near my house. There’s a huge tree trunk that sits across both banks. I’m really enjoying just sitting there and praying. I’ve just been taking time to tell God about everything that’s happening in my life, sharing my heart with him really and also investing time in praying for our church; that I would be able to lead it with a heart that’s after his. It’s been amazing to see how God has been guiding me in those times and been speaking to me. It’s something that’s so important, to take time away from our schedules and just hang out with God. I notice that sometimes when I work back-to-back days I just get into a pattern of work - sleep - work - sleep and I don’t take the necessary time for God; this relationship needs investment and it SO worth it when we take time for God.

In other news:

- I’ll be back in England for a week from the 10th to the 18th of October. I’ll probably mainly be in Derby but I’m hoping to be able to spend a couple of days in Coventry too :)

- I just got paid in chocolate and Haribo to read a list of English words for someone’s English lesson

Thanks for reading!

Marky B!

So I thought I’d include some photos of what’s been happening here recently. You can see here:

 - some of the work we did with the teepees for the local school

 - the privilege I had of baptising some people from our church

 - me in action translating 

 - a couple of pictures from some recording I did this week

 - the graphic for our latest sermon series

Life is busy here at the moment and at times it feels like too much is happening at once but I am, honestly, still so glad to be here and feel so privileged to have the opportunities that I currently have.

I’m still happily working at Starbucks and have been working a lot of extra hours recently due to a bit of a staff shortage at the moment. I’ve even started working on a new sermon about: Things I’ve learned while working at Starbucks :) as God tends to challenge me a lot through the customers I encounter while working there.

I mentioned in a previous post that I play drums for a Singer/Songwriter here and this week we recorded the drums for a 5 track EP we’re making. It was so great to be back in the studio and also really encouraging to see how much I’ve improved since the last time I was in a studio.

Yesterday we started our brand new series at church called “Old Camel Knees” and I have the privilege of doing the first 3 parts. You can hear my first part here

Because so much has been happening here it can sometimes be easy to “forget” about spending time with God but I’ve really been making an effort to push into God at the moment. I’m so aware that without God, this won’t work and it’s been amazing to see how God continuously encourages me and picks me back up onto my feet. This morning God was really speaking to me about self-criticism especially through 1 John 3:18-22

^18-20My dear children, let’s not just talk about love; let’s practice real love. This is the only way we’ll know we’re living truly, living in God’s reality. It’s also the way to shut down debilitating self-criticism, even when there is something to it. For God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves.

 ^21-24And friends, once that’s taken care of and we’re no longer accusing or condemning ourselves, we’re bold and free before God! We’re able to stretch our hands out and receive what we asked for because we’re doing what he said, doing what pleases him.

I can be very quick to pick up on my mistakes instead of celebrating my successes. I noticed I did this after preaching last night. I was so quick to jump on mistakes and criticise myself…for some reason I expected perfection from myself. God was really highlighting the importance of seeing myself from his perspective, that he’s actually really proud of me for speaking last night :) It’s really easy to pick up on our mistakes but this is actually “self-deblilitating”. It makes us lose sight of what we did well. Of course there is room for improvement but there is a good way to approach that without beating ourselves over the head.

You can follow my next few sermons on the link I gave you, I’ll be speaking again on Friday 31st :)

Thanks for reading!

Mark