Marky B's Excellent Adventure

Hello there!

It’s been a bit of a crazy month for me, a lot has happened and it’s all been great! As I mentioned in my last post, we were preparing for our monster Easter outreach with 12,000 little easter eggs. The preparations went really well with the help of a fantastic team from Kansas City; we couldn’t have done it without them. They also were really encouraging to be around and hearing them share their stories/testimonies was something really inspiring for a lot of us. It was also really encouraging to see how hard they worked for this even though they left before the actual event! So if any of you guys from the Kansas City team are reading this, I wanted to say another big thank you :) The event itself was pretty chaotic but we were able to serve and bless A LOT of kids and families. You can see a video of it here: http://vimeo.com/40900849

After all of that, I flew early the next morning back to England to help with PRAYERhouse at Spring Harvest Week 3 in Minehead. Although tiring it was such a good week and I really enjoyed it! I helped with the running of the prayer room there which you can see in the pictures (the last 2 being some of randomest but also funniest things I’ve ever seen on a prayer room wall). We were part of something Big Start every morning which involved me doing actions on stage to kids’ songs (something I wasn’t prepared for but it was still a lot of fun!) and leading the congregation in a prayer. We ran a time of lead meditation every afternoon called Be Still and then an alternative evening service called Godspace, which was an opportunity for people to take some time to reflect on what God had been saying to them but also to have time to share/pray with other Spring Harvesters. It was great to be able to see my eldest brother and his wife over that week as well and to see 2 of my nephews who I haven’t seen in quite a while, it was ace!

As some of you might have read, I did indeed get punched in the face a couple of weeks ago by a drunk teenager. It was pretty rough but after a quick trip to the hospital they said it wasn’t broken and said it should all be fine. I’ve been really impressed by the German police’s response to this situation and after they showed me some pictures I’m fairly certain I was able to recognise him….I’ll keep you updated with how it progresses but it could potentially go to court at some point in the future.

I’m still working away at all things German and I’m seeing my German improve more and more :) I’ve been learning a lot of little phrases recently but a couple of my favourite are:

- Mein Deutsch ist nicht das Gelbe vom Ei (literally, my german is not the yellow of the egg). It means that my german isn’t the best….I like the irony of this phrase :)

- Man muß seine Haut so teuer als möglich verkaufen (literally, you have to sell your skin for as much as possible). It’s this idea of not going down without a fight, you’re going to do as much as possible before you’re done.

In other news:

- We’ve got a new intern coming in the next weeks from England :)

- I bought a pair of skinny(ish) jeans….they’re actually really nice. And to all the mothers who’ve previously worried about the clothes I wear: On the whole I’m actually wearing clothes that fit me these days :)

Thanks for reading!

Marky B!

It was great to be back in England last week. I never fully realise how much I miss the place until I’m back there. I do, however, now get confused about certain things when I’m back. Like I can understand everyone I pass in the street, it genuinely took me by suprise for the first couple of days. I also got really anxious everytime I had to cross a road, I looked both ways a good 4 times just to make sure….it’s really strange that driving on the right is normal for me now.

I spent most of my time in Coventry and then a couple of days with my parents in Derby which included lunch at Sainsbury’s with my gran :D It was really nice to be back and catch up with some good friends (and meet their new babies) and also get my fix of English cuisine for a little while. It’s a bit of a stereotype here that the English can’t cook, but I think the food is amazing and I genuinely miss it. Granted, none of what I miss is very good for me but it sure tastes great! Starting to see how I’ve lost so much weight since moving here.

It was also great (and also a little odd) to go back to my old church in Coventry, Streams of Life. I heard a sermon on Esther and God quietly spoke to me during it saying: I’ve got you in the right place. Something, that was really encouraging for me to hear.

I’m now back in Freiburg and getting stuck back into church stuff, drumming and learning German.

We’ve got quite a bit coming up as a church over the next few weeks. A new intern arrives from the States next week (she’s coming for 6 weeks) and we’re going to be doing another Easter Egg Hunt at Easter but bigger and better than last year with the help of a team from the States. Followed by another intern coming from England at the end of April!

I’ve been practising drums loads recently, partly because my girlfriend is away but also because I’m potentially going to be joining a band or 2 here. One of them is a band for a singer/songwriter (who I’m meeting with tonight) and the other is for a metalcore band…..they couldn’t be more opposite really, haha! Neither of them are definite yet but we’ll see what develops! I’m also still on the hunt for more students.

I’m still working on developing my german and start my lessons again tomorrow. At the moment I’m working a lot on improving my “r” and lengthening the vowel sounds, so that I sound less English. I often do this when I’m alone at home (or at least I think I am) and walk round my apartment saying words like: kroch, drehen and reparieren. It’s getting better though :) My current favourite phrase is, “Schaffe, schaffe, Häusle baue.” Mainly because people give you the strangest looks for being English and knowing that phrase.

In other news:

- Spotify is finally available in Germany :)

In more exciting news:

- Fawn comes back this weekend :D :D

Thanks for reading!

Marky B!

We ran our first 24/7 Prayer Weekend last weekend and it was amazing to see the development of the room over the course of the time. I wasn’t really sure how people were going to respond to this idea when I first presented it and the fact that we only had 9 hours out of 48 filled the weekend before was a little disheartening to say the least. I was rescued however by a great idea to use a Doodle-List and we managed to fill 30 hours! It was so encouraging to see people using the room and connecting with God over the weekend, something we will definitely do again at the church :)

I’ve now had a grand total of 24 appointments at the dentist in the past 4 months and I’m still not actually finished. The students are however on a semester break so I get a little pause until April. I’ve actually become pretty good friends with my 2 dentists over the course of this time and I went out for some food with them last week to celebrate their semester break. I’ve also invited them round to my house in the near future for something “traditionally British”….not quite sure what I’m going to make yet, any suggestions? I’m also currently trying to fight the German health service as they want me to pay for some of the treatments I’ve received even though I was originally told I wouldn’t have to pay anything. More on that as it develops.

I now have 2 6-year old drum students and the 2nd one is even better than the first. I’ve taught him 3 times nows and every week I’m blown away by how much we get through and he doesn’t even practise! I’m starting to push to teach more here and have made an advert that I’ve posted around a few shops/schools. I’m also going to put an advert in a local paper so we’ll see what it brings. So if you know anyone in the Freiburg area looking for lessons, send them over to me ;)

Yesterday I went to help at a youth centre near to where I live and helped with an after-school craft evening they run there. It was soooo much fun and the kids there were fascinated by my “accent” when I spoke German. One lad couldn’t understand why I couldn’t say the word “Foto” properly….it sounded perfectly fine in my head I’ll have you know but he wasn’t convinced. I think I’m going to start helping there more regularly….hopefully every week if I can manage it.

And to help improve my German I’m currently receiving German lessons from a man called Charly at the church, who is possibly one of the nicest men I’ve ever met, he’s an absolute legend! We’re working through a book called Drachenblut. We’re focusing a lot on my pronunciation and a lot of the time is spent with me reading sections of the book outloud which is surprisingly challenging. He said: his aim is to get me to think and sound German…perfect!

My favourite phrase at the moment is, “Die dümmsten Bauern haben die dicksten Kartoffeln.” Which literally means the dumbest farmers have the biggest potatoes or I believe the English equivalent is, “Fortune favours fools.” My favourite word is currently is, “Frösteln” which is an oldish word meaning to feel chilly/shivery….the word just feels cold to me :)

Finally, just to let all you lovely Coventry folk know that I’ll be back in Coventry from the 5th to the 12th of March so it would be great to catch up if you’re around :)

Thanks for reading!

Barky Me!

I’m often asked what I’m doing here in Germany when I meet people for the first time and my stock answer is usually, “I work for a church and I’m learning how to be a pastor, even though I don’t know if I want to become a pastor.”

On Sunday evening I was thinking and praying about the question, “Why don’t I want to become a pastor?” When I took away all of the excuses I came to one simple conclusion: because it scares me….a lot!!! I’m very happy to support someone else and their vision; it’s nice being part of the group, it’s nice when the buck doesn’t stop with you, it’s nice when you can pass someone on to someone else if you don’t know the answer to their question. But when you’re the leader, everyone is looking to you for what the next steps are and that level of responsibility freaks me out.

I thought about this further and I began thinking about why I’m here. When I was 11 I believe with all my heart that God called me to Germany, and I believe that was to do more than learn German and play drums. Although these things are very very important there is much more. I continued to think and realised that God had deliberately connected me with the church here, with the Perrins and with Brandon (my partner in crime). I began to think about why that was and simply said to God, “You want me to plant a church here, don’t you?” I knew the answer was yes. To be honest although this is crazy and I’ve no real idea how exactly this is going to work, it brought a huge smile to my face. That entire evening it felt like God was just beating stuff into me but there was so much joy in it.

And now that I’ve written it here I’m committed to it. I feel like I’ve missed a lot of opportunities while I’ve been in this kind of grey-area deciding what to do but there’s nothing I can do about that. I can only decide what I do with now. So I’m committing like never before to what’s happening here, to being trained and to actually doing things instead of saying I will. I also think God’s been telling me to write more and so I’ve started up a second blog about what God is teaching me and there will be more about that soon. This is crazy but at the same time incredibly exciting. I’m excited about what God has in store and how all of this pans out. And the great thing is, he knows exactly what he’s doing and has all of this comfortably under control.

In less crazy news, my appointments at the dentist are very nearly finished. In theory I only have 3 appointments left. My major root canal was finished today after something like 7 sessions, the last 2 of which were 5 hours long each and contained a total of 9 X-rays which are never fun when you gag really easily….although by the end even those became quite normal. It’s amazing how normal going to the dentist has become for me, very little about it freaks me out now and I have fallen asleep WAY too many times in the past few sessions. Dentists are sticking small files into my teeth and I seem to think that’s a good time for a nap!!!

Thanks for reading!

Marky B!

It was great to have a break over Christmas and New Years. I really enjoyed my time in England with the lovely Fawn, showing her the sights and sounds of Derby (woo!) and spending time with family and friends. I spent New Years with the guys from Bless, at Bethanie, and it was great to have some time to pray, re-energise and catch up with friends.

It’s good, however, to be back here in Freiburg and to be getting back into a normal rhythm of life. We had our first service of the year this past Sunday at Watermark and I’m back to my regular dentist appointments. I’m still going twice a
week and there’s still more to do!! I can’t explain how thankful I am (now anyway) for the tooth-ache I had several months ago that led to all this, my teeth were in really bad shape. I know this because I have one tooth that is going mouldy but yet has been prioritised to the bottom of the list. Everything that needs doing is of a higher importance than a tooth going mouldy!

I did, however, have a bit of a change in my regular rhythm here and I played my first gig in Freiburg this past Sunday. I played a mix of Jazz, Fusion and Latin at a Jazz Lounge here with a band called Goldberg. It was amazing, one of the funnest
gigs I’ve ever played, I was buzzing about it for days and still kind of am :) It was so inspiring to me and the other musicians I played with really loved my drumming, which was a massive compliment seeing as they’re all professionals.

About a week before the gig I started to get worried about it. I thought, “I’m not really a jazz drummer, what am doing playing this show? There are going to be so many drummers there who could do this better than me.” It’s funny how so many musicians don’t really believe in themselves, and it’s even more annoying when those people are incredibly good. I think we look at what we do badly and what others can do better than us rather than seeing what we really can do. The thing I always find incredible about music is we all see it in completely different ways, our view of it is unique to each and every one of us. I think therefore we have something to say when we play, something that’s worth listening to.

So I guess I want to encourage you all (not just musicians) to look at what you can do and not what you can’t. Yes, you need to know what needs improving but you also need to see what you’re good at, don’t get too hung up on the stuff you get wrong. I know far too many musicians who receive tonnes of compliments but don’t believe in themselves and because of that the compliments become meaningless. So I’m working on looking at what I can do as a drummer, telling myself that I am actually good at drums….and doing my best not to feel arrogant about that (although posting it on my blog makes me feel ridiculously arrogant!!) I’m saying this is important to me, I believe God has given me this gift and I want to invest in it. It’s good, my excitement for drums is being restored, I’m just loving playing at the moment!

I’ve also been thinking about what other things are important to me and one that really has come to mind is German. I believe this is where God wants me to be and I believe a big part of that is to do with the language. As a church we’re starting a 21 day fast this Sunday and I’m going to try to give up English (with some exceptions) for that time. It’s going to be challenging but if I’m saying this is important to me, then I need to behave like it is.

My German phrase of the month comes out of a conversation I had this evening with the mighty Johannes about things that have confused me recently with German and he answered, “Warum einfach wenns auch kompliziert geht?” which roughly translates as, “Why make it simple when there’s a complicated way to do it?”….seems to be a good summary of the German language ;)

Thanks for reading!

Marky B!

I think my answer to that question would now have to be: at the dentist. I’m now up to 2 appointments a week there and it’s become strangely normal for me. So much so, that on Monday I was so relaxed in the chair that I actually fell asleep for a minute or two. The only trouble with this was I had 3 pins sticking out of my tooth and had to keep my mouth open and I was roused from my nap by my dentist shouting, “Nicht zubeißen!” Thankfully nothing bad came of it! I even said on Tuesday evening, “I’m looking forward to going to the dentist tomorrow.” Now, this was because they were going to fix a very sensitive tooth but I honestly didn’t think those words would ever leave my mouth.

Obviously going to the dentist twice isn’t actually that pleasant but I’m so thankful for God’s provision in this; I really needed this work doing on my teeth and it’s all being done for free. It’s not all perfect, like when they accidentally drip disinfectant in your eye or numb your tongue by mistake….seriously it’s hard enough to speak German without your tongue being numb! But I really see God’s hand in this and I’ve even been able to have some good conversations with both of the dentists who are working on me about God and church, maybe even one of them will come to church this Sunday. I also now have a ton of sermon illustrations for any upcoming sermons that I’ll be writing.

Speaking of which last Wednesday I did my first talk at the bible class we hold at the church every week. I did it on Jesus healing the man born blind. I learned a lot through doing it and although it wasn’t perfect I was really proud of myself and pleased with how it went; I really enjoyed it.

I really struggled at first with writing it and I thought, “Why am I doing this? There are plenty of other people who could do this better than me.” God spoke to me in this and showed me that I have something unique to bring, that I see this story differently from everybody else; therefore I have something to offer. I think I often only want to do something if I can do it perfectly. I often have this approach with German, I try and formulate the sentence perfectly in my head before saying it (not that it ever comes out that way) instead of just talking. I’m learning it’s okay to make mistakes and I don’t have to perfect in order to do something.

Normally I would share with you my current favourite German phrase at this point but I don’t really have one for this month. Instead I thought I’d share a story of my incredible translation skills. I translated briefly for someone trying to describe a piece of art that was to do with Moses and the burning bush, which I translated as “Mose und die gebrannte Hecke.” This literally means, “Moses and the burnt hedge.”

I’m feeling very christmassy this year and am really looking forward to being back in England over Christmas with my family…..and a very special guest from Canada ;) I’m feeling so christmassy that for the first time in my life I’ve done all my Christmas shopping and it’s not even the 24th. If I don’t get a chance to see you I want to wish you all: Fröhliche Weihnachten!

Thanks for reading!

Marky B!

Ahoy there!

So recently I’ve begun reading the book of Jeremiah in my Bible reading plan and I’ve found the book really interesting as it allows us at least some insight into the way God thinks and even his emotions. He’s a fierce and intense God, who loves what is right and fair and hates injustice; and won’t keep quiet about how he feels. Yet everything is interlaced with compassion, although he is exiling the Israelites, he longs to draw them back to their homeland and be their God.

God has spoken to me through this about being consistent, not being fickle like the Israelites but sticking to what I said I’d do. This has especially applied to me being here in Freiburg as a part of Watermark. I feel like he’s been telling me to make a commitment to this church and stick to it, even though I’m not entirely sure what will happen and some things freak me out a little.

So that’s what I’ve done.

The amazing thing is how just saying that I’m commited has changed things. It’s made it so much easier not only to engage with what’s going on here but also engage with God. My prayers were just so consumed with, “Oh God, what should I do?” and everything I read in the Bible went through the filter of: Does this verse help me figure out what to do?

I think sometimes we want all the answers, to every single step but unfortunately (or maybe actually fortunately) it doesn’t work like that. We need to take it a step at a time and trust what God is saying to us. I believe God will guide us if we choose to seek him for direction but sometimes we know the sort of direction we need to be heading in and we just need to start moving that way; and God will take care of the rest.

In other news, as you may have seen from some of my recent Facebook statuses that I’m currently receiving a lot of dental work. Freiburg has a University Clinic and you can sign up to have certain work done for free by students. It’s really good and everything is checked by professional dentists who are on hand and teaching the students as they go. This is what I’ve signed up to. So for the next few weeks I’ll be going every Monday for 3-4 hours of dental work. My dentist is a bit of a legend and loves making jokes about the English. Generally along the lines of, “You’re tough, you can take this, you’re used to fighting with hooligans in England, right?” or “You have a really strong tongue, must be all that English food you have to put up with.” I had my first session yesterday, which had a few complications and shook me up a little but it’s all good and I have a new tooth now :) Just 4 or so more to go……Kid’s, look after your teeth! You’re teachers and parents aren’t lying to you when they tell you it’s important to brush your teeth!

Finally, I thought I’d leave you with some of my favourite German phrases of the past few weeks. These include:

- “Ich habe meine Spendierhosen an.” (I’ve got my spending trousers on)

- “Es war ein Schuss in den Ofen.” (It was a shot in the oven…..means something was a complete waste of time)

- And my new favourite word is “abspacken” which basically means to dance however you want, as long as you have fun :)

Thanks for reading!

Markus Peter

Good day!

So, you may remember that I talked last time about a little bet between myself and my fellow intern involving facial hair; I am happy to say that I won this bet. The above pictures show my mutton chops today (at their longest length before I trimmed them) and Brandon enjoying the taste (get it?) of defeat. I will admit, however, that Brandon’s moustache was far more glorious than my chops.

Anyway, onto things less hairy. It’s now been a little over a year since I left England and it’s incredible to see how much has happened over that time. It was really fitting to go back to Bethanie at the start of the month and officially be welcomed onto the Bless team. It was so good to be back there, to see Bless more as a whole and get some encouragement before coming back to Freiburg.

We also celebrated our 1 year anniversary as a church this month and again it’s amazing to see how far we’ve come in a year. Some things haven’t been perfect or gone entirely as planned but we’re making progress and we’re reaching people. The church has reached a fairly consistent 70 people per week and the team is ever growing. I think the most encouraging part of the day was seeing the whole team come together as a unit and bring the entire service together with very little direction.

I’ve recently started reading a book called God on Mute which is written by Pete Greig (author of Red Moon Rising) and the book has the subtitle of “Engaging the silence of unanswered prayer”. It’s a really interesting book and has definitely challenged my prayer life in a good way. Bits of the book are so difficult to read but it pushes me to pray, I’m beginning to see more and more how much I NEED to pray; it’s not just a convenient accesory to my life. Most of my prayers recently have been about my future and seem to be prefixed with something like, “God I know this is crazy” or “God, this is scary to pray.” What I think God might be asking me to do is both terrifying and exciting and I would appreciate your prayers as I pray and think what the next steps for me will look like. Dont worry, I’ll keep you all updated!

And lastly I thought I’d close with my favourite German phrase of the month, “Nur die Harten kommen in den Garten.” Seems quite fitting after what I just said.

Take care and thanks for reading!

Marky B!

Servus!

Unfortunately I’m a day late to use the opening line, from Earth Wind and Fire’s September, that I wanted to :(

Nevermind.

I’m really beginning to feel the season change here, which isn’t all bad as all the German Christmas goodies have already started to appear in the supermarkets…..Lebkuchen om nom nom. Next month will be our 1 year anniversary as a church and also my 1 year anniversary of leaving England so I also feel on a personal level like I’m moving into a new season. Not quite sure what that will bring and this has at times freaked me out a little but this morning I was reading in Proverbs 3. Now I’m aware that most of you have probably heard this verse hundreds of times but I want to remind you of it once more:

Proverbs 3:5-8 (MSG)

Trust God from the bottom of your heart;
   don’t try to figure out everything on your own.
Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go;
   he’s the one who will keep you on track.
Don’t assume that you know it all.
   Run to God! Run from evil!
Your body will glow with health,
   your very bones will vibrate with life!

I love that this verse talks about this idea of just running to God when things start getting unsure. I think often our first reaction can often be the complete opposite of that, we go into problem solving mode and forget about God. So I like to look at this verse as, “Leg it to God!”. Don’t hesitate for a moment, run straight to him, after all, “he’s the one who will keep you on track.”

Next week I’m heading back to Bethanie (Normandy, France) to meet up with a lot of the guys from Bless. I’ll be going back almost exactly a year after I first went there; I’m really looking forward to it. It will be a great opportunity not only to catch up but also to look back over the past year and mull over everything that has happened.

I mentioned before that I have a couple of drum students but now I have 2 new ones as well. One of them is a boy (6 years old) from the church who will be starting in a couple of weeks and a friend from church who I’m trying to teach purely through the medium of Britney Spears’ songs :D

My German is ever improving and I’m finding it easier and easier to think in German which is very cool. My favourite phrase of the month is, “Mit ihm ist nicht gut Kirschen essen.” I’ve also had a few more dreams in German, which for some reason are always incredibly odd. In one I was sent to investigate a cult that held it’s meetings in bathtubs….no idea what I ate before I went to sleep that night!

A few extra things I’ve done/I’m doing currently:

- I had sushi for the first time

- I began learning to longboard

- I turned part of my hair a shade of purple

- I’m part of bet against my fellow intern, I’m growing my mutton chops, he’s growing his moustache. Whoever shaves first, has to eat something really spicy.

Thanks for reading!

Barky Me!

“Mein Zahn tut weh” is a phrase I’ve had to use far too much recently. It started a couple of weeks back with the worst toothache I’ve ever had and developed into me needing a root canal last week.  Using this phrase over and over got me thinking however. When I learned this phrase at school I remember people making fun of it; saying that it sounded stupid and wondering when they would ever need it in their life. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been glad that I knew that phrase! I think life can be like this sometimes. We can be in situations that feel pointless and we’re left thinking, “What am I doing here? What’s the point of all this?” But time passes and we encounter similar situations and are much better at handling them. We look back on our “pointless” circumstances and are thankful for them because although they seemed meaningless at the time, we actually learned a lot through them.

August has been fairly quiet here at the church, a lot of people have been away. Despite that, we’ve kept on and we’ve actually had fairly encouraging numbers for this time of year. We’re aiming to take the momentum we’ve kept going over the summer into the new term, ready to hit the ground running for when the students come back.

I’ve been continuing in my “Bible in a year” reading plan and I’m currently in Job. At first it was pretty much just depressing but as I’ve continued to read, I’ve come across some absolute gems. I haven’t even come to where God starts speaking but even early on in the book you see something of the might of God which is not something we often hear about.

I like what it says in Job 26:9-14:
He makes the moon wax and wane,
   putting it through its phases.
He draws the horizon out over the ocean,
   sets a boundary between light and darkness.
Thunder crashes and rumbles in the skies.
   Listen! It’s God raising his voice!
By his power he stills sea storms,
   by his wisdom he tames sea monsters.
With one breath he clears the sky,
   with one finger he crushes the sea serpent.
And this is only the beginning,
   a mere whisper of his rule.
   Whatever would we do if he REALLY raised his voice!”

God is absolutely massive, all-powerful; there is nothing weak about him.

Recently my love for German has really increased. I’ve just been loving learning, reading (I’ve started reading Harry Potter in German) and studying it. I’ve even had a few dreams in German; which was actually kind of freaky. I’ve actually had quite a few compliments on my German recently…..althought it’s often phrased as, “Your German is really good; for an Englishman.” It’s also becoming increasingly easier to have conversations with my housemates and they enjoy teaching me all sorts of phrases. My current favourite is, “Brot kann schimmeln, was kannst du?” which means, “Bread can go moldy, what can you do?” It’s a phrase one of them uses whenever they’re watching sport and a player is performing…less than well. It basically means: even bread can do something.

I’d also really appreciate your prayers for opportunites to share my faith with my housemates and to be able to invite them to the church, I believe God has put me in this apartment for a reason.

Thanks for reading!