Category: Tagebuch

The replacement part for my laptop has finally arrived, and works – my screen works again. Hewlett-Packard originally quoted me 8 days delivery for the part (which is only available in the US, so I couldn’t order it in advance!), but quoted over a month in the confirmation mail. After a sharp conversation with their ordering department, they promised to do what they could to speed it up. The subsequent mail still quoted the one-month delivery, though. Yesterday, ten days before the quoted date, a thin but large package arrived, containing a very small part!

I’ve been using an old laptop so far, which did the job OK. Now, I have a reasonable screen resolution and a higher speed, which makes Skype work much better. The old laptop is smaller and lighter, though, and looks better 🙂

Yesterday was an amazing day, meeting with people interested in simple church. The news is not yet ready to be released; all I can say is that things are really starting to move here!

Four weeks have passed since I arrived. The time has flown! I miss my beautiful wife, but our regular conversations help to alleviate that. She is having a very interesting time back home, even if she seldom writes anything here.
Today was the first day I’ve forgotten to take a morning photo. We were all tired this morning, and I didn’t even think of taking a photo until we were on the way to the restaurant where we ate breakfast. I took the photo on the left just after midday, which explains why it is so sunny.

Greg and Lorrie Strand came to visit us yesterday, and stayed overnight. They are a great couple, with a very interesting story. The parallels between their lives and Mike and Chris’s lives were surprising, and it was good to hear how the Lord is leading them and working through them.

Before today, I had only seen Josiah do one or two dance moves. Today, I saw a video of his dance company performing several pieces. He is an amazing dancer; he makes moves look easy which I would not even attempt! Sarah is just as gifted, but in illustration. Her picture of an owl is drawn, not a photo!

I’ve got a lot to read! I’m still working on ‘Who is your covering?’, haven’t touched ‘Getting things done’ since the second week here – that’s a book I need to work through at home – and picked up three hot books at the conference:

• George Barna’s ‘Revolution‘
• Felicity Dale’s ‘An army of ordinary people‘ and
• Michael Frost’s and Alan Hirsch’s ‘The shaping of things to come‘.

It looks like I have my work cut out for the next few weeks!

Back in Peyton, I woke up to a rather grey-looking day. Mike, Chris and I had a great conversation about some of the issues which came up at the conference, and what touched us. While we were speaking, Reinhold called unexpectedly. We met him for lunch, together with a friend of his living in Colorado Springs who is interested in simple church.

Afterwards, Reinhold crashed on Mike’s sofa, because he’s still suffering from jetlag.

I’m now back in Peyton after the house2house conference. It was a good time, connecting with friends from last year and meeting new people, including Mark, Jan, Tony, and Johnathan Campbell. Perhaps the most significant part of the conference was the fact that none of the main sessions were concerned with house church! The message was very much that it’s not about the house; it’s all about God, and what he wants to do in and through us. We need to pay attention to our character, and listen to the Holy Spirit and how he is guiding us.
Continue reading “Celebrate liberty, not independence”

Today was a day of strong impressions. Even at breakfast this morning, God was at work in people. In the morning session, Thom Black, who worked with George Barna on “Revolution”, told about some significant events in his life, which were originally negative but which God turned to the positive. That was followed by workshops; I chose ‘Intimacy with the Father’, because it is a topic which I’ve been dealing with in the past weeks. I didn’t hear anything new, but it was a good refresher.
Continue reading “Strong impressions”

I met up with Larry, Bruce, Christiane & Pete and even Reinhold, who surprised me this morning – I had no idea he would be here. I had dinner last night with Christiane & Pete, catching up with their situation in Connecticut, which is not easy. Priska wanted to swing on my arm as we walked to the restaurant. That was hard work; she’s getting a bit big for that now. I can remember liking that sort of thing as a kid, though, so I held out as long as I could 🙂

So, we’ve arrived in Denver. I was wrong about the view; it’s better this year:

We’ve had the first network leaders’ meeting; I have met up with Wolfgang, John White, and a number of other interesting guys, including Eddie, who works for Novartis and is regularly in Basel, and an English/German couple who live in Bedford and know my home town well! There’s still no sign of the Burkhards or any of the other people I hoped to meet again.

Er, wrong film. We’re off to Denver today, for the national house church conference. For the next few days, my morning photo may look more like this

than this
.

I know which one I prefer 🙂 , but I’m looking forward to the conference. I hope to connect with people I know, including the Burkhards, friends of ours who emigrated to the US last year, as well as Dan, Larry, Bruce, and perhaps even Tony, who surprised us last year.