Welcome back Jack and Deanne

Our lovely friends Jack and Deanne have arrived back in Loerrach and we have just shared a meal with them here in Schopfheim. They have come from LA and will be here for 3 months. It is so lovely to see them again. I'm sure we'll be talking quite a bit about them in the coming months. They will bring a great contribution to our Mosaic Team. Right now they need to recover from their jet lag.

Lunch on Wednesday

Yesterday we had lunch with David, Simea and their 17 months old daughter Leah. David is the Youth Pastor at our FeG Church in Loerrach. We always have such good catch up's with them, but not often enough. We were able to give David a report Roger has written to the Pastor and Elders of the Church about our Mosaic Ministry, just to keep them in the loop.

Leah entertained us with some of her very funny antics.

New Friends

Last Sunday afternoon we had the privilege of meeting Peter, Lisa and their 2 boys Torik and Jona. They were brought up in Holland and have lived in Loerrach for nearly 4 years. They spent 2 years in Sydney. They came and had a meal with us here in our little home in Schopfheim and we had a great time together. We talked to them about Mosaic and our dream for a Community of faith, hope and love.

I'm sure our paths will cross again.

SPRING PRELUDE

We held our second Mosaic Basel event on 10 March at the Galerie Ars Nova in Loerrach. The programme included piano, xylophone, violin, voice and mime. Around 65 people attended, including the musicians and mime group (students from Black Forest Academy in Kandern).

I took the photo's below before the event started. I wished I'd kept the camera in my hand so that I would remember to take more photo's!! Oh well. You will get a bit of an idea of the Galerie and of course the yummy food)!

It was a great evening, enjoyed by all who came. New friends were made and phone numbers exchanged - the whole point of the evening.

The next event "All that Jazz" will be held on 4 May in Galerie Weibel in Basel.

LONDON LAB

We were especially privileged to go to London Lab at the beginning of February for a 6 day course.

London Lab "exists to provide a practical and reflective opportunity for practice of elements of cross-cultural relationship building and church planting".

The aim of London Lab "is to build relationships, networks and partnerships with all who desire to proclaim the Gospel message in culturally appropriate ways to "unreached" populations segments, facilitating the gathering of new believers into worshipping and discipling groups and churches".

Topics covered were prayer, gift based evangelism, relational ministry (Luke 10, person of influence/peace), mapping populations, fellowship (who is my fellow and how do I fellowship), platforming/identity, ministry options, accountability and Church planting - expanding the Kingdom of God.

This was an amazing experience for us both and we felt very blessed to be invited to attend this lab. There were 7 of us on the course. 1 person from France, 3 from Spain, 2 from Germany and 1 from Wales.

You might enjoy the photo's below. I had to post them both!

Jocelyn can you spot a very little addition to the photo's?

MOSAIC'S FIRST EVENT IN BASEL - 1 DECEMBER 2006

Our Team

We began team meetings in September 2006 and have been meetings regularly on a Sunday afternoon for team meetings and reflections. We currently have 16 in our team. (3 Germans, 1 French, 10 American and 2 Australian).

We have been preparing a strategic plan, looking at who are target groups are and we have held 2 events to meet English speaking people and to have fun.

What is Mosaic?

Mosaic is an international community of followers of Jesus Christ. Its aim is to reach people for Christ and plant churches where those with no church background can feel welcomed and be discipled. Founded in multicultural Los Angles, Mosaic now has outreach in Europe. The mosaic philosophy is ministry through relationship.

At Mosaic we believe:

• The church exists for those outside God's kingdom not just for those inside.
• In living a life of passion that is attractive to people rather than a mediocre life that will not attract anyone.
• God will provide the people and ministries he wants us to have. We don't then choose a ministry for people to fit into, rather we help folk come to their full God-given potential in the things they love doing.

Why Basel/Loerrach

Bordering Germany and France, Basel is the second largest urban area in Switzerland. There are thousands of English speaking people living and working in Basel and its surrounds.

Europe - the forgotten mission field

When we think of Europe, we often think of the great people and events in church history - from Paul's last days in Rome, to the spread of Christianity across Europe, the Reformation, great music like Handel's Messiah.

We usually think of Europe as a continent sending out missionairies to the world. Today many European countries are losing their Christian heritage and so are now a mission field.

REFLECTING

Here we begin an attempt to keep you up to date with the working side of our days here in Germany/Switzerland.

It is one year since we arrived in the beautiful village of Schopfheim. This has caused us to reflect and reminisce over the past 12 months and the amazing journey we have had and are continuing to undertake. God has been extremely good to us and we pour out our thanks and praise to him, as his children, believing we are in the place he wants us to be.

We hope you will enjoy coming on this journey with us and seeing where God leads us week by week. We hope we will be able to keep up with the blogging and do it justice!

We both hope to be able to make a contribution to the blog.