AUSTRALIA DAY CELEBRATIONS

Roger and Gaynor doing the 'Brown Jug Polka'

Gaudenz and Gaynor getting around the circle!!!

Christine (from NZ) in the black top (Roger's Choir Director)

Jamie playing and singing

Roger talking with Lisa. We asked Lisa to display some of her paintings.

As you can see, a good time was had by all. Now that we've had time to get some rest and do some calculating here are the figures. We had 54 adults present and 19 children of varying ages (the youngest being 6 weeks old and an Aussie - but born in Basel!!). It was lots of fun, but also a lot of work. Will we be doing it next year?!! We'll just have to wait and see. We've certainly learned a lot!

A SPECIAL VISITOR

What an absolute THRILL it was to have Mary a'Beckett (Snowball) visit us for 3 days from 18 - 21 January. As Glenda and Tom were still with us, it was a bit like sleeping in a dormitory, but it was lots of fun and we managed in our little home.

It was good for Mary to see firsthand a little of what we are trying to do here amongst English speaking people. Mary travelled with us to a 'Seed' network afternoon led by Derek Webster, which was held in Zurich. Mary did not join in for the afternoon, but instead enjoyed a good walk on Lake Zurich and a rather hefty climb back up to the Conference Centre. She was also able to meet Derek Webster, and this for us was exciting as Mary is a member of our Support Group in Adelaide and has been with us from the beginning as we had our initial discussions with Derek.

Saturday night we celebrated Tom's 25th Birthday with a Roast Dinner and cheesecake and special bottle of wine! Mary felt privileged to be 'in the bosom of the family!!'.

Sunday morning Mary came to the German (FeG) Church that we attend in Loerrach. She has eventually made sense of FeG and what that stands for Free Evangelical Church. (Mary took a photo of the sign)! I'm sorry I didn't get a copy. Maybe I should take a photo myself!

In the afternoon Glenda and Mary accompanied us to our Mosaic get together at FeG. We were so pleased they both attended to give them an idea of what we get up to each week.

Thanks Mary for a special visit, for your love and encouragement and especially your prayers.

BEGINNING A NEW YEAR

Roger and I are looking forward to 2008 with excitement, anticipation, a little trepidation and with much enthusiasm and energy!

It was wonderful to have a holiday with Glenda and Tom and be spoilt by them! We did have a little difficulty keeping up with them at times, but nothing that a good nights sleep couldn't remedy. They flew back to Melbourne on 22 January.

So, what are we looking forward to?

• Continuing to build on our team at Mosaic Basel/Loerrach
• Beginning our gatherings in the next couple of weeks
• Running 'Nooma' nights to stimulate discussion
• Continuing to build on friendships we have already made and making new ones
• Trusting God to keep us here!
• Growing in our relationship with our Heavenly Father and allowing him to guide us as we continue to move forward and look for direction and creative ideas
• Visitors

to name a few things.

We hope to update this blog more regularly and keep you posted each week with what we hope to be up to (good accountability for us as well). Also it will help you to pray for us in our ministry here. We appreciate your prayers, emails, feedback, etc.