Voser Report – Sept ’09

Dear brothers and sisters,

Lena and I are about to come to a major turning point in our lives: the birth of our first baby. We know in theory that everything will be different. In practice we cannot quite imagine how different it will be. November 29 is the due date for our baby. Anxiety and joy are part of what we as future parents are now experiencing.

Speaking at the Annual Men’s Retreat in Germany

This year’s men retreat was focused on Agape. The Church of Christ in Stuttgart, Germany, organised the retreat for this year which took place from September 21 – 25, Monday-Friday. They successfully revived the retreat so that this year approximately 80 men attended, which means that compared with last year the number of men at the retreat nearly doubled. I was invited as one of the speakers. The title that was assigned to me for Thursday evening was at the same time the subtitle of the whole retreat: “he loved them to the end.” Before I began to speak, the brothers from Stuttgart acted the scene of Jesus with his disciples inclining at the table in the upper room and eating the Passover in the night of Jesus’ betrayal. The focus was, of course, on the foot-washing scene which followed the meal. It was an excellent introduction for my speech in which I tried to flesh out the story as Jesus responded to Peter’s objection to wash his feet. I then gave a historical perspective and tried to show how we may take this passage today and give it relevance for our situation in our churches, as we serve one another in humility and love.

Church Contacts and Church Teenagers

Presently, we have several close contacts with outsiders. Unfortunately, Ueli, 20, has not attended worship service during the last few weeks. Ueli is the next door neighbor of James and Martine Ferguson. He often visits them, when he has a question to ask about the Bible. They live about 40 minutes from Thun in a small village near Interlaken. Ueli is about to leave to go to the military service for a few months.

My father stopped his weekly Bible study with Johanna and Margrit. He encouraged them to come to the church Bible study on Wednesday evening. It must be about four years ago, when my parents, Lena, and I began the Bible study with these two women and when I first was leading the study. During the last two or three years my parents had a weekly private Bible study with them while Lena and I got involved in another home Bible study group for about a half a year. We are hoping that these two women will soon be part of our Bible study group on Wednesday evening and later on they will start attending worship service on Sundays. Margrit has already shown up once for Wednesday night Bible class and she gave positive comments about the class.

We still have four teenagers in church that have not submitted in baptism. Some attend the worship service often, others only occasionally. The teenagers are Anna, 19, Mathias, 18, Benjamin, 14, and Rahel, 12. I and Lena have held a few Bible studies with Benjamin and Rahel during their school vacation time this year. Maria, 16, was baptised in May of this year. She is the only one of our teenagers that has so far submitted her live to Christ through baptism.

My mother, who is the oldest member of the congregation, turned 81 years old on September 23. She is still in a fairly good health. Since July 2008 my mother and father have lived in a senior citizen home in Steffisburg. Our three pregnant women in church (Lena, Regina, and Andrea) are now all in their second part of their pregnancy. Lena will probably be the first of all three to give birth which is coming up in the next few weeks.

Prayer Requests

• Our three pregnant women in church: Lena, Regina, and Andrea
• Our teenagers
• Ueli, a church visitor, who is about to go to the military service for several months
• Margrit and Johanna who are encouraged to join the church Bible study

Any funds can be sent to our overseeing congregation:

Park Avenue Church of Christ; 5295 Park Avenue; Memphis, TN 38119

Grace and Peace,

Ivan + Lena

Ivan + Lena Voser; Ziegeleistrasse 34a 3612; Steffisburg, Switzerland

E-Mail: voserivan@hotmail.com Phone number: 0041 33 534 57 37

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