We Are All Going on a Summer Holiday

 

Dear Friends and Members of IBC,

In this week’s Word for the Week, I would like to share a little bit about our upcoming church retreat, in the hope of firing up our appetites for it.

I believe that church retreats can help congregants get to know one another better, and provide wonderful opportunities for fellowship. We have the chance to participate in times of worship, prayer, teaching, and can enjoy many long meals together. As well as building community, retreats are also a time to rest, recharge and reflect. Even a few nights in a different place, surrounded by beautiful scenery, can give us clarity on different areas of our lives, or our relationship with God.

This year, we intend to spend the Pentecost weekend (Friday 6th June to Sunday 8th June) at the Koppelsberg retreat centre by Lake Plön. The centre has many free-time activities, including kayaking on the nearby lake. We intend to have a children’s program, which we hope will be supervised by another church, so that our current children’s ministry volunteers will be able to take a break from their usual Sunday school tasks. We are also in the process of organising for a guest speaker to preach, so we might benefit from different life experiences and perspectives. Furthermore, we aim to have several teaching workshops, focussing on various aspects of the Christian life.

In order for us to be able to go forward with organising this retreat, we need to know if there is a desire for it from the congregation. Clearly, if we discover that people would prefer not to attend, it is best to know sooner rather than later. So, please spend some time in the next days praying about this. And if you find your appetite fired up, your interest sparked, I would encourage you to commit to attending it by filling a registration form. It would greatly help us if you could do this within the next couple of weeks. As we shared in the Sunday service, we wouldn't want finances to be a reason for not joining us, so if this is an issue for you, please contact the church via office@ibc-hamburg.de and we will find solutions.

God bless you
James