At home worldwide: experiencing special things

Fellowship with the Chief Apostle

At the beginning of July 2016, Chief Apostle Jean-Luc Schneider visited Vancouver in Canada to celebrate the divine service for the departed . Before and after the service, there was time to meet the children, the youth, and other members.

As a farewell gift, the Chief Apostle was presented with a personalized Vancouver Canucks jersey. The Canucks are an ice hockey team based in Vancouver, British Columbia.

School during the holidays

Normally, during school holidays, all classes in the Church such as Sunday School and religious instruction stop as well. But not all children actually go away for their holidays. And for these children the Church offers Vacation Bible School in many places. This has also been the case in a district in the north of Germany for several years now. This year the children not only got together for an hour, but three hours. The topic: “Jesus: magician and miracle worker?” was really interesting for everyone. Besides doing quite a bit of music the children also did some serious exploring in the Bible.

One group talked about the healing of the man who had been born blind. Right after the lesson the children were able to test their senses and get an idea of how important it is to be able to see, smell, and feel. Another group dealt with the topic of life and death and discussed the dead girl whom Jesus raised from the dead. The children then planted some seeds to illustrate evolving life. A third group talked about some of the other miracles and learned to express these through the art of mime. Toward the end, all the groups presented their results.

The “old gang” gets together

District Apostle Urs Hebeisen, the retired District Apostle Leslie Latorcai, and the District Apostle Helpers John Sobottka and Frank Dzur were treated to a wonderful homemade dinner by District Apostle Mark Woll and his wife, Marion.

Why the reunion? District Apostle Leslie has been in retirement for six years already, and it was time for the “old gang” to get together. Over many years, he had been instrumental in building up the Church in South-East Asia, especially in Myanmar, Thailand, and Malaysia. Assisting him during this time were the District Apostle Helpers Woll, Dzur, Sobottka, Deppner, and Hebeisen. The Church has moved on and three District Apostles have emerged from this group, but the men’s friendship has outlasted all the changes.

“Like branches of a tree our lives may grow in different directions, yet our roots remain as one,” District Apostle Woll had written on the invitation. It was a special reunion , evoking many happy memories.

Retirement of Apostle Hans-Peter Schneider

On Sunday, 14 August, Chief Apostle Jean-Luc Schneider celebrated a divine service in Heilbronn in Germany that was transmitted to the European part of District Apostle Michael Ehrich’s working area. Apostle Hans-Peter Schneider retired after 39 years as a minister, 18 of which he had been an Apostle. Apostle Schneider worked in Heilbronn, but was also active overseas: Ivory Coast, Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Russia, and Ukraine. The working area of Apostle Schneider was entrusted to Apostle Dieter Prause.

Chief Apostle Schneider wrote: “We thank our friend and fellow Apostle sincerely for his many years of blessed work, for his loyal and loving care of the souls entrusted to him, and for his service to the Lord. We wish him and his wife a pleasant and blessed retirement.”