The horses are saddled!

Overcoming language barriers

Foreign languages are confusing. But there are people who can bring people together and help them to understand each other. Twenty sisters and brothers from Belgium, France, Luxembourg, and Switzerland gathered in our church in Strasbourg (France) last weekend. Together with Apostle Jeannot Leibfried and the retired Shepherd Jacky Mappus the translators and interpreters discussed the challenges of translating and adapting texts from our Church into different languages. They all understood the obvious: a good translation does not come about by taking a word-to-word approach, but by capturing and rendering the “spirit” of the text. The objective is to make the listener or reader believe that they are dealing with a text in their mother tongue, and not with a translation.

Aid organisations help people in need

Even in rich countries there is poverty. human-aktiv, the aid organisation of the New Apostolic Church Southern Germany, has been busy helping disadvantaged individuals and families at its own doorstep. It has been providing financial support for targeted projects for many years, volunteers say. In addition, the NAK Sozial- und Bildungswerk (another institution involved in assisting the disadvantaged with social and educational projects) as well as NAK-karitativ are also active in Germany and abroad.

Communication experts create new website for the Church in Russia

Добро пожаловать (“dobro pozhalovat”): “Welcome!” it says on the homepage of the New Apostolic Church in Russia. The address of the website is: http://new.novoapost.ru. It offers information on the doctrine, the organisation of the Church, and congregational life. The website was developed in co-operation with the brothers and sisters from the District Church Berlin-Brandenburg (Germany), which provides administrative services for the Church in Russia. The website is an ambitious project designed to inform both the members and the general public about the Church.

Scandinavian rectors exchange ideas and experiences

The congregational rectors from the countries of Denmark, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden met in Copenhagen (Denmark) from 11 to 13 January 2019. Together with Apostle Jörg Steinbrenner they discussed their responsibilities as leaders, pastoral care of the youth, the new teaching material for Sunday School, as well as the development of music in the Scandinavian countries.

An aid organisation builds a school

Once again, two aid organisations of the New Apostolic Church are co-operating on a project: NAK-Humanitas (Switzerland) and NACSEARelief (South-East Asia) are building a school in Sitio Kafik, Acmonan/Tupi in the Philippines. Special challenges have to be mastered: there are no cars or trucks there. Project manager Mabelle Bagtas has always been up for a challenge: “Projects where horses are still the only means of transportation are a logistical challenge. We like such jobs.” And so, little by little, another school is being constructed in impassable terrain. The horses are saddled!