Some very important meetings are taking place in Germany and the U.S. this week. Would you please pray for them with us?

In Germany, the discussion with the bank about increasing the mortgage funds in order to proceed with remodeling is entering a critical phase.

In the U.S., the Philosophia International board is meeting on Monday evening with Pastor Bob Caldwell from Calvary Chapel, Boise, to discuss how we’ll minister and work together. Also, high on the agenda is a request from the German side of the fellowship that we take responsibility for the mortgage payments and short-term loan repayments due by December 31st while they raise funds for the first phase of remodeling to be completed by the end of the year.

Please pray for wisdom and unity in all these discussions! Thanks!

I just returned from Berlin a couple of days ago - 21 hours from door to door! (There is a good connecting flight with Northwest through Amsterdam, though. It avoids London and Paris - which is a great mercy.)
The time in Germany was EXCELLENT - The German friends of Philosophia and Haus Nazareth are really stepping up to the plate. They have committed themselves to raising the funds for the first phase of remodeling to be completed by the end of December!
A key prayer request in regard to this: the bank has indicated a willingness to approve an increase to the mortgage based upon the rise of property values in Berlin, but there has to be approval by an inspector. Please pray that this will go through without any hitches!

Exciting news: there is an amazing openness to the idea and vision of Haus Nazareth among both believers and “not-yet” believers in Berlin. One of the latest manifestations of this is “Concert in the Garden”. This is the story: a world-class cellist who became aquainted with the Ploners and Haus Nazareth decided to organize a benefit concert for the project. One thing led to another and now 12 of the leading cellists in the Berlin Philharmonic and other world-class orchestras are holding a benefit performance in the garden on September 23rd! Please pray for good weather!

Ann and I are very anxious to get relocated permanently back to Berlin as soon as possible - we are planning on moving in early January.

One key to this will be the finances for the loans and mortgage payments due by December 31st. More on that later!

Well, I admit that heading is a bit over the top… but:

We’ve been working like beavers on a “new, improved” blog and hope you’ll be encouraged at the results.

I just came to the place where there had to be a simpler, less time-consuming way to post things. We found it in the share-ware program “WordPress”, the structure behind the new look.

It’s been a lot of work, but I think it will really help facilitate not just “telling” the news about House Nazareth, Philosophia and our personal ministry, but also help build a deeper sharing and communication network with our friends and ministry partners.

We’ve transported the content over to the new site, so you can review previous news and notes. We hope to add more features as time progresses.

Thanks for your patience - and I hope that the new blog will be worth the long wait.

A thousand apologies for the long delay in posting to the “prayer blog”. The battle has been pretty heavy!
In the midst of this intense time, I am having heart surgery in Boise tomorrow (Thursday, Sept. 7) for a heart arrhythmia condition. We are moving ahead after consulting with 4 physicians. Would you please pray that surgery will go well, that there will be a quick recovery, and that this will make a real difference in my future energy and input level for the ministry in the coming years?
Also: Would you please pray specifically:
- that we will find the best firms, best price and right volunteers in Berlin to help in each phase of the remodeling and for us to receive all the necessary funds for each step.
- for the financing for “House Nazareth” to continue to come in; since much of the purchase price money was in the form of short-term, interest-free loans, we need to repay these loans on schedule. Until the remodeling is finished, Philosophia will have to bear the main weight of the quarter-yearly mortgage payments; the first is due September 30th. Also, the first major loan needs to be repaid within the next few months.
- for Seanne and Daniel, as they are traveling to Israel for his work on peace and conflict resolution. Would you please pray for God’s protection as they travel and do interviews in both Israel and Palestine?
- for continued growth and unity in the Philosophia leadership on both sides of the ocean as we work together and carry the responsibility for the direction of the ministry.

On Sunday, the “Berliner Morgenpost”, the largest newspaper in Berlin (with a circulation of 465,000), ran an extensive article on “House Nazareth” and Philosophia. Here it is in English:

Renewing Society through Values
In autumn, the faith-based group, “Philosophia Europa” is opening a multifunctional center in Steglitz
By Maggie Riepl

There’s still hammering and drilling, pipes are visible and walls are being torn down. “Careful! Up ahead there’s a hole in the floor,” warns Dr. Matthias Ploner, as he leads through the building site that in October will become the center for Philosophia Europa. One still needs some imagination to visualize how the rooms of “House Nazareth”, a building rich in history near the Steglitz Schlosspark Theater will eventually look.

The house has a long, eventful history: the foundations of the impressive structure were laid in 1880, financed by a Jewish manufacturer. In the years that followed, it was sometimes used as a Jewish synagogue. After World War I, an institute for the blind, founded by the Jewish community, moved in. In the “Third Reich”, the Gestapo had the blind occupants deported to Auschwitz. Today, a stone memorial in front of the house calls attention to that time.

After the war, the Catholic Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus assumed responsibility for the multi-story house. In the following decades, it became a place of refuge for children from problem families as a home for single mothers and as an orphanage. The Sisters had to give up the house last year because of their age. Was it a lucky coincidence? Divine leading?

Dr. Matthias Ploner, a family physician who lived in the neighborhood heard of the sale and considered how the house and its spiritual tradition could be preserved and continued. He is an active Christian and discussed the project with his friend of many years, Dr. Clark Peddicord, Director of the newly-founded Philosophia Europa. The decision was made together to take the financial risk and purchase the house for almost 2 million Euros. “As Christians, we want to contribute to a renewal of our society by helping to make a place from which the bright light of hope shines into the darkness of the world,” said Dr. Ploner, quoting the words of Friedrich Bodelschwingen. This is the guiding principle of the old-new house. “House Nazareth” is to be, as it was in the past, “a place of fellowship and sharing, a place of community for all who seek God,” said Dr. Peddicord. Originally from the USA, he is a theologian and philosopher with an earned doctorate. Prior to his involvement with Philosophia he worked with Campus für Christus and the Offensive Junger Christen.

The goal is to link daily life with faith. Thus, a medical center and property management firm will move into the ground floor of the main house (which has a total area of 17,250 sq. ft.). The rental income from these offices will insure the financing of the project. The apartments of the Ploner and Peddicord families will be on the 2nd and 3rd floors, along with rooms for about a dozen students, who will pay about 200 Euros rent and will be moving in for the fall. A prayer room is also planned, since the previous chapel had to be sacrificed in the remodeling. Only the beautiful stain-glass windows were preserved.

Above all, “House Nazareth” is to be a place of community. In addition to theological seminars and Bible studies, there will be discussions about social and political issues and open evenings with artists. It will serve as a place for people from around the world to energetically interact, aiding better understanding between cultures. The work with students will be another emphasis and take the form of mentoring, learning and study groups. The former kindergarten in the garden area is planned as a multifunctional building that will be a library, seminar and conference center. The result will be a place where daily and professional life is linked with the need for community.

The Community
Philosophia Europa is a branch of Philosophia International. Its ecumenical center for faith and work is located in Berlin in “House Nazareth”. Philosophia is committed to the communication of Christian values as well as the training and mentoring of young people of the next generation, who are responsible for our future.

The goal of Philosophia is to link daily and professional life with the need for community and interaction about issues of faith. It is a special concern that different groups and generations of Christians and non-Christians be connected.

More information about this religious community and its values can be obtained through:

Philosophia Europa
Wrangelstrasse 6-7
12165 Berlin-Steglitz
and
www.philosophia.net

Comments? Questions?

 

House Nazareth from the neighbor’s balcony

Wow! Berlin is beautiful!

The skies are clear blue and the temperature in the 70’s and 80’s. Nevertheless, I’d appreciate you praying for a bit of rain in the nights - my allergies are going crazy with all the pollen…

The bank is still taking its time - partly because the office here in Berlin did not forward the file to Cologne on time last Friday…
/-:

Please continue to earnestly beseech the Lord that HE will “break down gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron.” (Isaiah 45:2)

Another prayer request: This morning I called my friend Gerd Lode, the mayor in Reichelsheim, to check that our visa was still OK. He put me in touch with the office in the city hall (in Germany one must, as in most European countries, register with the local government). Ann and I deliberately left our registration in Reichelsheim because of our visas (our things are all there anyway and we went back regularly).

However, the local office mistakenly unregistered us and now I have to get a confirmation that we’ve been regularly in Germany since then for the visa bureaucracy. SO: we’d appreciate your prayers that everything will go well with this… it is important!!

PS: Some have called Ann and asked for specifics on how to donate for the House Nazareth project. Here’s the info:
Please write a check payable to Philosophia International (then it’s tax deductable). You can indicate on the check itself or on a separate slip of paper: “For House Nazareth”.
The address to send it to is:

Philosophia International
P.O. Box 190162
Boise, ID 83719

Thanks for asking!

Hi, everybody!

This has been a busy week, so I didn’t get to the blog before now - and I’ve just got a moment to update you on a speaking engagement.

I’m in the Chicago area for a couple of days for meetings with our friends at First Baptist Church in Elmhurst. Pastor Phil Miller will be interviewing me in the service on Sunday and we’ll conclude the service with the 12-minute video we’ve developed about the vision of Philosophia and “House Nazareth”, followed by a time of sharing and discussion time.

If you’re in the Chicago area, I’d like to warmly invite you to join us for that time! The church is located on the corner of York and St. Charles Road in Elmhurst. (Church phone = 630-832-9100). The service begins at 10:30am.

It would be really neat if you could come!

Thanks for your continued prayers. It’s official! Philosophia is now publically incorporated in Germany. The court in Berlin (Charlottenburg) presented the articles of incorporation to Matthias yesterday. No cheap manila folder or creased pages stuffed into an envelope, the pages are bound and graced with a wax seal of the court, complete with red cord binding together the entire document. (When things are official, German bureaucrats seem to hit a very special note. Something I’ve come to appreciate.)

Please pray that the official documents of recognition as a non-profit charity by the “Finanzamt” (already verbally agreed to) will now follow quickly without any hitches.

The application of Philosophia for recognition as a tax-deductible charity in Germany is in the final stages of discussion with the German finance ministry (German IRS). (We already have IRS recognition in the United States.) Please pray specifically that the case worker and her supervisor will approve the latest revisions to the articles of incorporation (they’re really just “fine-tuning”, but bureaucracy is the same around the world!). Pray that the present version will be speedily approved and that Dr. Ploner and our lawyer can pick up the papers from the finance ministry office!

Yesterday, the leadership team of Philosophia met to pray and plan and interact about the next steps of the “House Nazareth” project. It was very motivating, as we spent extended time on the phone with John, a friend of Brad Heinrichs and a wise advisor who gave us good counsel.

Something really struck me in our sharing time, though.

Pete Stewart commented: “The vision for Philosophia doesn’t ‘belong’ to any of us, not even Clark and Ann. We are caretakers of God’s vision. We’ve been entrusted with it for a time and are responsible to pass it on to the next generation when we are finished.”

I was reminded of the Apostle Paul’s statement regarding his life’s work (1. Corinthians 4:1):

One ought to regard us [with responsibility in
Christ's church] as servants of Christ and as
stewards entrusted with God’s mysteries.”

Stewards = “caretakers”, custodians entrusted with the administration of the possessions of another. This is the true role of each of us who have come to know God in Jesus: our life, our breath, our ideas, the mercies we experience - large and small - are all entrusted to us by a loving Master.

It is sobering to realize (even at the beginning of things!) that we are to administer and care for the vision of Philosophia as a “custodial account”. We are to work while we can; the day will come when God will ask us to “reckon up” the books and pass things on.