Dear Friends of Akebulan,

at the end of this year, it is our privilege to tell you a bit about the further development of our small church. Some of you might know about it or have experienced some of it with us… Last year, we reported about our foundation time at the end of 2006 and the first year in our church in 2007. When the New Year 2008 started, we entered joyfully into it with the yearly Bible verse of John 14:19 where Jesus says: “Because I live, you also will live.”

In January, the BFP Pastors came to us for their pastors’ breakfast. The weekend before, District Supervisor and Pastor Karl Schreiter had had his welfare party after many years of pasturing Christuskirche. This was why not so many pastors came to the breakfast like last time, but they had very intensive discussions.

Later in the year, Pastor Karl Schreiter came to our church to preach, and he brought also his wife and one grandson with him. He was very helpful to us concerning the decision not to become a part of the BFP, yet, as a church since we need time to grow more before we can meet their conditions to be a part of the organisation.

Anyway, our church grew in number a lot, this year, and we’re very grateful for this. Our visitors are more than double of the number of visitors of last year. Many people come from the asylum home near our church, and often, our members invite people to come to our church.

Also in January, Pastor Peter took part in a retreat called “Counselling people in deportation camp” which was organised by “Asylum in the Church”. In addition, he took part in a seminar “Help for Prisoners”, organised by “Forum Help for Prisoners” from “Together for Berlin e.V.” Unfortunately, afterwards Pastor Peter had to pause from this voluntarily work because the Akebulan development made it necessary.

Later, he had to pause from the work in a project group who helps African families in Berlin/ Brandenbourg for the same reason. The group had been founded by Pastor Peter and other people inside the Afro-German Club in Wedding.

A special highlight for us in February was the “Transforum”, organised by “Together from Berlin e.V.” Pastor Peter was invited, there, to hold a seminar together with the Indian Pastor Dr. Bobby Bose from Boston (USA). The title of it was “Unity in Diversity” or intercultural church work. Sister Steffi was invited to translate. At the seminar, there were also the senior pastor and his wife from the same church in Boston, Douglas and Judy Hall. When we talked to them, afterwards, they encouraged us a lot because they have ministered in the intercultural church network in Boston for long time.

Still, Pastor Peter engages himself in APPA e.V., RACIBB e.V., in the Ecumene Berlin and in the FIKB “Forum Intercultural Relationships” which is a part of “Together for Berlin e.V.”, as well as in the Afro-German Club.

This year, Pastor Peter went to Neuzelle in Brandenbourg, twice, to teach children at the elementary school African projects. In October, he was invited by the Methodist Church in Lankwitz to teach children about his home country Ghana during an African Week program.

RACIBB e.V. asked Pastor Peter in February to counsel the family of a Nigerian man who had died lonely in his apartment because he had isolated himself from the family even though they loved him and tried to stay in contact with him. Pastor Peter preached at the funeral service. The destiny of this family moved our hearts deeply.

In March, our church had to change a small part of our constitution. Again, we had help with this from our lawyer and friend Dr. Sander as well as our father and administrator Michael Fleischer.

When we celebrated Easter, we experienced the special joy to take part in the service of Suedstern Church “Gospel Believers International e.V.” on Good Friday and baptize four of our adult members.

In April, we had two good opportunities: First, Pastor Peter had visitors from the Bible School of “Church on the Way” in Tegel who came with their teacher Pastor Harald Sommerfeld. Pastor Peter lectured about intercultural church work and discussed with the pupils about it. For more discussion, he delivered questions to take along with them.

Secondly, Pastor Peter and Sister Steffi finally got in contact with Mrs Giannini and Mrs Köppen, the two organisers of the yearly neighbourhood festival who also work together with the Evangelical and Catholic Church. This way, our contact to our direct neighbours increased. We were allowed also to use their website and information-window to invite people to our church.

At the end of April and beginning of May, FIKB organised several “Interconnect” evenings with discussions and room for fellowship.

In addition, they organised a Pentecost service in Kreuzberg (Heilig-Kreuz-Kirche) where Pastor Peter preached about many cultures but one faith. The Pan-African choir Bonisanani Spirituals e.V. was also there to sing.

In the midst of the month, Akebulan organised the first Youth Rally, an event for Teen Kids and Youth which went for several days and offered youth services, bowling as free time activity on Saturday morning and a special music service on Saturday afternoon with worship led by Brother Alex Bierhals. He also serves in our church as worship leader, and we are very grateful for it.

For the free time activity, we also invited our elder church kids, and this gave us the idea to organise free time activities for “our” kids during school holidays. We went bowling with them, again, during autumn holidays, and when “Trust in Faith Gospel Mission e.V.” had their women’s conference, our co-workers took the children to Britzer Garden so that the women could go and participate in the conference.

In June, Pastor Jere Aidoo from Suedstern Church celebrated his 60th birthday and his wedding anniversary with a joyful big party. Many people, including our congregation, were invited.

Akebulan organised our second Legacy Festival (Feast of Generations). This time, our lecturers were Dr. Ladipoh (medical doctor in Berlin who comes from Sierra Leone), Pater Rohrmayer (longtime missionary in Ghana and founder of the Africa Center in Berlin), Pastor Harald Sommerfeld (pastor of Joshua Church in Spandau, co-worker of FIKB, lecturer for (Christian) city transformation and teacher at the Bible School of Church on the Way) and Evangelist Holger Theobald (IT-Manager). On Saturday, Bonsanani Spirituals e.V. gave a small concert for us.

In July, Akebulan had an information table at the “Feast of the Nations” at the Red City Council around Marien Church, organised by the International Convent of Christian Churches e.V. It was a colourful and joyful celebration. Inside the church, the RACIBB Choir Bona Tété and others had opportunity to sing.

At the end of July and in August, Family Arthur travelled to Ghana, for the first time with their daughter Phinissia. When we travelled, we didn’t need to worry about Akebulan Church, because we had a lot of help from our co-workers, our team preachers and many guest preachers. We are very grateful for this opportunity to travel, to relax and to visit our family.

During this year, our team preachers were Brother Alex Bierhals (worship leader and theology student of Global University), Minister Thomas Meik and Pastor Simon (former pastor in Kenia).

Our guest preachers were (again) Brother Ralph Webster (also theology student at the same university), Evangelist Ben Akpalu (preacher in asylum home whom Pastor Peter joined in 2007 and who always invites people to our church), Evangelist Holger Theobald, Pater Rohrmayer, Pastor Karl Schreiter, Pastor Ziebarth (Evangelical State Church), Pastor Daniela Maithya (Evangelical Service for Blind People in Berlin/ Brandenbourg), Pastor Hans Theermann (missionary from the USA and teacher of the Global Universtiy with its seat in Texas/ USA and office in Berlin), Pastor Axel Nehlsen (administrator of Together for Berlin e.V.) and Pastor Joe Mutuki from Kenia. Thank you all for your wonderful and blessed service!!

We also want to thank our beloved co-workers: Sister Vida and her husband Brother Charles help us with the garden work, do most of our church shopping, and Sister Vida cooks a lovely stew and the rice for our Sunday lunch. At special occasions, she also cooks extra things. Sister Bola and Sister Maureen share the salad preparation for Sundays, and after service, they add the spices to the salad. Sometimes, Sister Maureen also brings backed chicken. It’s delicious! Bro Kobi, Pastor Simon, Bro Juan and Pastor Peter clean the tables, the floor and the toilets after lunch, and Bro Charles, Bro Kobi and others wash the dishes. Bro Juan, Pastor Simon, Bro Alex, Minister Thomas Meik und Bro Jasper share the leading of the Wednesday Prayer Meetings and Friday Bible Discussions with Pastor Peter. Bro Alex does also often help with worship leading during these meetings. Our translations are mostly done by Sister Elke, Sister Maureen, Bro Juan, Bro Jasper and Minister Thomas Meik. Bro Jasper is also our Webmaster. Sometimes, it is not easy for him to do this “job” besides his intensive studies and paid work. Bro Juan is also our treasurer, organises the song follies and helps with the children. Bro Clementino who is studying in France to become a medical doctor for more than a year, now, could come to Berlin for several months, this summer to continue studying and also help in our church with garden work, the Youth Rally and with our week program. Sister Dorothea helps in the kitchen as often as she can free herself from shift work to come to our church. For the Sunday school for Children, several women have offered to start helping which I (Sister Steffi) am very grateful for because this help is really needed, now. Thank you for this readiness, I hope we’ll become a good team! God bless you all for your engagement and help!

Concerning the Sunday School for Kids where more help is needed, now, the number of children has doubled itself (like in our services). Both groups, with the small children (age 2-4) and the elder children (age 7-13) are double big, now. We are very happy about and grateful for this! At the beginning of the year, the two groups could still be together in one room. But about summertime, the elder children had to move and make room for the smaller ones since they can concentrate longer and sit at tables in the fore-room. At first, I didn’t tell extra stories for the younger children so often, but during this year, I started to do a small extra program for them with a song, a short story and a prayer. This program is developing now, and it is also helpful for it to have more small children who come on regular basis. Before summer holidays, the elder children played a theatre about a story of Jesus. Before this, we read together a book called “Nele, Ben and the miraculous book” from Kerstin Schmale-Gebhard, Schwaben Publisher. We had started reading this book already in 2007. In this book, a brother and a sister read stories from the Bible (Old and New Testament). Through their fantasy, they jump direct into the stories. This way, they understand the situations better. Later, they discuss what they have read and so give ideas for the discussion of us, the readers of the book. At Easter, we read parts of the Gospel of John. In autumn, we discussed different promises of God not forgetting the conditions that go often together with them. Now during Christmas time, we read a book about the journey of Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem. When I do crafts with the children, I mostly try to find something that the smaller and elder children can do together like baking cookies for our advent celebration or forming Fimo as Christmas gifts. Only sometimes I’ll let them do things extra like a paper dragon with the juniors “God’s strength drives me forward” and colouring a cloth with the seniors for Thanksgiving…

In September, our Akebulan Church took actively part in the neighbourhood celebration with an information table and some modern worship songs sung by Brother Alex (keyboard), Brother Juan and Pastor Peter. We are glad about the contact with our Borsigwalde neighbours, especially about the visit of the governess of Reinickendorf, Mrs Wanjura, and the Catholic and Evangelical pastors Pastor Gorgas and Pastor Dzikowski at our table. In the New Year, we are planning to take actively part in the Ecumenical Pentecost Service in Borsigwalde. Concerning our neighbourhood, we also want to mention the continuous good contact with our house owner Dr. Per Knappe and his family who live next door to our church. May God bless them!

In addition, we did, again, show our small exhibition called “German Missionary Work in West Africa during the 19th Century”. It was, again, part of the intercultural church week in Berlin/ Brandenbourg.

At the end of the month, Pastor Peter went to a podium discussion in the Africa House to discuss the topic of the common refugees’ and asylum politics of the EU and its consequences in Berlin. His discussion partners were Mrs Schwall-Düren (Europe Parlament), Mrs Bayram (Women +Refugees) and Mr Niedermeyer from the organising Committee I International Politics, Peace and Development; all from the party SPD.

At the 3rd October, the Day of German Unity, Pastor Peter travelled to Dortmund together with Pastor Harald Sommerfeld. They were invited to lecture at an intercultural church seminar called “Inspire” which was held in a Baptist Church. Christans from different churches had gathered, there, to think about unity of Christians from different cultures. They had first invited Pastor Sommerfeld because he has thought about these things a lot as lecturer of “City Transformations”. But they also asked him to bring over another pastor with non-German background to report about his experiences of Christian intercultural relationships. And since Pastor Sommerfeld and Pastor Peter work together in the FIKB, Pastor Peter was asked to come with. He liked this seminar much, but he could also report afterwards about several interesting reactions to it: The pastor of the host church told him that he has difficulties to understand or tolerate the way of worship in charismatic churches. But he really had liked the seminar and was thinking of repeating it, soon. An elderly lady told Pastor Peter that when she got the invitation to the seminar, she thought of only coming if the weather was rainy. Otherwise, she wanted to go and enjoy her garden. But someway somehow God led her to join the seminar even though it was a sunny day, and she liked it very much because she found something that she had been seeking her life long. Wow! Another woman who was a bit younger said after the seminar that she had lived in Berlin, before. Here in Dortmund, she had already thought of helping children with African background with their school homework, but she had not put it into action, yet. She had been encouraged through the seminar to really love these children and start helping them. God is good!

One day later in October, the closing service of the intercultural week of the church was, again, organised by RACIBB in Heilandskirche (Wedding). In this service, pastors from different churches as well as three different choirs (Bona Tété, Bonsanani Spirituals e.V. and a Korean Choir) were invited to speak and sing.

At the end of October, APPA, again, had their yearly conference, this time with a guest preacher who came from Ghana.

At our Thanksgiving Service in Akebulan, as I said, the elder children had coloured a cloth. I asked them to draw agricultural products of the five continents. As a help, they read in a countries’ lexicon. The Thanksgiving table did, then, show the cloth as well as one typical product of each continent which we later ate.

Since October/ November, Pastor Peter has started a monthly ALPHA (Bible Basics) Course for Teenage children. It was started with the homework help kids, but of course, it is open for everybody!

The homework help continued in 2008 and had a great success: Three children who finished the 10th grade and did examinations, passed and continue now with the 11th grade. We are very happy about this, especially because two of these pupils at first didn’t really think of continuing school.

In November, we celebrated our first family-service about the story of Noah and the arc and John 3, 16. Also, we celebrated our church’s second and different members’ birthdays.

Last but not least, we had our first prayer-night, finally!

And Pastor Peter? He travelled to Hambourg to speak at a church leaders’ meeting of Together for Hambourg to report about the intercultural work of Together for Berlin (FIKB). In an adult school in Berlin/ Wedding, he lectured about Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, and at a visit, he got to know Mrs Gerloff, an Evangelical pastor, author and pioneer in the intercultural church work who was one of the founders of RACIBB e.V. and still engages herself in this work even though she has retired, already.

At December 7th (2nd Advent), Pastor Peter blessed Baby Paula in our church, one of our two youngest members who were born short after one another, this summer.

In the afternoon, we celebrated advent similarly like last year. Again, we came together from different churches and denominations, different age groups (0-90 years) and different countries of the world. The members of the Thursday Bible Studies did also come, again. (They had also been the members of the former ‘State Church Fellowship Borsigwalde e.V.’ who had been in our church building, before.) It was a lovely celebration! The elder girls of our church showed their dance which they had first created for the family service in November. Mr Arndt played the trumpet, again, with Bro Alex at the keyboard for us to sing old advent songs. Our dear old Bro Shalom came as a visitor and read a “slightly different” Christmas story. Bro Manfred read a newspaper article about a sick baby who had been born with folded hands like someone praying. The story of the church building was also read, again, in German and English because many of our new members hadn’t heard it last time. Pastor Axel Nehlsen preached shortly about the meaning of the four Advent Sundays, and he involved the children into it in a nice way. We’re looking forward, already, to our next advent celebration in the New Year!

During our family service and at the advent celebration, we read and translated Bible verses in different languages. This made clear how many different nationalities are represented in our church, now. We are really blessed by this diversity! Our members come from Germany, Spain, Rumania, Argentina, Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria, Kenia, Mosambik und den Philippines. In addition, some of our visitors come from Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone and Iran. Praise the Lord!

Recently, we heard that the edg Kiel Charitable Foundation overtakes the main part of the costs for a beamer for our church, which we really need but couldn’t have afforded by ourselves. We need it especially for our songs which are more than 200, now, and this is too much to manage with follies. Also, we can this way plan to show Christian movies in the church, and Pastor Peter can also use the beamer for showing pictures at the African school projects.

Mr Fisher from the Federal Office for Immigrants and Refugees who nurses the projects that are (or are trying to be) supported by the European Integration Funds, helped us intensively to apply for support. Thank you!

Here, of course, we also want to thank every person who has supported us during this year with their prayers, encouraging words, practical help, finances or anything else. God bless you all!

We wish everyone of you a Merry Christmas and an

Uprising New Year 2009 by the grace of God!

Yours Church Akebulan- Global Mission e.V.

Räuschstr. 37, 13509 Berlin, Tel.: 030/ 772 17 79

e-mail: info@akebulan-gm.org; Website: www.akebulan-gm.org

Tax No: 27/ 656/ 55070; District Court No: VR 25928 B;

Chairman: Pastor Peter Arthur, Bahnhofstr. 4a, 12207 Berlin

Bank Account Akebulan: Ev. Darlehnsgenossenschaft, Bank No: 210 602 37, AccountNo: 743534