Dear Friends of Akebulan,
The year 2013 has come to an end and as always, we look back in remembrance of it. It is our hope, that it was a good year for you all! In the whole, we can say this in regard of our church- thanks be to God! Considering the number of people attending our services, 2013 was another “weak” year. Many of us have to work on weekends, for example when they nurse old people or do cleaning services. It’s not easy when there’s hardly someone to lead us in worship (thank you, Phinissia, for your help!), when I don’t know if there is one, two or a little more children of very different age in Sunday School, and when financially, we are always short. Unfortunately, we have found out that we made a mistake with our application for support of our Gospel Project. Now we pay extra instead of getting a little relief. But still, we feel to be blessed. We see our members who are with us full heartedly. They stick together and support each other; especially in these days, when our dear Bro Lere is in the hospital with a very hard diagnosis. The just mentioned Gospel project is going very well and we will continue with it in 2014. Now we will tell you things one after the other:
During 2013, Pastor Peter continued his studies in intercultural theology at Hermannsburg, which he had started in 2012. It’s being taught in weekly modules of five days, once in a month. It gives him new insights, and the fellowship and exchange of ideas and experience with the other studying migration pastors and lecturers who all have lived abroad, before, is obviously very interesting and fruitful. Three times, Peter was invited to Hannover by the university. There, the Evangelical State Church held two intercultural study days at which he spoke, once. Also, there was a meeting of the publicity board. Peter took part because they had given him a mini job in the university’s publicity. In June, we went to the mission festival of Hermannsburg, together with Phinissia and Dr. Triebel from SSIP e.V. This way, we could explore the campus and meet several of the people living, working and studying there.
In February, we had our first official Gospel workshop with the Evangelical Blind People’s Service of Berlin. Our inclusive Gospel project „Gospel music creates room for encounter of immigrants, blind and sight handicapped people“, is being supported by “Aktion Mensch e.V.” We invite people of different age, nationalities, denominations and other backgrounds. We earlier had had contact with the Evangelical Blind People’s Service of Berlin and with Pastor Daniela Nischik. So together we decided to start singing Gospel music, which nurtures the soul, creates a good atmosphere for fellowship, and helps overcome what separates us.
We meet regularly every two months in the house of the State’s Blind People’s Service of Berlin (ABSV), whose rooms we are kindly being allowed to use for free. Our participants are about 20- 25 people from kindergarden to high retirement age. Their earlier singing experience varies much.Brother Kobe, Alex and Sister Christine support us with the music and in practical ways. One time, we had a special guest, Stefanie-Lahya Aukongo. She sings in a women Gospel choir and has written an exciting book about her life, called „Kalungas Kind“, which she introduced to us.
We sing old, famous songs like ”Amen“ or ”We shall overcome“, African Gospel, and modern worship songs. Sometimes, we play percussion instruments, and sometimes, one or the other of us plays the Bonga drum, guitar or piano for us. Breathing and singing exercises help us to relax and to improve our singing techniques. Pastor Daniela always kindly prints the lyrics of the songs for us in big letters and in Braille. We all have a lot of fun together. In summer time, we practised at our outing in “Britzer Garten“ and this way had our first audience. Since our singing works quite good, we presented a few songs at the Evangelical Blind People’s Service’s jubilee celebration in September and at their Advent celebration in December. In October, we visited a very nice concert of the pan- African Gospel choir “Akwaba”, where our dear Sister Christine is singing.
The first meeting for intercultural learning with ÖRBB was held in March. At Good Friday, Peter baptised our daughter Phinissia at Südstern Church. This was a great joy for us as pastoral family!
In April, Akebulan was finally affiliated by “Mülheimer Verband“, who is now our umbrella organisation. The obligatory application period had been two years. We are grateful for the moral, legal and spiritual support as well as for their friend- and fellowship.
The month May brought us another trip to the Day of Open Doors with One Spirit Camp at “Himmelsfels”. This time, only a few people from Berlin and in the whole much less young people stayed for the International Youth Bible Camp than in 2012. But therefore, we had an intensive fellowship. On Pentecost, we again celebrated our traditional Ecumenical Service in Borsigwalde. In June, our Katholic neighbours invited us for their jubilee service. In addition, two of the yearly RACIBB services were held in our church rooms- one in June, one in September.
APPA e.V. for the second time organised their yearly conference at summer time. They also had two Half Prayer Nights, both of them at Akebulan. In August, Pastor Joshua Lupemba married his dear wife Shilan. Sister Ines invited us for another Barbeque in her garden. In September, we organised the memorial service for Pastor Dr. Roswith Gerloff, a pioneer in the intercultural church communication who after a long period of sicknesses had passed away shortly before her 80th birthday.
In November, Akebulan turned to be seven years old, which we found a good reason to celebrate. We called it our “Akebulan 7 Years Legacy Festival“, and it became a two days joyful festivity. The Gospel choir „Akwaba e.V.“ delighted us with their beautiful singing, and our dear pastor friends Pastor Ralph Webster and Evangelist Bernard Akpalu blessed us with their preaching. Our members did their very best to make the feast a success. Many guests honoured our invitation. So in the end, we were not only happy but very much encouraged in a time which takes a lot of strength and patience…
After a joyful Christmas service, we again came together to enter into the new year by worship and prayer. Our dear administrator Michael Fleischer will now finally lay down his services for reasons of age. We thank him very much for all his efforts without which we would not be where we are! We also thank Aktion Mensch e.V. for their support. We are very grateful for the ongoing positive cooperation with our network partners „Together for Berlin e.V.“ with their “Forum Intercultural Relationships“ with whom we will have another “Transforum Conference” in March 2014. Thanks to RACIBB e.V., APPA e.V., the Ecumene in Berlin/ Brandenburg and especially in Borsigwalde, the Evangelical Blind People’s Service of Berlin and ABSV! Thanks to Mülheimer Verband for the friendly welcome in their midst! Thanks to all prayer partners, financial supporters and cooperators! Thanks to our good God for His obvious presence in our midst and for His grace and strength which enable us to do this work and to share so many blessings!
We wish all of you a joyful and blessed New Year 2014!
Yours sincerely, Peter and Steffi Arthur and Akebulan e.V.
Räuschstr. 37, 13509 Berlin, Tel.: 030/ 773 28 489
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
IBAN: DE86 2106 0237 0000 7435 34, BIC: GENODEF1EDG