Bless: Introduce yourself and your city?

Ed: Hi there! My name is Ed and together with my wife Alice I’m living in Rotterdam. I’m working among university students in the Netherlands, mobilizing them for prayer and mission. We are not the only one living in this city: Justin and Iris (team members Bless) and around 620.000 others.

Bless: What’s your city known for?

Ed: Rotterdam is the second largest city of the Netherlands and is known for its hands-on mentality. People in Rotterdam don’t like to fuss about, they are straight forward, the ‘what you see is what you get’ kind of people. The real ’ Rotterdammer’ is an extinct species, more than half of the inhabitants of Rotterdam are non-dutch. Beautiful people from all over the world, more the 170 nationalities. Rotterdam is the most modern city of the Netherlands, which is shown in its modern architecture and cultural events. Rotterdam is also known for its port, the largest port in Europe. Drive by the port during the night and it feels like you ended up in a science fiction movie, quite amazing!

Bless: If we were to visit, what 3 places would you take us?

Ed: I would take you to the Wilheminapier, an area with a mix of some beautiful old, historical buildings (for example the Holland-America Line) and modern architecture. It gives you a great view of the city, and there are some amazing restaurants and my favorite cinema: Lantaren Venster.

Another place me and my wife love to visit is the Afrikaandermarket on Saturday. A large market with fruit, vegetables and people from all over the world. Great if you love cooking and eating.

And finally, I would take you to a shopping area called ‘Zwaanshals’ in the north of Rotterdam. This area has a lot of small shops with design and handcrafted products, and a lovely coffee bar called ‘Lof der zoetheid’.

Bless: How are you serving your city?

Ed: Me and Alice, and Justin and Iris are part of the International Christian Fellowship Rotterdam: a multicultural church for all nationalities in Rotterdam. In our church we have Dutch, African, Kurdish and Chinese ministries. Me and Alice are leaders of one of the small groups in our neighborhood and I lead worship during the Sunday services. When we moved to Rotterdam we decided to live in the southern part of the city and we wanted to serve to people in this area. But we found out that we needed others to do this. More than a year ago we met Justin and Iris who recently moved into the same area and at the moment we’re in a season of praying and thinking what our part is in serving our city.

Bless: Where is your fave place to pray in your city?

Ed: The riverside close to our home.

Bless: Where is your fave place to eat in your city?

Ed: This is a hard one! I love eating…

For breakfast you go to Hotel New York (www.hotelnewyork.nl).

At lunchtime I prefer to go to Jordy’s bakery, where you can buy the best bread in Rotterdam. (http://jordysbakery.nl ).

For dinner (if you’ve money left) I would go to ‘matroos en het meisje’.

Bless: How can we pray for your city?

Ed: Please give thanks for all the great things God is already doing in Rotterdam: there are a lot of church plants going on and there’s a great variety of missional initiatives from all kinds of churches. Pray that God will bless this initiatives with people that get to know Jesus.
Rotterdam is a city facing a lot of crime and violence: please pray that there is peace in the city.

Please pray for all the international students who are here to study and live. Pray that they will not be lonely and pray for opportunities for them to discover more about Jesus. Loads of them are from ‘closed’ countries of countries where they don’t know Jesus that well…

Please pray for me, Alice, Justin and Iris when we’re seeking how to serve our city: pray for vision, clarity and providence.

April Blessmail has landed. This month it is more packed than ever. Find some sun & read away.

MARCH Blessmail is out now. Read Tori’s City Story. More info on our go2bless trip to MADRID this summer. We’ve been digging up and defrosting deep purple delights to make this seasonal CHOCORANGE BEETROOT BIRTHDAY CAKE. Have a go at some PALM PRAYERS: I have engraved you on the palms of my hands…. Watch two incredible missional startup stories on BLESS TALKS. Jenny Dawson’s Rubies in the Rubble & Rachel Parsons Cherish Uganda. Gerard Kelly asks ‘Do you speak twenty first century?’ in this months BLESSAY. Finally, find out more about our MARCH heart2bless teaching weekend with Gerard Kelly from 22nd - 24th March.

January Blessmail is here. READ an interview with our newest recruit Lou. See our summer mission locations and dates as well as our entire 2013 dates. COOK up a super cheap potato & cabbage bake. What have you got in your pocket to inspire you to let go & let God? Bless friend Rinke WRITES about a group of illegal refugees who are living through the winter in a church, a two minute walk from her house in Amsterdam. We’re raffling a handcrafted bespoke WATCH made by the artful John Todd to raise money for Bethanie. Come along to our first HEART2BLESS teaching weekend of 2013 on 22nd - 24th February.

Over and out.

Bless: Introduce yourself:

Lou: I’m Louise and I am the new worship co-ordinator for Bless.

Bless: What are you up to at the moment?

Lou: I have recently moved to the Bethanie base in France and I’m working on developing what worship looks like in all the areas that Bless is a part of.

Bless: Why have you moved to France?

Lou: Originally I was thinking of working for Bless long distance, but the more I discussed this with other team members, the less it made sense for me to be so far away. Considering how personal and organic worship can be, it didn’t work that I was so far away from the team for the majority of the time. I needed to be present!

Bless: How does Bless fit into your story?

Lou: For a long time I have been trying to decipher what my purposes in life are (as we all do I’m sure), figuring out the future and what I want to put my effort and energy into for the long term. After having spent a long time at a Christian music school, I believe God wanted me to move on and work out all the new things he had taught me. He didn’t want me to stay where it was comfortable but to exercise all the gifts I had been given. No one likes a fat Christian…You don’t just get chubby on his teaching, it was always meant to be worked out through us.

Moving to Bless was like putting a stake in the ground, I want my life to be in pursuit of what God is doing, and everything leading up to this point has brought me to this place. Becoming part of the Bless team has been like revealing another piece of the puzzle. Here I find purpose as I see more of his grand design and make the effort to do my part.

Bless: What are your dreams for the next 12 months?

Lou: I would love to see the Bless team take a journey where we are constantly seeing progress, new things revealed and growth in confidence as we get closer to God through the power of intimate and heartfelt worship. My dream is that no matter what environment; church, team meetings, mission trips, events…There is a consistency of growth and depth as we worship God.

Bless: What can we pray for?

Lou: That we continue to see more of his beauty, like in Psalm 27, that we would continue to “seek his face”. The more we see, the more we love him. That’s what we will always need more of; greater sight of who he is.

FESTIVE CHEER December Blessmail is here. WATCH our first BLESS TALK by Greg Valerio … My stillness is more dynamic than my activism. Will you join with us in PRAYER as we stand before a raging sea. Toes to the water. A hostile army at our backs. Trusting in your presence God, we step forward… Cook up some scrummy BUBBLE & SWEAK this Christmas with The Bless Kitchen. Read Gerard Kelly’s POETIC PRAYER. What is the one CHORD that holds Christmas together by Bless friend Dai Woolridge. Get yourselves over to the 80/20 Bless shop before Christmas gets too close. Join us as we explore advent and the theme of waiting on our LIVEFOROTHERS blog & finally get involved in 2013.

Blessmail November is out now.

LISTEN to Gerard Kelly talk about being shaped by the future and living in the now. BLESS TALKS 2.0 - Gatherings to fuel creative mission in Europe. Don your hat and scarf and wrap your hands around our CHAI TEA LATTE recipe. PROJECT and PRAY the words, ‘broken, beautiful, forgiven and invited’, over a map of the places you live and work. Our interns, EMMA, ALYSON & HANNAH all talk to liveforothers about how they ended up on a year abroad. WATCH the 125 video. READ the 125 story & PRAY with us at 1:25pm each day. Find out more about our HEART2BLESS teaching weekend at Bethanie, France on November 10th-12th. & Finally … roll up and see our 2013 dates.

All this in one email? It can’t be true.

Yes it is.

In this months Blessmail we are looking for 125 people - are you one of them? We release the 8 names for BLESS TALKS 2.0 who will be sharing some of their stories with you. Come watch our new Bethanie video fresh from the editing suite in Berlin. Cook up some Chocolate Apple Betty or pray St Patricks Breastplate which has been rewritten by Jon and Anna. Nearly 2 years on and Marky B is still serving in Freiburg. Find out about our next heart2bless teaching weekend in November and get more info on the recently announced 80/20.

In January 2011 we sent Marky b to Watermark Church in Freiburg, Germany for a two week trial placement. Nearly two years later he is still there…

Bless: Still living in the city centre?

Marky b: Kind of. I recently moved out of my apartment and I’m currently staying in a student dorm for a month. It’s a bit of a change going from living in a flat to sharing a kitchen, 3 toilets and 2 showers with 15 other people but it’s not too bad. I’ve got that until the end of the month and then…

…I don’t have anywhere to move to so I’m regularly checking websites/newspapers and the like, but not really getting anywhere at the moment. The renting market is currently so saturated especially with the new semester starting next month. One guy told me he’d received 91 replies to his room advert in 18 hours, its mental really!! This doesn’t mean I’ll be homeless but may mean I have to sleep on some friends’ sofas for a couple of weeks while I continue to look

Bless: what’s going on at Watermark Church?

Marky b: As a church we’re currently in temporary accomodation (so to speak). We’re meeting at a place called “Kinder Galaxie” here in Freiburg which is basically a huge indoor play area for kids. We’ve got an area off to one side from the main area to run our services however. The cool thing is our kids (and slightly older church members) are allowed to play on any of the trampolines, bouncy castles etc.

We’re currently setting up everything we need every week which isn’t always fun but we are getting a lot quicker at it. The place isn’t ideal and we are sometimes interrupted by a family sitting at the back of our service eating a tray of chips, but it is working for the meantime. We are however looking for a permanent building that’s ours; that we can use throughout the week and to reach out into our community.

This month I had the privilege of doing the first 3 parts of a sermon series called “Old Camel Knees” here at the church. I really enjoyed preparing the messages and preaching them. I was also able to identify things I need to work on when I stand up and preach and then work on them. You can find my sermons either to download or stream here

Bless: you still working at Starbucks to pay the rent?

Marky b: Yeah. Starbucks is still pretty fun. I still can’t spell people’s names but I actually find it more amusing now than anything else and a friend of mine at work has recently started a list of weird German names we encounter. Our favourite was a woman called “Biggi”, who after stating her name said, “And please don’t spell it with a “P” like the person did yesterday.” Amazing!

Bless: hear rumours that you’re going back to school?

Marky b: A couple of weekends ago I went to visit a Bible school in a nearby city called Pforzheim. The school is called MBS (Martin Bucer Seminar). The school runs seminars twice a month and the rest of the work is done in private, through reading material or essays etc. I enjoyed the day there but the German was pretty hefty….in the last hour I heard words, couldn’t tell you a thing that was being said though! I’m going to go again next month and have another look. I’m looking to potentially start in November. How long the course takes is up to me and how much work I can put in on a weekly basis but it will eventually lead to me getting a Bachelors/Masters in Theology.

Bless: what have you learnt recently?

Marky b: I’ve been taking a lot of time recently to pray at a little brook near my house. There’s a huge tree trunk that sits across both banks. I’m really enjoying just sitting there and praying. I’ve just been taking time to tell God about everything that’s happening in my life, sharing my heart with him really. It’s been amazing to see how God has been guiding me in those times and been speaking to me. It’s something that’s so important, to take time away from our schedules and just hang out with God. I notice that sometimes when I work back-to-back days I just get into a pattern of work - sleep - work - sleep and I don’t take the necessary time for God; this relationship needs investment and it SO worth it when we take time for God.

Bless: what can we pray for?

Marky b: please be praying both that I find somewhere to live and that we find a new building to meet for church

If you want to know more or would like to support Marky b then email mark@blessnet.eu or follow Marky b’s story at barkyme.tumblr.com

September Blessmail is out now.

Go read it.

Bless: Introduce yourself…

Sarah: I’m Sarah; a baby wearer, toddler tamer, creative entrepreneur, perpetual baker, home renovator, accidental Essex dweller.

Bless: How does Bless fit into your story?

Sarah: I’ve known of Bless since 2003 when I worked at Spring Harvest Holidays. I’ve always been drawn to Europe (France in particular), young people, mission and creativity as part of faith and worship, so Bless has always felt very familiar to me, even though it took me until 2009 to finally go2bless. As it turns out many of my good friends are now connected to Bless in random ways, so it feels a bit like a home church family.

Bless: What are you up to at the moment?

Sarah: I’m currently being wife to Adam and Mum to Joseph who’s nearly 2, and Ben who’s just 6 months; that’s super fun. Adam likes planes, web design and DIY, Joe likes diggers and bubbly water, and Ben is pretty into putting things in his mouth and lying on his tummy.

I also run The Made-it Market, a craft event that promotes handmade and home designed products, and encourages everyone to have a go at making stuff. I love being creative, and love exploring what it means to be made in the image of a creative God. The Made-it Market subtly introduces that idea to the handmade movement, and is gradually becoming a venue for creative outreach.

In 2009, Adam and I prayed one of those silly prayers along the lines of “Send us Lord! We’ll go anywhere”. We fully expected to be called somewhere exciting like Paris or San Francisco, but instead he firmly planted us in Halstead in rural Essex. It was a shock, but the adventure has surpassed our expectations. We’re beginning to see God powerfully at work here, despite the prevalent occult activity and the comfort of middle class income in the town. Doors are opening before us and we are being invited to serve and minister in the town in new ways. We’re currently working on a ‘prayer places’ project which posts short prayers in public places like bus stops and invites normal people to talk to God as part of their everyday. We’re also involved in children’s and youth work here, and we’re getting stuck in to prayer and home groups.

Bless: What are your dreams for the next 12 months (or so)?

Sarah: We’re dreaming big for Halstead. God’s really helped us fall in love with the place and we have lots of dreams that are beginning to unfold here already. We’re beginning to develop a contemporary worship service at the invitation of our local Vicar, and we’re hoping to start more activities for the handful of youth attached to the Church.

In a development of my Made-it Market theme, we’re also dreaming of opening a shop/café/studio in the town that will serve as a place of meeting and support for young people where they can learn creative skills and develop positive relationships. We’re dreaming of seeing more people grow in their faith, and more people come to faith through what we do here, and we’d love to see a worshipping community of all ages develop.

Bless: What can we pray for?

All of the above! Pray that we would continue to be a blessing to the Church here, and would have the wisdom, patience, perception, strength and stamina needed to serve effectively, and that we would continue to build strong relationships with those around us.

Pray too that God will send more workers here. We’re on the look out for people willing to live and work here and join with us in serving the town.

go2bless.mail is out now.

Read more about our summer mission trips and how we connected with what God is doing in the cities of Freiburg, Caen and Slavonski Brod.

Including a downloadable Bible Study and creative prayer PDF.

July Blessmail is here.
Get it while its HOT.

Blessmail is full of bless news & interviews, creative prayer resources, blessays, seasonal recipes and upcoming events.

Go here. Scroll down. Look left & sign up.

Bless: Introduce yourself…

Carolyn: Hi, my name is Carolyn Ros. I am married to Johan (for nearly 39 years!) with 4 adult kids, six grandkids and the 7th on it’s way. I love reading, hiking, having friends over, teaching…and a whole list of other things as well!

Bless: What are you up to at the moment?

Carolyn: I work with a missions organisation called YWAM in Amsterdam. As a full-time missionary, I am involved with teaching, mentoring, coaching and in a consultancy role to different teams within the organisation. I travel and teach in different parts of the world and love this diverse side of my job.

Bless: How does Bless fit into your story?

Carolyn: Bless fits into my story because of Gerard and Chrissie Kelly. I worked together with them during their time in Amsterdam. I guess what happened is that we work well together because we both have the same passion for young people, prayer and missions. This summer, Johan and I will be helping with the training of the Bless missions team for the 3rd year running…which we are thrilled with.

Bless: What are your dreams for the next 12 months (or so)?

Carolyn: After this time with Bless, we will be at Spring Harvest together. Once we return to Amsterdam, I have a second book that I am writing and need to finish. I will be traveling in the Autumn to Thailand, Singapore and Switzerland to teach…while continuing my leadership responsibilities with YWAM Amsterdam

Bless: What can we pray for?

Carolyn: Pray for joy during the Bless training week. Joy for each participant to know whom they are serving. Joy for them to discover more deeply who they are. Joy to take what they have learned and impart it to the place they will be traveling to.

June Blessmail is here.
Get a laptop.
Sit outside & read.

Packed full of bless news & interviews, creative prayer resources, blessays, seasonal recipes and upcoming events.