Lee Singers in Germany

There has been quite a bit going on and little time for blogging. Today, I hope to post a few news items that relate to our work in Europe.

First, the Lee Singers (Lee University, Cleveland, TN, USA) are currently on tour in Germany. Tom helped them finalize their schedule when they had a last minute cancellation. Additionally, we help our district church in the housing arrangements of their visit to our area.

But the highlight for us was to see my cousin Rachel (okay, 1st cousin once removed). It has been a couple of years since we had seen her and the family. So this was a very special evening. She and two other Singers stayed at our home for the one evening. Dr. Brad Moffit has kept a blog of the tour which you can read here.

After Winnenden School Shootings - No More Paintball

It came out in the news today here in Germany that lawmakers will tighten the already stringent gun laws as a result of the Winnenden shootings in March. I couldn't help but think of our youth group in Charlottesville, VA (Matt Temple's era) and the days they would often spend playing paintball for "good clean fun."

Winnenden massacre could lead to paintball and laser tag ban

Online: http://www.thelocal.de/national/20090507-19127.html

The German government has agreed to tighten gun laws and ban games such as paintball and laser tag because lawmakers say they “simulate killing” that could spark tragedies such as the Winnenden school massacre.

German media reported on Thursday that lawmakers from the ruling coalition had agreed on a catalogue of measures aimed at clamping down on illegal firearms and better monitoring privately owned weapons.

"We have agreed on reasonable changes that will mean more security without over-regulating hobby marksmen and hunters," the deputy head of the conservative Christian Union parliamentary group, Wolfgang Bosbach, told the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung.

The measures include banning paintball, where players use air rifles to shoot ammunition filled with paint at opponents, and laser tag, a game where players attempt to score points by shooting each other with an infrared-emitting gun.

Violators of the ban would be slapped with fines of up to €5,000, the paper reported.

“The games simulate killing,” Bosbach said.

The move comes two months after 17-year-old Tim Kretschmar killed 15 people, including nine students and three teachers at his old school in Winnenden in southwestern Germany, with a gun stolen from his father’s bedroom. The incident has sparked a fierce debate on gun laws in Germany.

German media reported that lawmakers were also considering barring people under the age of 18 from shooting high-calibre guns at target practice and permitting police to conduct random checks at the homes of gun owners to ensure their weapons are under lock and key.

Other measures would include creating a digital database of firearms as well as biometric security systems to help ensure weapons are used by their rightful owners. In addition, lawmakers would introduce an amnesty for owners of illegal firearms if they turn them in to authorities, reports said

ETSM represented at EPTA Meeting

Did you know there is a fellowship and joint research entity for Pentecostal schools and scholars in Europe. The European Pentecostal Theological Association (which is the European equivalent to SPS in North America) began many years ago. Our denominational sister schools in Germany and Romania have been member schools since almost EPTA's inception.

Some three years ago, ETSM began to participate in the European Pentecostal Theological Association. However, we have not always been able to participate in the annual meeting. Fortunately, this year we were able to have three representatives at this year's "compressed" conference at our denominational sister school in Germany.

Representatives from most of the Pentecostal seminaries in Europe came together and examined more closely the roots of Pentecostalism in Central and Northern Europe. As a result of this meeting, one of our faculty members has been invited do additional research / presentations in connection with postmodernism and post-Soviet Russian Pentecostalsim.