Happy Easter weekend!
As we celebrate our Savior's victory over death this Sunday, we are ever so burdened for young people in Leipzig to hear about this good news as well. While many of them are now growing up in a nominally Christian country and thereby with Christian symbols around them such as the celebration of Easter as a national holiday, they have no reference to make these meaningful. Who is this man dying on the cross? What is Easter all about? We remember one pastor telling us of an unbelieving friend who approached him with the question "Is the person who was born on Christmas the same who dies and rises again on Easter weekend?" We long to be with the churches in Leipzig to further the good news of Christ alongside them! We covet your continued prayers to help us get there.
Last Sunday, Joel had a chance to fill in as guest speaker on Sunday morning at Graham Church. He was able to share about Josiah Venture and our plans for a few minutes and we have received a promise to be invited back for a full presentation on a Sunday night in the near future. We would love to see this church and/or members of this congregation become a part of our support team.
Last Tuesday, our team member Jim Miller as well as JV's Partner Relations Director Gord Nickerson blessed us with a personal visit from Illinois. We enjoyed time catching up and praying together and the two of them and Joel were able to have a meeting with the missions chairman of our current church (First Baptist Church of St Johns.) We trust the time served to further acquaint our church with our missions organization and thereby equip them to be even stronger partners. We continue in a missionary candidacy development program with First Baptist and are getting more excited as we build a support team from within the church to encourage us now and on the field.
This has also been Eliana's first week in preschool and we are happy to report she seems to enjoy herself and adjust well. She looks forward to putting her backpack on midday to spend a few hours with new friends and without knowing it, I'm sure, improving her speech and ability to relate to her peers. We are thankful for this opportunity for Eliana and by extension our whole family.
We have had another round of sickness hit our family and would appreciate your prayers for restored health and supernatural energy to continue pushing forward in our missionary candidacy development program, current ministry at the church, and fundraising among individuals especially. We have also been praying about the best way to approach area churches and would love for you to pray alongside this with us. Thank you for your partnership in prayer!!
