Diving into Summer
Wow, this spring has flown by and we already find ourselves moving into summer! We apologize for the long stent between posts and hope that this udpate finds you all well. April was a busy month for us as we celebrated Brooke and Emerson's birthdays while also continuing to serve in ministry. We praise God for all that He is doing, and we look ahead with hopeful anticipation.
Along with birthday celebrations, Brooke and I also had the opportunity to go out on a date to Hard Rock Cafe while some friends of ours kept Emerson and Lydia for us. Claira Grace tagged along with us as she still has a hard time being separated from Brooke, but she brought a lot of joy to the night as she always does. Our family also took our first trip to Germany this past month for a conference specifically designed for first term company apprentaces. We decided to add on a few days of vacation while we were there and enjoyed touring Frankfurt together. Our conference was held in the mountains not far from Frankfurt and was a much needed few days of encouragement for us. Our kids always enjoy these conferences as they include special classes for the children where they learn about Jesus, sing songs, and put together a program that is shared with the entire group at the end of the conference. While Emerson and Lydia definitely had a blast in their classes, Claira Grace spent most of the four day event pretty displeased with the arrangement. By the end though she was giving her teachers smiles which was a huge relief for us. We are praying that the next conference we attend in July goes a little better!
This past month we also saw a lot of progress made in our Digital Engagement project as well as the church plant. Drew finished the training course for Digital Engagement, so we are in the final stages of getting the website and links ready to launch as well as recruit volunteers to be responders to messages and meeting people in person to share the gospel. Brooke will help manage some of the behind the scenes stuff as well as communications with those who pursue interest through the website or social media add links. We are excited to launch this project soon and will continue to share progress as we navigate this endeavor. The Church plant in Popesti continues to meet for training and discipleship. Drew is currently helping to train the team on an "as needed" basis because he is focusing the majority of his time on the digital engagement project. We look forward, however, to seeing what the Lord will do in Popesti in the future.
This summer will mark two years of our family living here in Bucharest which is so hard to believe! Summer is one of our favorite seasons here in Bucharest and we are looking forward to all that will be taking place the next few months. First, we have a team coming in just a few weeks from the States from our sending church, Christ Community Church - Huntersville. This team will be working with us to share the Gospel in and around Bucharest. We are looking forward to this team coming and are so thankful for our partner chuches who not only partner with us in prayer, but also partner with us in the work here directly on the field. We could not do the things we do here without our partner churches. Second, we will continue rolling out our Digital Engagement project this summer and working with local churches who are interested in being a part of this endeavor as well.
Here are our prayer requests:
Pray for the CCC team to have safe travels here and for god to bless their time sharing the gospel. Pray that God will save many souls through this evangelism effort.
Pray for God to continue to provide volunteers for our digital engagement project, for the training of the volunteers, and the completion of the project. We will be sending out a prayer calendar before the launch date asking you all to take a time slot to pray for the launch.
Pray for the health of our family this summer.