Dear Epaphras,
This will be a very fast email to update you so you can pray…
Sara had a much needed week of spiritual retreat & reflection at Le Rucher – a member care ministry for missionaries run by our dear friends Erik and Jeltje Spruyt. Steve stay home with Annie and Julia – which went very well – while for the first time in 11 years Sara was able to retreat into the Lord’s presence… alone! Thank you for those of you who prayed for her during that time. Not only was she able to rest, but, she was able to “cast” the burdens and stresses she has been carrying upon Jesus (1 Peter 5 v 7). She came home totally renewed!
Steve is on his way to Alltensteig, Germany to minister to 25 European leaders with PIONEERS. He will be there a week. Pray for our Lord to draw these leaders deeper into an abiding relationship with Himself that they would bear fruit… much fruit… much, lasting, fruit!!! (John 15:5-8). “But,” one leader spoke up, “we aren’t being supported to ‘abide’ we must be doing something!!!” In ministry one can be doing a lot. There can be a lot of busyness. The Wolof (the Senegalese tribe we once lived among) had an expression, “ten men dig a hole, ten men fill it in, there is a lot of dust, but at the end of the day, no hole…” Is that not a picture of where busyness alone can take us?
Don’t get me wrong, we are not encouraging a monastic lifestyle! We need to be hard at work – like Paul. But, so that our work produces much & lasting fruit, we must work from a posture of abiding in Jesus. Its one of the many paradoxes found in scripture… Check out Jesus’ words in John 15 for yourself and you’ll see that less busyness and more waiting on the Lord in prayer and expectation, actually produces “much more” and “lasting” fruit!
And we are seeing fruit! Our team here in Biarritz is onto their second church plant – pray for the city of Bidart where our team will be starting an Alpha course next week. Our friends in Tarbes are just now finishing up their Alpha course where a handful of people have turned from their sins to Faith in Christ. Julia’s hematologist said she didn’t want to see us for a year! The children’s worship CD that Sara, Magalie, Priscille and Valerie produced was just selected for distribution by France’s leading Christian music distributor, Sephora Music.
There are many other things the Lord is doing in Europe as we (you and us together) seek Him! But, I said this would be a quick email :). Please don’t hesitate to write and ask for more.
You are loved, Steve, Sara, Annie and Julia
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