July 4, 2011

As Area Leader for the ReachGlobal City Teams of West Europe and Montreal, Canada, I am always seeing something new, different, interesting, praiseworthy, and inspiring. There is not a week which goes by that our missionaries do not make very significant Gospel contributions in Europe. There is also not a week they don’t face very significant challenges.

• The Seume Family (Amsterdam) has some very significant support needs…they just finished their work at Tyndale Theological Seminary and will be coming on Home Ministry Assignment to the Wheaton, IL area later this summer.
• Stefanos and Manon Mihalios continue to raise support in preparation to open the Athens City Team.
• The Tabiendo Family have returned to Spain and are taking the initial pioneer steps for the Madrid City Team. They hope to move out of temporary housing and into a permanent home in the near future.
• The Montreal City Team is offering English Language Camps again this summer. The Montreal City Team and the Flanders City Team (Belgium) both have a long history of very effective ESL camps.
• The Baliva Family have joined the Rome City Team and now have their own place to call home.
• The Toulouse City Team has hosted a number of interns this summer, including Catherine Michaelis from the Free Church in Merced, CA. Interns/short-termers are an important part of the work going on throughout Europe.

And what about our family?

• Bethany (21) returns home from Guatemala on Sunday. She has been part of a tremendous ministry in Guatemala during her college years at Liberty University.
• John (19) writes from Covenant Harbor, Lake Geneva, WI:

This was my fourth week at camp, second week of actually having kids come around. I taught more archery and rifles this past week, and had a blast with 10 kids during private hour and a half lessons. When I wasn't doing the private lessons, I had hundreds of kids come during the other 4 hours or so I'm in the archery pit every day. Besides archery, I was also a cabin buddy. That means that I followed a cabin around and helped a counselor for the week after dinner until the lights were out. One of the most exciting things I did this week was speak! I got to speak to 230+ kids and staff. It was a mini-sermon, about 10 minutes long and the topic was faith. It was about what faith is, how God has been faithful to us, and how we can be faithful to God. I used Hebrews 11:1 as our passage to study. All in all, great week!

• Matt (16 and a HS senior) continues with football conditioning. He will be part of the Chicago Impact Team from College Church, July 17-23.
• Gabi (12) is a busy girl with sports camps (lifeguarding, basketball, volleyball, and soccer).
• Janet is glad to have some well deserved time off from teaching this summer.