Major Update, Part 2: Ministry

We're posting our update in two parts, personal and ministry. To see part 1, click here.

Visibility
Last September we moved our little fellowship group outside our home and into a nearby church building. Our aim in this was to provide a third space for people, since not everyone feels comfortable going to someone's home. Since our move we have seen many new faces, usually one at a time, as people have come to check out what we're doing, but most of them have either been visiting Edmonton from another city with a Calvary Chapel or got a "referral" of sorts from someone who does.

Over the last several months we have become much more visible as a group in the following ways:

• creating a website for the church plant
• starting a Facebook page
• making a blog to post happenings
• placing an "ad" in our local community league's quarterly newsletter
• purchasing a small ad space in the local Shepherd's Guide for 2014

and last, but not least, we've become locally visible by

• getting two sidewalk/sandwich board signs to put outside the church building indicating our presence (these are out on Sundays from an hour before service until we pack up to leave)

We're particularly excited about the sidewalk signs because last week we met a couple who had found our website but weren't confident about our location until they saw our signs out Easter Sunday (which was the first Sunday we had them)!

Prayer Need 1: Our prayer is that God would use these media to assist people seeking a solid, Bible-teaching church and to lend some greater permanence to the work He has begun.

Outside the Box
We are blessed to have a stable small group of people who gather on Sundays and for the other fellowship opportunities we have in the month. However, we know that the church grows by the Lord adding to it those who are being saved. This happens as all believers are equipped by their leaders for the work of the ministry in their circles of influence, but as church planters, it happens by our doing the work of evangelists.

We don't hesitate to say that with one full-time worker  (Dejan) and one full-time at heart but part-time at best (Julie) this has been a matter for much thought and prayer over the months we've been here. We've tried many things, with the following observations:

• When the weather is cold, it's harder to get with people. They retreat and withdraw as the winter deepens and making primary contact has been more challenging. 
• When the weather is nicer in the balance of the year, it is much, much easier. Everyone seems hungry for getting outside and getting around people in a way other than the daily commute to work or doing their weekly shopping.

Prayer Need 2: Creativity in evangelism is acute in our situation. We believe the Lord has the best ideas, and we are seeking Him for what exactly to do* during the spring and summer months. Your prayers for these matters would be more than a blessing. 

*One avenue of contact is just meeting with and grilling out with some of our neighbors with whom we are more well-acquainted. Another is that we have a plot in our local community garden. We are also prayerfully considering running a recreational men's soccer night at our local park.

Consistency
Our little core group has changed over the months since last spring but remains pretty stable overall. One couple moved far away, another person drives quite a distance and needed something closer to home. Still another has new job constraints that preclude regular Sundays off. It is important for us to be patient, as all these situations happen regularly in congregations larger in size. It's just way more noticeable when the size is small.

We have firm trust that Jesus is building His church, so these things don't concern or worry us. What is bothersome is the trend that seems to exist of a low priority of fellowship. It seems that many people in general put a higher priority over other, less permanent activities or pursuits. It's kind of baffling, but we have heard that this is kind of an issue in this area from more than one source, so it's a matter we definitely need to bring to the Lord. Perhaps it stems from the general lack of substantial Bible teaching in the church at large, we don't know, but it's something we'd like to see change in the city.

Prayer Need 3: Our heart's desire for our fellowship is that it will reflect the statement about the church at Ephesus in Acts 19:20, "So the Word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed." It's not about numbers, but we know that health often means growth in both depth and breadth.

Outreach
We are eagerly anticipating another team from our home church this summer! Last August we had an amazing time of fellowship, preaching and ministry with the group that came, and we are expecting God to do great things again. Now that we are meeting outside our home, we are excited to be able to direct people there (whereas last summer we were unable to give our home address to relative strangers).

That's just one week out of the whole summer, however, SO... we are longing for other individuals, couples or teams from ours or other churches to also come and invest some time and energy to the work here. Whether it's a weekend, a week, a few weeks, a month, we are in need of more beautiful feet to go out and share the gospel, more hearts and hands to labor together with us, to fellowship, pray and serve!

Prayer Need 4: "Pray to the Lord of the harvest, to send out workers into His harvest field." ~Jesus (Matt. 9:38)

We are so blessed to be here and witness the work that God is doing! Jesus is true to His word, and we are dependent on Him to fulfill His promise that He will build His church, not just in a general sense, but here in our midst as well. Thanks for taking the time to consider all that's going on here. May the Lord bless and guide you in your present work, calling and ministry in His name.

By His grace,
Dejan and Julie <><

Major Update, Part 1: Personal

We're posting our update in two parts, personal and ministry. Since it's been a while since we've updated you will see the * symbol throughout. If you want all the info we're updating, you can read the starred information below each section. For a shorter version, skip the stars and italics and continue reading the section below it.

Emerging After Winter: Health
After a long, deep winter, we finally have reliably mild weather here in Edmonton. At our last post, we were in the middle of what turned out to be a six-week stretch of illness for most of our family*. So our late winter was alot of plain perseverance. Our weekly schedule kept going, and so did we. Thankfully it seems to be behind us now.

*more info on health--(One child went first and was just starting to recover when the other two both had a brief period of illness, but the wear of taking care of all three sent Julie into more than a month of hard illness. First strep throat, then not long after recovering from that she developed an acute kidney infection. Because of her health history she is not able to take antibiotics so it was a lengthy process of healing both times. Thankfully, Julie's mom was with us for 2 1/2 weeks of that period, so God provided help in a wonderful way!) 

Housebound
Like much of the North America and Europe, we had an unusual winter here*.  So it was pretty tough to get out to be with people and the streets and events were sparsely populated. For all the snow, we hardly got to get outside to be in it. Over the last few weeks, however, things have warmed up and people have started to venture back outside. We have reconnected with neighbors we haven't seen much of since Christmas and hope to get more connected to our neighborhood community.

*more info on winter--Our expectation of Canadian winter was always that it would be long and cold. However, last winter we were able to quite a bit outside, including several visits to outdoor events where we sought to do outreach singly or as a family. This winter, however, we had several weeks of straight -20C temperatures and a few days of drizzling, spitting rain in between!

Learning Curve
We have been here in Edmonton for 18 months exactly today, and we are amazed at how much the Lord has done in and through us in this short time! Overall, I think we both see how much bigger this whole mission is than we are; we have a lot to learn. Thankfully, the Lord has called Himself our Teacher, so we are in good hands. We have made mistakes and miscalculations, but God is able to direct us and we are thankful for His correction and guidance in our decision-making*.

*more about decisions--We took on a pretty full schedule this year and that brought to light for us our true priorities. The things we were doing have all been good things, but because we are limited, we have come to see what is the best use of our time and energy. As a result we are each going to be moving away from a weekly teaching responsibility over the next few weeks so we can focus more on some of the foundational matters in the church plant.

Needs
Some of our greatest needs right now as a family are below. If one or more of them particularly strikes a chord with you, we'd be grateful for your prayers in any of the following areas:

-more restful sleep for the two of us (our girls are sleeping pretty well)
-relief from back pain
-for Julie in homeschooling
-our relationships with our neighbors to flourish and grow
-increasing oneness in our marriage (things are growing and we want to keep them that way!)
-our parenting and for growing love between our three girls

Thanks
Thank you for taking the time to check in with us! We are so blessed to be able to live in Edmonton and to serve the Lord here! May He bless and lead you where you're at right now. Keep in touch as He leads.

Dejan & Julie <><

To read more about how things are going with the church plant, click here.