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.
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