Greetings from Sweden! Last update, we spoke of some interesting surprises and that God is doing something here. In the past couple of months, we have continued to be surprised and wanted to share with you. We also wanted to mention a very specific prayer request.
From the picture above, you can see one surprise: we have had some visitors to our front yard! Luckily, they were not like another moose here in Sweden who was so intoxicated by fermenting apples that he got stuck in a tree. :-) This female and her calves were in our neighborhood for a few days! Very cool!
Another surprise (delightful, we might add) is that our team is finally seeing some growth. With church-like services every other Sunday, low-threshold connecting events the other, and other ongoing ministries, our team is making more connections than ever. In a country where commitment is rare outside work, family, and close friendships, we are interacting with more who are close to joining our faith community on a regular basis! You can read more on our site. The link is below.
The specific prayer request we mentioned is for our family. We have asked for prayer for Jonathan over the years. After two years of psychologists, he recently received a diagnosis that he deals with "atypical autism". Briefly, it's much like Asperger's Syndrome. If you would like to know more, here are some links: About.com Wikipedia
Because the challenges with him have affected our ministry, we have been asked by our mission agency to assess our ministry effectiveness. The question they are posing is "how effective is a pioneer church-planting ministry with an autistic child?"
It's a sobering but great question. With a great deal of our work being contact work, invitations to our home, and meeting with others in socials contexts, it poses a significant challenge for Jonathan. Because of this, our ministry can sometimes be inconsistent. By ourselves, it's not as effective as we or our mission agency would like it to be.
As difficult as it is to admit, we need your help again. Would you pray for us? Our prayer request is that we can find the right support and help so that we can continue to minister effectively in Sweden. Among other local helps, we are considering a live-in intern or an Au-pair to help make this possible. If you know of someone who might consider this, could you please contact us?
While we have invested a great deal of time, energy, and finances to embed into Swedish culture, we want to be in the right situation for our family to thrive. With a great team, a ministry with tremendous potential, and profound spiritual poverty in Sweden, we feel called to continue here. We appreciate your prayers as we work to find better support for us and for Jonathan.
From the picture above, you can see one surprise: we have had some visitors to our front yard! Luckily, they were not like another moose here in Sweden who was so intoxicated by fermenting apples that he got stuck in a tree. :-) This female and her calves were in our neighborhood for a few days! Very cool!
Another surprise (delightful, we might add) is that our team is finally seeing some growth. With church-like services every other Sunday, low-threshold connecting events the other, and other ongoing ministries, our team is making more connections than ever. In a country where commitment is rare outside work, family, and close friendships, we are interacting with more who are close to joining our faith community on a regular basis! You can read more on our site. The link is below.
The specific prayer request we mentioned is for our family. We have asked for prayer for Jonathan over the years. After two years of psychologists, he recently received a diagnosis that he deals with "atypical autism". Briefly, it's much like Asperger's Syndrome. If you would like to know more, here are some links: About.com Wikipedia
Because the challenges with him have affected our ministry, we have been asked by our mission agency to assess our ministry effectiveness. The question they are posing is "how effective is a pioneer church-planting ministry with an autistic child?"
It's a sobering but great question. With a great deal of our work being contact work, invitations to our home, and meeting with others in socials contexts, it poses a significant challenge for Jonathan. Because of this, our ministry can sometimes be inconsistent. By ourselves, it's not as effective as we or our mission agency would like it to be.
As difficult as it is to admit, we need your help again. Would you pray for us? Our prayer request is that we can find the right support and help so that we can continue to minister effectively in Sweden. Among other local helps, we are considering a live-in intern or an Au-pair to help make this possible. If you know of someone who might consider this, could you please contact us?
While we have invested a great deal of time, energy, and finances to embed into Swedish culture, we want to be in the right situation for our family to thrive. With a great team, a ministry with tremendous potential, and profound spiritual poverty in Sweden, we feel called to continue here. We appreciate your prayers as we work to find better support for us and for Jonathan.
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