The Beatles sang “Get back to where you once belonged”, and in a theological sense that is what the gospel is saying. It can also mean a few other things about life. We just “got back” to Europe from a trip to the US, and this is a continuation of our move last year to “get back” to the European field that God has called us to. But even within a mission, we need to “get back” to some core things. In Rev. 2:2-7 Jesus tells the church to get back to its first love which is our relationship with God, and the mission that we need to get back to is reaching those who don’t yet know that a loving God wants them to “get back.”

 

By now I am wearing out my theme, but I did just return from our annual conference in Ternopil, Ukraine where there was a major focus on starting campus ministries and new church plants. My friend and fellow missionary, Matt Rasch, from Marseille, France cast the vision for the next generation, and his team also recently trained our campus team in Lviv, Ukraine for the launch of their campus ministry next week.

A Ten Days team from the US is doing evangelism on campus this week in Krakow, and we will take some members of that team to Lviv next week for an outreach that will help to launch their campus ministry. Please keep this in prayer because it is a critical first step in gaining a foothold on the campuses of Lviv. Our next major project will be a similar startup in Timisoara, Romania a year from now that will be a church plant, but a lot of preparation will happen between now and then.

Thanks to all of you who make this mission possible, and it was great to see a few of you last summer. The highlight of our trip was seeing our daughters, Abigail and Rebecca, as well as our families. There is definitely a new life and ministry dynamic with an empty nest, but we are glad that our daughters can join us here for Christmas. Rebecca will graduate from Wheaton next spring, so that is the next transition. We are very proud of them both, and we are happy that they support all that we do. May God also bless you and your families.

PRAY

1. New financial partners for our expanded ministry, and special gifts to help us purchase a vehicle.

2. Continued growth of new projects in Albania and Romania

3. Peace for Ukraine

Mike and Myra

Contact
mike.watkins@everynation.org

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