Crescendo!
When the nightly news reports a major event – especially some exploit or discovery – it only covers the result of many years of planning and training. ESPN broadcasts the game, not the training; we purchase tickets for concerts, not rehearsals. However, games and concerts worth watching are not possible without those practices.
The same preparation goes for any work for God – hours of study, praying and training, and then comes the planning. Next the leader casts the vision, builds the team, and goes. Then follows the doing, the preaching, and the teaching. And all this reaches a crescendo when one person hears and believes while heaven peers down in raptured joy and amazement. This person then becomes a part of the same repeated stanza of the same labor until God says the work is done.
Such is the majority of our work as missionaries, a cycle of seedtime and harvest, sowing and reaping, coming and going, crescendo and decrescendo. Since our last update we visited Bethel Cincinnati, a new thriving church plant that is entering its first phase of seeing people come to Jesus. It was a blessing to work with their team to develop strategic planning that will allow for greater fruitfulness as they reach their city.
Now we begin our summer ministry schedule in earnest:
Travelogue
Berlin
In a week, we will drive to Toronto where we will minister on a Sunday and then fly out to Berlin for our Every Nation European Leadership Conference. Leaders from churches all over Europe will converge for a time of equipping, connecting, and refreshing.
Kraków, Poland
After Berlin, we will spend several days with pastor Przemek in Kraków where we will connect with the team and explore long-term ministry opportunities in that region.
Ukraine: Lviv, Ternopil, & Mykolayiv
Then we will take a train to Ukraine where we will minister in these three churches, the last of which is a new church plant out of the church in Ternopil. The Christians in Ukraine are tremendous examples of faith as they go and make disciples during a time of war in the east and subsequent economic fallout from that war.
Toronto
We will end our trip ministering in Toronto for two weeks with a focus on helping the team identify new ways to reach the multicultural environment that God has given them. The Greater Toronto area (GTA) is like NYC – it’s another missionary Disneyland and portal to the nations.
This will be a fruitful yet strenuous trip, so we ask you to pray for us throughout our six weeks of ministry. Also, we thank those who have generously made this trip and our overall ministry possible. We also ask others to join our partnership team for what we believe will be our best years as we equip the next generation to reach the nations.
God bless,
Mike & Myra
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