August 5th we left Germany to start a new stage in our life. Now after a month I’ll give you a little recap. To answer everybody’s first question: yes we are mostly settled in and are building our apartment into a home. Most importantly though Jake has transitioned very smoothly. From day one he slept well and we think he has realized that this is not vacation but our new home for now. At first he wouldn’t want to stay in the apartment and only wanted to be outside, but now he sometimes doesn’t want to leave. Skyping with the grandparents is still a little weird for him though, because he can’t go to them when he sees them. Unfortunately after a week we all got a cold, but luckily all was over after a week and life got back to fairly normal.
Carina is also adjusting quite well to the move. Although she has to work harder on keeping her day filled with stuff to do. Jake is always in need of entertainment, which fills the day, but she also is finding friends and has a opportunity to be involved with the Abbey. A couple of weeks ago a city wide Moms ministry launched, of which Carina is a part. This will not only be fun and exciting but also challenge her in new ways.
I have increasingly been more busy as we are moving into fall and launching multiple things. One of which I will be very directly be a part of and that is the Sunday morning worship service. Until October we only have an evening service on Sundays, which has not been made public. But in October we move to a all day Sunday service basically. This means as always 6 prayer services throughout the day, a Sunday morning service, two meals and an evening eucharist service. All this will also be our public launch.
I have preached two sermons in english now, which all things considered went fine. In addition to Sunday evening preaching, I have been giving short 10 – 15 Minute Messages at our community dinner on Saturday. Both have been challenging and rewarding in their own ways.
So there is a lot happening here. In a couple of weeks I will go to Vancouver Island for a conference and then Scot, Franco and I will drive a Minivan back from there. This will be a 30 hour ride across Canada. I am looking forward to the conference and seeing lots of Canada in a day and a half of driving. Hopefully Carina and Jake won’t be too lonely as seven people are going and only a couple of people will be staying behind at the Abbey.
The Abbey staff has been great to us. We are getting to know them and really love spending time with them at the Abbey, but also outside of work. In addition to the staff though we have met a great couple, who is not part of the Abbey other than Shey being involved in Moms Connect. But Dave and Shey have become very good friends in a short time and we love hanging out with them and their daughter Stella. I am still struggling with the fact that they will move away at the beginning of next year and I might need to start praying against that 🙂
All in all we are off to a good start and hope that it only gets better with time. We love all of you and you are welcome to come and visit us at any time.
Oh and before I forget please do consider supporting us if you don’t already do. We have now raised enough money to keep us in Canada for two years, but as our plan is to stay in Thunder Bay for about two years and then move on to plant a church somewhere else, maybe Winnipeg, MB, we will need ongoing support.
If thats not for you this might be though. Carina and I will both walk in the Ride for Refuge fundraising event for the Abbey. As Urban Abbey we are raising $40.000 to start an environment called THRIVE. This will help pregnant teenagers who are addicted to substances get clean, learn life skills and the ability to care for their child. This is in response to the fact that 40% of the babies that are born in the regional hospital here are born opiate addicted. To get more information go to www.rideforrefuge.org/charity/urbanabbey and to support us go to https://secure.e2rm.com/registrant/TeamFundraisingPage.aspx?teamID=714731&langPref=en-CA! Thank you very much!
Thank you to all our supporters in what ever way that is happening we need all of it!!!
Max, Carina and Jake
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