Excitement!

We are ready to go. The flight is booked for August 5th, only 28 more days, but who is counting :)! The word that we have probably over used in the last couple of months is „excited“, because every time we get asked about our plans for Canada thats what we say. We are super excited to go. Although there are a lot of unknowns we are ready to embark on this great adventure. And God has come through for us on every prayer request. We are very thankful for the grace and help we have been granted by our heavenly father. I will just list a couple of things that have happened in the last months.

First of all we have been granted our work permits!! This is huge, although it wouldn’t have kept us from going it is a relief to have the work permits, because they will make it much easier for us. Special thanks to Larry from Altair Immigration Services who helped us put together the application package and answered important questions. Also we have reached a great fundraising goal. Including our own savings we have raised enough money to pay my salary for at least 2 years. A big thank you to our families as well who have massively contributed to this goal. Nonetheless we still want you to consider supporting us as we plan to stay in Canada and don’t know if and when I will get a full salary. Just send me an email at max@urbanabbey.ca and I’ll give you all the necessary details.

A lot has been and is happening at Urban Abbey, please visit their Facebook page as well as the website www.urbanabbey.ca to stay informed about everything thats going on. Two very important ministries will start just after we arrive and we will be involved in both. First the public worship services will be launched in September and we pray for a lot of people to join us in those. I will be preaching as well as coordinating parts of these. Carina will become a part of the newly formed Mom’s Connect Ministry, which aims to connect women with young children with each other and Jesus. This means we are going into the deep end and are starting our life in Thunder Bay fully involved in the Abbey. In a sense I am already very much involved in the Abbey, as I have already redesigned the website and am active on the Facebook page as well.

Urban Abbey was also able to buy the house next door which will be transformed partly into staff housing and partly into apartments for young mothers in recovery. We will be living in one of these apartments and this mean I will have a 2 minute foot commute to work and will see lots of my family during working hours.

As you can see theres is a lot to be thankful for and a lot to pray about. Please consider praying for us! We would especially appreciate prayers for:

A smooth transition out of our lives here in Germany, meaning leaving our apartment, jobs and possessions.
A good flight to Thunder Bay for Jake as he is not the kind of kid who likes to be in an enclosed space for 9 hours, and that he doesn’t have a hard time adjusting to the new surroundings.
A smooth transition into our new lives in Thunder Bay, the new job and apartment.
As a preacher I hope to see lots of hunger for the word of God and the good news of the gospel of Christ. (Amos 8,11)

Just writing this makes me excited again 🙂

Thank you for taking this ride with us and I will try to write on a more consistent basis again.

Max, Carina and Jake