Hello friends,
When last I wrote, I shared a financial need with you. If you remember, I was needing $500 more a month to cover a shortfall. Praise the Lord that I've received 20% of that need! Please continue to pray with me for the rest of the support. I know God is faithful to provide. And if you know of anyone who might be interested in hearing about Sheffield, I would love to contact them or for you to forward this update to them. Thanks guys for your faithful and continued support in prayer and financially.
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| D-group at the Park |
There's just been an exciting thunderstorm here in Sheffield. It's exciting because there was lightning. And thunder. Instead of just rain. Unexpected, which shouldn't be how you feel about receiving my updates. This latest blog has been consistently moved to the bottom of my to-do list over the past months. Some of that has been the busyness of travelling to Scotland for the European Regional Gathering, having a mission team here, planning a Hungarian-themed fundraiser, and the general craziness of April through June in our schedule. I hope you haven't missed me too much and to return to a regularly scheduled update for the rest of the year. So, my mission, should I choose to accept it, will be to catch you up on 6 months of activity in one short blog. Mission accepted!
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| Antioch Kids Ping Pong |
In January, Antioch Sheffield moved to morning services, and we made some changes in the children's ministry to strengthen it. First, we've started a girls' discipleship group with our 5-8 year olds. Bex, who helps with Antioch Kids, has partnered with me to invest in the lives of 7 girls here in Sheffield. We've seen the girls 3 times now, and each time we are learning more about how to speak into their lives. I've also been sending out a testimony email called "Mission Control Log" to encourage parents and volunteers that God is moving in and through our children. And, we had the first official Antioch Kids training meeting with nearly every volunteer in attendance.
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| Dunk |
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| Prayer Warriors :) |
In May I had the privilege of baptising Eleanor, the 4th of May to be exact. (Apparently, it's Star Wars Sunday. May the 4th be with you ;)). It was so exciting, and I've already had discussions with some of the other children about baptism because of it. Additionally, one of the mums approached me about starting a new class for the 10-12 year-olds. We're calling it 'Ignition' in line with our space theme, and the older children are really enjoying going a bit more in-depth with the lessons. I've also been able to start helping with a Christian assembly at the primary school just up the road. The school is about 98% Muslim, so it's a great opportunity to share truth with the kids and invest in our local community.
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| Easter Bunnies? |
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| A Tale of Two Chairs Easter Service |
Outside of Antioch Kids, Antioch Sheffield had our first Easter outreach service specifically designed to be accessible to non-believers complete with an Easter egg hunt and games and the Gospel told using chairs. We had the biggest attendance we've ever had for Easter and 4 people gave their lives to Jesus! I think I should say that again, 4 people. It was super exciting to have new people in our building and to see them continue to come back, even those who don't yet know Jesus. We followed our Easter service with a trip to Scotland for the European Regional Gathering, a gathering of all the Antioch church plants in Europe. It was a refreshing and encouraging time by the sea. It was good to hear all that God is doing in Europe at this time, and we were happy to share our victories as a team and a church.
What else can I tell you? The LifeGroup that I help to lead has multiplied. I look forward to having more space for people to bring their friends and to seeing another multiplication. Plus, it just feels like a general sign of health and life in our small groups. We're the second group to multiply this year. What's more, we had a brilliant team from Christ Fellowship Fort Worth visit our city. The team of 6 Uni students and 5 leaders shared the good news and prayed for people as well as helping us to begin asking our neighbours about needs in the area. We were blessed to have them.
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| Chatsworth with the Fort Worth Team |
I'll finish with one story from their time here. Each LifeGroup planned an outreach event and then a few from the CF team came to help. One of our Antioch Kids wanted to write encouragements for the people in a local park. So she brought post-it notes and a group of kids wrote encouraging words and handed them out to everyone from the youth at the skate park to a couple having a tiff. They even invited people to church. One youth loved his encouragement written phonetically, 'You're grat.' Another woman was so blessed to be invited to church that she joined the girls and invited people to a church that she has never been to. Amazing!
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| Christ Fellowship Visits EMP |
Thank you for reading this far, for your continued support and encouragement and your prayers. I have many things to look forward this year, including being an auntie again, our first family service, Impact Hungary, and more. I can hardly wait to share with you what's to come even though it hasn't happened yet.
As always,
Janette
