We hope the new year has given you the chance to reflect on lessons learned in 2023 and provided you motivation to set and pursue goals of new growth in 2024. The end of the old year and beginning of the new has continued to become a more valued time in our family. At the close of each year we write a letter to ourselves one year in the future where we talk about how the Lord has provided and grown us over the past year, list prayer requests, hopes, and desires for the next year, and set goals about the people we hope to be 12 months from now. We also read the letter we wrote to ourselves the previous year. It has been an encouragement and a useful tool to help us grow each year.
In January, I was able to explore these ideas further through a study on Nehemiah and the call to spiritual Wholeness we see through the book. I was given the opportunity to speak at Immanuel Baptist Church in Kinston, NC, (which you can watch here) about this topic and again at a church in Murphy, NC. Nehemiah is a call for all of us to pursue a life of completeness in Christ, and I hope it can be as encouraging to you as it has been to us.
While in Kinston, Immanuel's pastor, David Thacker, invited me to come and see the work he is doing with a struggling local church in the area. The church has been without a pastor for many months and has gone through lots of hurt prior to that due to a wrong idea of what church is about. David is partnering with a leadership team at the church to help equip them for the work of ministry. I was grateful to be able to observe David's work with the church and meet the leadership team, and was reminded anew of Christ's burden for each local church. Afterwards, what I learned on the trip played a large role in my next sermon at Robbinsville First Baptist Church on Romans 1:8-15, which you can watch here.
2024 brought further change for Sarah and me, as I was affirmed as an elder at Robbinsville First Baptist Church. The position does not change my role at ETM, but allows for increased responsibility and service in our local church. Please pray with me for the wisdom to serve in this role well.
February saw the largest mission trip ETM has yet taken, with multiple teams traveling to several countries across Europe to encourage brothers we have already trained and set up new relationships with church leaders to train more church leaders with the Models for Disciple-Makers in more local churches around Europe.
To that end, I travelled to Tirana, Albania, where I joined Vali in presenting Eternal Truth Ministries to a group of pastors and their wives (pictured above), as well as inviting anyone interested to begin a Models for Disciple-Makers cohort with me via Zoom. Many pastors were interested, and we have several who are fluent in English and are signed up to begin the Models with me next month. I was thankful for the success of the trip, that God led us to men who are passionate about His church and our call to make disciples. Please pray for this group of pastors, that our training would be fruitful.
We invite you to pray also for the rest of ETM's mission to Europe and the long term potential there for establishing a European base for ETM. In every place we have gone, we have found pastors burdened for the next generation and eager to learn how they can partner with ETM to disciple others.
At the same time, we want to renew our focus in American churches and partner with pastors and leaders here in the same way. Would you join us in prayer that the Lord would open doors for us to partner with local churches to make disciples both in the United States and across Europe?
