Back To Europe

We apologize for the lack of newsletters, website updates and correspondence from us this year.  We did a poor job of communicating and sharing about our lives, work and ministry in Europe. It has been a busy and unusual year, we could have not have seen or predicted how the past year would unfold.

We had intended to spend most of 2021 serving in work and ministry in Hungary and Ukraine. After returning from Europe in September of 2020. We had planned on spending the last couple of months of 2020 in the United States before returning to Europe in early 2021.  Continued COVID lockdowns, restrictions, and travel issues combined with news that we were expecting a baby left us in great uncertainty.   But it soon seemed that it was God’s plan for us spend 2021 living and working in North Carolina through the pregnancy and first months of our young son’s life.  We welcomed Fritz Willem into our lives in late spring. We thank God for the new addition to our family and we thank God for his healthy birth and growth.  Hans turned five years old this summer and Petra turned two years old this autumn.  A busy home filled with pattering feet and young children have kept us very busy and lacking sleep but has filled our lives and hearts with considerable joy and we are humbled that God has called us to parent these beloved children.

We were thankful to God that finding work during an extended stay in North Carolina was not a problem.  I was able to stay incredibly busy spending three months during spring planting working for Coastal AgroBusiness in Pantego, North Carolina covering for someone out with surgery.  Spring and autumn brought harvest season hours, working in peonies, corn, soybeans and cotton harvests.  Soil sampling, part time janitorial work and even two days substitute teaching at Terra Ceia Christian School rounded out a busy occupational year.  We are very thankful to all those who provided work this past year for us during our stay extended stay in North Carolina.

We spent Christmas in Michigan, finishing out the last weeks of 2021.  The end of 2021 provided opportunities to visit supporting churches and to see many family and friends. The past year has had its blessings and wonder and its challenges and difficulties.  I think that has been true for many people.  It has been difficult and stressful for us to try to navigate our way through this age of COVID.  Travel restrictions, lockdowns, border crossing issues, have all been great hinderances to carrying out the work that God has called us to in Central and Eastern Europe. We continue to believe that we are called by God to be sharing the Gospel in these communities. We were excited to return to Europe in January 2022. Please pray that we will have patience and continue to trust in God’s sovereign plan as the coming weeks and months seem to have more questions than answers and we don’t know what the future, even the immediate future, will look like.  Please pray for our children as they adjust to being back in Europe and deal with a new culture.  It is our hope and prayer that we can, through God’s grace alone, continue to serve the people of these European communities in both Hungary and Ukraine, and to bring glory to God, serving Him by sharing the Gospel and love of Christ to many who are in need of hearing this Good News. We are very thankful and appreciative to the many people who continue to support and pray for us and our work and ministry in Europe. We look forward to continued ministry in Hungary and Ukraine and for God’s guidance during this time of uncertainty.