Co-labourers
Over the past seven weeks, an evangelistic ‘Christianity explored’ course was run at Arthur and Mareike Janzen’s church in Germany. There were some language and cultural barriers to deal with as not all the participants were German. This will also be the case in Arthur and Mareike’s future service abroad. So as a church they were able to experience together what that is like.
As they are in the stage of mission and church internship the text in Acts 2:41-47 is a great help to Arthur. It is good reference regarding what and how work in the church should be organised. What is important, what is less so?
They desire to invest as much as possible in teaching, because having recently completed Bible school and missionary training at North Cotes, the content that they were privileged to learn is still relatively fresh. Now they have a little more time to think through topics in more detail as they are not driven by a curriculum. One thing that was very beneficial for their spiritual life was going through the Bible chronologically.
Arthur and Mareike consider it a great privilege that they have so many opportunities to be active in teaching in the church. Mareike is very active in the Sunday school and Arthur often has the opportunity to preach.
They want to get the most out of their time in Germany and share teaching with even more people. Currently they are in the process of contacting churches and groups to talk about mission. Their primary goal is to increase prayer support, and they hope that more people will sign up for their newsletter to receive the prayer requests.
Prayer keeps missionaries on the mission field. In addition, missionary work is primarily on a spiritual level. Please join in being a co-labour through prayer.
Praise:
- For a couple who took part in the ‘Christianity explored’ course, the wife showed a lot of interest.
- That the course was also an educative time for Arthur and Mareike and the church in many ways.
- That they can spend more time with friends, family and their church.
- That a path seems to be slowly opening for service abroad.
- Mareike’s blood sugar levels can be kept under control through diet and exercise as she awaits the birth of their third child.
Prayer requests:
- For the couple from the course, that they will find faith in Jesus, connect with a church and that someone can disciple them.
- Their ministry in Germany, that everything serves God’s glory.
- That God works and people come to faith.
- Establishing and expanding their base team and circle of supporters.
- That they make contact with churches that are happy to send and support missionaries.
- That God will continue to pave the way towards mission and guide them step by step.