Update May 2, 2024

Greetings from New Brunswick, Canada where we rejoice in all God is doing even while we seek His help.  As we learn more about the Acadian history of New Brunswick and the Acadian presence that remains here to this day, still speaking French after over 300 years, we wonder how it can be possible that this group would remain virtually unreached today. The need just keeps growing for Gospel ministry among the large French speaking population of New Brunswick and the francophone immigrants, yet where are the laborers?  Jesus’ words in Matt. 9:38-39 remind us to pray and how to pray.  “The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.”

We asked for prayer for the missions team of 7 from Waterford, CT that came at the beginning of April. The Lord used the four high school seniors and three adults to prepare our new postcard bilingual outreach flyers. They placed a piece of hard candy on each flyer and went from door to door in mainly francophone Dieppe, distributing hundreds of them to mailboxes.  

They jumped right in alongside the youth group here for the church work day and ministered to the English church and French ministry through testimonies, special music and preaching.  They got to visit some of the local sites including the giant lobster in Shédiac, observe the tidal bore in Moncton and see the Bay of Fundy at high tide and ebbing tide.  They listened as our Acadian friend from church gave them an overview of the tumultuous history and spiritual needs among the French speakers here before visiting the Acadian Museum on the French university campus here in town.

God is helping our small group of believers through blessings and challenges.  M and O from Madagascar welcomed their new baby boy, JM has been coming to Bible study even while his parents have been gone to Ivory Coast dealing with immigration issues, P and MC were granted the visa they need and will be returning to NB after 2 plus months, and Ph from Niger has travelled to the north of the province for a required internship. We are encouraged to see J coming more regularly to the group Bible study Sunday morning, and now attending the 3:00 service as well as the Ladies’ Bible study with Cherith every other Tuesday evening.  We are finishing a series on John’s Epistles (1, 2 and 3) in our afternoon services and will be going through the attributes of God over the next few months. Mt, who covered for us while we were away last summer, has moved from Quebec to Nova Scotia temporarily and wants to be involved in French ministry here. He’ll be able to help with preaching and possibly leading worship too.  I’m thrilled to have had our son Caleb take my EBBI class on Music Ministry in the Church and am looking forward to gradually working him into the program this summer. 

Praise for

• 
  the privilege of serving God in a barren spiritual desert. Praise for the work God is doing in lives through this ministry.
• for the Canadian government finally renewing our medical cards making it much less difficult and expensive to see a doctor!  Praise for Jonathan’s education being approved and our file being now submitted to the government waiting to be drawn.  
• the help and encouragement hat God sent to us through a church school in CT that chose to bring their high school seniors to Moncton to see and help in missions here. Praise too for God bringing Mt back from Quebec and for his willingness to help in this ministry.
• God’s help for Jonathan with adding the EBBI class on Music Ministry in the Church to his responsibilities in March and April.  Praise for evidence that students are applying things learned as they lead others to worship our great God.
• an excellent anglophone Spring Bible Conference hosted at EBC in April for Maritime Churches and for the youth retreat last weekend in Nova Scotia with 85 Maritime youth in attendance.
• God helping our daughter Adrianna complete a heavy junior year at Bob Jones University this week and for all the opportunities He is giving her to serve Him and to grow.

Pray for

• health and strength for us as we fight head colds and the viruses going around. Pray for our people as they face various issues including medical, immigration and lack of commitment for some.
• Brother K who leads the summer evangelistic outreach at the Moncton Market as he is struggling with heart issues.  Pray for the completion of the new bi-lingual EBC flyer and for God to use it along with our postcard flyers and social media. Pray for others in the church to join this outreach.

• the EBBI students as they are now finished with another school year. Pray that God will use them in summer ministries and that they will apply the things they have learned.  Pray that God will bring new students for the next school year.
• Our support level (93%) to increase.
• Adrianna as she begins a very full summer on Monday with two jobs and three summer classes.  
• Caleb as he prepares for a two-week missions trip to Paris to help in evangelistic outreach during the summer Olympics. Pray that God will raise up the needed funds for this trip by the May 20 deadline and that He would prepare Caleb for this outreach.

• 
• Our immigration status to move forward.  Pray that the government will draw our names soon (they do monthly drawings) before our language test results expire and we have to redo them (very costly and time consuming)