Tomorrow we have a really important meeting. We’ve chosen to align our budding church community with the local Methodist church in Newcastle, essentially as sister congregations. What that means is that that their pastor, who is one of our best friends here, can invest some of his time into our community and also that they can sponsor us for our visa renewal (a new requirement since we moved over), which is approaching quickly in September. We’ll fall under what they call Pioneer Ministries – which means starting a church in a place or among a group where there is no existing work – which is a good fit. It means we won’t have much red tape but we’ll still be connected to a local group, which is a good thing missiologically, and it won’t at all be severing or diminishing our relationship with our sending churches. It’s really just sticking an official label on what God has already been doing relationally. If you have questions, we’d love to answer them via comments or email.

At any rate, this meeting tonight will hopefully make things official on their end and allow us to move ahead with the visa process. Please pray with us about this time. If it doesn’t move ahead – or even if it moves ahead too slowly – we would have to come back to the USA for 4-6 months (because of the baby being born in October) before coming back. Everything looks set to work, but please pray. It would be nice on so many fronts to be able to stay.

• We need more empowerment from the Spirit. He’s already gifted us in many ways, but as I look at the task in front of us, this is the number one thing on my heart. Soft hearts, open ears, and boldness.
• Pray for Northern Ireland. At this point it’s easy to get caught up in the flurry of tasks and barriers to moving – money and visas, etc. – but that’s only the first little hurdle. God can handle visas and He will. Pray big. Pray Paul’s prayers from Eph. 1 and 3.
• We need a visa to enter the country. As I posted last week, the process is complete and from this point on we’re just waiting to hear back. We need favor with the British government.
• Both of the other American couples that are going with us need to sell their houses. If you are looking for a great little house in Yorktown or a sweet condo in Fort Wayne, get in touch.
• Lars and Nick are both looking for jobs in Northern Ireland. As you may expect that’s not the easiest proposition these days. Lars can work because he has Danish citizenship, but Nick would need a work visa, which is not an easy thing to get.

A big thank you to those who are joining with us in that way. Every blessing.
Mark