Dear Family and Friends
I hope you are well and enjoying the beginning of Summer. This past month has mainly been a preparation and administration month. Every year at the end of June we take our campus leaders (missionaries who have raised their support to work fulltime with university students), volunteer leaders, and student leaders up to a retreat centre just outside of Marseille.
These leaders come from our Every Nation Churches from all over Europe for a week of input, encouragement, relationship building and fun. Our Campus Leadership Team has been working on this event for months preparing every aspect of the week. Our goal is for every leader to go back to their country equipped and encouraged as well as with a strategy on how to reach their campuses more effectively.
Please pray for us as we wrap up the final preparations over the next 2 weeks. This is one of my favourite events of the year!
At the end of May I was also privileged to take part in our BUILD conference in Warsaw, Poland. This was a small conference of our senior church leaders from 21 nations across Europe to come together for input on church governance as well as passing off the baton of Wolfi’s role in overseeing our churches in Western Europe.
It was a wonderful time of hearing stories of our churches and church plants in Europe as well as incredible input on leadership. Below are pictures of one of our worship sessions and also part of our London team that attended the conference.
Oh, one praise report! I have been praying for God to give me a housemate to move in with and I am happy to report that I now have someone! We are both out of the country in the next few weeks so we will start looking for a place at the beginning of July. Please continue to pray for a place that is affordable and also in a good location for both of us to get to work.
Thank you again for your continued prayer and support! They are making such a difference. I need them!
Lots of love
Traci
Dear Family and Friends
Sorry this letter is coming to you a bit late. It has been quite busy since I got back from the Italy Scout. It’s also been quite emotional as well.
Upon my return from Italy, Wolfi, who has been the Senior Pastor and leader over the past 20 years that I have been in London, was given the news that there is no more treatment for his cancer. He is now in palliative care as far as the medical team is concerned. Two years ago, he and his wife Ali, transferred leadership of the West Kensington congregation to Dave and Tammy. This was always in the plans, but it did happen sooner because of his cancer diagnosis.
We are in full on miracle faith mode right now for him and Teri (Mana) as they are both classified as being in palliative care. Both of them are doing well and looking great. God has been so good! Wolfi has been and is a father figure and leader to all of our churches across Europe but during this time his main focus is to set things in place as we fight for healing.
Please continue to pray with us for miraculous healing for him and for Teri.
The Italy Scout took place in two cities – Naples and Bari. Our main purpose of a scout is to go into a city, gathering information about the city through prayer walks, walking the city and finding out the cultural and spiritual atmosphere, trying to make contacts, and going onto university campuses to see what evangelistic tools might work best. The 4 of us put our walking shoes on and asked the Holy Spirit to guide us as we explored each city.
Naples and Bari are two very different cities with Naples being very populated with tourists from all over the world and Italy. Whereas Bari was less populated and felt VERY Italian. We gathered loads of information, met with some church leaders, and walked and prayed throughout each city. We were also able to try a few evangelism tools but not as much as we wanted because of graduations and holidays. Unfortunately, none of our investigating before the trip indicated that university life would be at a minimum when we were there.
When we were in Bari we kept receiving words and scriptures about drawing water with joy from the wells of salvation (Isa 12:3). We prayed into this - salvation and a restoration of the joy of their salvation. The team also kept looking for old wells, and we could find none. On the last day, one of the intercessors felt that we should go to the highest place in the city. We found the highest church tower and just behind it came across a well! The well is between a theological institute and what looked like must have been a Jewish gathering place. There was even a plaque on the wall that read “From Bari the Torah will go out”.
All of the information we collected about the cultural and spiritual atmosphere as well as the information we collected from people will go into a document to help future church planters who are considering Italy or one of these cities. Thank you so much for your prayers to make this Scout a success.
Finally, I am also continuing to look for a new place to live. Please pray for the right area and housemate(s). The friend I am staying with at the moment has been a huge blessing allowing me to stay until I find a place. God is faithful so I know there is a place for me!
Thank you again for EVERYTHING!
Lots of Love
Traci
Dear Family and Friends
I’m back in London! I know that most of the world has had unusual weather lately, but I recently saw an Instagram photo that described London’s weather perfectly – for every year.
I had an incredible time in America visiting people in Florida, Alabama and Georgia as well as catching up with people on Zoom in Texas and Kansas. It was so good to see everyone! God blessed me so much in so many ways! Thank you to all of you who have been with me for so many years as friends and family who pray and support me financially. Here in the UK and in America. You are reaching the nations! I also want to say thank you to those who I had never met before, and you are receiving this newsletter for the first time! Welcome to my team in reaching generations and nations across Europe and beyond.
I’ve hit the ground running, catching up on lots of admin and getting ready for a Scout to Italy. All of our Every Nation Churches across Europe have been given an initiative called Scout2040. This initiative is for all of our churches in Europe to do a 3 day scout to a city or nation in Europe where we do not have a church yet. A scout involves a small team of 3 or 4 people going into a city to pray, perceive and proclaim. Gathering information about the city through prayer walks, walking the city and finding out the cultural and spiritual atmosphere, trying to make contacts, and going onto university campuses to see what evangelistic tools might work best.
My team and I are heading to Naples and Bari in the south of Italy this coming Sunday where we will be in Naples for 3 days and then travel to Bari for 3 days. Please pray for our protection and also for Spiritual eyes to see and ears to hear what God wants to show us.
I am also continuing to look for a new place to live. Please pray for the right area and housemate(s). Rent and bills have gone up drastically over the past few years so I really need a miracle place that I can afford and still be able to save a bit of money. God is faithful so I know there is a place for me!
Thank you again for EVERYTHING!
Lots of Love
Traci