Please don't die of shock....

I was on a friend's blog that lists when the last time a blog was updated and saw that it had been ten months since I had written on ours. So, for the one person who still checks it, I decided to update. Needless to say, life has been a little crazy since December! We continue to be thankful for the opportunity to minister at Lynnwood Baptist Church. We have really enjoyed opening our home to people in the church and getting to know them better.

Sybrand recently began preaching a series on 1Timothy on Sunday mornings. This has been a great opportunity to re-establish in people’s minds what God intends the church to look like. He also has been teaching an Adult Sunday School class based on material from CCEF called ‘Changing Hearts, Changing Lives’. The focus of this class has been to help people better understand how behavior reflects our heart and that it isn’t enough to merely change our external behavior without dealing with our hearts. Many have commented on how helpful this material has been in their personal walk with God and how they have been able to help others who are struggling. As with any teaching that confronts our hearts, there has been resistance to it. So often we are content with external behavioral change and knowing the right things and don’t want to confront the issues of our heart idolatry.

One woman we met with recently shared how she was so convicted that she stopped coming to church for awhile. We are thankful though that God has begun to till up the soil of her heart and she is starting to deal with some issues in her heart and seeking help and is back in church again.

We are grateful for the 5 new families God has brought to the church over the last few months. They have been a wonderful addition and have brought a breath of fresh air to the church. Sybrand has begun to meet with these men in a Discipleship Group. They have proven themselves to be faithful, teachable men. The hope is that as they are equipped they will go out and find men that they can each disciple and pour their lives into.



Sybrand's Small Group

Additionally, we have many Africans who wander into the church looking for help. Every Sunday it seems that’s someone will wander in off of the streets. I think in part it is because of Lynnwood’s long standing ministry to the poor in our area. Just the other day a man from Zimbabwe who is struggling with some issues in his life and wanting help, stopped by the church. Sybrand had a wonderful opportunity to share the gospel with him. We are praying that he will come to church and we will have continued to ministry to him.

A picture from church camp last April.