Dear Praying Friends,

It is amazing to serve a risen savior! Our hope is so much different than those who only celebrate the death of Christ. The Easter celebrations in and around our community are very traditional. In conversation with our neighbors and those whom received a flyer explaining the joy of Easter, it was a stark difference in experience. Most were abrasive and callous towards all of it because Jesus is dead. Even when talking to some Jehovah witnesses they were turned off when talking about the joy of the resurrection and the hope we have because of it.

This did not hinder our efforts to share the message of the resurrected Christ. As a church we handed out 3000 flyers explaining the joy of the resurrection by stuffing mailboxes (which is legal here). Even our kids got excited about this. Most people gladly took them from the kids across their fences. Even when a grumpy older gentleman barked at Simeon, he joyfully told him, “This will cheer you up, it’s the good news of Jesus!” and handed him one instead of dropping it in his mailbox.

Our Easter Sunday stared with breakfast and had a great time fellowshipping. We had special music and enjoyed the fellowship looking to the fact of a risen savior! We are so thankful for Him and for His ministry in and through us here in Neumarkt, Germany. Thank you for allowing us to serve Him on your behalf!

We left on Monday for a week of vacation and enjoyed some rest and beautiful scenery. We all were amazed at how creative God is and marveled at creation.

Please continue to pray for the families and marriages in our church (and our sister churches). They are under attack. Please continue to pray for more opportunities to council and for willing and open hearts to receive the council from Gods word.

Some events coming up for you to pray for:

  • April 18: TTZ semester 2 starts (teaching Bibliology in our Bible institute in Neumarkt)
  • April 20: evangelistic Ladies Breakfast.  Our church is hosting an evangelistic ladies breakfast. Leslie will be speaking. Please pray for receptive hearts. 
  • May 23-26: Marriage seminar in Neumarkt (preparation of material and prepared hearts. Already have 8 couples who have taken time off and plan to be there for all the sessions)
  • May 30-June 1: I will be the speaker at a sister-church retreat. Will be speaking 4 sessions on my identity in Christ.
  • July 1-3: Bus evangelism in downtown Neumarkt.
  • July 22-Aug 29 we will be on a short furlough. Leslie leaves July 22 with 4 kids and Mark will leave a week later with the remaining 4 kids after school lets out. We plan to be mostly in Iowa to reconnect with our sending church. Most of our kids do know know our home church. We will end our time by dropping off Natalie for her freshman year at Faith Baptist Bible College. We wish we could visit everyone of you, but that will not be possible as school starts back up again in September.

We are so thankful for your prayers for us. We are amazed at how many of you pray for us and let us know by email or by card. We are humbled by that. Thank you for your faithfulness!

For His Glory,

Mark and Leslie Boyd

In March our church participated in a volleyball tournament hosted for all of the Bavarian churches. We got second to last place, and had a blast playing as a team. We were the only team that had mostly youth on it. We had a great time playing together and it was a neat way for some of the guests of the church to get to know us better.

We drove 8 hours to northern Croatia for a family vacation. The weather was beautiful and the area was a joy to be in. We often reflected on how creative and amazing our creator God is. The water was too cold for swimming, but was beautiful anyways! The cold water did not stop some from jumping in anyways! 🙂