Dear Praying Friends,
We are so thankful for your faithfulness towards us. Thank you for praying and continuing to intercede on our behalf and for the ministry here in Neumarkt. God is at work!
Beginner Bible Study. After our Adventscoffee in December I offered a beginners Bible Study 2 weeks in December and 2 weeks in January. It was exciting to have 5 guests there. K came to all four studies and had good dialog with his believing wife the following day. Please pray for K’s salvation. 2 others have expressed interest in attending our Tuesday Bible Study night. One has already come and is enjoying it tremendously. This is a huge step for this lady and I am so excited for her growth in the Lord.
Winter retreat. I ended up being the winter retreat director (December 26-28) as the German pastor in charge of camp was hospitalized prior to camp starting. It was such a joy to work with a well functioning camp team and their flexibility. This coming Saturday we have our first Summer camp planning meeting and I look forward to working with this team again this summer.
TTZ. Our institute started in our town on January 9th. I am teaching church history and my class has 19 students from 6 different churches! It is such a joy to see the interest and impact of the institute growing into sister churches. The classes in Nuremberg will start tomorrow and they too are growing again in attendance.
Missions day. Together with a German pastor – Christoph Rüttgers – I have been planning and organizing a regional missions day on February 22nd. The intent is to challenge anyone who will come with the great commission by starting in their local churches. For the day we have invited missions works and organizations who help churches carry out evangelism to dialog with people at their display tables. There is a lot of planning and organizing but it has been a joy to work with the team we have for this day. Please pray for continued unity and a great missions day. Please also pray for the day to impact those in attendance.
Ladies Retreat. Last weekend was our regional ladies retreat and Leslie took 14 ladies from our church to the weekend. All the ladies reported that it was such a blessing to be around so many ladies of faith and be challenged to live the Christian life with our hearts in harmony with God. Please pray for the ladies to put into practice what they learned at the weekend.
Bible Study. Last night during our Tuesday night Bible Study C shared what she learned about living in harmony with God and realized that it is a choice. She confessed that she has not been doing that and needs to choose better.
To my surprise M showed up to Bible Study last night also (he has never come before). We dealt with Romans 7 and the struggle of sin and living in the Spirit. He was tracking and asked very good questions. Please continue to pray for M to be saved.
Counseling. The last 6 months I have spent a lot more time helping people seek hope in the midst of real problems. Please pray for much wisdom to know what passage of Scripture to quote or read in counseling. Pray for those I am counseling to allow the Spirit to change them and see their need for transformation. God desires to help and set them free, but the sin is all too familiar and tempting.
Leslie and I need your prayers and we are thankful that you so faithfully pray for us.
For His Glory,
Mark and Leslie Boyd