Ministry Update – January 2022
From Heather –
Throughout the month of December, we’d been going through an advent study focused on the joy of the birth of Christ. It was especially important for us this year to focus our joy on the One who humbled himself. While we’re far from family, our old traditions and ways of celebrating, it could have been easy to forget that our true joy isn’t dependent on those things, but a response to the gift of Christ.
We didn’t eat our fill of peppermint-flavored candy, but we got to try Kompot (an amazing fruit drink) for the first time. We didn’t have a Christmas Eve service to attend, but we did get to experience Advent in a new culture. We didn’t get to spend Christmas with family, but we did have the Valentine family and the Brothers family to eat with, sing with, and laugh with. These were the small blessings, directing us still to our source of joy.
The quiet week of preparation
The week between Christmas and New Years was, for us, a chance to prepare for the year ahead. In our first full year with this ministry, we are praying for God’s guidance as we set goals, learn to collaborate in our various teams, and make plans for upcoming projects and trips.
In December, we were invited to join the bimonthly Marketing and Communication Calendar Meeting. This was the first chance we’ve had to really sit down and look at how communications for the rest of Converge is planned, scheduled, and discussed. The team was so gracious in walking us through their process and allowing us time to start talking through incorporating our work into their team and plans.
With the first few months of cultural transition under our belts, we’re feeling ready to dive into the communications plans for our region. We’ve been working on setting goals for the leadership team and for our region. We’ve been talking through goals with the initiative leaders. We’ve created systems for project requests and social media plans. With a complete blank slate, it feels like there’s so much we could do, so we’re praying for God’s direction as we set all this up.
A New Year like no other
We’ve never experience New Year’s Eve quite like the night here in Poznań. Saying there are fireworks going off all over the place doesn’t even begin to describe the feeling of seeing them launched from one apartment building toward another and then up from the center of the street as fire trucks roll by – all while crowds of intoxicated college students, shouting and laughing, encounter elderly men dressed in tuxes, toasting to the new year. It was a glorious time
A few days in Prague
The Christmas market has opened, so we went out the other day to explore. We eWe met up with Peter’s brother John and mom Lorrie (who is currently working as a missionary at Black Forest Academy in Germany). This was the first trip we’ve taken “off-duty,” and it was nice to simply walk around and explore the city together. While we’d hoped to connect with some fellow workers there, covid got in the way. We’ll look forward to meeting another time.
Back in Poznań
A friend of our teammates reached out, offering to give us a tour of some of the historical sites in Poznań. Despite living here nearly four months now, we hadn’t actually learned much of the history of our city. It was so fun to spend the say walking through the snow and learning about some of these beautiful old churches and the history surrounding them.
We’re gearing up for a busy spring with communications projects for the 15:5 Initiative, the remodeling of our office space, a complete overhaul of the promotional materials from our region, and more language studies.
Praise God with us
- For a joy-filled Christmas
- For a few days traveling with family
- For the opportunity to collaborate with the communications team in Orlando on a few upcoming projects
- For our teammates who have been a huge blessing in the midst of the ups and downs in our new life here
Pray with us
- For my (Heather’s) health – I have been having some stomach issues off and on since we moved here, and we can’t seem to find the cause.
- For continued language learning and the boldness to use what we have learned
- For continued development of relationships at church
- For the reception of our first video project from Estonia, which will be published in early February — pray that God will use it to bring more workers to Estonia
- For for God’s guidance as we begin production work in Poland and Czechia, our next area of focus
We are encouraged by your partnership with us, and grateful for your prayers.
Blessings,
Heather and Peter
Hanson Story Team 