Merry Christmas from the Anthonys!!
yes, two exclamation marks!!
Christmas is here! We want to say Merry Christmas to all of you! We were blessed with snow for Christmas break and our kids love it!
Family Update:
We have begun the fun of family games like Crazy Eights and UNO! Ellie and Levi are working really hard on learning to shuffle and remembering all the rules. Evelyn is a great partner and Oliver is working on collecting as many cards as possible. This has been a highlight of parenthood, recently, and we hope our kids continue to stay interested!
NEU Ministry update:
NEU will have a booth at the CROSS CON in Louisville right at the beginning of the year. It’s a conference designed to help 18-25 year olds explore a passion for missions and connect with missions organizations. We are praying for the conversations we will have with attendees.
A lot of planning has already started for the new year and these are the big items on the horizon:
The Michael family moving up in the Spring for the Church Planting Apprentice Program
Summer Internships
Gap-year program for students beginning in the Fall
Below are words from our Executive Director, Tim Zulker. You can read other articles from NEU here (and subscribe for the NEU newsletter at the bottom of that webpage).
7 Things in 2024
THAT COME FROM GOD'S EMPOWERING GRACE
The word grace is used largely in two ways in the New Testament: it is God's gift that saves us, and it is God's gift that empowers us to fulfill his will. We see his empowering grace in the following ways this past year at NEU.
1. Our faithful team. Rich, Susan, Jonathan, Tere, Elizabeth, and Todd have been serving with gospel grace, with excellence, and with Spirit-filled maturity that honors God and that brings a harvest of fruitfulness. It is a joy to work with them and watch their gifts flourish under Christ's "all-authority" direction from his throne. (Rich, Susan, Elizabeth with three interns from Summer 2023)
2. Christian Michael joined NEU Church Planting. Christian is our newest church planting apprentice. His heart for men and women in desperate conditions is deep and so is his experience on the street. We are so thankful for the gift he is already to our ministry family! (Christian, Cassie, and their son, Frankie)
3. The growth of Iglesia Cristiana Centrados en el Evangelio. The church grew, ten men and women were baptized this year, and three couples were married. ICCE also relocated to a much better location for their Sunday service. What a joy to watch God's grace in the life of this one-year-old church! (Tere and Pastor Jonathan Lugo with Rich Fulton headed to speak about ICCE at Harvest Church in IL)
4. Matt Anthony (far right, with Nathan Knight and Joey Craft at the Church Planting Weekender) with his wife Ashley and their four kids moved to RI in August. Matt is "exceeding expectations" as our first Director of Staff Development. His ideas are fresh, mature, and relevant to our work. Matt is also connecting well with our ministry staff and our church partners in ways that reflect his pastoral heart and experience. In five months, Matt has been a rich blessing to our team!
5. God also provided for our team, at the of the year, a bookkeeper! Sara McLaughlin has become part of the NEU team from her location in Dallas, serving us remotely. We are so thankful for Sara and her willingness to learn our system and make it better. She came to us through our dear friends at Stonegate Church. We praise God for a godly sister who loves "trellis" work! Susan Fulton and Sara meet weekly for prayer and Bible study.
6. Churches. The following churches partnered with us in one way or another in 2024. It's wonderful to see how many there are; they are deeply encouraging to us! In alphabetical order: BridgePointe Christian Church, Chinese Christian Church of Rhode Island, Christ Community Church, College Church, Community Covenant Church, First Congregational Church of Hamilton, Godspeed Church (Pastor Luke Harding, pictured), Grace Bible Church, Harvest Community Church, Immanuel Community Church, Living Hope Assembly of God, Mosaic Church, Mount Hope Church, New Covenant Community Church, Northway Church of Dallas, Park Church, Redemption City Church, Reformed Baptist Church of Kalamazoo, River of Grace Church, Rocky Bayou Baptist Church, Stonegate Church, Stone Hill Church, Terra Nova Churches, Wintonbury Baptist Church.
7. You! So many individuals contribute to this ministry financially, pray for this ministry faithfully, and serve in a wide variety of ways. I want to give two shout-outs. First, to our Boards -- our Executive Board of Directors (Kara Carvalho, Beth Clark, Tom Gandek, Bill Gore, Luke Harding, Kaynenn Parker) and our Board of Advisors (Thabiti Anyabwile, Joel Kurz, Doug Logan, Morgan Proudfoot, Tyler St. Clair, Matthew Spandler-Davison). Second, I want to thank Larry Brown for spending a year volunteering his time helping us build our infrastructure, resulting in a 70-page "playbook" for our staff so that we don't have to reinvent the wheel over and over.
You who give sacrificially and generously are a gift from God. Every small donation and every large donation is a gift from God through you. And you who pray for all sorts of needs and opportunities are a gift from God. An inner city pastor friend once said, "when you plant a church in the inner city, you are disrupting the spiritual landscape." Doing so requires significant prayer backing.
All of this is a display of the empowering grace of God. He is the one who deserves glory and thanksgiving for building his church on earth. May he be exalted high in our hearts this Christmas for his supreme gift of grace, Jesus Christ.