Singing of God’s love, and talking about His faithfulness is the greatest privilege! Our thanks and praise and all honour to God, whose presence, power, and provision are the only reason we are able to continue on this work. His faithfulness is also demonstrated in raising up an army of prayer warriors, friends, financial supporters and family and team members who labor with us through the good times and bad! Thank you to all of you who partner with us in one way or another. We truly believe that together we can reach many more souls with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I will sing of the Lord’s great love forever; with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known through all generations.
Psalm 89:1
LOOKING BACK
Highlights from the last three months
As usual, we have kept very busy, balancing the music and travelling ministry with the home office work that includes the writing of devotions, Sunday School curriculum, songs, translating relevant materials and recording of music, as well as many more behind the scenes tasks that take a good chunk of our time. The sales of our materials are going well, and we had to reorder several items to be reprinted. These included a couple of children’s coloring books and our notated songbook. We are pleased and blessed that the resources are being bought, distributed and used, and the feedback concerning them is very positive. It encourages us to continue producing more resources in the future.
We have been considerably busy with local events, singing at festivals, fundraisers, and some private events. And in between we squeezed in several longer distance trips. In April, Diedrich, Nettie, Mark and Maria travelled to Bow Island, Alberta, where we met Andrew and Deanna and their children who travelled down from La Crete. There we sang several sets at a large fundraiser put on by a private school in the area. It was Maria’s first trip with us and she was very well received by the people.
In May, we held our annual spring fundraiser, and were so blessed by the amazing support we received! Thank you so much, to everyone who attended, helped and donated! May also included a trip by Diedrich and Nettie, to La Crete Alberta, where we have a large support base. We helped Andrew and Deanna with a mission report in their home church, as well as did a report, special music and the Sunday morning sermon in another local church. Together with Andrew and Deanna, we had been invited to do a concert in their home church one Sunday evening, and we thoroughly enjoyed meeting new people and connecting with many familiar and dear friends and supporters.
And finally, in June, we made another trip to Bow Island, for their annual Gospel Music Jamboree. This time Jason and his daughter Soren joined us, and Soren again, joined Jason on stage for a special treat! Andrew also joined us there and was a huge help with the running the sound system for the entire weekend. In the past couple of years, running the sound system for large events has become a bigger part of our ministry. It makes for a busier time, but it is a good way to connect with more people and groups who are also spreading the gospel through music.
Whenever possible, we connect with local supporters and help in local events. We have also kept up with working with the Läwenswuat Christliche Jesalschoft (Living Word Christian Fellowship), the Low German church in Gnadenthal, which is looking forward to the dedication of the building at the end of July!
LOOKING AHEAD
Plans for the next three months
For the next few months, our plan is to work very hard on several new projects that we are hoping to release in the fall. One of these is a new Low German songbook (Sinjt Froo! 2). The sixth family devotion book is also almost ready for publication, as well as several smaller projects, such as activity books for children and more Sunday school curriculum. We have recording projects that need finishing up, event invitations to balance with the need to produce more products and many local needs that call for our attention. With an ever increasing need for resources, it doesn’t look like we’ll run out of work anytime soon. We remain committed to work hard to meet as many needs as we can, as long as God gives us the means!
ON ANOTHER NOTE
Newsletter updates from Andrew & Deanna
Late last year, we made a change in how our newsletters are distributed. Before this, many of you also received email updates from Diedrich & Nettie’s oldest son Andrew and his wife Deanna, who are also full-time in this ministry, based out of La Crete, Alberta. Because of the changes we made in our email setup, many of you have not received those updates from them for some time now. If you would like to hear from them as well, please click the link below to view their website, where you can sign up for their email updates directly!
Mark’s Remarks
In a ministry such as ours, there’s always plenty to keep us busy. I’ve been spending more time working on video projects lately, from cruise promotional videos, to music videos for Jason, and some lyric videos for use in Low German churches. I’ve also been working hard at learning more guitar, practicing together with my wife, Maria, who is eager to learn more of our songs so that she can join us on stage more often, and finishing up some of the picture editing I have been working on. Maria and I even went on a ministry trip to Bow Island in April, and felt warmly accepted and appreciated by the people. We’ve also been quite involved in local events, and the Low German church throughout the past few months. As always, we feel blessed and very privileged to be working in this ministry and we are very thankful for the support of so many friends and acquaintances, and we look forward to what God has in store for the future.
Nikki’s Notes
These last few months for me have been busy as I’ve transitioned back into my role after my surgery in January. My biggest project has been setting up a new inventory and invoicing system to make the order process smoother on our end, along with my other admin tasks of making posts for social media, entering invoices and sending off expense reports. What has become apparent to me in this transition is that I don’t have the same capacity as I did before my surgery, every task has been a struggle to complete and I find myself falling behind easily. My schedule outside of the ministry is filled with appointments and trying to manage symptoms daily for my existing conditions. With this in mind, I have decided to step down from this ministry to allow me to focus fully on my health. My time with this ministry has been great, and I am grateful for all of the ongoing prayers and support, this was a hard decision to make but one that needed to happen. I would appreciate continued prayer as I wrap up my time with the ministry this July, and for the season I’m heading into as I focus on my health.
Jason’s Journal
Hi again! As usual I have stayed busy in one way or another (almost a bit too busy…) these past three months. I had a wonderful time at our spring fundraiser in May, and in June got to travel to southern Alberta with Mom, Dad, and my daughter Soren to help out at the weekend festival in Bow Island. It’s always such a treat for me to do this with Soren, and it seems to be for her too! Back at home, I have continued working on my Low German album, and finished recording all ten songs on acoustic guitar. Only a few more steps until it’s ready to be sent off for mixing and mastering! Some other big projects have been; streamlining the process for shipping product orders, formally registering our music for legal and copyright purposes, setting up some tools and apps to streamline projects for our team, and already working ahead on some plans for next summer.
PRAISE & PRAYER
Praise God for:
- A good fundraiser in May and all the wonderful supporters who partner with us
- God’s protection during all our travels
- The growing awareness of God’s love among our people, and their receptiveness to the gospel.
Please pray for:
- Continued health, energy, wisdom, and new ideas to reach a greater number of people
- Improved health for those in our family who are struggling
- Sufficient finances to keep up with production costs, travel expenses and seemingly endless repairs on ministry vehicles