“Not to us, O Lord, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness.” – Psalm 115:1
We hope you’ve all experienced a blessed Christmas and New Year season. With the way the world is turning, it is such a comfort to know that no matter what our circumstances, God’s joy is our strength, and His all powerful hands are our protection. We pray you all sense His nearness in a new and powerful way throughout this new year.
Ten Years…
As the sun set on the old year (2025) and rose in the new year (2026), we as D’Friesens were celebrating not only the dawning of the new year, but also the completion of ten years of fulltime ministry with Multi-Nation Missions Foundation! January 1, 2016 was the day we (Diedrich and Nettie) began our journey with MMF and what a time it’s been! God’s faithfulness has been so clearly demonstrated in our lives, and we are sometimes overwhelmed with awe at what He can do in and through even “the least of these.” As our sons and their wives joined the ministry, the blessings were multiplied and it is our hope that God was glorified, and His kingdom built up.
We are reminded that without our support base of prayer warriors and financial supporters, this would never have been possible. We don’t have the words to adequately express our appreciation! But please know we are endlessly grateful for your support, and we pray God’s richest blessings on you all.
We hope to plan some events over the next year to celebrate this milestone, as we continue to use our time, talents and God given passion to reach out to the Plautdietsch communities around the world and continue to provide music and other resources as long as God provides the means to do so.
The past three months…
After what felt like a whirlwind of a summer, with lots of travel and singing and speaking events, we worked hard at many of our in-office projects. Some of our projects included:
- reformatting and ordering for printing the notated Plautdietsch songbook in spiral bound form
- ordering another printing of the same songbook in hardcover, since we had sold out of the first printing.
- preparing and ordering volume 3 in the “Bibel Jeschichten” coloring book series
- finishing the song selections, editing and formatting of the second songbook (Sinjt Froo! 2)
- continuing with the editing of the next children’s devotional book
- many local events, including various fundraisers and starting up the monthly Sinjstunds again.
- helping with the Low German church through preaching, song-leading, baptism classes, Sunday School, weddings, Christmas programs, leadership meetings, and much more.
Looking Ahead…
After much prayer and discussion, we have unanimously agreed that God seems to be leading us to keep close to home for the next few months. This is due to several factors.
First, we have received many requests for more resources. It’s difficult to write and produce recordings while we’re on the road, constantly setting up for concerts and events etc. So, we have planned quite a few projects and hope to complete at least some of them before the summer travel season.
Secondly, travel (especially out of country) is expensive these days for a large group and we want to be good stewards of the funds that God provides. So, we hope to produce some new music that we can send out to radio and online venues. That way it can reach even more people than if we physically travel to a few places. The one-on-one interaction is a very important part of ministry, but when funds are low, and costs are high, this seems the wiser option.
And thirdly, there are ongoing health concerns and realities of family life that make a hectic travel schedule impossible at present. Several of our members are dealing with serious health concerns, and there are issues such as having grandchildren in school, making it difficult for their parents to leave them and travel with us for extended periods, as well as commitments we’ve made previously that conflict with the invitations we’ve received from abroad. (It’s difficult to be in two places at once!) We have quite a few local events on the calendar and more requests are coming in steadily, so we’re not worried about running out of work!
Nikki’s Notes
This quarter my time was spent preparing for the Christmas fundraiser, this includes coordinating the decor, making gluten free baked goods, and putting together a video slideshow of all the ministry we did this year. With Christmas also came the count down on our social media’s which I organize every year. When I wasn’t doing that I was doing my normal admin tasks. Currently I am preparing to take a short leave, my health has been rapidly declining and I have been preparing to get surgery in Virginia at the end of January. The Lord has been so faithful as we prepare to leave and we are very close to reaching our fundraising goal. Please continue to pray for Matt and I as we travel, and that the surgery would go well, with no complications. Thank you so much for all of your support!
Mark’s Remarks
Over the last few months some of my biggest projects have been working on several colouring books to publish, PowerPoint projects to use at singing events and Church services, making lyric videos of Low German music to use in the Low German Church, singing at Sinjstund and other local events, and working on organizing and collecting videos from our February Cruise to make a promotional video for the upcoming 2027 Cruise, along with whatever my parents have needed help with. One large project that I will have coming up soon is editing Andrew’s Christian Low German podcast to upload the video files and clips onto YouTube, to help reach a larger audience.
Jason’s Journal
These past three months have felt incredibly productive. We have (mostly!) found our rhythm with Soren in grade 1, which has its own challenges, but it seems to be going well. I have been working hard on revamping/streamlining my daily tasks, such as PR work, project management, website management, and more. I have also spent more time on the Low German album. Beyond that, I helped with re-ordering more notated songbooks, and had quite a few solo bookings around the Christmas season. These always take up a LOT of time! Choosing setlists, rehearsing, setting up, and takedown afterwards is definitely it’s own beast! Now after Christmas, I plan to spend a lot more time recording in the studio, as well as making some changes to the D’Friesens website and newsletter. Happy New Year and God bless.
Praise God for:
- many opportunities to serve!
- His strength and provision that carries us
- a supportive and encouraging community and family
- ten years of God’s faithful provision
Pray with us for:
- more workers to go forth into the harvest field
- healing for those of us dealing with health problems
- sufficient funding to do the work God is calling us to do
- strength for the day and wisdom for the work