To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life Romans 2:7
Greetings from the family in Amsterdam! So far the year 2010 has been eventful, encouraging and inspiring for our small but faithful church in the Netherlands (now 28 adults and 22 children). The Wolmarans family moved here last year and after resolving work permit issues, Stefan was employed by the church to work full-time in the ministry since February.
It has been an exciting year for the Amsterdam Church. In April a sister was restored to the fellowship who inspired us all and showed real courage in overcoming challenging life struggles to come back to the Lord. In June our brother Ranny was also welcomed back to the fellowship. Ranny is a real hero in the faith who was part of the church planting in Suriname many years ago, and encouraged our little church family greatly with his humble sharing when he was restored to the fellowship.
In August we happily let go of our sister Kim Connor to be married to Leif in Stockholm. She has been a faithful single for many years and a real example of perseverance in faith for many mature singles.
The brothers and sisters in Amsterdam flourish on fellowship, and in addition to our own church retreat make great efforts to attend the various European church events like the European Bible School, European Singles retreat, Nordic Missions Conference in Eckero, New Year's Camp in Denmark, Berlin Campus Conference, etc. Living in a wealthy country also brings opportunity for material generosity (2 Cor 8:14), and the Amsterdam church really opened their purses to the HOPE fund for Haiti to help our family in need.
We have a fantastic children's ministry in Amsterdam with an annual kid's camp for the younger kids and now a blooming pre-teen and teen ministry. Our pre-teens and teens linked up with the German-speaking churches for their annual teen-camp in Germany. We are really excited about the start of our new teen ministry in October this year.
For the coming year we will have a big focus on growing our campus ministry, where we currently have one American student (with the faith and zeal of many). Our sister Zamira surprised and inspired us all when she announced in the summer that she has saved up some money and will be changing to part-time work so she can work as a volunteer for the next year with our teen and student ministries. The one thing that is really on our hearts as a congregation is to have some baptisms this year. Please pray to God to send us a harvest before the end of this year.
Love in Christ,
Stefan Wolmarans