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Newsletter April 2008
April 26, 2008
GervaisNews April 2008
Dear friends and supporters,
Early last year I started the process of finding and training my replacement to take over the Christ-centered recovery ministry I had been building for over ten years at Zion. By December of 07 that couple was in place and running the Pressing Onward (now called LifeGroups) Ministry. Having done that I was free to resign from my position as Zion’s recovery pastor and return to Hope Ministries as a full-time missionary. Although I can tell that my stress level has been decreased since I returned to Hope but my work load has not decreased much at all.
I have been training a group of people for the past six weeks at Grace Christian Fellowship. In two more weeks my training will be done for them and they are going to begin meeting together as a team to build healthy relationships as they develop their facilitator skills. They are planning to kick off their recovery ministry this fall. In May I will be conducting another training in at Melbourne First Baptist. God continues to open doors for me to train churches. I thank you all for your ongoing prayers and support. You are all appreciated more than you will ever know.
Barb and I have decided to leave Zion Christian Church after 12 years of service there. After a season of prayer, and fasting, along with several meetings with the leadership, Barb and I have come to the conclusion that now is the opportune time for us to leave the church. Many things have changed at Zion in the past three years including the leadership and many of the members. Many of our closest friends have left for one reason or another making it easier for us to make this decision. I didn’t want to leave in the middle of the storms or while everything was in flux, but now that the storms appear to be over God has freed us to go. So Barb and I are now on the move, and looking for a new home church to settle into. My plan is to take at least three months to visit many of the area churches before trying to settle down anywhere.
Mikala on the other hand is still at Zion and is working part time with the 5th and 6th grade youth. For the time being she plans to stay at Zion. She has finished everything she needed to do in order to graduate so she will be receiving her teacher’s credentials and her BA degree in elementary education next month. We do need your prayers as it seems because of budget cuts there is now a freeze on the hiring of any new teachers. So it appears that she might not have a teaching position after all. She will be working a summer job of managing the city pools. We would covet your prayers that God would open up a teaching position for her by the time her summer job comes to an end.
Micah is still stationed in Miami and is very content to remain in the Coast Guard for now. He has bulked up from lifting weights. I use to be able to put my arms around him and lock my hands together giving him a bear hug. Well that won’t happen anymore unless both my arms grow six or eight inches. We usually see him once or twice a month on the weekends. He usually blows into town Friday night with his dirty laundry and leaves on Sunday evening with his clean clothes stuffed into his car trunk as he heads south to Miami.
Barb has remained very busy with her school duties. She did however get to take a break during her spring break. When I flew up to His Mansion in New Hampshire to work, she flew down to Nassau to lie around on the beach and relax. I was jealous but I got over it. My turn will come soon enough.
We covet your prayers as Barb and I start a search for a new church. Changes are never easy so we appreciate your prayer support at this critical time in our lives. We will keep you posted as to where we end up. We thank you in advance for each and every one of you. It is because of your prayers and financial support that we are able to serve the Lord here in Palm Bay Florida.
Because of Christ
Lew and Barb
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