Greetings from Amsterdam!  I can hardly believe it, but this month marks the five-year anniversary of our move to the Netherlands!  That just seems crazy to me (maybe to you, too)… At any rate, with this prayer letter, I am continuing a tradition that I’ve established through my years of ministry with GCM—using the first prayer letter of a new year to write a more extended overview of our lives and our ministry.  As always, you are welcome to skim or to read in-depth.  In any event, we just want you to know that we are extremely grateful for your partnership in prayer and finances.  We simply couldn’t be doing what we are doing if it were not for your support; so we really want to keep you up-to-date.  And to tell you the truth, it’s a great honor to report all that God has done and is doing in our lives and in our ministry…

Amsterdam Life

The last five years seem to have flown by quickly.  Yet would you believe that I’ve now spent approximately 16 percent of my life in Amsterdam?  The majority of my experience in full-time ministry has been “overseas.”  Marci and I have now spent more than half of our married life in the Netherlands.  And in fact, more than 90 percent of our parenting experience has taken place in Europe!  Isn’t that amazing?!?!  We’ve truly made a life for ourselves on this side of the Atlantic.  We feel blessed to have a neighborhood in which we enjoy living, schools in which our children are flourishing, and of course, a church which is prospering in one of the most worldly cities on the planet.

Now that we’ve survived the first five years—typically the most volatile period of culture shock—we feel positioned to make a more informed decision about our family’s long-term plans.  And yet… over the last year of considering our situation, we’re still not completely sure what God has in store for our family over the next five years.  To be honest, I guess I had been hoping that we’d get to this point and say either, “Yup, let’s go for it and re-up for another five years,” or “Nope, seems like it’s time for us to start turning the ship around in the direction of America”—but the fact of the matter is that we are still somewhere in between these extremes.  We don’t actually feel any sense of urgency to move back to the United States—and indeed, there is still much work to be done here in Amsterdam before we could feel good about moving on from Zolder50… And yet, at the same time, we’re realizing that we may never feel completely at home here in our second culture, speaking our second language, operating in our second society—and at this point our hearts’ desires would still be to one day return to America.  Thus, at the end of our fifth year, we basically feel led to commit to “another two or three years,” with a chance to re-evaluate our situation again before our children get into those critical pre-adolescent years of development in which a trans-Atlantic move would seem highly undesirable.

In the meantime—regardless of how God may lead us long-term—we feel freshly committed to the task of developing the next generation of church leaders who can carry on the work of sharing the gospel and shepherding the church.  To this end, there have been some very encouraging developments in recent months (I’ll explain this more later in the letter), and we’re excited to really invest in the work of multiplying the church and its leaders.  But to say the least, your continued prayers for wisdom, direction, protection, and provision through the coming years would be greatly appreciated.

Church Transition

We’d been thinking about it, talking about it, and praying about it since the idea of a church in Amsterdam was first initiated… But finally, in 2007, it became a reality.  Our little church in the heart of Amsterdam multiplied from one community of faith to two!  Like a simple single-celled organism, we multiplied the mitochondria, the ribosomes, the endoplasmic reticula (all those elements of the organism that make it live, and grow, and maintain health and functionality)… and finally, in November, we multiplied the nucleus—designating four of the church’s home groups to become the core of one neighborhood church, and the other four home groups to be the core of another neighborhood church.

Of course, just three months into this transition, we’re still figuring things out.  Balancing mission with pastoral care seems to be one of the most significant challenges.  But up to this point it seems that the process of multiplication has gone remarkably well.  According to God’s perfect plan, this multiplication happened to fall at exactly the same time at which we were finally able to move into our new ministry center on the Herengracht, right in the heart of old Amsterdam.  Thus, we have the perfect space to use for our every-other week worship gatherings (which are staggered, according to weeks of the month, so that both neighborhood churches can make use of the space), as well as for a host of other special events designed to facilitate missional living.

In the coming year, we look forward to settling more and more into our routines for this new style of ministry, and we look forward to continuing the process of growth and multiplication, helping people to know Jesus, become like Jesus, and make Jesus known.  Please pray with us for God’s help!

Special Events

As for other events beyond the “normal” scope of ministry (worship gatherings, home groups, and so on), the last year included many opportunities for unique ministry in the city of Amsterdam and beyond.  In 2007, we in Zolder50 helped to organize a massive multiple-church initiative to “Serve the City” with the help of hundreds of volunteers working with dozens of service projects in the Amsterdam area… We coordinated a series of special summer ministry activities that helped to stretch our community’s understanding of “church…”  We witnessed the launch of three new home groups and solidified our support systems for home group leaders (including a home group leaders retreat in the summer, which proved to be one of the highlights of the ministry year, for me)… We were provided the honor of participating in the inaugural meetings of the European Church Planters Network… And we celebrated seven baptisms demonstrating individuals’ first steps of faith in following Christ.  That’s quite a bit to celebrate!

Even so, I think one of the developments from 2007 that excites me the most—on a strategic level—is the development of a “Pastors in Training” group, with five young men (in addition to me and Todd) taking the initiative to learn and grow in the areas of character, ministry skills, and doctrine, with a goal toward being equipped to help lead the ministry of Zolder50 as well as potentially plant new churches in other parts of the city or the country (or the Continent!).  I’m especially excited to say that four of these five pastors-in-training are Dutch, and they are all young men with godly character and much potential ahead of them!  Please know that your prayers for these young men (Kor, Will, Marc, Marco, and Gerard) would be a key support to our ministry in 2008…

Ministry Team Development

It’s been awhile since we’ve had to actively seek new support for our ministry in Amsterdam (the last such period of need was around the time that Olivia was born, more than three years ago!)… But this year, following the birth of Cor and considering other circumstances as well, we find ourselves needing to freshly trust God with provision for our family needs.  More than anything, the exchange rate between the dollar and the euro has put us in a situation of needing new support.  When we moved to Europe, the exchange rate was roughly 1:1 (that is to say, we could buy half a gallon of milk for $1 in Bowling Green and for €1 in Amsterdam)… Now, it’s increased by 150 percent to approximately 1 euro for every $1.50 (so that same half-gallon of milk, which still costs $1 in Bowling Green and still lists for the same “sticker price” in Amsterdam of €1—actually costs us the equivalent of $1.50, since we are funded from the United States).  Perhaps the exchange rate stuff is confusing for you (I know that it is for me!)… Suffice to say, we need to raise some more support!

We’ve recently examined our budget and the other factors at play (i.e. increased cost of living), and we’ve determined that we now need to come up with approximately $1500 per month in new support—plus approximately $15,000 in special gifts.

Now, if you just thought to yourself, “Yikes!” when you read those numbers—you’re not alone!  We realize that we have a pretty significant resource challenge ahead of us.  Fortunately, we’ve been in bigger holes before—and we’ve seen God come through in amazing ways.  Also, it just so happens that we will be taking our family’s first extended furlough for this summer, traveling for three months in the United States.  Roughly speaking, we will be on furlough for the months of May, June, and July in 2008 (the details are still being worked out).  Part of this furlough time will be vacation—reconnecting with our family, friends, and home culture.  But the majority of the time is intended to be an opportunity for us to connect with you, our ministry team—catching you up to speed on the work that God is doing in Amsterdam—and to network with other people who may be interested in hearing our story and partnering with us in the future.  During our furlough, we’ll be staying mostly in Ohio—but hopefully also taking a trip through the upper Midwest (Minnesota and the Dakotas) to connect with family and supporters in that region, as well as a smaller side-trip to Florida for “debriefing” at GCM headquarters.  Plans are still being formed as we speak—but I wanted to let you know that this is coming up, and I wanted to ask if there are any special events going on that should be planned into our schedule.  Would you like us to come and speak at your church?  Do you know of any particular individuals or groups who might be interested in meeting us and hearing our story?  Or on the more personal level, would you simply like to make sure that you get on our short-list for getting together for a cup of coffee and conversation?  Please let us know if there are any possibilities along these lines, so we can plan them into our schedule.  Also, for this furlough in the summer, could you please let us know if you might have any automobiles, car seats, and/or living spaces that could be borrowed by our family for part or all of the time that we’ll be on furlough?  We’ve got a lot of practical details that need to be worked out between now and this summer!

All in all, we are continually amazed to see how God provides for our family’s ongoing material needs.  Thank you for being used by God to play a role on our support team.  We are unspeakably appreciative of everything that you’ve done to allow our ministry in Amsterdam to continue.

Our Personal Lives

Our family is doing well overall.  We’re still adjusting to life as a family of five (we notice it most when we try to travel or survive illnesses)… But we’re figuring things out and enjoying the life that God has given us.

Cor’s arrival in September was, of course, one of the highlights of the year.  He’s a very happy and healthy baby who seems to really enjoy flashing his famously flirtatious smile to draw attention to himself.  Olivia is now almost three-and-a-half years old.  She loves to take care of her (stuffed toy) “animals,” and now that she’s regularly picking out her own clothes, she’s coming up with some interesting fashion statements!  She loves “school” (which is actually just a peuterspeelzaal, or preschool, that she attends two mornings per week), and her language skills are such that we anticipate no problems when she starts up with kindergarten next fall.  Elliot is now almost six years old.  His teacher loves the fact that he’s so “leergierig” (hungry to learn), and indeed he’s learned a lot over the last year.  We’re very excited that he has learned (and is still in the process of learning) how to read in both English and in Dutch… but he’s probably more proud of his acquired ability to break-dance!  At any rate, we love our children very much.

Marci and I will be celebrating our tenth wedding anniversary in May of 2008— hopefully with a special get-away (since we’ll be in America during that time, in the “Land of Trustworthy-and-Eager Babysitters”).  While in Amsterdam, Marci still enjoys keeping busy with scrap-booking, and I still enjoy writing (having even joined a “fiction critique group” in the latter months of the year).  We’re doing well.  I’m sure there’s more we could write about all of us—but you can, as always, find the most recent pictures, videos, news, and anecdotes about our family on my website: www.ericasp.com.

Hopefully, you’re as encouraged as we are by the state of life and ministry for us in Amsterdam!  Please keep praying for us; your spiritual support is absolutely vital to our physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being.  Thanks again for everything, and we’ll be in touch…

Eric

P.S. – You can view a handful of pictures from the last year at my Shutterfly site.  I hope you enjoy them