Follow me as I follow the example of Christ…
And the things you have heard me say in the
presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable
men who will also be qualified to teach others..
(1 Corinthians 11:1 and 2 Timothy 2:2)

Greetings from Amsterdam!  It’s a new season, a new year, a new decade.  Thus I return to our annual tradition of publishing a “State of the Ministry Address”—using the first prayer letter of a new year to write a more extended overview of our lives and our ministry.  Feel free to skim or to read in-depth.  But either way, please know that we deeply appreciate your partnership in prayer and in finances.  There’s no way we could be doing what we are doing if it were not for your support; so we really want to keep you up-to-date.  It’s a great honor to report all that God is doing in our lives and in our ministry…

Amsterdam Life

This month marks the beginning of our eighth year in Amsterdam.  It seems incredible to me—but even more than the length of time that we’ve been living on this side of Atlantic, I think it’s extraordinary to realize just how ordinary life here feels.  The language isn’t such a barrier any more.  We feel like we know our way around and have a broad network of friends throughout the city.  Looking around us, we realize that we now happen to be some of the most-experienced, longest-serving missionaries in Amsterdam.  I feel like I say it every year and yet somehow mean it more with each iteration:  We’ve come a long way in establishing our family and our home in the Netherlands.

When we first moved to Amsterdam, it was with a tentative commitment to stay here for five years.  After five years, we reevaluated and decided to recommit for “another two or three years.”  Thus, this year becomes something of a fresh point of evaluation for our future.  Honestly, we don’t feel like we’re in any hurry to get out of Amsterdam (and there’s no shortage of work to be done here); still, we’re trying to think things through from all angles and find God’s wisdom for our family and for the church.  If you could pray for us as we sort through the possibilities, we would certainly appreciate it.

Until God leads us otherwise, we remain fresh, focused, and fiercely committed to the task of making disciples in Amsterdam.  We continue to focus on developing the next generation of spiritual leaders, and in the meantime I’m honored by the opportunity to serve as a pastor to people through the most basic rhythms of life:  coming to faith, getting baptized, falling in love, getting married, having babies, enduring illnesses, grieving death.  Bringing God into all of these rhythms—not to mention the everyday stuff—is a beautiful and mysterious process that never gets old.  This is our life in Amsterdam. 

Transition to Communities

As a church, it’s long been our goal to know Jesus, become like Jesus, and make Jesus known—both on the community level and on the individual level.  In the Fall of 2009, however, we started talking about new ideas for developing strategic partnerships to further enhance our ability to live out our vision together.  Specifically, we decided adapt our small group system to create a network of “Communities,” with each united around a specific mission and grounded within a broader sub-culture in Amsterdam.  For the moment, things are still in a developmental stage.  Even so, there are currently possibilities for 17 different Communities—a pretty big step up from the 9 home groups that had existed previously!

We need your continued prayer for our church’s transition to Communities.  Small groups have been a foundational element of our ministry for several years, but we feel that this strategic shift in focus will offer a lot of opportunities for new growth and development.  There’s a lot of potential that comes with a transition like this; but there’s also a lot of chaos!  In order for all the potential to be realized, we need good communication, good leadership, and good judgment for coordinating these new Communities.  So please pray for us along these lines.

Special Events

Our ministry’s regular weekly rhythm consists primarily of the aforementioned small groups (previously “Home Groups,” now “Communities”)—held throughout the week and throughout the city—plus weekly worship gatherings, held on Sunday afternoons at our ministry center in the heart of the old city.  However, there’s much more to our church community than these weekly events.  It probably wouldn’t be very effective to try to supply an exhaustive list of all ministry activities, but there are a few special events that stand out from the last year…

Perhaps one of the most strategic activities that we organized this year was a prayer initiative called “24/7” to start off 2009.  One of our church’s small groups coordinated a schedule that involved dozens of people from our church filling pre-arranged time slots to cover an entire week with prayer:  24 hours a day for 7 days in a row.  It ended up being a very stimulating experience, both for the individuals involved and for the church as a whole—and we hope to repeat the experience again in the future.

In addition to our increased focus on prayer, we also developed an increased focus on action.  Several young people from the church stepped up to organize our community around causes of humanitarian and social concern.  In the first part of the year, the focus was on providing clean drinking water for people living in the developing world (activities included a fast, informational discussions, film nights, parties, and a demonstration); and in the second part of the year, we focused more on issues of human trafficking (activities included a prayer walk, film nights, informational discussions, and a study of these issues based on the Gospel of Luke).  It seemed like our efforts in these directions really resonated deeply with many of the young people in and around our church community.  We’re hoping and praying to see how God could continue to develop this ministry further in the months and years to come.

Another significant event from the past year was our church’s farewell to the Watkins family.  Todd Watkins and I had served as co-pastors for the church since 2003; however, in May of 2009, Todd and his family followed God’s call back to the United States (now helping to plant a church in Asheville, North Carolina).  Before they left, we celebrated their years in Amsterdam, and our family had the opportunity to enjoy an extended weekend in Croatia together, as a special sort of closure.  There have been some difficulties in adjusting to life in Amsterdam without the Watkins family, but all in all the transition in leadership has gone smoothly.  I continue to serve as the remaining ordained pastor for the church, while a young Dutchman named Marc La Porte has stepped into a sort of Pastor-In-Training role.  It’s exciting to see the next generation of leadership developing and maturing right before our eyes.

There were so many other special events throughout the course of the last year—seminars, retreats, reunions, conferences, and councils—but I guess I will leave the reporting at that for now. :-)  It’s so cool to look back and remember all the special things that God has done (and is doing) in our church community.

Ministry Team Development

God continues to be very good to us, in spite of difficult economic times.  We are so blessed—so amazed, really—by the faithfulness and generosity of the individuals, families, and churches that make up our ministry team.  Ohio (the primary base of support for us) has lost a lot of jobs, the U.S. dollar has continued to weaken against the euro, and we haven’t been able to do any concentrated fund-raising for almost two years… And yet—financial support for our ministry remains relatively strong and consistent!  By God’s grace, we haven’t had a shortfall yet.

In the summer of 2010 (mid-July to late-August), we’re planning a trip back to the United States to meet with current supporters and potential new supporters and hopefully make up for some of the natural erosion to our support base that has occurred over time.  At this point, it looks like we will be trying to raise about $800/month in new support and $15,000 in special gifts.  As always, please let us know if you might have any leads for us.  Also, if you’d like for us to make a point to come visit you during our time in the States, please let us know.  There will, of course, be more updates about all of this, as the summer approaches.  For now, we just wanted you to know the general plans.

Above all else, we just want to say thank you for the incredible thoughtfulness, consistency, and goodness that you’ve demonstrated throughout our years of ministry.  You help us to understand God’s Provision in a special way.  So thanks.  Seriously.

Our Personal Lives

2009 was a pretty good year for our family.  We got to experience the full range of Dutch seasons—ice on the canals in January, an orange and sunny Queen’s Day in April, picnics in the Vondelpark in July, and apple-picking in an old-fashioned orchard in October—and we really made a lot of good memories throughout the course of the year.  And in addition to taking the adventures that came our way with each season, we actually created some adventures of our own as well, particularly in the realm of home improvement projects.  Even though neither Marci nor I had much experience with carpentry, electrical work, plumbing, or kitchen installation, we took on a pretty significant renovation project that resulted in a completely new (to us) kitchen / dining space, new floors over two-thirds of the house, and a fresh coat of paint on almost every wall.  It was exhausting and terrifying at the time, but we are so pleased with the end results.  Marci says that she breathes a happy sigh every day, as she’s preparing dinner or washing dishes, just reveling in the fruits of our labors.

The kids are, as always, a wonder to behold.  Elliot, now almost 8 years old, is crazy about all American sports (but especially basketball and baseball), and he serves as something of a pace-setter for the rest of the kids.  Olivia, now 5-and-a-half years old has become a totally girly-girl.  A year ago, she couldn’t stand dresses or hair clips or things like that—now she can’t stand to be without them!  Cor started talking this fall, and now we can hardly get him to stop.  He also loves playing his guitar and serenading our family after every meal—definitely something of a natural performer.  All three children got to experience the joys of chicken pox during the spring and H1N1 during the late fall.  But by and large, they’re very happy, healthy kids.

At the end of the year, we were especially blessed to be able to celebrate Christmas in Ohio with our extended families.  Highlights of the trip included a ride on the “Polar Express” antique railroad, baking cookies, a visit to see the Lights at the Columbus Zoo, singing carols, hauling firewood from the barn to the cellar at Marci’s family’s homestead, and a Cleveland Cavaliers basketball game.  I guess you couldn’t really call the holiday vacation a “restful” experience—but it sure was a lot of fun, and we’ve got great memories that will last us many years to come.

There’s definitely more that we could write about all of us—but I’m afraid that this letter has already become quite epic as it is!  You can, however, always find the most recent pictures, videos, news, and anecdotes about our family on my website: www.ericasp.com.  Thanks again for all your love and support for our family and our ministry in Amsterdam.  We’ll be in touch…

Eric

Our newest family portrait, taken in early December 2009

Our home group’s last group portrait, taken just before our church’s transition to Communities.

Our church’s “Water Walk” from June 2009, raising awareness for access to clean drinking water in the developing world.

Our newly renovated kitchen.

Our staff team at our annual Thanksgiving celebration in our home.