Blog Post

Spring 2019

Brian Stegner • June 10, 2019

Summer is nearly here! It's been a very busy Spring for our family. While support-raising has been top-of-mind, we've still been engaged in our volunteer ministries and in wrapping up a year of homeschooling. Here are some Support-Raising, Ministry, & Family Highlights from the last couple of months:

Support-Raising Highlights

Our support raising work has begun in-earnest, first with the launch of the website (where you probably are right now) followed by the first four batches of our support letters going out to the U.S.

We are currently working on our first batch of Canadian letters.

Live in the U.S. and didn't receive a copy? Or live in Canada or elsewhere and would like one?? Message us and we can get one to you in the next batch (Includes free Fridge Magnet!). :)

Already received one but unsure of how to join our support team? Tap here

We are pressing on towards the goals of being 50% funded by July , and 100% funded by September !

Ministry Highlights

Though we're still only volunteer at this point, this section could be way longer than you would ever want to read, so we're going to go with just the highlights of the highlights...

We held our second major Baptism Party here in Montreal. Six people were baptized and we heard testimonies of what Jesus has done in English, French, and even Portuguese!

We welcomed JD & family to Quebec as new church planters and enjoyed helping them unpack their moving truck into their new home with some of our 'city group' members (see Emma in the center above, JD is bottom right). Brian is working with JD now on getting him set up as church staff while he interns with our church planting region and finishes training & seminary classes.

We celebrated Good Friday in two languages with three of our regional churches gathered together in unity over the Lord's Supper and worship.

As of June 30th our English / French church body has been accepted as a full member of Association of Evangelical Baptist Churches in Quebec (AEBEQ). This was a long, complex process that Brian spearheaded which involved rewriting our church bylaws, memberizing our leaders, and passing a half-day review with denominational leaders.

Brian preached several times since the New Year, you can listen to one on the Atonement from this past Palm Sunday by tapping here.

Family Highlights

The past month and a half of our family-lives has been almost entirely dominated by the annual musical production of our homeschool co-op, The Learning Tree. Kate, Ben, & Emma were all cast as Von Trapp children in a modified Sound of Music show.

Kate was cast as Liesl, which means she got to sing the "16 going on 17" song, which is now permanently installed in all of our brains. :)

It was a first for all of them (and us) and proved to be an invaluable growing experience. Fourteen-hour practices all the final week capped by five performances in four days (whew!).

(Yes they have stage makeup on, don't tease Ben about it.) Severine even dusted off her old high-school & college drama skills and served as Stage Manager throughout. Brian helped with set up and teardown of the venue.

If possible, we'll provide a link to a full video version in a future update! We are very proud of all their hard work.