Fall 2026
It had been a long Sunday. Supporting our church plant in Potsdam in the morning. Preaching at the church I pastor at in the afternoon and then hosting an apologist for a seminar in the evening. As Cherry and I walked to the parking lot, we were tired, but excited to get home from a long day of ministry. Unfortunately, as we turned the corner, we noticed the parking lot was empty. We stood there for a second trying to process if we had somehow left the car somewhere else, but slowly the reality of the situation began to sink in. Our car had been stolen!
It is moments like these that speak to the toil we find ourselves in. As Paul reminds us of in Ephesian 6,
12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
If I am honest with you, in that moment, I struggled with the situation around me. It’s easy to take up a mindset in moments like these that thinks, if we toil, then we deserve the spoil. That we should be rewarded for our labor. Labor should make our life easier, not harder. Right?
The book of Philippians encourages us to take up a different mindset about the motivation behind why we labor. Paul encourages us in Philippians 2 to,
3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
We labor not for spoils (what we can get), but for souls (what others can get). This means that regardless of what is thrown at us, we count it all joy to toil for others. May the same mindset reside in us, that if our God was willing to put Himself in harm’s way for the good of others. We would follow this same example.
Ministry Update
We had a wonderful summer reconnecting with many of you who give us an ability to minister to others in our city. We were blessed to be with you and thank the Lord continually for you. For those of you we could not see, we were sad that the time was so short and didn’t allow us to connect with you. We look forward to the next time we are together. If we were not able to connect with you, we put together a short video that gives a picture of our context of ministry in Berlin.
We hit the ground running, when we returned to Berlin in August. I had the joy of officiating the wedding of a sweet couple in our congregation and then spent a week at a Christian camp speaking to sixty teens from the surrounding area. Some of these teens were believers and some were not, please pray that gospel seeds would spring up in their hearts.
This month I also had the privilege of officiating a second wedding, which was also very special. The husband is someone I started meeting with last year at this time. He committed his life to Christ in the spring and was baptized in the summer. It was a full-circle moment this past weekend watching him and his wife standing at the altar asking me specifically to put the gospel at the center of their ceremony for the good of their friends and colleagues.
The fall season is always an exciting time of year in our church with new things beginning. CrossWay Church and Fellowship Potsdam are both going through the book of Philippians this fall and it is encouraging to see both churches embracing a gospel mindset by serving one another. Below you can find a short 35 second video of our focus in this series.
As we enter a new season of ministry we would ask that you pray specifically for the growth and health of our growing churches. Fellowship Potsdam has really grown this year. Today five people with take the step of believers baptism and we would ask that you pray for these new believers and also for the church as it is in critical need of a new place to worship. Our church plant on the eastside of town, Followers Church, just had their one -year anniversary in September. We are encouraged to see a strong core developing and would appreciate prayer for the church planter, who is bearing a lot of the responsibility for ministry right now. Please pray specifically for more workers to support the ministry on this side of town.
At CrossWay, we were excited to launch something new this fall, discipleship collectives designed to equip and mobilize our church for living life on mission. Specifically, the collectives are designed to speak to our mission of being mature disciples of Christ who make disciples.
We were encouraged by the response from our church and we have offered three different tracks to help our whole church grow, a more intensive student collective, a career collective for professionals, and a kid’s collective, because our kids need to be discipled too Our hope is that this new initiative transforms our church to think alike in how we can work together as a people with eyes set on a different Kingdom in our city or wherever life may take us.
Please also pray for the ongoing outreach teams that are going out weekly. We are considering starting a new language café in the neighborhood where our church is located to connect with immigrants. We also have a team regularly working with women in the sex trafficking industry, as well as people going out every weekend to the streets to present Christ to our city. Please pray that those going out would not get weary of the hard soil they are encountering.
We also have two major events this spring that we hope to be a light in our community. The first is a new event called Harvest Fest that will take place this month and the other a Live Nativity in December that has grown into one of our greatest outreach opportunities of the year. Please pray for those organizing these events that they would shape the events to welcome strangers in need of a Savior.
Family Update
The summer was full of reunions and the blessings of being with friends and family. Here are some of our favorite memories of our time in the States. Thank you to everyone who was so kind and welcoming to us.
Quinn and Gracie are doing well even with the pressures of school and balancing relationships. We are excited to see them be a part of a group that has started a Christian fellowship in their school. This is a huge step and we are proud of their courage to represent Christ in a really difficult place. They have also been more involved in our Sunday services and we are thankful to see how they serve our kids and others on Sundays and throughout the week.
The warmness we received made it difficult to return to Berlin, but we are so thankful for so many that have become our family in this city. Here are some impressions of the abundant life God has given us even in a foreign and sometimes hostile place.
Prayer Update
Please pray for us as we try to find a replacement for our car that was stolen.
Please pray for Fellowship Potsdam as they desperately need a new location by December.
Please pray for Followers and their need for more church leadership.
Please pray for upcoming outreach opportunities. New Language Café, Harvest Fest, and our Live Nativity.
Please pray for the girls, they are both under a lot of pressure academically and socially this year. Pray they would keep their eyes on Jesus!
Special Need
As we look to replace our car, we are considering different options for this. One option is to purchase a reliable used vehicle. We have someone who will match donations for this purpose. If you would be interested in helping with this need, you can give toward this at the link below.
Thank you again for taking the time to read this long update. We know that your ministry of prayer for us is having a greater impact than we will ever know. We wish you many blessing in this beautiful fall season and grace and peace as you serve the King of Kings.