Our baby was due on 21 May, but he came on 14 May! What a Mother’s Day present! Silas was born at 0.34 am, weighing in at 3.155kg (6lb 9oz) and 51cm long. Esther and the baby are well. We are super happy and thankful that he is now with us and we thank God for all his goodness.

From today, June 2-4, please pray for our evangelism of the Varaždin city centre as 3 churches combine with Brazilian, Hungarian and American evangelists.

We will be celebrating Children's Day today, 1 June, with a special evening church service. Children will be singing and playing musical instruments they have learned. We hope that parents will come along and hear the gospel. Following the service, we will be eating together and having time for fun and games. Please pray for the event, for all the organisation, the singing, the preaching, and that in all, the name of the Lord Jesus will be lifted high.

We are praising God for some more mothers coming to the Mum and Baby Club. Please pray that more mothers who come to the food and clothing bank will come and feel welcomed in the church through this club. Please pray too that many families will sign up for our holiday Bible club this month, especially those from outside the church and through invites to parents of school friends.

We give thanks for the Easter events last month. Recently we have had at least four Brazilian families join us on Sunday mornings. Pray for wisdom as we get to know these families. Pray too for a more suitable place to meet with numbers increasing. The ladies monthly meeting is going well, so thank you for your prayers for this.

Please pray for the preparation of our summer ministry in July and August. We are trying to find a suitable centre to do our camps, so please pray that something will come up soon.

Thanks to God that Eleisa’s son Noah is making progress in working through the loss of his father. Continue to pray for a personal encounter with Jesus. Pray for Leandra who is severely ill. Pray that Jesus may touch and save her.

Please pray for health: for our family, especially the girls, as they have had a different virus to fight since January, which is very exhausting for us! We are also thankful for the 5 years Patchwork Centre celebration!

Please continue to pray for all the NZ candidates as they develop partnerships and seek to raise their support so they can move to Europe to begin language study/ministry.

Praise God for an encouraging mission trip of 7 young adults from the UK in April. At the start of May is a youth weekend away organised by the Perspectives denomination churches of the region (the first of its kind), with some other churches also sending their youth groups. Do pray for unity and protection for the team and for the young people to encounter Jesus, be transformed by the gospel and have lots of fun.

Pray for a successful outreach with Food for the Hungry, Hope for Eternity, a partnership between Convoy of Hope and New Hope Bulgaria. The program just started last week. Pray for Victoria’s state-sponsored Internship at the English Language Schools in our capital Sofia and for George to find the right place for him for a seasonal summer job.

Please pray for the ÖSM student group in Linz, that they would continue to pray for and have evangelistic conversations with their fellow students after the recent on-campus mission week and this would bear fruit.

Thank God for our participation at the Biennial Conference in Croatia with missionaries from 40 nationalities serving in Europe. It was a time of God's provision for our family. Also pray for the ministerial doors that opened in Portugal. Please pray for our church in Brazil and thank God for all our financial support.

From today, 20-28 May, we are planning to have an exposition in the city park in Montichiari on the topic “inner freedom” with interactive elements and crafts for children. Please pray that people will be touched by God’s Holy Spirit.

Please pray for J. who has just been refused asylum in France. He hopes now to apply for refuge in the USA. Our church helped him during this process here. Now we can only recommend him to contacts in the States. He will need a guarantor. He has a wife and two young boys who are still in his country of origin, an impoverished country where violence is rampant.

At the end of March, the church at Rovereto organised a public meeting at Ala, the next town down the valley with about 15,000 residents. It was better attended than we expected, with some good conversations with the visitors afterwards. Pray for wisdom for the church as it reflects on how to continue and grow the witness there and that one day there will be an evangelical church planted there.

Please pray Tabita and I may encourage and train 70-100 church members in Lisbon for Christian life and service at a Portugal Conference with former colleagues Emanoel and Francine Santos from today, May 17-21. Pray for Joshua and Benjamin as they take university exams in Germany and for Sheona and Jason as they both serve full time in Alliance Church, Calgary.

I will be going to Samos, the Greek island nearer to Turkey than Greece, for the month of May to fill in for a couple who do member care for the Eurorelief volunteers who help out in the refugee camp. Pray for wisdom and understanding in challenging situations.

Praise God for the excellent Easter Service. The room was full and we had 10 new people attending. Pray for them to continue having interest in Jesus. Today, 14 May, we will have 5 new believers getting baptised. Pray for their families and friends to attend and be a part of these people's life with Jesus.

Please pray that we would be able to support our team members in the best possible way going forward. Mission candidates Lars Falk and Pascal and Claudia Friedli were all able to be at the Biennial, which gave them a great insight into the mission. Please pray as we accompany them on this journey into what could be a lifetime in mission.

Please ask the Lord for wisdom as we make decisions about using the resources available to us, to sustain our ministries in Lviv and Irpin for at least the next two years. We will have to concentrate on paying salaries and rents for the new volunteer centre/church ministries. This means drastically reducing or stopping the house building programme. We will search for partners who may be willing to fund the production of the bread that is distributed by the volunteer centres.

Please pray for Giorgos who is leading the Easter teen Camp and 68 teenagers from different nationalities are attending this camp and learning how they can be disciples of Christ. We appreciate your prayers. Luciana was invited to receive training and to learn more about a recycling project in Spain which can help her develop something similar with the Roma community in Athens. This can tackle the ongoing issue of improper waste disposal in the settlement. Please pray for all the logistics involved in this project.

Thank God for Dominik de Bruijne, a short-term Missionary who was a big help for us in Schwerin. He now found his calling as a Pastor in a church plant in Ribnitz-Damgarten. Please pray that God would bless him there and that His name will be glorified through Dominik.