Hi Everyone,

It’s Advent time and while you prepare for the snow we will prepare for summer, sun and salt water. In New Zealand it is normal to spend Christmas barbecuing on the beach. But before we as a ministry get a Christmas break for the first time in many years, there is still a lot to report.

Amy and I recently moved into our new “house”. At 18m2 (194 square feet), our new tiny house is smaller than my room in Germany, but larger than our old room and equipped with a small bathroom and kitchenette. So we no longer have to go to the next shed at midnight to go to the toilet : ) We are very grateful for everyone who prayed with us for this.

The New Zealand government announced last week that New Zealand’s borders would open in May next year. For almost two years it has not been possible for us to leave New Zealand and come back again. But now we are happy that we can definitely fly to Germany and the USA next year. But like us, everyone else here at Marine Reach wants to go home to see their families and so we have to wait and see when we can actually take a flight to the other side of the earth. It is very important to us to see you all again, but it is also on our hearts that we do not let our family here in New Zealand down, especially if it looks like we will get several times the number of students we have right now in the middle of next year. There are already 25 students from America and Europe accepted for the DTS in July.
Speaking of which, since we finished our own Bible School (DBS) in September, Amy has been working in our registrar office. Together with two friends she is working on new students who are interested in joining one of our schools, registering, informing and praying for them. She is on the phone a lot, writing emails and recording videos that she sends to new prospects. On Sunday evening she often talks about how happy she is to be able to go back to the office on Monday and to finally be able to continue working. But as much as she enjoys talking to new people, that’s definitely not my preference : ) Instead, I’ve been working on our campus computers since October. Since the beginning of the pandemic we haven’t had an IT specialist and the computers are accordingly full of rubbish and no longer up to date. We also have some computers that are slowly exceeding the 10 year mark and I am allowed to strip them bare and sell them. To be honest, this is one of the best jobs there are on campus : ) On the side, we train our team for the DBS in February and are busy writing emails to invite all the right speakers. We have already fully registered a student and several who are about to register and even more who are interested for this fall (February is the end of Summer/beginning of fall in New Zealand). This is the earliest registration for our Bible school that we have ever had.

Our students from DTS (Discipleship Training School) will finish their school tonight. After 3 months of teaching and 2 months of missionary work in New Zealand, our 16 Kiwis are a completely different group than those who arrived in July. It’s the best time after outreach when students tell stories they experienced with God. Often, including this time, there are many stories that have to do with the fact that someone heard and followed God’s voice and experienced an adventure as a result. Learning to hear Gods voice is one of the most interesting weeks in DTS. As Staff one of the most beautiful things is to hear students, who at the beginning still doubted that God speaks, try it out for several weeks and get really good at it. One of these stories is from Liam, who is from Australia and is 20 years old. In Palmerston North we went to a youth camp together to help out as part of the outreach. He heard God’s voice speak to him, to encourage a 14 year old, that he is not alone and that he is talented with the guitar. We didn’t know Ned before that, but it turned out that he is the only Christian in his family, his father is addicted to alcohol, and the rest of his family worship and consult deceased ancestors. Do you think Ned was encouraged after Liam shared what God told him? You bet. And that was just a little story that I witnessed myself and there are a lot more of them.

While you might sit at a fireplace, wrapped in a blanked, reading this story and hopefully the snow falls outside we are busy writing Christmas cards and pray you have a stress free advent time. We want to encourage you to take the time stop, rest and fix your eyes on what Jesus did and what he is still doing every day…

Many blessings from New Zealand
Silas & Amy