Dear Friends at New Covenant: In my sermon Sunday I explored briefly how do we respond to the question of Jesus, “Do you love me?” Do we mean what sing, “You are my everything, and I will adore you.” In Luke 14.33 Jesus says, "In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples." NIV.

Dear Friends at New Covenant, To reminisce means: to indulge in enjoyable recollection of past events. Just remembering then, I surmise, can be enjoyable or not. Even the bad times, moments, events, decisions, etc. now after 23 years on April Fool’s Day, can evoke a smile from me. I am so thankful. So I reminisce.

Thank you for praying for our 4th-6th graders as they went on their retreat last Saturday! The JC456 leaders, Thom Shaw, Kris Taff and Jane Trnka, planned a great day where students learned more about who God is through Daniel's story. Lee Grady, one of the missionaries that New Covenant supports, also came out and spoke to the students about his work. He invited them to see how they are a part of God's mission in the world. They seemed so encouraged to spend time with one of the missionaries from our church, who they consistently write cards to and pray for.

Our Youth Need You! So often, we struggle to determine what can we do to help with a situation. How can we make a difference? Well, here you go...

When life falls apart you can do one of two things. You can waste some of the little energy you have left keeping up the pretense that everything is okay, or you can save it for what really matters and stop putting on a mask. And after all, who do you think you're kidding, anyway?

This year's Mission Team in pictures with a brief description of daily events provided by Andy and Marcia Butcher.

People change, grow and develop into new people. And though family and close community can be wonderful, they can also stifle us or tempt us to stay where we are instead of stepping out on the path that Jesus has set. If you spoke to people from my hometown, they would likely paint a completely different picture of who I was as a Christian in years past than who I am now. I always viewed foreign missions as a distraction from the work we need to do here. Mind you, I did very little work here, but in my mind, it was always local work or foreign work, us or them. My entire view was predicated on human understanding, not God’s economy. In the past several months, God has been showing me just what John Wesley meant when he called for “both/and” not “either/or”.

The Training continues... Thirty five clergy from three dioceses in the Congo and and twenty five from Tanzania are learning, praying, sharing and forming relationships with our clergy and laypeople. Please continue to pray for all of the participants and trainers that they would continue to seek God's will with all of their hearts and that their actions would be the fruit of that submission.

Kibondo, Tanzania class. Everybody arrived safely and all of the initial bumps in the road were worked out. The classes are underway in both locations. I am including a map to orient yourself on where each of the teams is located. It includes the African map to see where on the continent they are, and then a localized map for you to see more detail. Canon Donlon has provided great detail on the daily events. Rather than try to paraphrase his comments and possibly miss something of importance I am including his remarks in their entirety.

The entire team, minus Sheryl Curbow Shaw who had not arrived yet, meeting in Kilgali, Rwanda, before launching to their respective training sites. The team arrived and went right to work, despite some logistical hurdles thrown at them, including flight adjustments and luggage issues. The team beautifully adapted the plan and started classes today. Their goal is to train the trainers for the African churches participating and to strengthen the partnerships through fellowship. I am proud to be part of a society so true to its vision. But don't take my word for it: read it yourself. (Copied from the Mission Website, http://www.theamia.org/vision.html) OUR PEOPLE OF MISSION