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Europe Missionaries Gather Together for Retreat
BARCELONA, SPAIN (June 9, 2006) - The arrival of new project and short-term
missionaries to Europe is an encouragement to Evangelical Covenant Church
missionaries already working in a part of the world that is increasingly
becoming secularized. The new workers will make it possible to extend current
ministry and begin new work with marginalized people.
Jan Epps-Dawson, a regional coordinator for Europe, says that feelings of
encouragement were shared by all the missionaries who gathered in Barcelona this
spring for a retreat. Expected to join the current missionaries over the next
several months are Sean Leahy, Erin Neises, Katy Kerl, and short-term
missionaries Andy and Carol Larsen in Spain; and short-term missionary C. J.
Espinoza in the Czech Republic; and project missionaries Leonid and Leanna
Regheta already have started work in Russia.
Thirty-five people, including five children, attended the retreat. Cathy
Barsotti helped the missionaries with strategic planning. "Missionaries are
bombarded with so many needs, it is critical to help one another stay focused in
our ministries," says Epps-Dawson. "It was time for all of us to review old
strategic plans and look at them in new ways."
Dave Kersten discussed Sustaining Pastoral Excellence, a grant funded by the
Lilly Endowment Inc. to promote character and competence. Cheri Auman, a
volunteer therapist and care counselor met with missionary families. Three women
from Peninsula Covenant Church in Redwood City, California, worked with
missionary children during the retreat.
Family times revolved around the Chronicles of Narnia theme - the conclusion
of which was the "coronation" of the children, who each received their new
names.
"It was fun," Epps-Dawson says.
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